Szarr Palace

Outside view of Szarr Palace

Upper City
Bloomridge Park	←	Szarr Palace	→	Devil's Fee
↓
Central Watch Tower

The Szarr Palace is a Location within the Upper City in Act Three of Baldur's Gate 3. It is the home of Cazador Szarr and explored in the quest  Investigate Cazador's Palace.

Accessing the Szarr Palace

Although being in the Upper City, the Szarr Palace only can be accessed from the Lower City by climbing stairs in the Central Watch Tower at the Lower City Central Wall Waypoint at X: -53 Y: -64.

The party must walk north on the wall and can then enter the Szare Palace South Tower door. If Astarion is in the party, he mentions, that the party can sneak inside through it.

Three  charmed guards are at the top of the ladder in the South Tower. They can be persuaded to let the party continue with  Intimidation or  Deception checks, with Astarion or Rogues getting Advantage on the  Deception check. Alternatively, casting  Calm Emotions on the guards cancels the charm effect and causes them to leave the area.

If Astarion is in the party, choosing him to start the dialogue with the charmed guards will result in them reacting to the party peacefully. They are astonished seeing the spawn outside the palace on the cusp of the ceremony beginning, and hurry him to participate.

If spoken to, several Giant Rats in this room warn the party, that many others have entered, but were later found dead from the "large hairy fangy ones".

The stairs lead to the door to the empty Upper Tower and the Szarr Palace ramparts, which Astarion calls out as suspicious. The party can enter the palace proper through the Szarr Palace door.

In the palace fast travelling and resting is not possible.

Locations

The map screen showing the ground floor of Szarr Palace.

Upper Floor

Directly across from the entrance, the party can find an  arcane locked Sinister Door which leads to the Ballroom. In order to enter, the party must find and collect the Kozakuran Dictionary and the Szarr Family Ring in the palace.

Chamberlain's Suite

Past a curtain and continuing east there is the Chamberlain's bedroom and an office. The office desk contains a Mysterious Elixir. In the corner of the two rooms is a secret room, which can be accessed through illusory walls situated both in the bedroom and office. In the secret room, the dead body of a werewolf named Lurianna Sauvage can be found along with the Chamberlain's Private Room Key.

Lower Floor

The lower floor of the Palace consists of a guest room in the south, the kennels, a dormitory and the favoured spawn bedchamber in the north-east corner.

Guest Room

In the southern bedroom is the cursed corpse of Victoria, Leon's young daughter. Approaching the corpse will afflict party members with  Vitality Drain, causing 4d6+4Necrotic per turn and halving movement speed. Casting  Remove Curse on Victoria's body ends the  Sapping Curse and make the room safe to traverse. It is also possible to use an Elixir of Necrotic Resistance to mitigate the damage. Alternatively, the party can use  Jump or  Fly to bypass the hazard entirely.

Inside the Mahogany Wardrobe near the bed is the Kozakuran Dictionary, which is needed to open the Sinister Door leading to the ballroom. In a locked chest in this room the party can find the Helmet of Grit.

Kennels

Behind a hidden door are the kennels, where the party can encounter the skeleton Godey. The party can either persuade or fight Godey to obtain the Szarr Family Ring required to open the Sinister Door.

Ballroom

After unlocking, the Sinister Door the party can enter a ballroom, which is guarded by Gheris Hhune and several werewolves, wolves, bats, and rats. They cannot be reasoned with and are always hostile.

There are three rooms connected to this ballroom, with the first two each containing a button which seals that room and opens the other one:

In the northeast corner, an open door leads to a room with a ladder to the attic. The button in this room opens the northwest corner room (but closes the door exiting the northeast corner room. So splitting the party is necessary while the nortwest corner room is investigated.

In the northwest corner is a dining room, where the Counting House Safe n°1 Key can be found in an opulent chest at X: -1308 Y: 1020. Underneath this opulent chest is a hidden locked trapdoor (unlocked by the Silver Key found in the attic area), which leads to a secret puzzle area.

In the southwest corner is an unlocked door, which leads Cazador's office and to a room with an elevator, which can be used to descend to  Cazador's Dungeon. There the  Investigate Cazador's Palace quest can be continued.

Secret puzzle area

The locked door in the first room in the puzzle area can be bypassed by placing items (for example the nearby metal crates) on the two pressure plates. There are four pressure plates in the following room, which are tied to noxious gas and flame traps; activating the four pressure plates locks the door behind the party and opens the door ahead. Beyond is another opulent chest, surrounded by traps, which contains some random loot and Dawsen Kiltmaker's Confession. To get out of this area the crates must be removed from the pressure plates to open the doors.

Attic

Accessible through a ladder in a side room in the north-eastern corner of the ballroom at X: -1262 Y: 1019. The attic contains several lore-related letters from Amanita Szarr.

There is a button in the first room that opens a secret door into several more rooms decked out as torture chambers. In the far NW corner of the attic, is another button.

Press this button twice to open another secret door to a treasure room. In the treasure room is pile of treasure comprised of miscellaneous items.

On the floor is a key conveniently called, Key to Cazador's Dungeon. The door to the treasure room closes a few seconds after you press the button. There is button inside the treasure room that needs to be pressed twice to get out of the room.

Along the southern wall of the Attic, near the western end are two stacked boxes concealing a button that opens another secret door into yet another area that looks like a barn, which has a ladder to another level with a wooden chest. The chest contains a pouch with the Silver Key used to open the hatch in the rooms below, some coin and a hand drum.

Related locations

•  Cazador's Dungeon

Related quests

•  Investigate Cazador's Palace
•  The Pale Elf

Notable loot

Notable items obtained in this location, whether looted, purchased, or obtained as a quest reward:

• Chamberlain's Private Room Key
• Counting House Safe n°1 Key - in a hidden room off the ballroom, in an opulent chest X: -1308 Y: 1020
• Helmet of Grit - in the guest room, in a locked ornate chest
• Silver Key - in the attic, in a wooden chest X: -738 Y: 1063
• Szarr Family Ring

Literature

• Kozakuran Dictionary - in the guest room, inside a mahogany wardrobe next to the bed X: -1291 Y: 957
• Sheet Music (Szarr Palace) - in the ballroom, at the piano X: -1269 Y: 1002

Notable characters

• Gheris Hhune
• Godey

Notes

• The secret area in the ballroom used to have a puzzle with levers which nobody was able to solve. The patch notes of Patch #5 may refer to this puzzle: "Fixed the puzzle in Cazador's Palace." This was changed later by removing the levers and implementing a series of pressure plates. With a later Patch the chest within the room got more items.
• Casting  Calm Emotions on the charmed guards frees them from their mental enslavement and causes them to leave the area.
• If Astarion is in the party, he gains a status called  Curse of the Sired for the duration of his stay in the Palace. Curse of the Sired gives Astarion disadvantage on all saving throws "while in a place of trauma". The condition can be overwritten by the Sweet Stone Features condition gained from the True Hero of Baldur's Gate statue as long as it is Astarion who is depicted by the statue. Astarion in this case suffers no penalty from Curse of the Sired and gets to keep the benefits of Sweet Stone Features even while in the Palace.