Balthazar's Experiment

The entrance to Balthazar's secret laboratory

Balthazar's Experiment is a sub-quest of both Gale's  Companion quest and his  Origin quest. It is automatically triggered when the party investigate the ritual circle in Balthazar's secret study in Moonrise Towers.

Objectives (Companion quest)

Objectives and journal entries may vary pending story decisions.

Deal with Balthazar's ritual circle.

• "We found a strange ritual circle hidden in a secret workshop within Balthazar's chambers. Gale was able to understand the strange sigils used to cast it, and says it was used to create the Moonlanterns that protect their wielders from the shadow curse. Gale says there is enough magic still within it to create one last lantern, one he claims he can make even better than Balthzar's. But this requires him to use a kind of magic forbidden by Mystra. To earn her good favour, he'd be better off destroying it."

Quest Complete

• "We used a discarded pixie corpse to craft a Shadow Lantern using the strange ritual circle in Balthazar's chambers. Gale believes Mystra would disapprove of such corrupted magic, but she has shown no signs of condemning him further. And the lantern, with its ability to wield the very shadows that threaten us, should prove very useful indeed."

• "We destroyed Balthazar's ritual circle, cleansing the corrupted shadow magic stored within. Though Mystra did not speak to Gale, for a fleeting moment he sensed her presence. She bestowed upon Gale a small token of her approval, a blessing to help him fight against the shadows."

• "We tried to use the ritual circle without Gale's input, and destroyed it in the process. Gale was not amused."

• "We left Balthazar's ritual circle alone. Its corrupted shadow magic will slowly fade, tainting everything around it. Unless someone else puts it to use."

Objectives (Origin quest)

Deal with Balthazar's ritual circle.

• "I found a strange ritual circle in Moonrise Towers. It is an evil, corrupted thing that uses shadow magic to force pixies to shine within Balthazar's Moonlanterns. Using one of the dead pixies discarded by Balthazar, I think I could create a much improved version of the Shadow Lantern, but to do so would be to use magic that Mystra strictly forbids her followers from touching. She would want me to destroy it."

Quest Complete

• "I destroyed Balthazar's ritual circle, cleansing the corrupted shadow magic stored within. Though Mystra did not speak to me, for a moment I sensed her presence. She offered me a small token of her approval, a blessing to help me fight against the shadows."
• "I used Balthazar's ritual circle to create a Shadow Lantern, capable of not only protecting me from the shadow curse, but wielding the shadows in my defence. Mystra's disappointment is certain, but she shows no sign of punishing my transgression..."
• "I left Balthazar's ritual circle alone. Its corrupted shadow magic will slowly fade, tainting everything around it. Unless someone else puts it to use."

Walkthrough

The ritual circle located on a desk

This quest can be started by interacting with the ritual circle which can be found in the secret workshop behind the bookshelves in Balthazar's chambers in Moonrise Towers. To begin the quest, the party must interact with the ritual circle, which starts a cutscene, and can then tell Gale to craft the Shadow Lantern. Player characters with the Wizard class have unique dialogue options with Gale during this dialogue, and can mention the Weavepasha Acham el Jhotos as the conversation moves forward. Also, if Shadowheart is in the active party and loyal to Shar, she encourages Gale to think for himself, craft the Shadow Lantern, and spread  Shar's will. If she follows  Selûne at this point in the story, she instead encourages Gale to destroy the ritual circle by saying "the last thing we need is someone of your potential becoming enthralled with Shar's magic".

If allowed to do so himself, Gale walks over to the ritual circle and opens the item combination dialog. He can then create a Shadow Lantern by combining a Broken Moonlantern and Dead Pixie. Both can be found next to the ritual circle. Crafting the Shadow Lantern completes this quest.

Alternatively, Gale can be told to erase the ritual circle, in which case he gains the condition  Mystra's Benevolence until the next Long Rest. He can be spoken with afterwards, and he mentions feeling the presence of  Mystra. If the party member is a Wizard, Sorcerer, or Cleric of Mystra they can mention they felt it too.

Lastly, the player character can insist on crafting the Shadow Lantern themselves, with one of the following options:

• [SHADOWHEART] [WIZARD] [ARCANA] Pick up the ingredients and attempt to craft the shadow lantern yourself. (DC 30 )
• [ARCANA] Attempt to use the ritual circle yourself. Pick up the ingredients and craft the shadow lantern. (DC 30)
• [SHADOWHEART] [WIZARD] [ARCANA] Attempt to craft the shadow lantern yourself. (DC 30 )

If the player character states their intention to craft the lantern on their own, they are admonished by Gale as wasting their time and certain to fail. However, if successful in crafting the lantern on their own, they may speak with Gale afterwards, who issues a barbed retort: "If you'd prefer to rely on beginner's luck than my myriad experiences in studying such magics, who am I to judge? Now, give my magical expertise is of limited use to you, was there something else you wanted to ask me about?"