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Where the choice happens
The decision is the climax of Shadowheart’s “Daughter of Darkness” quest in Act Three. You’ll find Arnell and Emmeline Hallowleaf in the Chamber of Loss beneath the House of Grief in Baldur’s Gate’s Lower City. The outcomes described below depend on whether Shadowheart follows Selûne or Shar.
What happens if Shadowheart’s parents die or survive?
| Choice on the Selûnite route | What happens | Consequence |
|---|---|---|
| Let Arnell and Emmeline die | Shadowheart turns them into moonmotes and entrusts their spirits to Selûne. | Shadowheart is freed from Shar’s influence and curse; her parents die. |
| Save Arnell and Emmeline | They live and can appear in a camp scene after a long rest. | Shadowheart continues to bear Shar’s curse and the pain associated with it. |
Neither option avoids a cost: saving her parents preserves their lives, while letting them go ends Shadowheart’s suffering from Shar’s curse. The choice is about which consequence you prefer, not a mechanically consequence-free solution.
How to get Shadowheart to save her parents
Persuade her yourself
On the Selûnite route, pass a DC 20 Religion or Persuasion check to convince Shadowheart to save Arnell and Emmeline. GameSpot identifies the dialogue option “Do not lose your parents, not again” as leading to one of those checks: GameSpot’s Shadowheart parents walkthrough.
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Give her the chance to choose independently
The BG3 Wiki quest reference says Shadowheart can choose to save them on her own if she has at least 50 approval and you have triggered at least two of these three Act Three memories:
- Examine the gravestone of Allister Marnley in the graveyard.
- Find the graffiti behind a billboard near the Baldur’s Gate waypoint.
- Visit the Night Orchid cave in the Cloister of Sombre Embrace.
Triggering the graffiti memory also leads to an additional conversation about the city’s smells. The quest reference says that “This is your choice” and “Remain silent” lead to the parents’ deaths in the scene it describes. These reported dialogue outcomes come from that quest reference and a walkthrough, rather than a fresh test across every possible campaign state.
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How the Shar route changes the decision
If Shadowheart rejected Shar and follows Selûne, Shar presents the parents’ fate as a final lesson, while Arnell asks Shadowheart to free herself. If Shadowheart is a Dark Justiciar, the scene changes: Shar restores her memories of her parents and demands that she kill them as her final test. The BG3 Wiki quest reference says that, in this branch, killing them leads to Shadowheart taking Shar’s mantle and leading her church. The Selûnite persuasion check and its choice framing should not be assumed to apply to this route.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Which choice should you make?
- Choose their deaths if Shadowheart’s freedom from Shar’s influence and curse matters more to you than keeping Arnell and Emmeline alive.
- Save them if you want Shadowheart’s parents to survive and accept that she continues to bear the curse and its pain.
- Let Shadowheart decide if you want an independent choice on the Selûnite route; build approval and trigger at least two of the three Act Three memories before the scene.
- Account for her route before choosing: the Dark Justiciar scene is framed as Shar’s demand, not the Selûnite trade-off.
The quest outcomes and thresholds above are described by the BG3 Wiki’s “Daughter of Darkness” quest reference and the GameSpot walkthrough. They do not establish a single canonically correct choice.
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