Travel to Moonrise Towers (Underdark) - Baldur's Gate III Guide - IGN (2024)

The Travel to Moonrise Towers quest is the next step in the Walkthrough for the first chapter of Baldur's Gate 3. This quest will test your combat and party management skills, and this Walkthrough is specifically for the Underdark route. We have a separate Walkthrough for the Mountain Pass Route.

To get this quest, you must have finished the Rescuing the Druid Halsin quest beforehand, picked up the reward from Rath, and spoken to Halsin the night after celebrating the downfall of the Goblin leaders with the group at your camp.

Read on to find out more about how to complete the quest and how to solve the subsequent puzzles that the game will throw at you.

Travel to Moonrise Towers via the Underdark Walkthrough

This is quite a long Walkthrough, so use the links below to navigate to a specific section if needed. Don't forget to keep up with Side Quests as you go- the Underdark is full of them.

• Starting Your Journey to Moonrise Towers
• Returning to the Goblin Camp
• How to Solve the Moon Puzzle
• Make Your Way to Underdark
• Steer Clear of the Mushrooms
• Get to Grymforge
• How to Find Philomeen
• Freeing the True Soul Nere

If there's a particular section of the game you're struggling with, make sure to check out our Beginner's Guide for a refresher on handy mechanics and game elements.

Starting Your Journey to Moonrise Towers

When you speak to Halsin in the morning, he will tell you that it's possible to access Moonrise Towers through two different methods. It's important to pick the right path for your party, as the journey will take you through cursed lands.

You can choose to travel via the Underdark or the Overland route via the Mountain Pass. Consider your party and strengths before deciding which path to take. For example, the Underdark may be an easier option if you have a Drow character.

As noted, this Walkthrough is for the Underdark route only.

Halsin will let you know that there's a path to the Underdark in the Temple of Selune, where the Goblin camp is. This isn't the only way to get to the Underdark (there are other methods of getting there, including one relating to Auntie Ethel), but it's the best option to go with for now.

Head back to the Goblin Camp to get started, either by using a Waypoint for fast travel or by heading over on foot.

Returning to the Goblin Camp

If you're entering the Goblin Camp via the Blighted Village and didn't defeat all of the Goblins during your last encounter, you'll need to defeat them now. If you've already defeated all the Goblins, simply head straight into the Shattered Sanctum, where you took out the Goblin leaders.

If you're still taking out the Goblins in the entry to the Goblin Camp, make the most out of the cover nearby to get a stealth advantage over the Goblins, or even use the tall hill nearby for a height advantage.

When you enter the main Goblin Camp, utilize any Grease spells or bottles that you have. There are a lot of fire sources in the area, and the Goblins will tend to bundle up on the main bridge while trying to get to you, with a few using the towers and tall areas.

Once the Goblin Camp is clear, head into the Shattered Sanctum by using the large wooden door. When you enter, there will be more Goblins inside if you did not clear the Camp initially.

These Goblins can be a little frustrating to deal with as the majority of them will be on taller platforms as you enter, giving them a height advantage. You can take them out with ranged attacks easily if you have characters who are proficient in archery, though.

Head into the main chamber, up the stairs to the left, and to the southwest, where you'll find a wooden door that leads to a room with a small altar and another wooden door. Open the door using the Priestess Key that Priestess Gut dropped and continue onwards.

Inside, you'll find an ogre named Polma, the Bodyguard of the High Priestess.

It is possible to roll to get past Polma without a battle, but the required roll is quite high. If you need to fight Polma, it shouldn't cause you too much trouble. Get your party onto the tall platform and use the height advantage to take her out quickly. She hits hard, though, so be mindful of distance.

Loot the room before you go. There are some great spell scrolls and camp supplies on offer, and a particularly important item called the Selunite Journal is worth getting before you go. If you've not killed Polma, you won't be able to get this.

Press onwards through the stone archway. Your party will notice a rocky crevice as you follow the path along, but won't be able to enter it for now.

How to Solve the Moon Puzzle

As you enter the next chamber in the Defiled Temple, you'll notice a strange set of four interlocking discs on the floor. Your party will notice that they have mismatching symbols on them.

To get started with solving this strange floor puzzle, be sure you're facing the puzzle from the entrance archway. Once you're facing the right direction, the key to solving the floor puzzle will be to rotate the moon plates until the bottom plate has all the black dots.

This will also correspond with the clue you found in the room adjacent to Priestess Gut’s room. To solve the Defiled Temple floor puzzle in the most efficient manner, simply rotate the plates as you follow the five steps below:

Step 1: Rotate the bottom plate.

Step 2: Rotate the right plate.

Step 3: Rotate the bottom plate.

Step 4: Rotate the top plate.

Step 5: Rotate the right plate.

If you followed the steps above, you'll soon hear a click, indicating the puzzle has been solved, followed by your character saying, “This goes very far down. We’ll have to go in to see the bottom.”

