After speaking with Z’rell at Moonrise Towers during the Infiltrate Moonrise Towers quest, you’ll be tasked with finding and assisting Balthazar in the recovery of a special artifact found in the Thorm Family Mausoleum. This page will detail how to reach the Thorm Family Mausoleum, how to solve the portrait puzzle and where to find Balthazar inside the Gauntlet of Shar.

How to Reach the Thorm Family Mausoleum in BG3¶

If you haven’t explored Balthazar’s room yet, consider doing that before you head here! You can find some of his research notes there and learn a little more about his character and goals before you even speak to him! Head over to our guide on Balthazar’s Room for information on how to open his secret bookcase door!

The Thorm Mausoleum is found north of Moonrise Towers and west of Last Light Inn. The easiest way to reach the Mausoleum is to pass through the graveyard between Reithwin Town and The Waning Moon and take the path past the Mason’s Guild. There are lots to see and do in the graveyard area, including finding one of the Thorm family members, Malus Thorm. He can be found in The Healing House in the west part of the graveyard area.

Once you’ve explored the graveyard area to your heart’s content, head to the northern part to find the huge entrance into the Thorm Mausoleum - it’s looking appropriately spooky with skulls piled high and chains adorning the entryway! You’ll also get a visit from Raphael (remember the devil who took you to an imaginary room filled with food?), and he’ll ask you to deal with his “nemesis” that lives in the depths beneath Thorm Mausoleum.

As you proceed in to the Mausoleum, you’ll be met by a large iron gate and the Herald of Balthazar, which tells you that Balthazar absolutely does not want any help. You’ll want to just ignore it and proceed into the area. Before heading into the northernmost room of this area, you should loot the rooms to the east and west - there are some lootable chests around and some books relating to Ketheric Thorm. The traveller’s chest in the east room held the uncommon Vivacious Cloak.

Thorm Mausoleum: Painting Puzzle Solution¶

When you’re done exploring, proceed into the northernmost room to find three portraits, one on the back wall and two on the walls to the left and right of the entrance into this room.

These three paintings and the buttons beneath them all pertain to a puzzle that’ll allow you to pass through into a hidden area behind the big skull portrait on the back wall. The solution is simple but it’s not made very clear what you’re meant to actually do. And what’s more, there are traps all around this room and if you fail to perceive any of them, a cloud of darkness engulfs the area, blinding your party and making it difficult to traverse.

The puzzle’s solution is to press the button beneath the tower painting, then the painting of a grieving man over a woman, then the painting of the man on the throne. When activated correctly there should be a blue mist across the paintings and then once all three have been activated in the right order, the wall behind the back painting will open.

Pass through this area and interact with the Traversal Gem on the platform up ahead and it’ll take you down to the Gauntlet of Shar. Naturally, it would be pretty good to bring Shadowheart into this area as she is a Shar worshipper and seeks to become a Dark Justiciar.

Where to Find Balthazar in the Gauntlet of Shar¶

It is worth noting that the Gauntlet of Shar is a huge area with lots of things to do, so for the sake of brevity, this page only offers a walkthrough on how to reach Balthazar. If you’re looking for more stuff to do in the Gauntlet of Shar, check out our page on how to complete The Soft-Step Trial - one of three trials set for Shadowheart to become a Dark Justiciar. You can also find an overview for how to complete the Nightsong quest!

So firstly, you’ll want to head straight north and open the stone door up ahead. In this next room you can solve the puzzle with the statue to unlock the door up ahead. This door takes you to the trials of Shar, and you can head over to our guide on Umbral Gems for more information, or if you’re wanting to make a beeline to Balthazar, ignore this and head west to the locked door. Beat the door down with physical attacks or lockpick it.

Proceed into this next room and head up the mushrooms (you’ll need to do some parkour!) to the left of the sarcophagus, where you’ll pop out in a bit of an Underdark area. To the north you’ll find a door to proceed towards Balthazar’s location, or you can go to the opposite side of this area and fight a Level 8 Cloaker enemy that’s guarding a chest. The Cloaker enemy is reasonably easy to deal with but it will spawn multiple Phantasms which are just copies of itself. However, if you focus your efforts on the main Cloaker, the others will disappear once its defeated. For us, the chest contained gold, ingots and a very rare Scroll of Planar Binding. You may get a different scroll or potion but the rarity should still be high.

Whether you fight the Cloaker or not, when you’re ready pass through the northern door (lockpick it or smash it down). You’ll find yourself in some sort of preparation area where Shar worshippers come to prepare for the gauntlet. Have a look around and loot the skeletons - they have some cool lore to read. You can also say a prayer at the sarcophagus and if you’re successful (Religion check DC14), you’ll get the Nightsinger’s Favour which makes you resistant to Necrotic damage until Long Rest!

After, pull the lever in front of the door to the north and pass through into the next room. Here you’ll be greeted by some of Balthazar’s Reconstituted skeletal soldiers. Speak with them and convince them you’re an ally so you can talk to Balthazar.

Umbral Tremor Fight: How to Defeat the Dark Justiciar Enemies¶

Before you can talk to Balthazar, however, you and the Reconstituted skeletons will have to deal with a Dark Justiciar invasion coming from some Umbral Tremors on the ground.

Each turn the Umbral Tremors will produce more Justiciar enemies, and each turn more Umbral Tremors will spawn. You can stop the flow of enemies by destroying the Umbral Tremors and if you’re quick enough you can cut the battle short! The Umbral Tremors are immune to quite a few different damage types, and are resistant (take half damage) to slashing, piercing and bludgeoning damage. Radiant Damage, on the other hand, will do double damage! We found that Guiding Bolt was a great choice for one-shotting these orbs.

As the fight goes on, if you don’t manage to get rid of the Umbral Tremors quick enough, some stronger Justiciar enemies will come forth until it culminates in the mini boss Justiciar Crusader, which has 150 health (balanced mode) and does some pretty devastating strength attacks. For the most part the other enemies are easy to deal with, plus Balthazar’s Reconstituted allies will help a lot with drawing aggro and also dealing with the minor enemies. They don’t seem to ever hit the tremor orbs though, so those will be down to you to deal with.

When we went up agains the Justiciar Crusader, we looked to restrain or immobilize it, and also used Hex: Strength to weaken it. It didn’t take too long to deal with him as his AC is quite low at 14. We also shot a Level 3 Guiding Bolt at him dealing 94 damage (it did crit too!) as he’s vulnerable to Radiant Damage and takes double damage!

After you’ve defeated the Justiciar Crusader and also mopped up the weaker Justiciar ads, head into the newly opened room and speak with Balthazar.

Speak with Balthazar: Dialogue Outcomes¶

Behind this door, you’ll find Balthazar and you can either be hostile or you can choose to aid him in the quest for the Nightsong. You can also mention that you know about his research, and at this point you’ll need to roll an ability check to make sure he isn’t mad.

After agreeing to help him find the Nightsong quest, you’ll be able to persuade him to give you a bell which can you use to summon Flesh (the super monstrous thing behind him) to aid you in battle in the Gauntlet of Shar.

You can choose to fight and kill Balthazar here, but we recommend waiting till later into the quest as you can choose to do so after helping with the Nightsong. Killing him will also impact the quest with Ketheric Thorm - head to our guide on the Nightsong quest for more information!