The Stop the Presses quest in Baldur’s Gate 3 becomes available once you reach the Lower City of Baldur’s Gate. Here you’ll find a woman named Estra Stir, a journalist working for the Baldur’s Mouth Gazette, a typical rag of a newspaper which primarily seeks to incite controversy and… stir up hatred and resentment wherever possible. Why, you might ask? Because it sells. There isn’t necessarily a political agenda at play here, just the same old grubby moguls looking for ways to fatten their pockets at the expense of the good, regular folk of Baldur’s Gate. And now that you’re in the city, you’ve become a target. You’ll need to stop the print of tomorrow’s newspapers if you want to shut down the lies before they reach a reader’s eyes.

How to Begin the Stop the Presses Quest in BG3¶

It’s important to note that if you don’t find and speak with Estra Stir when you first reach the Lower City, the besmirching newspapers will be printed the next time you take a long rest, and you won’t be able to stop the spread of lies about you throughout the city. In truth, this doesn’t make too much of a difference in most cases, but you’ll find that a lot of people will have a negative perception of you, and you may even need to convince people to believe your side of the story before you can progress normally with their quests. So, although the consequences of failing to stop the print aren’t too severe, it’ll make your life easier if you do stop them, and give you an opportunity to earn a bit more XP while sticking it to the slimy newspaper editors in the process.

Where to Find Estra Stir in the Lower City¶

It’s difficult to miss Estra Stir once you know where to look for her. If you’re the kind of player who speaks to everyone and everything as you make your way through the game, you’ve probably already spoken to her at this point. However, if you missed her, all you need to do is go back to where you first entered the Lower City of Baldur’s Gate, near the Basilisk Gate waypoint as shown in the screenshot below. Estra Stir can be found just south of this waypoint, on the southern side of the gallows.

When you speak with Estra Stir, she’ll recognize you from the reception with Gortash. She’ll introduce herself as a journalist working for the Baldur’s Mouth Gazette, and you’ll have a few dialogue options which have no real impact on the outcome. The conversation leads to only one thing: you discover that the Baldur’s Mouth Gazette have written a hit piece about you, and it doesn’t sound good. If you want to stop the print of the newspaper before it’s distributed among the residents of Baldur’s Gate, you need to act quickly.

How to Stop the Presses in Baldur’s Mouth Gazette¶

The first thing you should do at this point is look for a Potion of Invisibility. You’ll need at least two of these if you want to succeed, or you can use the spell version if you have a character capable of casting it. If you don’t already have a couple of Potions of Invisibility on you, there are plenty of traders in the city who you might be able to purchase them from. Alternatively, you can actually find one on top of the Baldur’s Mouth Gazette, but you’ll need to do a bit of parkour (or flying) to reach it. Before you proceed, it’s best to use whatever character has the highest Athletics stat for the task of reaching the roof. For us, this was Lae’zel.

How to Get a Potion of Invisibility from the Roof of Baldur’s Mouth¶

When you’re ready, head directly west from where you first met Estra Stir. You’ll soon come across the Baldur’s Mouth Gazette building, but don’t go inside just yet. If you need a Potion of Invisibility, we’ll show you how to get one from a secret cache hidden on the roof of the building. To reach it, you may need to use potions or spells which improve your jumping capabilities. If you don’t have these, you can use Misty Step or a flying spell to reach the roof instead. In our case, we had enough strength with Lae’zel to reach the roof without needing to use these.

Now that you’re ready to get on top of the roof, look for the small roof directly east of the Baldur’s Mouth Gazette, just southeast of the large tree in the courtyard outside. You need to jump onto this first, then look west to jump onto the part of the roof directly above the entrance, as shown in the screenshots below. You can now continue upwards and westwards until you reach the very top of the building, then walk to its western side to find a plank that is out of place. If you pass the perception check, your attention will be drawn to it automatically, but you can still loot it even if you fail.

Once you have a Potion of Invisibility, you should transfer it to whatever character has the best Sleight of Hand and Stealth stats. For us, this was Astarion. You should also separate them from your party so that they can infiltrate Baldur’s Mouth alone. If this is the same character that you were able to get on the roof with, you can get into the relevant part of the building without coming down by breaking through a barricade on the southeastern side of the roof. If not, you can infiltrate it from the inside, and we’ll show you how this is done below.

How to Infiltrate the Baldur’s Mouth Gazette Printing Room¶

Before proceeding, we strongly recommend making a manual save here. There are some variables which can cause you to fail in replacing the article in the printing room, so you may need to repeat the process a couple of times.

