Man, let me tell you, trying to track down the Ring of Spiteful Thunder almost killed my vibe for a whole weekend. Every single guide out there gives you this vague nonsense about “Act 2” or “near the Moonrise Towers,” but they never really pin down the guy who actually sells the damn thing. It felt like finding a specific grain of sand in the entire Shadow-Cursed Lands. I chased so many red herrings, I could have opened a fish market.

The Hunt Kicks Off: Why I Needed the Zap

I was building out a new Storm Sorcerer/Tempest Cleric multiclass—yeah, I know, I’m obsessed with the Zap damage—and I needed that ring for the extra thunder damage boost. I saw it on a video from some dude, and he just breezed past the part about how to get it. That’s always the way, right? They show the cool end result but skip the grind.

So, I dove in headfirst. My first assumption was that it must be a drop from some crazy Act 2 boss. After all the effort I put into my Gale build, I figured anything that potent had to be a huge pain to acquire.

• I cleared the entire Gauntlet of Shar again, thinking maybe I missed a chest or some hidden container. Nope.
• I scoured every single room on the main floor of Moonrise Towers, checking under beds and behind tapestries. Nothing but junk and maybe a few misplaced scrolls.
• I investigated Dammon, thinking maybe he had it for sale when he moved from the Last Light Inn. He didn’t.
• I spent a solid three hours just teleporting between waypoints, talking to every named NPC, trying to force a vendor window open just in case they were secretly selling goods. It was madness.

I was ready to just skip the item and change my entire build. Seriously. It was Monday morning, I was supposed to be preparing for a big presentation at work, and instead, I was in this pixelated world, yelling at my monitor because of a missing piece of jewelry. I was getting precisely zero done in my actual life or my digital life. That’s the grip this game has, I guess.

The whole experience was exactly like dealing with my previous employer. I was following all the instructions, doing all the work, but the result was just a whole lot of nothing and a big waste of time. I needed a clear path, not vague promises.

The Discovery: A Frustrating Accident

This is where the real story starts, and why I’m sharing this specific detail—because the actual breakthrough came from frustration in my actual life, not the game itself.

I was working from home, and my kid—bless her heart, but she’s a menace—had just spilled a whole container of milk all over the new carpet. I mean, soaked it. The smell was intense. I was so angry about having to clean it up at 7 AM that I just slammed back into my chair after the initial clean-up, completely ignoring the fact that I was supposed to be preparing those slides. I was just looking for a quick, brainless win in BG3 to feel like I had some control over something. I didn’t care about efficiency; I just needed to disconnect.

I jumped back into the Moonrise Towers waypoint, but instead of running upstairs to fight the big bosses like I planned, I just wandered into the prison area down below. I usually skip that place after the initial jailbreak, or I just deal with the main guard, but this time I was just moving my character aimlessly, not even paying attention. I was clicking buttons just to feel the movement. The idea of another huge item hunt just felt exhausting.

I sauntered over to the Quartermaster Tarv. You know him, right? The big dude who hangs out near the stairs and looks perpetually bored. I’d talked to him before, multiple times, but always with my main Paladin character, and I usually just dismiss the vendor window because his gear always looks like absolute junk when I check it the first time.

But here’s the kicker, the actual practice I did that made the difference—and what every garbage guide failed to mention:

• I switched my lead character to Astarion, my sneaky rogue, just to have him run around and maybe spot something hidden.
• I initiated the trade with Quartermaster Tarv using Astarion. Why? No reason. Pure impulse.
• I noticed that his inventory changed slightly after I had done some other side quests in the area and transitioned into a slightly later stage of Act 2. Maybe the vendor stock refreshed, I don’t know the game mechanics exactly, but something was different.

It wasn’t a huge inventory change, but there, sitting near the bottom of his list, listed as a very expensive common item—it was the Ring of Spiteful Thunder. I almost screamed. This wasn’t a drop. It wasn’t a hidden chest. It was just purchased from a vendor I had already dismissed multiple times because I was too quick to judge his stock! I must have checked his stock when I first arrived, before the list had refreshed or before some trigger condition was met.

The Final Steps: The Simple Truth

All that frustration, all that wasted time reading garbage forums and watching useless videos, and the solution was stupidly simple. It’s located in the Moonrise Towers, Prison area, sold by Quartermaster Tarv. You gotta check his inventory late in Act 2, and maybe make sure you’re using a different companion, just to be safe.

If you’re already past the point of being able to trade with him—maybe you cleared the tower—then tough luck, unfortunately. You missed it, or you’ll have to try pickpocketing. But if you’re still in that Act 2 window, still running around saving all the tieflings, you need to make a beeline straight there and buy it immediately.

I swear, sometimes these video game items are locked away not by a difficult boss fight or a hidden puzzle, but just by the sheer volume of other nonsense you have to wade through. I grabbed the ring, put it on my Sorcerer, and went straight to the next fight, feeling instantly better about my whole day, milk stains and work presentation included. This is why I jot down these notes, so you don’t have to clean up imaginary digital messes while also dealing with real-life spills. Go get that ring, folks. It’s worth the twenty minutes it will now take you instead of my agonizing five hours.