Lower Reaches - Baldur's Gate II

This guide will walk you through the Lower Reaches in the Temple District Sewers of the city of Athkatla in Baldur’s Gate II. This area’s code in the game files is AR0204.

baldurs gate 2 map cult compound lower reaches — Map of the Lower Reaches

Note: The Cult Compound walkthrough can be found on its own page.

9 – Face

If you examine the face carved into the rock here, then you’ll summon two sword spiders and a wandering horror (worth 9000 xp total). You can repeat this as many times as you’d like. If you loot the (trapped) nose of the face, then you’ll find some spell scrolls.

10 – Rift

To cross the rift here, you’ll have to climb up onto the broken bridge and interact with its roof. This will cause a guardian to ask you three questions. The answers are “life,” “time,” and “the current one.” When you get the answers right, the bridge will repair itself — enough for you to cross it anyway — and you’ll earn 42,250 xp. If you get an answer wrong, then you’ll have to fight a greater ghoul (for missing the first question), a skeleton warrior (for missing the second question), or a greater mummy (for missing the third question). You won’t earn any xp for defeating the wrong answer creatures.

In one of the “windows” in the bridge structure, you’ll either find Ashideena +2 (Enhanced Edition only, if you didn’t import it) or a War Hammer +2 (otherwise).

11 – Beholders

You’ll encounter a group of beholders here. The exact composition of the group will depend on your level, but it will always contain some combination of beholders (worth 14,000 xp) and gauths (worth 9000 xp). Some nearby shadows and shadow fiends might join in the fight as well.

12 – Temple

Outside this temple, you’ll meet several diseased ones. However, when you talk to them, they won’t remember — or perhaps care — who they are, what they’re guarding, or who they’re guarding it for. You can save these souls from their never-ending fate by completing the Avatar’s quest (see below).

Inside the temple, you’ll run into an Empathic Manifestation. It’ll be hostile and badly wounded, but when you attack it, it’ll just tell you that it feeds on hate and suffering, and it won’t die. So to kill the manifestation — at least temporarily — you’ll have to heal it. If you don’t have a character with a healing spell memorized, then you can grab a scroll of Cure Serious Wounds from the altar in the back of the temple, and use it on the manifestation.

When the manifestation goes down, an Avatar will appear in the temple. From talking to him, you’ll learn that he’s what remains of a forgotten god, and that all he wants to do at this point is end his existence. To that end, he’ll give you a Rift Device Part, and he’ll ask you to combine it with the Rift Device Part held by the Unseeing Eye (in the Pit of the Faithless), and to bring the re-assembled Rift Device back to him so he can destroy it — and end the watch of him and his followers, the diseased ones. This conversation will earn you 25,750 xp.

When you return to the temple with the Rift Device, you’ll need to talk to the diseased one by the entrance. No matter what you say to him, you’ll encourage him to believe in his god again, which will give the Avatar enough power to destroy the device. This will allow the Avatar (who you’ll discover is Amaunator) and his followers to ascend to the Keep of the Eternal Sun. For your reward, you’ll receive the medium shield Saving Grace +3 plus 47,250 xp.