It doesn’t really matter which way you enter the basement of the Baldur’s Mouth Gazette, where the printing room is located. You’ll need to use one of the invisibility potions (or a spell) as you do it either way. You’ll be in the relevant room where the elevator is with a lever in it if you jumped down from the barricaded entrance on the roof. If you’re entering from the main entrance, just turn left (south) once you’re inside. You’ll see an NPC named Guard Vlomina at the entrance to the elevator here. You’ll have a tough time hiding from them, even if you have a high stealth stat.

To use the lever which lowers the elevator, you’ll need to use the invisibility potion first. If you try without it, even while hiding, the guards will notice and break you out of the animation. The key thing to note here is that as soon as you use the invisibility potion, the clock will start ticking on its expiration. You need to get to the printing room below before it expires, or risk being seen (and probably killed) by the Steel Watch guards which are patrolling the area.

After using either an invisibility potion or spell, you should quickly interact with the nearby lever to enter the basement area of the Baldur’s Mouth Gazette. From here, turn right (west) as soon as you’re at the bottom, then right (north) again and go to the end of the hallway. You’ll notice some Steel Watchers here, but they shouldn’t be able to detect you so long as the potion or spell of invisibility is active. At the end of the hallway, turn left (west) then left (south) again. You need to reach the end of this hallway and open the doors to get inside the room where the Printing Press machine is located. To ensure that the Steel Watchers can’t see you, close the doors behind you.

Where to Find the Wolves in Sheeps’ Clothing Article¶

As you interact with the Printing Press machine, you’ll soon realize that it’s a pixie, able to speak just like Dolly Dolly Dolly from the Moonlantern in the Shadowlands. If you freed her there, this machine will be on your side automatically. If not, you may need to persuade or bribe it first. Either way, it’s not too difficult to get the machine to spit out the article that it had been printing about you, but you’ll need to find another article to replace it with.

One such article is called Wolves in Sheeps’ Clothing, and it can be found in a cabinet on the southeastern side of the room. Pick it up and speak with the Printing Press machine again. You need to tell it that you have an article replacement, insert it from your inventory, and it’ll start printing it right away. All you need to do from this point is get back to the main entrance of the Baldur’s Gate Gazette, which is where the second invisibility potion / spell comes into play. You won’t be able to fast travel out of here, so just go back the way you came up the elevator while remaining invisible.

You may notice a few other rooms down here in the basement. You can explore them if you have enough invisibility potions / spells, but don’t worry if not. There isn’t much worth finding in them anyway. Once you’re back in the streets of the Lower City, you can do whatever you want for the rest of the day. After your next Long Rest, the quest will update, confirming that you’ve successfully changed the story from the hit piece that was set to be published about you.

Where to Find the Cutest Cat You’ve Ever Seen Article¶

If you’d rather see a different article published in the paper, you’ll find another one named “Cutest Cat You’ve Ever Seen” located in the room directly opposite where the Printing Press machine is. You’ll need an extra invisibility potion / spell to reach this room and take the article, so it’s a more difficult option. This is compounded by the fact that when you interact with the article while invisible, your invisibility state will be broken. For this reason it’s best to go for this article from the beginning, as you first descend down the elevator, rather than once you’re in the Printing Press room. Just make sure you have that extra potion or spell so that you’re not detected.

If you got the Cutest Cat You’ve Ever Seen article but you don’t have any extra invisibility potion / spell, you can try to escape the basement using Dash as you avoid the Steel Watchers. You need to reach the lever for the elevator again to escape their clutches. Alternatively, if you die to them you can select one of your other characters, go to camp to prepare for a Long Rest, and speak to Withers to revive your deceased character before doing so.

To confirm that the article you used resulted in a more positive outcome the next day, go back to Estra Stir and speak with her. She’ll offer her condolences if it failed, but this should only happen if you get the bug mentioned above. There are other ways to complete this quest without sneaking in and changing the article, but it involves speaking with the main editor, Ettvard Needle, who can be found in the main room of the Baldur’s Mouth Gazette. He will be hostile regardless of your dialogue choices, and the interaction can only result in you being thrown out, or you fighting and killing everyone. This will be a tough fight, however, and not necessarily the best option if you’re playing a “good” playthrough.

More Baldur’s Gate 3 Guides¶

If you’re looking for more guides related to Act 3 quests, be sure to check the links below.

• Lorroakan or Nightsong in BG3
• Should You Take Raphael’s Deal or Not in Act 3 of BG3?
• Steel Watch Foundry Walkthrough in BG3: Boss Battle, Family Locations & More
• Sarin’s Skeleton Puzzle Walkthrough in BG3