Amkethran Monastery - Baldur's Gate II

This guide will walk you through Amkethran Monastery in the Throne of Bhaal expansion for Baldur’s Gate II. This area’s code in the game files is AR5505.

Amkethran Monastery Map

Balthazar

Exits:
A) Main entrance
B) Secret entrance

Overview

Entering the monastery — either from bluffing your way in with Saemon Havarian (Exit A) or sneaking in from the Cave of the Dead (Exit B) — will earn each character in your party 4000 xp. The monastery isn’t very big, so about all you’ll be able to do is head straight to the “throne room” and confront Balthazar.

When Balthazar (#1) sees you, he’ll start up a conversation. He’ll tell you that he only joined the Five so he could kill the other four Bhaalspawn and prevent Alaundo’s prophecy from coming true. He’ll also claim that Melissan lured the Five together, and that she wants them dead as well. Finally, he’ll decide that your continued existence poses too much of a threat to the world, and that you must die, too, just like all of the other Bhaalspawn. So without much in the way of surprise, your encounter with Balthazar will turn into a fight.

When the battle starts up, Balthazar will summon four monks (worth 10,000 xp each) and attack you. He’ll use a bunch of crazy monk abilities — like lunar stance (healing and protection), second wind (healing), shadowless kick (pushback and stunning), and solar stance (pushback and fire damage) — making him tough to defeat. So we’d recommend taking down the monks first and then ganging up on Balthazar with your entire party plus a bunch of summoned creatures, and overwhelming him with damage.

When Balthazar dies, each character in your party will earn 40,000 xp, and the Solar will once again summon you to the Pocket Plane. This time the Solar will reveal that Melissan is really Amelyssan the Blackhearted, High Matriarch and Deathstalker of Bhaal, and that she’s been collecting the essence from Bhaal’s dead children to make herself the new Lady of Murder. At the end of this lesson, the Solar will send you back to the monastery, and each character in your party will earn 10,000 xp.

When you loot the corpses from the battle, you won’t find anything interesting, unless you have a need for gems and gp.