BG3 Gauntlet of Shar: Complete Walkthrough, All 4 Umbral Gems, and Save vs Sacrifice Nightsong Consequences

The Gauntlet of Shar is Act 2’s largest dungeon and the hinge point of Shadowheart’s entire questline. Three trials test stealth, combat, and nerve across a sprawling underground temple. One wrong move in the Silent Library permanently locks you out of the quest’s best outcome. And the choice you make at the end — free or sacrifice the Nightsong — determines whether Shadowheart becomes an ally of Selûne or a cold-blooded assassin of Shar, with consequences that echo through Act 3 and the epilogue.

This guide covers every puzzle solution in the order you’ll encounter them, all four Umbral Gem sources, and a full breakdown of what the Nightsong choice actually does to Shadowheart’s story across the entire game. Internal links point to our companion build guides where the choices here affect your team composition.

Verified on BG3 Patch 7 (PC). Honour Mode variations noted where the mechanics differ.

Quick Start: Gauntlet of Shar Checklist

If you want the fastest route through without missing anything critical, this is the exact sequence:

1. Reach the Grand Mausoleum in the Shadow-Cursed Lands (X: 190, Y: 110) at level 7 or higher
2. Solve the Mystic Thuribles entrance puzzle — extinguish eight lights to create total darkness
3. Complete the Soft-Step Trial (stealth maze) — Umbral Gem #1
4. Complete the Self-Same Trial (clone fight) — Umbral Gem #2 + Killer’s Sweetheart ring
5. Complete the Faith-Leap Trial (invisible path) — Umbral Gem #3
6. Go to the Silent Library: pick up Teachings of Loss: The Nightsinger and place it on the pedestal — never destroy it
7. Collect the Spear of Night from the sealed chamber
8. Deal with Yurgir the orthon at X: -652, Y: -776 — Umbral Gem #4
9. Insert gems at the altars, descend to the Shadowfell, face the Nightsong choice with Shadowheart in your party

Player type segmentation follows at the end if you want to skip straight to the Nightsong decision.

How to Enter the Gauntlet of Shar

The Gauntlet lies beneath the Grand Mausoleum at X: 190, Y: 110 in the Shadow-Cursed Lands. Before heading in, speak with Shadowheart about the Nightsong — she needs to be actively engaged with “The Chosen of Shar” questline, or she will not react to the dungeon’s story beats and the final encounter becomes severely limited.

Recommended level: 7+. Arriving at level 5 or 6 makes the Yurgir fight significantly harder, and the Self-Same Trial clones inherit your exact stats, which means underlevelled characters punish you twice.

Mystic Thuribles Entrance Puzzle

The first room has eight Mystic Thuribles hanging from the ceiling, each casting light. The room’s puzzle requires complete darkness to reveal the gem path on the floor.

1. Disarm the pressure plate traps near each alcove (DC 10 Sleight of Hand)
2. Pull the levers in the north and south alcoves to lower the Thuribles within reach
3. Extinguish the Thuribles using Ray of Frost, Ice Knife, or direct interaction to snuff them
4. Disable every other light source — torches, Moonlanterns, Produce Flame spells
5. In complete darkness, follow the glowing glyph gaps on the floor to the gem pedestal

Shortcut: Misty Step or Dimension Door directly to the gem pedestal skips the puzzle entirely.

All Three Trials of Shar — Step-by-Step Solutions

Each trial tests one of Shar’s sacred domains. Complete all three to earn three of your four required Umbral Gems. The trials can be done in any order.

Soft-Step Trial — Stealth Maze

Location: X: -771, Y: -755, west side of the main trial hall.

Two Shadows with Darkvision patrol this maze. Most guides present this as a pure stealth challenge — but you have more options than staying hidden the whole time.

Enter with a single party member. The blood sacrifice basin at the entrance activates with Shadowheart for a small approval gain. The Shadows are hostile but killable. A Cleric casting Spirit Guardians or any character with reliable AOE can eliminate both Shadows, after which the rest of your party can walk through freely. The stealth framing is thematic, not mechanical.

The Soft-Step Trial Key is in a hidden room at X: -803, Y: -760. Alternatively, pick the DC 20 locked gate ahead directly. Once through, collect Umbral Gem #1.

Solo-run shortcut: Send a single party member with Darkvision — Drow, Wood Elf, or a character with Night Vision gear — and leave everyone else outside. One character, one gem, no coordination required.

Self-Same Trial — Clone Fight

Location: X: -767, Y: -727, north of the Soft-Step entrance.

