Gain the services of Sir Sarles for the temple

Gain the services of Sir Sarles for the temple is a side-quest for Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn. It can be located in the Temple District of Athkatla. Once the player has started the Cult of the Eyeless quest, they can speak to the sub-priest of the temple that has hired them to receive this quest.
==Walkthrough==
The Temple of the Helm wishes to commission the services of the famed sculptor, Sir Sarles, to create a statue to glorify their temple, and sends the party to the Jysstev Estate in the Government District to persuade him. Enter the Jysstev Estate. Talk to the butler. Sir Sarles will be in the northernmost rooms after that. The arrogant sculptor refuses unless he is provided the medium of his choice: two hundred pounds of pure Illithium Ore. In pursuit of this, he sends them to Jerlia the Ore Merchant, who runs a stall in Waukeen's Promenade.
When talking to her, Jerlia explains that pure illithium is very rare and she only deals out 50 pounds of the ore each season herself. She offers to provide an Illithium Alloy for 200 gp instead, which she can do in a day. If the party is diplomatic, and sweetens the pot with more, she reveals that she buys her illithium from a Duergar trader, Unger Hilldark, who operates out of the Copper Coronet.
There are three routes to complete this quest:
* (1) getting and providing only the fake illithium, which prevents you from upgrading the Mace of Disruption.
* (2) getting and providing only the real illithium.
* (3) getting both the real and the fake ore, keeping the real illithium for yourself while giving the ersatz to Sir Sarles. In order to do it the third way, you must first convince Jerlia to tell you about her source of real illithium, and then inquire her about the alloy (fake).
===Obtaining fake illithium===
Telling Jerlia to create the Illithium Alloy prompts her to tell the party to return in a day. However, when they do, she explains that demand from other temples means she must increase the price she originally set, from the original 200 to a new 500. She must be paid this amount to hand over the Alloy.
Upon returning to Sir Sarles, however, it is unsatisfactory; Keldorn Firecam will admit the Alloy is fake if he is in the party, but even if he is not and you don't admit the truth, Sir Sarles still recognizes the Alloy is fake because it holds smears, something that doesn't happen to pure illithium. Outraged, he leaves Athkatla, forcing the party to return to their Temple and report the failure. However, the Temple's superior sees the Illithium Alloy and mistakes it as Sir Sarles' work, accepting it happily. The party is rewarded with for this route.
===Obtaining real illithium===
Speaking to Unger Hilldark has him reveal that he can't give you any illithium, as it was stolen from him by an evil demihuman named Neb. As Hilldark reveals, Neb is hidden inside a derelict house in the Bridge District. Upon finding him, he reveals himself as the child murderer from Baldur's Gate. An Evil Gorion's Ward can bargain with him to just give them the ore, but Minsc or Jaheira will force a confrontation. If you choose to fight Neb, he will use invisibility and summon 4 Child Spirits to attack you.  Neb's death rewards the party with , a lesser restoration spell cast on each party member (those spirits can cause level drain, but in the end everyone will be back to normal), and for each Child Spirit that survived the battle (while killing them only rewards per spirit). On his corpse is the Illithium Ore the party seeks, as well as Neb's Nasty Cutter and Neb's Head.
===Rewards===
*Taking Neb's Head to Chief Inspector Brega in the Council of Six Building in the Government District will reward the party and +1 Reputation.
*Giving the real Illithium Ore to Sir Sarles rewards the party with . Once the sculpture is completed, the temple rewards the party with another and .
*Giving the Illithium Alloy to Sir Sarles will fool him only for a moment. He will then realize what it is and, insulted, he will leave Athkatla. Upon reporting the failure at the temple, they will spot the alloy but mistake it for Sir Sarles' sculpture, happily accepting it as a worthy dedication to their god. The party will be rewarded with .
*The Illlithium can also be used to upgrade Mace of Disruption by taking both items to Cromwell.
