Computer Game Hints
Computer Game Cheats
Computer Game Reviews
Walkthroughs
Low-Spoiler Baldur's Gate II Throne of Bhaal Walkthrough
There are a lot of good BG2 walkthrough and hint pages out there, but none of them told me what
I really wanted to know--had I missed any cool quests, subplots, or character
interactions? Strategy and riddles I can figure out on my own; but is it worth replaying Throne of Bhaal yet again
with Minsc in the party?
Sponsored Links
So here is my own Baldur's Gate 2: Throne of Bhaal walkthrough, intended to provide beginning points rather than end points.
The emphasis here is on pointing gamers towards things they might not have tried, not divulging puzzle
solutions or giving step-by-step instructions. There are plenty of other ToB walkthrough sites doing that
already... and besides, some people don't want that stuff spoiled, they just want tips on where to look
for more things to do. So I've been vague where possible, including only the starting point for
each quest so you can work through the rest of it on your own. I haven't indicated every fight
or treasure source either. If you want a more explicit hint, please check out my
Throne of Bhaal Links for several good
Baldur's Gate walkthroughs, maps and messageboards.
Hopefully this site will help you locate anything Throne of Bhaal has to offer that you haven't found yet.
Throne of Bhaal: Chapter Eight
I. The Siege of Saradush
II. Stronghold in Hell
III. Saradush
IV. North Forest
V. Forest of Mir
VI. Marching Mountains
VII. Yaga Shura's Camp
Interlude: Watcher's Keep
Throne of Bhaal: Chapter Nine
I. Fratricide
II. The Oasis
III. Amkethran
IV. Sendai
V. Abazigal
VI. Balthazar
Throne of Bhaal: Chapter Ten
After you've killed Jon and the congratulatory endgame dies down, you get to watch the intro movie, where you learn that the prophecied
Bhaal Wars have started while you were busy in Suldanessalar. Ellesime the Wonder Queen promptly changes her mind about that little
"always welcome here" thing she told you five minutes ago after you saved her city, and kicks you out to go "find your destiny"
or something. Alone. And locks the door behind you. This may give you some inkling of how the rest of the world is going to be
receiving you from now on. Then again, Ellesime thinks it is a good idea to torture and release dangerous criminals on the grounds that they
"deserve worse than death," then acts surprised when they commit more crimes, so you may not want to use her as your yardstick.
Anyway, after a brief intro sequence where some stone heads give you an omen and then a rather over-ambitious Child of Bhaal tries to
kill you (after you get the message that a fight is approaching, you just have to sit there and wait a few minutes for her to show up--
presumably this delay is so you can cast some spells if you need to, though the fight is not really all that hard), you are transported back
to Hell, into the pocket plane that will become your new stronghold.
There's a certain inconsistency in BG2, in that the plane your stronghold is on was identified as part of Hell in SoA and part of the
Abyss in ToB. It doesn't really matter which, but I'll be continuing to call it Hell just because that was how it was first identified to me.
Either way, you will be returning here many times--at least five, since there are five Challenge Rooms, each of which will open when you're
ready to face the next test. Right now all five are closed, and you have to deal with the other four denizens of this plane first.
1) First a solar wants to talk to you, though she won't tell you anything useful at this stage in the game: just some mysterious comments.
You'll see more of her later.
2) Next your half-brother Sarevok, from BG1, approaches. He is dead, of course, seeing as how you killed him, but he offers to give you
information you need if you'll help restore him to life. You won't be able to continue the game until you do this, by giving him a piece of
either your soul or Imoen's. (The dialogue between Sarevok and Imoen is rather entertaining if Imoen is the soul donor, and they'll have
a more substantive talk about it later.) Once restored to life, Sarevok gives you some useful information, opens the door to the first challenge
room for you, and asks you to take him with you--offering to swear loyalty to you by means of a geas if you will. You can either agree and let
him join you, decline the geas but let him join you anyway, or decline to have him join you. All three will have later implications for the plot,
but it's completable and fun regardless.
3) The little imp fluttering around here is named Cespenar and will act as your butler and, primarily, smith. He can forge together the pieces
of any items you encounter, much as Cromwell the dwarf did in SoA.