This trial spawns undead mirror copies of every active party member with identical equipment and stats. The critical rule: each character can only attack their own copy. Hitting someone else’s clone applies the Cheater’s Folly debuff (−1 to all ability scores, stacking up to four times per character).

The cleanest approach is pre-trial stripping. Before entering, send three companions to camp and run the trial solo. One clone spawns, zero risk of Cheater’s Folly, half the chaos. If you go in with a full party, assign clone targets before initiative and call out your targets by character name to avoid confusion during combat.

The final defeated copy drops the Killer’s Sweetheart ring. Whenever you kill an enemy while wearing it, you gain the Execution condition — your next attack roll is an automatic critical hit, resetting on short rest. Melee and striker builds will use this heavily through Acts 2 and 3.

Collect Umbral Gem #2 from the end chamber.

Faith-Leap Trial — Invisible Path

Location: Lower level, east of the spiral stairs, accessible from the south entrance of the trial hall.

This is the trial that stops most players cold. A vast chasm with no visible floor, and three blue lanterns representing your three allowed failures before the trial resets (Honour Mode removes this safety net entirely — one wrong step means fall damage with no recovery buffer).

The solution is encoded in the mosaic floor pattern between the entrance door and the Ancient Altar. The colored markings show exactly which invisible tiles are safe. Study the pattern before approaching the chasm — the closer you stand to the edge, the harder the mosaic becomes to read.

Methods that work:

• Drop items: Toss a piece of gear onto each safe tile as you cross to mark your path back
• Fly or Misty Step: Target a visible safe tile ahead and skip segments of the crossing
• Turn-based mode: Move one step at a time and observe the subtle elevation change when you land on a safe tile versus empty air

Reach the altar at the far end to collect Umbral Gem #3.

Silent Library: Get the Spear of Night — And Never Destroy This Book

The Silent Library is south of the Faith-Leap Trial and is technically optional. In practice, skipping it cripples Shadowheart’s questline and removes your best dialogue options at the Nightsong encounter.

A spectral Librarian entity fills the room with a permanent Silence field. No spellcasting, no verbal components, no Counterspell. Any spell with a duration you cast before entering continues, but you cannot cast new spells inside. Ranged attacks, melee, and non-verbal cantrips still function normally — buff before you cross the threshold.

Library Puzzle Steps

1. Defeat the patrolling Dark Justiciars using melee and cantrips under Silence
2. Check bookshelves for traps before touching them: DC 15 Perception to spot, DC 14 Sleight of Hand to disarm
3. Find the correct button on the four columns at X: -784, Y: -747 to open the portcullis — or lockpick it at DC 21
4. Pick up the book Teachings of Loss: The Nightsinger from the shelves
5. Place the book on the Riddle of the Night pedestal to unlock the sealed chamber
6. Collect the Spear of Night from the table inside the chamber

The sealed chamber also contains Dark Justiciar Half-Plate and the Dark Justiciar Helmet — practical armour for the darkness-heavy environment of Acts 2 and 3.

Critical warning — never destroy this book: If you burn, Disintegrate, or otherwise destroy Teachings of Loss: The Nightsinger before placing it on the pedestal, the Spear of Night becomes permanently unobtainable. Without the Spear, the Nightsong encounter later has severely limited dialogue options, and Shadowheart may refuse to engage — potentially leaving the party. There is no Knock spell, no alternative key, and no workaround. The book goes on the pedestal, nothing else.

Yurgir the Orthon — Three Ways to Get Umbral Gem #4

The fourth Umbral Gem comes from Yurgir, an orthon demon bound by an infernal contract at X: -652, Y: -776. He is hostile by default but has three resolution paths, and your choice here has a direct consequence in Act 3.

Option A: Fight Yurgir Directly

Yurgir brings Merregons, Hoarding Merregons, and his Displacer Beast companion Nessa. At level 7 it is a rough multi-enemy fight, but winning yields the Hellfire Hand Crossbow — one of the strongest hand crossbows in the game, with fire damage that bypasses most fire resistances. The Umbral Gem drops from Yurgir’s body.

You miss the story content, Lyrthindor’s loot, and the Act 3 ally payoff, but it is the fastest path.

Option B: Break Yurgir’s Contract (Recommended)

This is the story-rich path, and it sets up a late-game payoff that most players never see.

Open by passing a DC 14 Insight check when speaking to Yurgir — Bards and Warlocks auto-succeed based on their training with devil’s contracts. He then reveals the binding terms: he must kill every Dark Justiciar in the Gauntlet before the contract releases him. One survived.

