Baldur’s Gate 3 is a sweeping RPG adventure littered with choices at every turn. How you choose to tackle your path makes every playthrough unique, with even minor choices potentially having major consequences down the line. Picking one dialogue option may change your future irrevocably, and a dice roll can severely change your fate.
When dealing with the mysterious Nightsong and the immortal Ketheric Thorm in Act 2 of Baldur’s Gate 3, this system means there’s wild variation in the outcome of your fate, and how the action plays out. That said, there are some through lines with the plot, and these touchpoints will guide your path forward.
If you’re currently surveying your options as you head towards the final showdown with Ketheric Thorm, Balthazar, and the path through the Gauntlet of Shar, read on for some tips about how best to survive the encounter.
BEWARE: Major spoilers for Act 2 of Baldur’s Gate 3 continue below.
Baldur’s Gate 3 Guide: Nightsong and Ketheric Thorm
How to find Ketheric Thorm
Ketheric Thorm is the primary boss of the second act of Baldur’s Gate 3, and dominates many of the quests you’ll undertake while travelling through the Shadow-Cursed Lands (the realm beyond the Underdark). You’ll find him in a location called Moonrise Towers, although you won’t have to fight him straight away.
As long as you pass some basic dialogue checks with his followers in Moonrise Towers – the Cult of the Absolute – you’ll pass through easily, and get a few more quests for your troubles. Your goal here is to infiltrate the cult, so try not to cause too much trouble.
Explore Moonrise Towers, and eventually you’ll discover Balthazar’s diary in his private chambers, on the upper floor. This will tell you to go to Thorm Mausoleum and uncover something called the ‘Nightsong‘ which is key to Ketheric Thorm’s invulnerability. Until you find the Nightsong, you can’t defeat Thorm.
Screenshot: GamesHub
How to complete the Gauntlet of Shar
Travel to the Thorm Mausoleum, and you’ll encounter a mini-puzzle – press the Moonrise Towers, Grief and General painting buttons in that order – and you’ll unlock the way to the Gauntlet of Shar, one of the most testing regions of Baldur’s Gate 3 Act 2.
In the Gauntlet of Shar, you’ll need to explore thoroughly and collect four Umbral Gems. Three gems can be obtained by completing three trials – the Soft-Step Trial (a stealth maze), the Self-Same Trial (a fight against your mirror image), and the Faith-Step Trial (a journey across an invisible, suspended pathway). These are relatively simple, and seem to be most easily completed with Astarion.
The fourth Umbral Gem can be acquired in the chamber of Orthon Yurgir (also known as Raphael’s Old Enemy from the titular quest). You can fight Yurgir for the gem, or try to break his cursed contract, but if you pass a minor perception check, you can also convince him to kill his goons and himself, and avoid the battle entirely.
Should this option present itself, you’ll need to pass two high-level persuasion checks.
Once you’ve gathered all four Umbral Gems, you should head to the Silent Library (near where the Trials are located on the lower floor) and defeat the enemies there. You will need to destroy the Silence Portal in the centre of the room to unlock your magic.
Then, you should search the nearby bookshelf for an item called Teachings of Loss: The Nightsinger (the bookshelf has a trap in it), and then click the buttons around the room (revealed with perception checks) to open an inner cage. Place Teachings of Loss on the pedestal in the cage, and you’ll unlock access to the room behind the Shar relief, where the Spear of Night awaits. If the room doesn’t appear to open, you might be able to just walk through the relief anyway.
Play your cards correctly, and you won’t need the spear just yet.
How to find the Nightsong
Screenshot: GamesHub
Once you’ve completed your exploration of the Gauntlet of Shar, head to the centre of the Gauntlet and place the first Umbral Gem in the Ancient Pedestal to take the floating platform to the depths. Insert the final three gems into the second Ancient Pedestal on this lower floor, and you’ll unlock the path to Nightsong Prison.
Inside, you’ll need to jump down the floating rocks until you’re on the second-last rock. You can talk to Balthazar and make the choice to give him the Nightsong – who is actually a living being – but the best option is to wait out of reach, at the tip of the second-last rock. Attack from a distance, and you’ll gain an advantage over Balthazar and his minions.
Crowding around the tip of the rock means you can prevent extra monsters from jumping to your perch, limiting their reach, and you can unleash spells and ranged attacks easily. Defeat Balthazar and his skeleton hordes, and you’ll then be able to approach the Nightsong.
You should save the Nightsong when you’re presented with a choice. While it is one of many decisions in Baldur’s Gate 3 that can be made on your own, we’d recommend keeping her alive and on your side, as she greatly helps with the later battle against Ketheric Thorm. She’s a valuable ally, and the survival of other NPCs depends on her staying alive.
