Not everything in Baldur’s Gate is entirely true, and you might learn this while reading Baldur’s Mouth as you’re exploring Baldur’s Gate 3. The city’s newspaper likes to embellish some details, especially if a story is particularly good. During the final act of Baldur’s Gate 3, there’s a character named Estra Stir who you can speak with, and it turns out she’s a journalist for the Baldur’s Mouth.
She tells your character that you’re going to be the headline of the next edition and is excited for everyone to read about you. Unfortunately, she won’t exactly say what type of details she’s put into the paper and is eager for you to read it. You’ll have a chance to see it for yourself and make some adjustments in the Stop the Presses quest. Here’s what you need to know about how to complete Stop the Presses in Baldur’s Gate 3.
Where to Find The Baldur’s Mouth Editor in Baldur’s Gate 3
You can acquire this quest at the front gate of Baldur’s Gate, lower cities, to the southeast of Basilisk Gate. You’ll find the woman who gives you this quest, Estra Stir, standing next to a News Hawker, and you can speak with her. She does not have a quest indicator above her head, making her difficult to track down in Baldur’s Gate 3, but after you speak with her, you’ll start the Stop the Presses quest.
Your first task is to make your way over to the Baldur’s Mouth building, which is not too far away from your current position. You can find it to the east of your current position, and you’ll want to speak with the Baldur’s Mouth editor. The editor you need to find is Ettvard Needle, and you can find him on the ground floor of the Baldur’s Mouth Gazette, in the center of the room.
Because my character was a Monk and Rogue class, I had two specific options where I could formally request Needle to stop posting the article about my character in Baldur’s Mouth. When asking this, it turns out Needle was told that my character had been bringing unlawful Refugees to Baldur’s Gate, which is not something my character did throughout the Baldur’s Gate 3 campaign. Thankfully, Needle did share that all of the copies were down in the Baldur’s Mouth basement, but my party was escorted outside. We had the chance to fight, but I’d much rather complete this quest without bloodshed, if possible.
How to Get Into Baldur’s Mouth Basement in Baldur’s Gate 3
After speaking with Needle, and being thrown out of the Baldur’s Mouth, the next step is to try sneaking into the basement where all the stories are being held. There are several ways to do this, Baldur’s Gate 3, and one of the more straightforward methods to do this is by fighting your way through the building to reach the basement. However, that doesn’t look too good for your character, which is why I recommend sneaking into this area. If you do fight, make sure to switch to Non-Lethal Attacks to avoid killing innocents.
For anyone who struggles with sneaking, I would recommend separating your party so you can move one character at a time in your Baldur’s Gate 3 group. From here, have your sneakiest character with the highest Sleight of Hand take an Invisibility potion, and make your way down to the bottom floor where you can enter the basement.
With an Invisibility potion, no one should notice you. Although, if you don’t have this potion, what I did was I went outside the Baldur’s Mouth Gazette and went to the east side of the building. From there, I could reach the top of the building’s roof and drop down to the top floor.
You can reach the Baldur’s Mouth roof using a teleport spell like Misty Step or Dimension Door. Because my Monk is a Way of Shadow, all I had to do was find partial cover, and I could teleport onto the roof and jump down to the closed-off area, which made sneaking into the building a breeze. Once you’re inside, use another teleport spell to transport yourself to the Baldur’s Mouth basement door with your characters, and you’ll be ready to sneak into this area. You will need to pick the lock to the door to make it inside.
It is important to note that I started working on this mission after I completed Disable the Steel Watch. Because I had wrapped up this quest, all of the Steel Watchers that are normally monitoring the Baldur’s Mouth are no longer working in my Baldur’s Gate 3 campaign. This meant the Baldur’s Mouth basement was unguarded and made it much easier to sneak through here. Taking out the Steel Watch Foundry might be a good idea if you’d rather not deal with the Steel Watch.
How to Create a New Headline Article in Baldur’s Gate 3
When you reach the end of the basement, you’ll discover the printing press creating the many Baldur’s Mouth stories. The talking printing press will introduce itself to you and how Dolly has been talking about your character, which is someone you can save from the Iron Throne prison. As a kindness, the printing press offers to remove the previous headline that slanders your character and offers to make a new one, but you’ll need to put it together.
However, even after offering to do this, when I next interacted with the printer, another dialogue occurred as if I had never spoken to the printer before in my Baldur’s Gate 3 game. I then had the option to take out the top headline, which was slanderous to my character, and create a new one. My character had to pass a Deception check to convince the printer to work with them.
Now, you need to find the correct article headline to place in the paper. There are several headline tiles throughout the Baldur’s Mouth Basement, but many of them are reputation-shattering for you and your Baldur’s Gate 3 party. The one you want to track down is called Cutest Cat You’ve Ever Seen, which does not talk about your arrival at Baldur’s Gate. You can find it on the north side of the basement and then bring it back to the Printing Press for tomorrow’s paper.
How to Check the Next Edition of the Baldur’s Mouth in Baldur’s Gate 3
The next part of this quest is a waiting game. You’ll need to meet with your Baldur’s Gate 3 group, head back to camp, and take a Long Rest. By doing this, you’ll have the opportunity to speak with any of the News Hawkers in Baldur’s Gate to see what the latest edition of the Baldur’s Mouth looks like for your campaign, and now that you’ve placed in the correct headline, the news should not do anything negative for your party.
Immediately after the Long Rest, the Stop the Presses quest should wrap up, but you can speak with a News Hawker to see what the Baldur’s Mouth looks like. The big headline should talk about the most adorable cat that someone found in a sleep box and nothing at all mentioning your Baldur’s Gate 3 party.