Lyrthindor, the last Dark Justiciar, used the book One Becomes Many to transform into a swarm of rats — a trick provided by Raphael specifically to prevent Yurgir ever fulfilling the terms and keep him permanently contracted.

Finding Lyrthindor:

1. Use Speak with Animals on rats throughout the Gauntlet — they speak in Lyrthindor’s fragmented voice
2. Navigate to the base of the Shar statue via craggy rocks near the Silent Library, or broken stones at X: -684, Y: -737
3. At the ritual circle, read One Becomes Many and light the surrounding candles
4. Multiple rat waves spawn — AOE abilities handle them efficiently (Spirit Guardians from Shadowheart works well here)
5. Lyrthindor returns to human form for a final combat
6. Loot: Justiciar’s Greatshield, Justiciar’s Scimitar, Boots of Brilliance, and the Umbral Gem

After Lyrthindor falls: Raphael appears and reveals that Yurgir violated the contract by seeking outside help — then forces Yurgir into a new binding agreement. If Astarion is in your party, he recognizes Raphael and becomes furious. A DC 14 Persuasion or Deception check is required to keep Astarion in the party. Fail it and he leaves permanently.

The Act 3 payoff: Yurgir remembers you helped expose Raphael’s scheme. In Act 3’s House of Hope encounter against Raphael himself, Yurgir appears as an optional ally — the strongest mechanical reason to take this path over a direct fight. See our guide on BG3 time-sensitive quests for how this fits into your Act 3 pacing.

Option C: Steal the Gem

Yurgir’s Umbral Gem sits on a table near his resting area. High Stealth or Invisibility lets you lift it without triggering dialogue or combat. You forfeit the Hellfire Hand Crossbow, Lyrthindor’s loot, and the Act 3 ally — but if you are in a rush and have already cleared the trials, this takes under two minutes.

Opening the Shadowfell Portal

With all four Umbral Gems, the path to the Shadowfell opens at the north side of the dungeon in two steps.

Step 1 — Pedestal of Reckoning: Insert one gem into the Ancient Altar north of the entrance hall. A platform lowers beneath it. Position your full party at the platform edge and activate the Traversal Gem to descend together.

Step 2 — Verge of Shadows: Place the remaining three gems into the final altar’s sockets to open the massive doors. The spell Knock can bypass this step if you are short on gems.

Event horizon — complete everything in Act 2 first: Stepping through the Shadowfell portal permanently locks you out of Act 1 locations, and several Act 2 quests fail on entry. Finish before crossing:

• Thaniel’s restoration (Art Cullagh’s lute, Oliver’s quest in the haunted grove)
• Jaheira’s questline and Last Light Inn content
• Any pending companion approval conversations and long rests
• The Moonrise Towers reconnaissance if you plan to complete it

This is the point of no return for Act 2.

Save or Sacrifice the Nightsong: Shadowheart’s Full Consequence Guide

At the end of the Shadowfell lies Dame Aylin — the Nightsong. She is an immortal aasimar, the daughter of Selûne, and the power source Ketheric Thorm has been draining to sustain his own immortality. He cannot die permanently until she is either freed or destroyed.

Shadowheart must be in your party for this scene. Entering the Shadowfell without her causes her to attack you or leave the party permanently depending on your prior approval. Always bring her.

The Spear of Night you retrieved from the Silent Library matters here — without it, your dialogue options are restricted and Shadowheart may refuse to proceed regardless of approval.

Throughout Act 2, Shadowheart builds “Nightsong Points” based on how you handle her quest dialogue and camp conversations. Higher point totals unlock persuasion options that make convincing her to spare Aylin significantly easier, particularly on first playthroughs.

Path A: Sacrifice the Nightsong (Dark Justiciar Path)

If you let Shadowheart kill Dame Aylin:

• Shadowheart becomes a Dark Justiciar — Shar’s warrior-cleric, cold and single-minded from this point forward
• Romance ends immediately. She tells you her only love now belongs to Lady Shar. This is not recoverable through approval
• She receives Shar’s Spear of Evening, a powerful dark weapon with bonuses while obscured, matching her new role as a darkness-domain combatant
• Last Light Inn is destroyed. Without Aylin sustaining Isobel’s protective magic, the inn’s shield falls and everyone inside — Jaheira, Dammon, and all refugees — dies. Losing Dammon permanently blocks Karlach’s companion questline, since he is the only character who can maintain her Infernal Engine
• Good-aligned companions (Gale, Wyll, others) express strong disapproval

Act 3 consequences on the Dark Justiciar path: At the House of Grief, Shar demands Shadowheart execute her own parents to prove her loyalty. Three outcomes branch from here:

