Awaken Art Kulach in Baldur's Gate 3: How to Defeat Malus Torm

Art Kulah in Moon Towers territory.

In this guide, we'll look at how to awaken Art Kulach in Baldur's Gate 3, where to find the lute, and whether Malus Torm can be defeated through diplomacy.

Where to find Art Kulakh

Art Kulakh lies on the first floor of the Last Light tavern - lair harpers. Approach the patient and start a dialogue. You can study a man’s condition in several ways:

History.
Medicine.
Magic.
Thought detection.
Wisdom [KS - 14].

Success in one of the checks activates the task "Awaken Art Kulah" On the bed next to the poor fellow lies a letter with an order to study the Lunar Towers and the surrounding areas of the desecrated lands.

Before starting the quest, make sure you have saved Goblin camps. Without the help of the chief druid of the Emerald Grove, you can help Art Kulakh and bring him out of his coma, but it will be impossible to continue the line of quests to dispel the Dark Curse.

Awaken Art Kulakh in Baldur's Gate 3: Walkthrough

To complete the quest “Awaken Art Kulakh”, solve the following tasks from the list in sequence:

Receive the Blessing of Selune from Isobel at the Last Light tavern.
Go with the harpers for Moon Lantern, to protect against a particularly powerful Dark Curse in the city center. Take the lantern from the drow Karniss.
Go to the Healing House.
Kill Malus Torm and take the Tattered Lute from his body.
Wake up Art Kulakh with the melody of the lute.

Next, we will look in detail at how to wake up Art Kulakh.

We tell you how to completely protect yourself from the Dark Curse in the guide to Moon Towers.

Get to the House of Healing

To successfully get to the former hospital, get Blessing of Selune and find Moon Lantern. After finishing your preparations, go to the main entrance to the hospital (X: -179; Y: -17).

Search the House of Healing

Inside, chat with Sister Cinda at the front desk. “Get in line,” as the meticulous undead sister asks, otherwise she won’t leave behind.

We also recommend purchasing potions and supplies from Sister Lidwin after successfully ing the Sleight of Hand or Deception test [CS - 14]. If you have free coins, then pay attention to the following products in the range merchants:

Karabasan's poison - paralyzes and poisons the target. Affects undead in general, and Malus Torm in particular.
Greater Healing Potion - 5.

Malus Torm in Baldur's Gate 3 conducts practical classes in the operating room on the first floor. This room is located behind double oak doors, near which there is a wheelbarrow with a body in a bag. Open the door and prepare to witness the peculiarities of Malus Torm's surgical practice.

Defeat Malus Torm

There are 4 options for completing the dialogue with the would-be surgeon:

Make Malus kill himself, but spare the sisters.
Force first the sisters, and then Torm, to kill themselves.
Convince the sisters to kill each other and fight Malus in open battle.
Without understanding, attack them all.

In the first three cases, you will need to successfully checks with karmic dice in the dialogue.

How to Avoid a Fight

Shows up well in conversation Gale, especially with the Hypnotic Gaze spell, which allows you to make checks by rolling 2 dice at once. To get rid of enemies without fighting, choose the following lines in sequence:

"I do not want to study; I just want to remove the curse from this land.”
Investigation [KS - 14]: “Consider the sisters and their instruments.” At this fork, you can choose alternative checks for Religion and Belief - the result will be identical.

Malus Torm will agree with the hero's hint that the sisters' surgical skills leave much to be desired. Offer him a solution to the problem by choosing one of the remarks:

Conviction [KS - 21]: “Long years of study have inspired me that there is no better mentor than experience. Perhaps they should practice on you?” Successful persuasion will kill Malus, and the sisters will go about their business, completely neutral towards the heroes.
Conviction [KS - 21]: “Why don’t they practice on each other?” This belief will kill the sisters. Next you can select Deception [KS - 21]: “My magic blinded me. Now I see that the Ball is the only way. I beg you, show it to me." Success will kill Malus.

Thus, you can get rid of Malus Torm in Baldurs Gate 3 without resorting to battle. Don't forget to inspect fallen enemies for valuables.

Kill in battle

One of the heroes will have to constantly hold the Moon Lantern during the battle to maintain protection from the Dark Curse. We recommend asg this role to Gale or Shadowheart: the lantern will not greatly reduce their combat effectiveness compared to other characters.

If you decide to go head-on, be prepared for a serious rebuff from Malus: the boss’s health on “Tactics” is 358. We recommend getting rid of at least the nurses during the dialogues: their on the battlefield significantly complicates the battle. If none of the checks are successful, then follow the following recommendations for neutralizing the nurses and Malus.

Destroy the nurses

Malus will request surgical instruments from the sisters. The assistant who receives the request will receive the status “Surgeon's Chosen One.” If she successfully transfers the tool to Malus, the power of his next attack will increase significantly. For example, if on the “Tactics” difficulty Malus gets a saw, then his next blow will deal about 45-60 damage and can kill even a tough hero with full health. The sisters also have a nasty AoE attack called “Mind Shriek,” which does knockback and confusion, and can heal the head doctor.

At the beginning of the battle, focus the main damage on the sisters, in particular on those who have the status of “Surgeon’s Chosen.” Try to kill as many of Malus' allies as possible in a short time. Cutting him off from with surgical tools and healing will radically reduce the difficulty of the fight.

Even if all the sisters are killed, Malus can resurrect them. In this case, focus the fire on them again.

Defeat Malus Torm

Having laid down most of the nurses, turn your attention to Malus. Some key boss features:

Malus is resistant to fire and all types of physical damage, but reacts poorly to light, so the paladin's skills will be very useful in battle.
The boss can be poisoned and paralyzed: Karabasan's Poison applied to the weapon will help with this.
The Mad Surgeon is subject to blindness, which comes in handy since all of his attacks are physical.
Malus can be flattened and disorientated, so Laesel's combat skills "Sweep Attack" and "Stunning Strike" will effectively reduce the enemy's ability to dodge.

Pour in damage with your most powerful moves and 4th circle spells (by this stage of the age they will most likely already be unlocked). Actively use shock and radiant magic. A mace will be a great help the cloisters of Rosimorn: The active ability “Light of Lathander” hurts several enemies at once and blinds them for 1 turn.

If Malus never uses nursing tools in combat, earn the "Non-Invasive Procedure" achievement.

Wake up Art Kulakh using the lute

After sending the chief doctor to another world, examine his remains. Defeating Malus Torm in Baldurs Gate 3 gives the following rewards:

The Tattered Lute is a quest item. Her melody will wake up Art Kulakh.
Gold - 65.
Amulet of surgical conquest.
Key to Malus's office in the hospital.
Alchemical ingredients and supplies.

Return to the Last Light tavern, approach Art Kulakh and start a dialogue. Check for History [KS - 14] to identify the song the patient is humming. If successful, the line "Pull out Art's lute and start playing" will open. The Fire Fist will wake up and tell you how to rid the corrupted lands of the Dark Curse.

We hope this guide helped you awaken Art Kulach in Baldurs Gate 3 with the Tattered Lute. If you have any questions, ask them at comments to Article. Read other useful Baldur's Gate 3 guides in the appropriate section of the site.