You’re wandering through Rivington, fresh off the boat (or the road) into Act 3 of Baldur’s Gate 3, and you find a bunch of teddy bears. They're stuffed with explosives. It’s a grim introduction to the outskirts of the big city. The quest Investigate Suspicious Toys BG3 starts with a literal bang, but for most players, it ends in a massive headache because the quest markers in this game can be incredibly unreliable once you hit the Lower City.
Honestly, it’s one of the most frustrating sequences in the game. Not because the combat is hard—it isn't—but because the logic behind the quest stages feels like it was held together with spit and prayer. If you don't talk to the right person in the right order, your journal just stays stuck.
The Arfur Gregorio Problem
Everything kicks off at Arfur’s Mansion. You’ll find him arguing with some refugees. You can kick them out, or you can kick him out. Pro-tip: kick Arfur out. It makes the rest of the quest much smoother. Once he’s gone, you need to head into his basement. Look for a hatch in the room to the right of the entrance. It's trapped. Everything in this house is trapped.
Inside the basement, you’ll find a blackmail letter. This is your "smoking gun." It links Arfur to the fireworks and the explosive toys being sent to the refugees. Most players grab the letter and think the quest will just update with a nice, shiny marker on the map. It won't. You have to manually track down where those toys went.
Go to the Barn in Rivington. It’s the Requisitioned Barn where the Flaming Fist are hoarding supplies. You have to get inside. You can sneak in, talk your way in, or just jump through a side window. Look for a crate full of bears.
Talk to Manip Nestor. If you’ve found the letter in the basement, you can convince him to let you check the supplies. If you fail the check, you're basically trespassing, which makes the next part annoying. Disarm the traps on the crate. Boom. Quest updated. Sorta.
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Tracking Arfur to Wyrm’s Crossing
Arfur flees to Sharess’ Caress. He’s upstairs, tucked away in the taproom area, looking like a man who knows he’s about to be sent to the Hells. When you confront him about the Investigate Suspicious Toys BG3 lead, you have choices. You can kill him, but that's boring. You can turn him in, which is fine. Or you can intimidate him into giving you a pass to the Lower City and telling you who is pulling his strings.
He’ll point you toward Felogyr’s Fireworks.
This is where the quest usually breaks for people. If you kill Arfur too early, or if you don't get the password, getting into the upper floors of the fireworks shop becomes a bloodbath immediately.
The Felogyr’s Fireworks Disaster
The Lower City is huge. Felogyr’s Fireworks is located near the Heapside Strand waypoint. When you walk in, everything looks legitimate. Avery Sonshal is behind the counter, acting all suspicious and weird.
If you have the pass from Arfur, you can go to the second floor. But the third floor? That’s strictly off-limits. The moment you step foot on those stairs, the entire building turns hostile. And here is the kicker: the Flaming Fist outside will often join the fight against you, even though you’re technically stopping a terrorist cell.
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The verticality of this fight is a nightmare.
The enemies are on the third floor. They have high ground. They have explosive barrels. If you’re not careful, one stray fire arrow or a Fireball will ignite the entire floor, causing a chain reaction that kills your party instantly.
How to handle the third floor without dying:
- Invisibility is your best friend. Send a rogue or a sneaky character up to the roof of the building across the street or use Fly to get onto the balcony.
- Don't use fire. I know, it’s a fireworks shop. It’s tempting. But if you blow the barrels while your party is inside, it's Game Over.
- Use Telekinesis or Shove. Throw the cultists off the top floor.
- The "Cheese" Method: Go to the building across the street, stand on the balcony, and use Misty Step or Dimension Door to get to the roof of the Fireworks shop. You can shoot through the windows. It breaks the AI's pathfinding and lets you pick them off one by one.
The quest is supposed to finish when everyone in the shop is dead. However, the game often fails to recognize the quest is over. You might kill everyone and see "Investigate Suspicious Toys" still active in your log.
Why the Quest Journal Stays Stuck
This is the most searched part of the Investigate Suspicious Toys BG3 experience. You killed the guys. You found the toys. Why won't the quest go away?
Usually, it's because one of the Banite cultists is cowering in a corner on the second floor or the basement, and the game considers them "part" of the encounter. You have to clear the whole building. Every floor.
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Also, check your inventory. You need to have read the "Archduke Enver Gortash's Orders" or the "Letter from Arfur Gregorio." Sometimes the game engine needs you to re-read the physical item to trigger the final quest flag.
If it's still stuck? Honestly, ignore it. If the enemies at the Fireworks shop are dead, you’ve stopped the threat. The XP is yours. The loot (lots of gold and alchemist fire) is yours. The journal entry is just a ghost in the machine at that point.
Actionable Steps for a Clean Completion
To ensure this quest actually completes and you get your rewards without a total party wipe, follow this specific sequence:
- Enter Arfur’s Basement first. Do not go to the barn before finding the blackmail letter. The game logic prefers the "evidence first" approach.
- Corner Arfur at Sharess’ Caress. Don't kill him immediately. Get the Lower City pass from him. It’s one of the easiest ways to get into the city without paying a massive bribe or doing the Gauntlet.
- Use a Potion of Speed before entering the third floor of Felogyr’s. You need to take out the enemies who hold the torches first. If they drop their torches into the powder, the building explodes.
- Loot Avery Sonshal. He carries unique items and keys that are often overlooked in the chaos of the explosion.
- Check the basement of the Fireworks shop. There are additional notes there that sometimes provide the "final" trigger for the quest log to move to the completed section.
The quest is a mess, frankly. It’s a great example of the ambitious but sometimes clunky design of Act 3. But by focusing on the Fireworks shop as a tactical puzzle rather than a standard combat encounter, you'll get through it. Just remember: in a room full of gunpowder, the person with the most Counterspells wins.
Once you’ve cleared the shop, head over to the nearby waypoint and save your game. You’ve just finished one of the most notoriously finicky side stories in Baldur's Gate.