• Kill the parents: Shadowheart is elevated to Shar’s Chosen. Shar then removes her memories of her parents entirely as a twisted mercy. According to community reports, Dark Justiciars become available as allies in the final battle on this path
• Defy Shar and spare the parents: Shar punishes Shadowheart with visions of her own parents being tortured, but lets them leave alive
• Epilogue: Shadowheart becomes Mother Superior of the Sharran cloister at the House of Grief, running it as Shar’s instrument in the Sword Coast

Path B: Free the Nightsong

If you convince Shadowheart to spare Dame Aylin — through persuasion dialogue (easier with higher Nightsong Points) or by speaking to Aylin directly first:

• Shadowheart begins abandoning Shar, gravitating toward Selûne — her family’s original faith before her memories were erased
• Dame Aylin joins your camp as an ally. She enters the combat turn order in the fight against Ketheric Thorm’s second phase, providing direct tactical support in that encounter
• The Spear of Night transforms into Selûne’s Spear of Night — a +1 two-handed weapon with a Smite of Night bonus action that deals 1d8 radiant damage on hit
• Romance continues and deepens through Act 3, progressing toward the farmstead epilogue ending
• Last Light Inn survives. Jaheira, Dammon, and all refugees remain available — Karlach’s questline stays accessible. For party compositions built around Karlach, this path is mandatory in Honour Mode

Act 3 consequences on the freed path: At the House of Grief, Shadowheart confronts her past without Shar’s framing. She gains the option to save her parents from Shar’s curse. Saving them leads to the farmstead epilogue — Shadowheart settles quietly with her family, though Shar’s curse on her hand occasionally causes her pain even after the events of the main story.

Which Path Is Right for You?

If you are planning a companion-optimised team, the Nightsong decision is arguably the most impactful single choice in Act 2 — it sets the conditions for every major Shadowheart moment that follows.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to complete the trials in a specific order?

No. The Soft-Step, Self-Same, and Faith-Leap trials can be completed in any order, and Yurgir can be handled at any point during your exploration of the Gauntlet. The only gating requirement is having all four Umbral Gems before the Shadowfell portal opens.

Can I save the Nightsong without Shadowheart in the party?

No. The ritual that determines Dame Aylin’s fate is tied directly to Shadowheart’s companion questline. Without Shadowheart present in the active party, the encounter does not trigger correctly and she may attack you or leave permanently.

What happens if I destroy the book in the Silent Library?

The Spear of Night becomes permanently unobtainable for that playthrough. Without the Spear, the Nightsong encounter has limited dialogue options and Shadowheart’s ability to engage with the choice is restricted. There is no Knock spell workaround, no alternative acquisition, and no way to reverse this. Pick the book up, carry it to the pedestal, and place it there.

Can I still romance Shadowheart if I take the Dark Justiciar path?

The romance ends when she becomes a Dark Justiciar. She explicitly ends the relationship, stating her devotion now belongs to Shar. This applies regardless of your prior approval rating. See our BG3 romance guide for full romance path breakdowns across all companions.

Why does Yurgir as an Act 3 ally matter enough to justify the longer path?

In Act 3, Raphael holds a companion prisoner in the House of Hope — his infernal stronghold. Breaching it means fighting through substantial opposition. Yurgir remembers that you helped expose Raphael’s contract scheme and appears as an optional reinforcement during that encounter. For builds that find the House of Hope fight difficult, Yurgir is a meaningful addition. The Hellfire Hand Crossbow from fighting him directly is strong, but the ally is arguably the better long-term reward.

What is the Spear of Night, and is it different from Selûne’s Spear of Night?

They are two stages of the same item. You pick up the Spear of Night from the Silent Library’s sealed chamber. If you free the Nightsong in the Shadowfell, the Spear transforms into Selûne’s Spear of Night — a +1 two-handed weapon with a Smite of Night bonus action dealing 1d8 radiant damage. If you sacrifice the Nightsong, the transformation does not occur. Shadowheart receives Shar’s Spear of Evening instead, and the original Spear of Night remains unchanged in your inventory.

Sources

• Gauntlet of Shar — bg3.wiki
• Break Yurgir’s Contract — bg3.wiki
• Shadowheart — bg3.wiki
• Should You Let Shadowheart Kill the Nightsong? — TheGamer

Michael R.

I've been playing video games for over 20 years, spanning everything from early PC titles to modern open-world games. I started Switchblade Gaming to publish the kind of accurate, well-researched guides I always wanted to find — built on primary sources, tested in-game, and kept up to date after patches. I currently focus on Minecraft and Pokémon GO.