I'm not really sure what an Umbral Gem is. I've been playing 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dungeons & Dragons for a while now, reading the books, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:writing adventures, even playing the spin-off games (both video and board), and I don't think I've ever heard of them. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Baldur's Gate 3 might have made them up. If that's the case, I wish they hadn't, because I just met them and now I hate them. You need to collect four to get through the Gauntlet of Shar, which should have been a high point for my Baldur's Gate 3 playthrough, but ended up being my least favourite part and the only bum note in the symphony of an RPG Larian has composed.
It's the one place in Baldur's Gate 3 where the game's design feels a little lacking. In its willingness to allow you to approach your problems in a variety of ways, you end up overloaded with freedom to the point where it feels like you're in this dungeon just because. The rest of the game feels like an adventure, a story, a legacy being written by your own hand. But this dungeon feels inorganic, like you’re here simply because it's a video game and this is the next level to clear.
It's a complicated place where a lot of quest lines intertwine, but it's more of the ragged knot a weary husband might attempt to tie around a Christmas present than an elegant bow or intricate sailor's knot. The first place where things start to feel disjointed is a room where a statue is protected by a forcefield. Add in dark smoke that blinds and causes cold damage from a trap that seemingly cannot clear once it is set off, and this room quickly becomes a thorn in your side. At least, it should. This room stops you from getting to the altar that explains the Gauntlet of Shar, but there's another door off to the side that lets you head through the dungeon another way, clambering across overgrown mushrooms.
From here you run into another quest, the main reason you're here, meeting Balthazar - but only after a tough battle that doesn't feel connected to your quest. He sets you on a journey to collect the Nightsong, which requires completing said Gauntlet of Shar, although the explanation for this is hard to follow. You then loop through the dungeon further, bypassing that room with the forcefield entirely, to get to the altar that sets up the gauntlet... except it's down a staircase away from the corridor, so I ignored it and ended up continuing on anyway.
The trials themselves are very inventive, and it's a shame that the narrative set up for them feels so convoluted. It would be one thing if it was a flimsy set-up, with Larian desperate to get these quests in there. But it's not, it's explicitly linked to the main quest and a crucial step in the journey, ending with one of the most vital choices you will make. In letting us play our own way, it's too easy to stumble around this dungeon into scenarios that the characters, expecting you to have followed it step by step in order, know far more about than they should - especially Shadowheart, a key player in this questline who seemingly has no dialogue responses for if you complete the journey out of order.
Once I had completed the three q༒uests, I found my way back to the altar, and interacted with it as if I was shocked by the idea of a Gauntlet, un♉sure I would be able to complete it. Shadowheart herself had her faith in herself shaken - was she dedicated to Shar enough? As soon as this chatter ended, I placed the Umbral Gem that I already had in my pocket. In doing this, I realised I needed four, even though there were just three trials. Ah, the forcefield! But of course!
I went back and solved the puzzle (there were levers that dropped lights, snuffing them lowers the forcefield) and then nothing happened. The podium said 'Umbral Gem', but nothing happened. A bug, perhaps? I reloaded a recent save and found myself failing every trap and dying over and over in the cold mist, but eventually was able to finish it again, when I realised all I had managed to do was open the door that I had not only already found the long way around, but also just traversed the long way back. There was a waypoint next to the door already. This room does nothing for anybody.
It turns out the fourth gem was connected to an unrelated quest for Raphael, in a different part of the dungeon I had somehow not yet been to. Although, because this quest feels like part of a video game and not a natural part of Baldur's Gate 3's storytelling, that's conveniently right next door.
Once I was done with this quest, I just wanted rid of the place. Everything I've done in Baldur's Gate 3 made me want to see more of it, but the Gauntlet of Shar is the only part where not only was I glad it was over, but I had wanted it to end much sooner. Goodbye Umbral Gems, if I never see you again it will be too soon.