This process simply involves you trusting her, and placing your hand on her. There’s no trick here. Just go up, and set her free. The only complication will be if you have Shadowheart in your party. As a servant of Shar, she’ll want to kill the Nightsong. You can convince her otherwise if you pass a high persuasion check – but if you fail, you may need to fight and kill Shadowheart. Faced with a choice between them, you should pick Nightsong.
How to defeat Ketheric Thorm
Once Nightsong has been released from her prison, head back to Moonrise Towers for a face-off against the Cult of the Absolute. They’ll know you’ve betrayed them immediately, so heal yourself before heading into the Towers. You’ll fight alongside the Harpers in this battle, so you should have plenty of help – but that said, the acolytes of the cult are powerful, and you should prepare well.
You’ll have another, easier battle on the upper floor of Moonrise Towers, and then you’ll be able to ascend to the top of Moonrise Tower for the first phase of the battle against Ketheric Thorm. He has a number of skeleton warriors by his side, but he’s not too difficult to put away. When you ‘defeat’ Thorm in this phase, he’ll escape down a fleshy hole. Defeat his warriors, and follow after him.
There is a brief pause between battle phases, as you’ll need to explore the Mind Flayer Colony after this brief battle. Here, you can free Zevlor and other kidnapped warriors from your travels, and then progress through the halls to an arena, where Ketheric Thorm awaits. (You may also have to take on at least two other battles before you find the arena, but some can be avoided if you make a beeline for the upper region of the map.)
In this second phase of battle, you’ll need to free the Nightsong from the back of the arena, and then take on Thorm and his goons. There is a second phase to this battle, so stay patient, and keep hitting him with powerful spells. Save after making good progress, and restart if the battle heads sideways. Once the fight is over, you’ll conclude Act 2 and head into the next story arc, which sends you to the titular Baldur’s Gate.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is out now for PC. If you need more advice for surviving your time with the game, check out GamesHub’s quick tips rundown.
The federal government is ordering the dissolution of TikTok’s Canadian business after a national security review of the Chinese company behind the social media platform, but stopped short of ordering people to stay off the app.
Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne announced the government’s “wind up” demand Wednesday, saying it is meant to address “risks” related to ByteDance Ltd.’s establishment of TikTok Technology Canada Inc.
“The decision was based on the information and evidence collected over the course of the review and on the advice of Canada’s security and intelligence community and other government partners,” he said in a statement.
The announcement added that the government is not blocking Canadians’ access to the TikTok application or their ability to create content.
However, it urged people to “adopt good cybersecurity practices and assess the possible risks of using social media platforms and applications, including how their information is likely to be protected, managed, used and shared by foreign actors, as well as to be aware of which country’s laws apply.”
Champagne’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment seeking details about what evidence led to the government’s dissolution demand, how long ByteDance has to comply and why the app is not being banned.
A TikTok spokesperson said in a statement that the shutdown of its Canadian offices will mean the loss of hundreds of well-paying local jobs.
“We will challenge this order in court,” the spokesperson said.
“The TikTok platform will remain available for creators to find an audience, explore new interests and for businesses to thrive.”
The federal Liberals ordered a national security review of TikTok in September 2023, but it was not public knowledge until The Canadian Press reported in March that it was investigating the company.
At the time, it said the review was based on the expansion of a business, which it said constituted the establishment of a new Canadian entity. It declined to provide any further details about what expansion it was reviewing.
A government database showed a notification of new business from TikTok in June 2023. It said Network Sense Ventures Ltd. in Toronto and Vancouver would engage in “marketing, advertising, and content/creator development activities in relation to the use of the TikTok app in Canada.”
Even before the review, ByteDance and TikTok were lightning rod for privacy and safety concerns because Chinese national security laws compel organizations in the country to assist with intelligence gathering.
Such concerns led the U.S. House of Representatives to pass a bill in March designed to ban TikTok unless its China-based owner sells its stake in the business.
Champagne’s office has maintained Canada’s review was not related to the U.S. bill, which has yet to pass.
Canada’s review was carried out through the Investment Canada Act, which allows the government to investigate any foreign investment with potential to might harm national security.
While cabinet can make investors sell parts of the business or shares, Champagne has said the act doesn’t allow him to disclose details of the review.
Wednesday’s dissolution order was made in accordance with the act.
The federal government banned TikTok from its mobile devices in February 2023 following the launch of an investigation into the company by federal and provincial privacy commissioners.
— With files from Anja Karadeglija in Ottawa
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
LONDON (AP) — Most people have accumulated a pile of data — selfies, emails, videos and more — on their social media and digital accounts over their lifetimes. What happens to it when we die?
It’s wise to draft a will spelling out who inherits your physical assets after you’re gone, but don’t forget to take care of your digital estate too. Friends and family might treasure files and posts you’ve left behind, but they could get lost in digital purgatory after you pass away unless you take some simple steps.
