After the prologue in BG3, where you crash land the ship, you will wake up by the shore. When you look around, you will see another person beside you that you saw in the prologue. Looking closely, you will see Shadowheart holding a mysterious artifact in Baldur’s Gate 3.
At this point, Baldur’s Gate 3 offers you two options; wake her up or take the artifact. The artifact may seem tempting, but you want to know the consequences of both paths. After all, you do not want to lock yourself out of content, such as a romance with Shadowheart, by angering her.
Wake Shadowheart
As mentioned, there are two ways to proceed with your adventure: wake her up or take the artifact. If you wake her up instead of trying to steal from her, it will start your friendship on a good note.
However, you will not gain any trust points or inspiration. But it is good this way because you will have the chance to learn more about the artifact later in the game. As she wakes up, she will quickly grab the artifact; you did not take it, and she does not trust you yet. She will talk to you, and you can get on your adventure.
Take the Artifact
If you try to take the Artifact instead of waking Shadowheart, she will wake up before you take it in Baldur’s Gate 3. As you initially tried to rob her while she was unconscious, this will portray a bad image of you in front of her.
This item is indeed a mystery and very important to Shadowheart. She did not want to leave it on the ship when you saved her. As she caught you trying to steal something very dear from her, she would ask you what you were doing.
Now, you can be honest and tell her you were trying to take the artifact. Or you can lie and say you were checking up on her. Either way, you have lost the trust of a worthy companion from your party. You can win back her trust by agreeing with her, being kind to animals, and using your mind rather than your weapon in battle.
She belongs to the Cleric class and is perfect support in battle because of her healing and aiding spells. So do not lose a potential companion early in the game. You only get a few extra dialogue options, but nothing else happens. You go with the adventure regardless.
