Upon reaching the Lower City gates in Baldur’s Gate 3, the story accelerates, and presents you with an early choice: Side with Lord Gortash or not. This guide assesses whether Gortash is a preferable ally over Orin or if disregarding both proves the wiser decision.
How to Reach Lower City and Find Gortash
Gortash will be awaiting your arrival to Baldur’s Gate at Wrym’s Crossing in Rivington, right by the gates of the Lower City. But it just so happens that the bridge to Wrym’s Crossing has been raised and the Rivington guards won’t let you through unless you can show them a pass to enter the city. There are two ways to get that pass:
- Complete the Open Hand Temple Murder Investigation, then report your findings to Valeria at the Sharess Caress.
- Find and investigate the Suspicious Toys in Arfur’s basement, then confront Arfur at the Sharess Caress.
These two options require completing lengthy but worthwhile quests, but if you’re in a rush, you do have one more option: get yourself thrown in jail by a guard. If you get caught stealing, assaulting someone, or hanging around a place you shouldn’t be, then you can choose to let a guard take you away and place you in a cell in Wyrm’s Rock Prison. You’ll have to then picklock your way out of your cell and sneak past some guards, but this will put you squarely in front of Gortash’s coronation past the raised bridge at Wrym’s Crossing. And it takes all of two minutes.
However, if petty crime isn’t your way, take a look at our guide on how to enter the Lower City for more information on your other two quest options.
Should You Trust Lord Gortash in Baldur’s Gate 3?
The short answer is yes, we would trust Lord Gortash for the time being and join him as an ally in the fight against Orin. You will encounter Gortash before Orin or the Elder Brain in the Lower City of Baldur’s Gate 3, and it just happens to be during his coronation from the Duke. That means he has more power than you might imagine.
What Happens if You Side with Gortash
Nearly all of the Flaming Fist Guards and the Steel Watchers are under the control of Lord Gortash. If you side with him, then they will ignore you unless they are provoked. This gives you tons of freedom around the city, and compared to Orin, he is far more stable.
Remember that you can always completely betray these characters as well. So after you have what you need against the Elder Brain, you can simply turn against Gortash as well. This makes the alliance completely situational with plenty of benefits.
If you do side with Gortash, he’ll want you to kill Orin and take her Netherstone for him. Once you have Orin’s Netherstone, you can betray him here by instigating a battle with him in his chambers on the top floor of Wrym’s Rock Fortress, but you can also convince him to enter an alliance while holding onto the two Netherstones yourself. If you enter an alliance, you’ll need to take him with you when you confront the Elder Brain in order to make use of his third Netherstone.
What Happens if You Kill Gortash
You can try killing Gortash when you first meet up with him at his coronation, but it probably won’t go very well for you. He has an army of sentries that will immediately attack you all throughout the fortress, and worse yet, he has at least ten mechanized Steel Watch guards in the room that will undoubtedly be your demise. Chances are, if you decide to kill Gortash at his coronation, you won’t be getting out alive.
So with that in mind, you’ll likely want to at least consider Gortash’s alliance and postpone his death for a later time. We highly recommend dismantling the Steel Watch Foundry first before tackling him. This will get rid of the Steel Watch guards and make Gortash much more of a push over should you confront him in his private chambers.
To get to Gortash in his private chambers (while skipping the audience room fight) start from the main floor of the Fortress go to the Armory which has the staircase to the prison. In this dead end you’ll find a lever that gets you to the outside of the Fortress. Simply follow it around and you’ll eventually end up on the outside of the main floor of the audience chamber. Enter and head right, jump or fly up the scaffolding and you’ll get to the second floor where Gortash will be. If you go even higher you’ll find some dead cultists with interesting loot.
Befire you engage Gortash we highly recommend using a party member with force or lightning attacks to destroy all the turrets and force curtains, which provide boosts to Gortash.
The Gortash boss fight in Baldur’s Gate 3 is a challenging encounter within the chamber filled with traps and lieutenants. The contraptions on the walls apply a shield to Gortash, but you can deplete his HP gradually. Periodically, bombs are tossed near your characters, and while you should use them to your advantage, be cautious of their explosive radius, which can harm both allies and enemies.
Gortash’s empowerment by Bane brings additional challenges, including manifestations of tyranny that buff Gortash’s damage and a formidable Hand of Shadow that inflicts damage in its radius. Mastering the art of picking up and strategically throwing bombs is crucial to success. With a bit of luck and careful maneuvering, you can emerge victorious and claim valuable rewards, including Gortash’s Fabricated Arbalest, and the Netherstone-Studded Gauntlet with force damage and spell save DC bonuses.
Once Gortash is dead, you can pluck the Netherstone from his gauntlets which you’ll want to loot from his dead body. If you haven’t yet dealt with Orin, this will make her quite pleased, and you can then handle her however you wish. But if you have already dealt with Orin, then that’ll make three Netherstones, and you can finally confront the Elder Brain.
Should You Join Orin in Baldur’s Gate 3?
Orin has far less influence around the city and she relies far more on her doppelganger assassins. Joining her can alleviate some of the attacks against you, but it’s not as useful as what Lord Gortash offers. For that reason, we would completely push her to the side and even kill her before tackling any of the other major players.
What Happens if You Side with Orin
Out of all the options, actually helping Orin would be the most devastating. She plans to wipe out half of Baldur’s Gate and she cares for nothing aside from assassination. Letting Bhaal get the upper hand is the last thing everyone needs in BG3.
Putting her intents aside, siding with Orin won’t actually do you much good. She’ll want you to kill Gortash for her, bring her his Netherstone, then duke it out with her proper. Yes, you’ll still be forced to kill Orin even if you side with her. The only benefit this provides is a guarantee that she won’t kill your kidnapped companion, but it’s truly not all that hard to keep your companion alive even if you don’t side with her.
What Happens if You Kill Orin
You’ll be killing Orin in BG3 no matter what you decide. This will free your kidnapped companion if Orin got around to kidnapping someone from you camp, and you’ll then be able to pluck the Netherstone from her dagger. With her Netherstone in hand you can either return to Gortash and confront the Elder Brain with or without him, or just go straight to the Elder Brain if you’ve already dealt with Gortash. Either way, killing Orin is a necessary evil (read: necessary good) and will only progress the game further for you.
But BG3’s Gortash and Orin aren’t the only evil characters that want an alliance. Find out if you should side with Raphael in Baldur’s Gate 3 before you trust another devil.