Once you've done this, head into the new passage that just opened up. It's best to save here and take a Long Rest if needed, as the journey ahead is dangerous.

Make Your Way to the Underdark

Follow the wooden path downwards and climb down the ladder. You're one step closer to Moonrise Towers, and you're just about to enter the Underdark.

You'll end up in a location called the Selûnite Outpost. There's a portcullis straight ahead, with two guard statues outside of it, and a few rooms containing various treasure chests and barrels with camp supplies. There's a statue in the middle of the room with a Moonstone above it.

The guard statues are incredibly powerful, which will be demonstrated as a Minotaur runs up to the portcullis and gets shot to death by them.

You can disarm these guard statues by simply shooting the Moonstone above the statue in the center of the room that you're in.

Before you leave, check out the Selenite Outpost for loot. If you head to the wooden platform above the gate with the iron portcullis, there's a skeleton with a Selunite Key. This key can be used to unlock the iron door that you walk past immediately as you enter the Outpost on the right.

Inside this room, there's some good loot, and if your party passes a Perception check, there's a hidden stone door that opens to reveal a room with even more loot. Be careful, as the large chest in the hidden room is rigged to explode, and you'll need to disarm it.

Once you're done with looting, save your game and press onwards through the gate. If you don't manage to lockpick the gate (it requires a nat 20 roll), then you can jump down from the tall platforms to the side of the gate, which will make you take a few hit points of damage without a Feather Fall scroll.

As you walk down the path, keep an eye out for bags and bodies to loot. Your party will need to roll for Nature. A condition called 'rapport spores' will be applied to your party, meaning that creatures with the same condition will be able to read your thoughts and vice versa.

You'll enter combat immediately with two huge Minotaurs at the bottom of this path. They're huge and hit hard, but can be taken out with some smart positioning and teamwork. Make sure to avoid the edges of the path, as the Minotaurs can charge and knock your characters off.

Continue north.

As you keep heading onwards, a brief cutscene will start where an unseen voice will tell your party that 'more are coming' and 'they're coming.' This strange, psychic interruption will baffle your party, but you can keep going.

Keep going down the path until you reach a cliff with a rope net hanging down from it. Be careful as you approach it, as there are multiple traps nearby, and your party will need to roll for Perception if you want to disarm them and avoid getting caught in the explosion.

Climb the ladder and get up to the Storehouse. If you accidentally set off the traps and lose the rope net (it will burn up in an explosion), you can jump up the various rocks and mushrooms on the side.

This area is packed full of loot. Stock up on camp supplies, poisons, alchemical supplies, and gear by checking out the various chests and barrels nearby.

Then, use jump to safely return back down the cliffside with the rope net and continue heading south underneath the large stone bridge ahead.

Steer Clear of the Mushrooms

As you head under the bridge, be mindful of the mushrooms nearby. This area has many deadly kinds of wildlife and fauna, and the mushrooms are just as deadly.

Timmasks are 'known to cause confusion' and are worth either destroying from a distance or steering completely clear of. Torchstalks are also dangerous.

Turn to the west and navigate carefully through the field of mushrooms. Shooting one of the nearby Torchstalks will cause the vast majority of the other mushrooms to explode.

Keep heading down the path.

You will immediately come across two dead Duergars and a dead Myconid, then more as you get to the bottom of the path.

Speaking to Gekh will reveal a larger group of characters, and they will inform you that they're slave hunters looking for a runaway who stole a pair of boots. They will threaten your party for making noise, and you can choose to attack, persuade, or deceive them.

If you roll well, Gekh will agree not to attack you immediately. However, the majority of the next choices lead to the same conclusion- Gekh and his party will attack you. This is a pretty tricky fight, as there's an enemy who can summon the nearby undead corpses and some heavy-hitting enemies too.

Once you've won this fight, save your game and heal up. Then, loot the bodies- Gekh and his party have quite a few handy items on them, and it's worth the effort.

Get to Grymforge

Follow the wooden path down and get to the beach. Here, you'll find a boat that you can board and take to the next area, getting you closer to Moonrise Towers.

As your boat sails into the murky abyss, another boat will pull up alongside you with a crew already on it. An NPC named Corsair Greymon will demand to know why you're sailing on Gekh's boat and what's happening.

You can deal with this in a few ways, but the most efficient one is to try and persuade Greymon that Gekh was killed by someone else. If you successfully persuade Greymon that you're not a threat and didn't kill Gekh, he'll take you to shore- which in this case, is Grymforge.

The other characters in Grymforge will not be overly pleased about your arrival, but they'll generally accept your story about what happened to Gekh.

Towards the east of where your boat pulls up, you'll find two characters guarding an iron gate and harassing a gnome about bringing them a drink.

If you try to exit through the gate and take the lift behind it (which is where you need to go next), the group will ask you if you have a Moonlantern and refuse you entry without one, saying that the Shadow-Cursed Lands beyond will kill you. This is true.