Here’s how you can prepare your digital life for your survivors:
Apple
The iPhone maker lets you nominate a “ legacy contact ” who can access your Apple account’s data after you die. The company says it’s a secure way to give trusted people access to photos, files and messages. To set it up you’ll need an Apple device with a fairly recent operating system — iPhones and iPads need iOS or iPadOS 15.2 and MacBooks needs macOS Monterey 12.1.
For iPhones, go to settings, tap Sign-in & Security and then Legacy Contact. You can name one or more people, and they don’t need an Apple ID or device.
You’ll have to share an access key with your contact. It can be a digital version sent electronically, or you can print a copy or save it as a screenshot or PDF.
Take note that there are some types of files you won’t be able to pass on — including digital rights-protected music, movies and passwords stored in Apple’s password manager. Legacy contacts can only access a deceased user’s account for three years before Apple deletes the account.
Google
Google takes a different approach with its Inactive Account Manager, which allows you to share your data with someone if it notices that you’ve stopped using your account.
When setting it up, you need to decide how long Google should wait — from three to 18 months — before considering your account inactive. Once that time is up, Google can notify up to 10 people.
You can write a message informing them you’ve stopped using the account, and, optionally, include a link to download your data. You can choose what types of data they can access — including emails, photos, calendar entries and YouTube videos.
There’s also an option to automatically delete your account after three months of inactivity, so your contacts will have to download any data before that deadline.
Facebook and Instagram
Some social media platforms can preserve accounts for people who have died so that friends and family can honor their memories.
When users of Facebook or Instagram die, parent company Meta says it can memorialize the account if it gets a “valid request” from a friend or family member. Requests can be submitted through an online form.
The social media company strongly recommends Facebook users add a legacy contact to look after their memorial accounts. Legacy contacts can do things like respond to new friend requests and update pinned posts, but they can’t read private messages or remove or alter previous posts. You can only choose one person, who also has to have a Facebook account.
You can also ask Facebook or Instagram to delete a deceased user’s account if you’re a close family member or an executor. You’ll need to send in documents like a death certificate.
TikTok
The video-sharing platform says that if a user has died, people can submit a request to memorialize the account through the settings menu. Go to the Report a Problem section, then Account and profile, then Manage account, where you can report a deceased user.
Once an account has been memorialized, it will be labeled “Remembering.” No one will be able to log into the account, which prevents anyone from editing the profile or using the account to post new content or send messages.
X
It’s not possible to nominate a legacy contact on Elon Musk’s social media site. But family members or an authorized person can submit a request to deactivate a deceased user’s account.
Passwords
Besides the major online services, you’ll probably have dozens if not hundreds of other digital accounts that your survivors might need to access. You could just write all your login credentials down in a notebook and put it somewhere safe. But making a physical copy presents its own vulnerabilities. What if you lose track of it? What if someone finds it?
Instead, consider a password manager that has an emergency access feature. Password managers are digital vaults that you can use to store all your credentials. Some, like Keeper,Bitwarden and NordPass, allow users to nominate one or more trusted contacts who can access their keys in case of an emergency such as a death.
But there are a few catches: Those contacts also need to use the same password manager and you might have to pay for the service.
___
Is there a tech challenge you need help figuring out? Write to us at onetechtip@ap.org with your questions.
LONDON (AP) — Britain’s competition watchdog said Thursday it’s opening a formal investigation into Google’s partnership with artificial intelligence startup Anthropic.
The Competition and Markets Authority said it has “sufficient information” to launch an initial probe after it sought input earlier this year on whether the deal would stifle competition.
The CMA has until Dec. 19 to decide whether to approve the deal or escalate its investigation.
“Google is committed to building the most open and innovative AI ecosystem in the world,” the company said. “Anthropic is free to use multiple cloud providers and does, and we don’t demand exclusive tech rights.”
San Francisco-based Anthropic was founded in 2021 by siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei, who previously worked at ChatGPT maker OpenAI. The company has focused on increasing the safety and reliability of AI models. Google reportedly agreed last year to make a multibillion-dollar investment in Anthropic, which has a popular chatbot named Claude.
Anthropic said it’s cooperating with the regulator and will provide “the complete picture about Google’s investment and our commercial collaboration.”
“We are an independent company and none of our strategic partnerships or investor relationships diminish the independence of our corporate governance or our freedom to partner with others,” it said in a statement.
The U.K. regulator has been scrutinizing a raft of AI deals as investment money floods into the industry to capitalize on the artificial intelligence boom. Last month it cleared Anthropic’s $4 billion deal with Amazon and it has also signed off on Microsoft’s deals with two other AI startups, Inflection and Mistral.