4) Clicking along the north wall will summon the Fate Spirit, a ghost that can bring NPCs to Hell for you. This is useful if you're importing
a game and some of your desired NPCs aren't in it, I suppose, or if you're playing ToB from scratch and don't feel like soloing it. Clearly
these are both less desirable options, though, and if you summon companions by way of the Fate Spirit, they will lose any special equipment,
special abilities (such as Anomen's knighthood), and experience levels you may have acquired for them, appearing anew from their
template. The only circumstance under which this is really worth doing is if you were romancing Viconia and she left your party on friendly
terms after deciding the romance could never work out. If this happened, and you summon her, she will resume the romance where
it left off just as if you had talked her into staying in the party after breaking up with you. The breakup is a normal part of this relationship,
and you can get her to get back together with you. Finally, though the Fate Spirit lists Yoshimo as one of the NPCs it can bring to Hell for
you, it can't actually do so, because Yoshimo is dead. There's nothing you can do to change this. Sucks to be him.
5) Finally, you can go into the first of the five challenge rooms now. After a brief conversation with a dead spirit, you get what seems to
be an endless fight against hordes of kobolds. This was so boring I circumnavigated the entire challenge room looking for another way
to end this thing. No go. You really are supposed to just kill all the monsters. They won't all be kobolds, at least--I think this challenge is
supposed to be the revenge of all the creatures you've killed in the last year, so it starts out with a lot of kobolds (remember way back in
BG1 when those things were actually kind of tough fights?) and works its way up to big baddies. If your character is evil, you will get to
fight a good horde instead (starting with lots of commoners, working its way up to Queen Ellisime--one of the rare rewards of playing
evil!) Once you've killed them all, the room decor will change (to an evil-looking cavern if you're evil, or a pleasant-looking cavern if you're
not); you will gain the special ability to return to the pocket plane any time you like, and your party is free to leave... though there's only one
place you can go.
After a cut-scene movie of fire giants besieging the town you arrive in Saradush, right in the middle of an argument between a woman named
Melissan and some surly guards. There's no way around killing them, even though Melissan keeps saying "Please stop!" Once the dust has
cleared she'll give you some information and the next step in your main quest, The Mad General, then disappear.
There are three distinct ways to get into Gromnir's castle; click here for spoilers.
As you wander Saradush, it will be periodically bombarded by its besiegers. When you notice a guard yelling "Incoming!", he is not
kidding. Your high-level party will probably survive the blast, but commoners will not. When one is running across the middle of town for
cover, stopping him to talk to him may result in his incineration. Try to wait till the general townsfolk are out of harm's way before striking
up conversation. Or make them stand there and get shelled, I guess, if you're evil enough. It's your call, and they don't have much to say
anyway. As for the guards, they will continue dying and being replaced by fellows no matter what you do; they are just there as a
backdrop.
Encounters worthy of note in this area:
1) When the first fireball hits, a child will start crying that his daddy's been wounded. If you go over to talk to the child, you can
actually help him and his father, if you're so inclined.
2) As you head down the stairs, there's a harlot who will give you an extremely awkward come-on. You can actually take her up on this
(though your romance interests will dump you--Aerie will even call you a bastard), but whether you do or not, she will tell you the same story
about herself and Gromnir. Be sure to talk to her again after you've encountered Gromnir.
3) North of the stairs are some homeless elves being harassed by the guards. You can defend them or join in; if you join in, Jaheira and most
of the good characters will get disgusted and quit your party (though not Nalia, oddly enough), and if you defend them, they will give you a
little quest, You Don't Have To Live Like A Refugee. Seems the innkeeper won't let them in because the elven
women attract too much attention. (Apparently everyone else has heard that elven women are the only kind you can have romance plots with,
too.) When you find a safe place for them to hide their attractive females, come back and talk to them again.
4) South of the stairs are some dwarves and humans talking trash at each other. Break up the fight or fan it on; your call.
5) There are a few other people with names scattered around this map: a mage named Errard defending the parapets, a child named Squip,
and two Bhaalspawn who don't support Gromnir, named Oris and Alexander (Imoen and Sarevok converse with these two a little.) The other
townsfolk can provide ambience and very general information about Melissan, Gromnir, and Saradush; no more.