To get a Moonlantern and progress towards Moonrise Towers, you'll need to free a nearby NPC called Nere, who has been trapped by a rubble cave-in.

To free Nere, you'll need to head to the cave-in site. Head down the stairs and up the opposite set of stairs, then go south.

Keep walking until you see a group of characters digging at a massive pile of rubble.

Speak to the NPC named Sergeant Thrinn to progress. Inform her that Gekh is dead, and offer to help with clearing the rubble in order to get to Nere, who is referred to as a True Soul.

Your next task is to clear the rubble.

It's important to note that the clock is ticking as soon as you take on the quest to free the True Soul Nere. If you take more than two in-game days to do this, Nere will die due to the poison on the other side of the cave-in. This means you can't leave or take a Long Rest.

There are a few ways you can clear the cave-in out of the way. You can use an item like Smokepowder or Runepowder to coat the rubble and then ignite it, or you can find a nearby runaway gnome named Philomeen who has some Runepowder.

Listen to the nearby gnomes as they work, and roll highly on Perception to find out what they know about Philomeen. If you roll well here, you can persuade the gnomes to tell you where Philomeen is, which is worth the effort.

Don't worry if you didn't get the rolls, though. To find Philomeen, you'll need to leave the cave-in site and get back to the Grymforge Waypoint to start.

How to Find Philomeen

Once you're back at the Waypoint, head down the stairs and go east until you find a group of slaughtered gnomes. Unlock the Double Iron Doors with a set of Thieves Tools to continue.

Walk to the back of this considerably soggy room. Your party will automatically roll a Perception check as you enter the room's furthest corner. If you pass the Perception check, you'll notice a button on the wall. Hit it to continue and save your game before pressing onwards.

Follow the path around and prepare for a battle. You'll be ambushed by 3 Ochre Jelly slime creatures.

This can be quite a tricky fight, as the Ochre Jellies have decently high health and hit pretty hard with Acid abilities. One of the Jellies starts out on the very top of the nearby stairs, so either use an ability like Sleep to incapacitate one of the nearer Jellies or use ranged attacks to get the furthest one dealt with.

Once you've finished this battle, head up both flights of nearby steps and walk through the archway until you get to a partially broken rock bridge over the chasm. Jump over the gap, then keep following the rocky path along.

You'll come to an Intricate Door, which requires lockpicking. Instead of using your Thieves Tools on this, simply walk further along and jump through a large crack in the wall.

You'll find Philomeen standing at the head of the chamber. Approach her and speak to her to continue with this quest. Philomeen will immediately threaten to blow everyone up by igniting the Runepowder.

You'll need to roll to persuade her not to blow everyone up. After this, you'll learn more about her and her relationship with the other gnomes, and you'll have to convince her to give you a vial of the Runepowder in return for letting her go.

This is quite an important roll, so use Inspiration if you have it. Once this is done, Philomeen will leave, and it's time to head back to the cave-in where the True Soul Nere is trapped. It's worth saving your game here. You can use the Grymforge Waypoint to make this quicker, and you can follow the quest marker to guide you back.

Freeing the True Soul Nere

Once you're back at the cave-in, speak to Sergeant Thrinn to let her know that you have some explosive powder to help clear out the rubble.

Then, throw the Runepowder vial at the cave-in. It will stick to the rocks. You'll need to use a fire spell or fire arrow to ignite it. Hitting the cave-in with a fire spell may not ignite the vial, so make sure you've selected the vial and not the rocks.

When the cave-in collapses and opens up, Nere and the other trapped characters will run out. If you're low on health, you can squeeze in a quick Long Rest here without causing Nere to die if you time it well.

Before you ignite the vial, it's worth speaking to Elder Brithvar before continuing. You're about to enter a pretty big fight, and if you can persuade Brithvar that you're on his side and against Nere, his forces will work with you instead of against you. Brithvar can be found just outside of the area with the cave-in, speaking to a guard.

If you successfully persuade Brithvar to work with you, he'll tell you to take out the nearby Scrying Eye. It's important that you don't do this in front of any other characters, as it'll trigger the guards.

With your back-up successfully organized, head back to the cave-in and ignite the vial.

This battle is fairly difficult. Make the most out of your crowd control abilities and try to incapacitate the lower-level enemies where possible to try and avoid getting out-numbered.

Be careful of standing too close to the edge of the lava pit- the enemies in this fight are incredibly fond of pushing people in, and they're usually successful with their Athletics checks.

Once the battle is done, the game will prompt you to consume the Ilithid parasite in Nere's corpse. It's up to you whether you want to do this or not.

Loot Nere's body before continuing. He does have a Moonlantern on him- but unfortunately, it's broken. Make sure to pick it up, as it becomes important later on.

When you pick it up, your characters will interact with it and let you roll for both Arcana and Investigation.

For now, a regular torch will have to do as you press on through the Shadow-Cursed Lands. Heal up, then head back to the elevator near the Grymforge Waypoint.