The Last Light Inn in Baldur’s Gate 3 is first encountered when you reach the Shadow-Cursed Lands (aka Shadowlands), during Act 2 of the main story. After you gain entry to the inn, Jaheira will ask you to speak with Isobel, a faithful !Cleric of Selune, who can be found upstairs in her chambers. As you speak with Isobel in the scene that follows, Flaming Fist Marcus will appear, with the intention of kidnapping her. On this page we’ll show you how to save Isobel from being kidnapped and taken to 
Moonrise Towers, and how to save as many other people in the inn as possible.
The gang looking a bit miffed at Flaming Fist Marcus’ appearance, Baldur’s Gate 3.
How to Save Isobel From Flaming Fist Marcus¶
The first thing you should do before speaking with Isobel at the Last Light Inn in the Shadowlands, is make a manual save. This is your best guarantee against things going wrong in the fight that follows, since it’s more than just Isobel that you can lose here. Make the save just before you speak with her, so you’ll have an easier time of restarting the fight if necessary.
When you first speak with Isobel, you’ll have the opportunity to question her about how she came to the inn, and how she’s protecting it with her magic. It won’t be long before Flaming Fist Marcus shows up, flying in from the sky with his newly acquired wings. He’s rather confident in his ability to just swoop in and take her away, and you’ll even have the option to aid him in doing so if you’re playing a particularly mean character, but that’s not the focus of this page.
In addition to the preparations noted above, you should also make sure that your party is well rested, preferably by giving them a Long Rest to recover hit points and spell slots. You should also give each of them some health potions, and make good use of potions which might enhance their abilities in combat, such as the Elixir of Arcane Cultivation for an additional spell slot, an Oil of Sharpness to increase damage and Attack Rolls.
Cast Buffs on Isobel¶
Whether you’ve placed one character on the first floor to help the others or not, your primary concern when it comes to Isobel is keeping her alive. Although Flaming Fist Marcus can’t kill her, if she falls to 0 HP he will be able to kidnap her, and there’s no way of stopping him at that point since it’s a scripted event. The only way to save Isobel is to keep her above 0 HP, and you can work towards doing this even before the fight begins, allowing you to maximize the amount of actions you’ll have in each turn.
One of the best buffs to cast on Isobel before the fight begins is 
Sanctuary. This will ensure that she can’t be hit first if Marcus wins the initiative roll, but it also means that she can’t attack first without breaking the spell. The chances that one of your characters will be able to attack before Isobel is high, and even better if Marcus has his turn before her. The best outcome from this is somewhat dependent on those initiative rolls, but it’s a free cast before combat that will prevent Isobel from potentially taking a lot of damage from the beginning.
(1 of 2) Casting Bless before the fight will save you using it as an action during it.
Casting Bless before the fight will save you using it as an action during it. (left), You can prepare before the fight by casting Glyph of Warding, or other trap spells. (right)
Another spell that you can cast before speaking with Isobel is 
Spirit Guardians. This has a wide area of effect, so Marcus is highly likely to enter the radius throughout the fight and take damage from it. It’s essentially free damage without having to use any actions. 
Glyph of Warding is another useful spell that can be put to good use here, but you’ll need to place it near the door to the balcony, which is where Marcus will enter the room from.
There are plenty of options for pre-combat spells here, and any such spell that will last for multiple turns can be used to great effect, such as 
Bless, 
Heroism, 
Blade Ward, 
Haste, and 
Bardic Inspiration. Use whatever you have which fits this bill, and you’ll be giving yourself an advantage before the fight even begins. Ideally, you should focus on casting protective spells on Isobel, but anything which inflicts free damage on Marcus is good too.
How to Defeat Marcus Quickly¶
Once you’ve prepared your party and Isobel for the fight to come with buffs, the next thing you need to consider is positioning. Ideally, you will fight Marcus within Isobel’s chambers, not on the balcony. This means that you should wait for Isobel to enter the chambers properly before speaking with her, and don’t do it on the balcony. If she doesn’t seem to be moving, just make sure that all of your characters are also on the balcony, so they don’t block each other with line of sight access to Marcus.
The main reason fighting further inside Isobel’s chambers is preferable, is so that you can reach the others being attacked by Winged Horrors on the first floor as quickly as possible. You’ll want to deal with Marcus first, but you will have less distance to run once he’s dead in this scenario. In terms of starting the fight, the initiative rolls will be different for each party, but you should focus on using debuffs which will make Marcus easier to hit at first. Any item or spell which inflicts damage over time is best used at the beginning of the fight, too.
(1 of 2) Make sure everyone is within striking distance of Marcus from the beginning of the fight.
Make sure everyone is within striking distance of Marcus from the beginning of the fight. (left), Some characters are domed from the start, but others you will need to help quickly, especially if they’re alone. (right)
It goes without saying that you should use your characters to the best of their abilities. This means allowing melee-based characters to attack with their melee weapons before their ranged weapons, where possible. You want to inflict as much damage to Marcus as possible early on, since he hits hard whenever his turn comes. He will also start the fight with temporary hit points, so you need to burn through these quickly before you really start to hurt him. Any high-damage attacks and spells should be prioritized, and this is why it’s important to be well rested before the fight.
How to Save Everyone in the Last Light Inn Attack¶
The exact strategy for defeating Marcus quickly will vary depending on the make up of your party, but you should be familiar with the best skills available to each member at this point, and it’s really just a matter of burning through his hit points while keeping Isobel alive. Use heals on her and your allies where necessary, and focus on damage output otherwise. You need to end Marcus quickly so that you can get downstairs an aid the others who are being attacked by Winged Horrors, but this is easier than it sounds, especially on the harder difficulties.
As mentioned above, one of the best ways to ensure that other people in the Last Light Inn don’t die during the attack, is to leave one of your characters on the first floor with them. This can be any character of your choosing, but ideally they will have a decent balance of damage output and support, such as a Cleric. Your main focus here is to heal anyone who needs it, and finish off the Winged Horrors before they can kill anyone. It’s a good idea to help any character which is further away from Jaheira initially, since she has the highest damage output of any character outside of your party here, so she can hold her own and help those nearby.
With that said, you may need to reload and retry this fight a few times if you want to save absolutely everyone in the inn. The Winged Horrors hit hard, and you may find it difficult to defeat Marcus before he takes Isobel if you leave only three characters up there against him. It’s still worth trying if you don’t want to lose anyone, though!
More Baldur’s Gate 3 Guides¶
If you’re looking for more guides related to Baldur’s Gate 3, including those related to Act 2 in the Shadowlands, be sure to check the links below!
Sign up
No Comments