6) The most important building in town is the bar, of course. In here are a number of people to chat with. The waitress is being sexually
harassed by some drunk soldiers, and you may gallantly give her a hand if you like (urged on by the paladin-types and, oddly enough,
Korgan, seeing as how he's occasionally demonstrated grabby hands himself). The bartender will sell you a wide variety of basic +1, +2,
and +3 weapons and armor, and the owner of the bar, Pyrgam, will give you some friendly information about the town. Viekang, the "human lightning
rod" you encountered in Trademeet, is around here and will tell you
what the deal really is with him. It smells seriously of somebody's in-joke from an old D&D campaign. Regardless, you can actually help him
escape... if your main character's intelligence is 18 you will get a hint about how to do this, or you can figure it out for yourself.
A fearful fellow named Peltje, a thief named Hectan, and a pair of courtesans in the far corner are
all relevant to Saradush quests. A couple of drinking patrons and the barmaid are not. And, finally, who should you find here but Volo. He
wasn't in SoA, after all, and I think it's in these guys' contracts that all of them have to have stupid fawning cameos in every Forgotten
Realms game. Unlike Drizzt's and Elminster's (and, one supposes, Saemon's and Jarlaxle's, though at least we didn't have to suffer with them
through TWO games), Volo's cameo is not important to any aspect of the plot at all. He's just hanging around in the bar drinking and
working on his book, and all he has to tell you is the little description of each of your traveling companions he's putting in it. It's actually
kind of a nice idea--and each of the NPCs has something to say about it, too, so this cameo actually revealed a little something
about the character of each of them. He's worth stopping to talk to, in other words, even if you hate these famous buttinskies enough to
constantly kill Drizzt and pickpocket Elminster (guiltily raises hand). This one wasn't bad. Really.
7) In the military outpost is the captain of the guard with a quest for you, Treachery At The Gate. Once you have
talked to the captain he disappears and you won't be able to find him again, no matter how much incriminating information you find; your only
option for completing this quest is to find Ardic. Well, the only option for completing this quest the way the captain wants you to, anyway.
Click here for information on the different possible endings to this quest.
8) There is no plot in Gromnir's guard barracks. Go in there, kill the guards, and take their stuff, or don't. Killing them won't rob you of
anything interesting later on, but all you'll get for it is a quest item there are more than one of on this map anyway.
9) In the Arcane house is a seller of magical items, but he won't sell you anything until somebody finds
his stolen spellbook. He has two of every spell in the game up to 9th level plus a few very choice items, so you probably want to accept this
Book Thief quest and get things sorted out for him. It's not a very difficult mystery. There's a very limited
number of people in Saradush, after all. See here if you're curious about the two possible endings to
this one.
10) There are a few other buildings--a temple of Waukeen, an unmarked house, and houses belonging to Countess Santele and Kiser.
These buildings and the people in them have use in certain Saradush quests if you're pursuing them, and not otherwise. (Well, though
you can get healed in the temple, natch.)
11) The old prison and the sewers both lead into Gromnir's castle, as Melissan told you at the start, but both are locked up tight. Once you
find a way into either one you can follow it into the castle. In the prison there is a small side quest with a ghost,
Midnight Special. In the sewers there are just some combats, though the one in the center of the sewer is more
interesting than the others.
12) Then there's Gromnir's castle, which is so straightforward there's not much for me to say about it. Near the entrance from the old prison is
a woman named Asmay you can talk to. On the same level there are three prisoners you can free if you're so inclined. And on the top level
is Gromnir himself. Unfortunately, Gromnir's madness is a plot element and therefore not fixable with a
"heal" spell, unlike a lot of minor characters' madnesses. (I suppose if it had been, one of the other Bhaalspawn would have tried it already.)
So there's nothing to do but kill him, then talk to Melissan about it. She'll give you a little more information (interesting comments by Imoen
and especially Haerdalis), and then your next main quest assignment, The Bigger They Are.