*If the PC is not a cleric, (or is a cleric, but has not yet accepted the Cleric Stronghold quest), a default item is rewarded, based upon the temple that acquired your services:
**Temple of Lathander - Periapt of Life Protection
**Temple of Helm - Helm of the Noble
***The helm is the only possible reward for a non-Cleric PC.
**Temple of Talos - Ardulia's Fall
*A cleric PC who has accepted the Cleric Stronghold quest can choose the item rewarded:
**Honorary Ring of Sune - 1 extra spell per day of 2nd, 3rd & 4th Level
**Splint Mail Armor of Faith +3 - Base AC 0, -1 Saves Bonus, 15 Weight, Min. Strength 8 (vs Full Plate Mail, 70lbs, 15 Str)
**Staff Spear +2 - 1d8+3 (piercing), Quarterstaff proficiency, Speed Factor 4
==Mod content==
Unfinished Business for BG2 adds the "Extended Illithium Quest" which provides an alternative path to complete the quest. You must first rescue Unger Hilldark's brother from the Temple Ruins in the Umar Hills to find how to obtain the real illithium. Still, if you can kill Neb, you can take the ore for yourself.
=== Gallery ===
:Portraits from Portraits Portraits Everywhere
SCSARLES.jpg|Sir Sarles, in the Jysstev Estate.
SCSAIN.jpg|Dawnbringer Sain, Temple of Lathander.
SCTELWYN.jpg|Guardian Telwyn, Temple of Helm.
SCYARRYL.jpg|Talon Yarryl, Temple of Talos.
SCJERLIA.jpg|Jerlia, Ore Merchant in Waukeen's Promenade.
SCDUR.jpg|Unger Hilldark, in the Copper Coronet.
NEB.jpg|Neb, Hiding from view somewhere in the Bridge District.
GORJE.jpg|"By Abbathor's unwashed arse! Who in the name o' all the Hells are ye?" — Gorje Hilldark, added with Unfinished Business
==Player exploits regarding Sir Sarles==
Below are some dubious roleplay and immersion twisting pursuits that can be tried to circumvent the quest's intended reward and plot - optional of course:
*By removing the Ore from the party's inventory - simply dropping it on the floor inside the Jysstev Estate and picking it up afterwards suffices - and speaking to Sir Sarles with only the Alloy, the party may give the Alloy to the Temple, and keep the Ore to use to upgrade the Mace of Disruption by taking them both to Cromwell. The only drawback to this route is that it means forfeiting some of the experience points that simply giving the ore to Sir Sarles would provide.
*There is a fail-proof method to kill Sir Sarles after giving him the real illithium without a reputation loss (all credits to user awesj from Sorcerer's Place forums): cast Blindness on him and then cast Contagion until he dies (you will need at least 5 successful Contagion casts but I have seen the lucky bag of air save 2 times in 5 casts and he only has a save vs. spells of 19). This has been tested in game and it works. The only problem is getting the Contagion spell, because if your mage does not have it from BG1, you will need to advance Neera's quest until you have access to the Scroll Merchant from the Red Wizard enclave.
*A simpler way to get the Illithium back is to let Hexxat lay a trap near Sarles, then let her dominate him and let him go over the trap. Then kick her out of the group and wait until the dominate spell expires. Sarles dies without reputation loss, because Hexxat is not a group member anymore.
*Another rather easy way to take back the real ore with no penalties is to summon demon next to Sir Sarles, which could be done very early in the game thanks to Neera, again.
*If you don't have high level summoning spells or contagion yet, it is possible to summon a lesser elemental of any kind to kill Sir Sarles without penalty and reclaim the Illithium. There is a chance anytime you summon an elemental that it will immediately turn hostile after being summoned. Since it doesn't happen every time, reload until you get one that turns hostile. Then charm Sir Sarles and have him attack the elemental. The elemental will kill him easily (although not always super quickly). And you can grab the Illithium without penalty. It might be best to have most of your party outside of the house before you start, so the elemental doesn't try to attack your characters instead.
*But probably the easiest way to kill Sir Sarles (and get back the illithium ore) without reputation loss is to have a party member cast Magic Missiles on him (or something similar), pause the game and remove that caster from the party before the missiles hit him. After the missiles hit and Sir Sarles is killed, you can recruit that party member again.
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Category:Side quests