The only place to go next is back to your stronghold in Hell, but before
you go, you may want to go back to Saradush and talk to all the townsfolk one last time. Their comments will have changed now that
Gromnir is dead. In particular, go back to that harlot, and buy anything else you want from the merchants. When you return to your
stronghold, you'll find that heading out the exit will give you a choice of destinations, including Saradush, the forest Melissan has asked
you to go investigate, and the spot you just came in from. You will be able to return to whatever spot you just came in from for the remainder of
the game. It's extremely convenient; tip of the hat to the game designers for eliminating all the pointless and boring map travel ToB would
otherwise entail.
This area isn't much more interesting than it was in SoA, but when you walk through it you will run into some villains slaughtering a bunch of
merchants. If you kill them very quickly you can sometimes save one of the merchants, but the game clearly is not expecting this to happen
and the rescued merchant will not have anything special to say to you. Once the villains are all dead, though, the head merchant will appear
to talk to you, and he has some interesting information, so be sure you talk to him fully.
From here you can head to several places: Yaga Shura's camp, Watcher's Keep, the Forest of Mir, or Marching Mountains. Going to the camp
will prove Melissan correct--Yaga Shura is currently invincible. Hm. You can go to Watcher's Keep now if you want
to. It won't change the fate of Saradush any, though it may make you feel guiltier about it. The two places you really need to go now are the
Forest of Mir and the Marching Mountains, which you can do in either order.
This is an eerily drawn little map. Entering it will result in an extremely interesting encounter which I will refrain from spoiling. There are special
interactions here for Imoen, Sarevok, and your love interest as well (Jaheira's is especially good if you played BG1), and you will get a few
different options if your wisdom is high.
Then a few tough fights and you'll meet Nyalee, who gives you the quest
you need to finish before you can face Yaga Shura, Two Hearts Are Better Than One. Imoen has a special
interaction with Nyalee, and Minsc, Cernd, and Haerdalis have comments on the final resolution of this quest.
This map contains the dungeon entrance, lots of wandering monsters of the tough variety, and one bizarre fight in the center area of the map
with a group of Bhaalspawn apparently from some night when Bhaal got very, very drunk, because the leader seems to be a chinchilla (!).
The extremely straightforward dungeon contains one puzzle, collecting runestones and pushing buttons with matching pictures on them.
This description may sound complicated, but in practice it is so simple Minsc could do it drunk. The hardest parts are running up and down the
hall from each button to the door it opens and back, and worrying that you're doing the puzzle wrong. You're not, it's just not a very well-done
puzzle. Click on the ominous-looking machine holding all four runestones and the game will figure the right thing to do with it all by itself. The
rest of this dungeon is monsters to fight (and some of them are very tough fights) and treasure to collect. There are only two people who talk
in the entire dungeon: the giant priest, who will give you a line about protecting Yaga Shura before attacking you, and an extremely bitchy
woman chained to the wall. You can learn more about her if you let her go and then demand she tell you who she is. (Nalia gets really pissed
off at her lack of gratitude.) She has a little information, not very helpful. You can find the quest items you need by careful searching. If you've
been to the Forest of Mir already you will know what you're looking for; if not, search carefully, because if you miss one you'll have to come
back.
If you haven't yet finished the Two Hearts Are Better Than One quest, you shouldn't be here yet, as Yaga
Shura will still be invincible. Once you have finished the quest, though, come here and face off against the mighty giant. He won't say
anything different no matter what you do.
After the battle, you'll be immediately transported back to your stronghold in Hell. The solar will have a long conversation with you about your
past, summoning up shades to talk to you. The responses you give the solar will determine whether your next challenge room goes in the "evil"
or "good" column (for the first room your alignment mattered, but for all the subsequent ones, the only criterion is what you say to the solar,
so an evil character can take the good path if he wants to in this game). The second challenge room is particularly cool if you played BG1.
Whether you did or not, there's nothing hard about it and no choices to make; just another combat. You can rest before going in if you need to.
Once you're done, use the exit to go back to the camp you just came from.
There, you can wrap things up with Melissan, getting the XP for your last assignment and a new one, Fratricide.
Onward to Chapter Nine (alternatively, now is a fine time to do
Watcher's Keep, if you
haven't yet).
Sponsored Links
Ataniel
Maumee
Taos New Mexico
Last of the Mohicans
Iowa map
Go back to the Throne of Bhaal homepage
Play some more computer role playing games
Learn about the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians
Sitemap
Send me email