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One of the darkest and longest side quests you’ll ever find in Baldur’s Gate 3 is right near the beginning of the massive RPG. Save Mayrina is one of my favorite quests in the game because of its multiple paths and ways for you to reach its conclusion, plus the multiple choices you have as well.
Oddly enough, though, it is also one of the most easily missed quests in the game as well, which is why I am to help you with it in this Baldur’s Gate 3 Save Mayrina guide.
This Baldur’s Gate 3 Save Mayrina guide is here to guide you through the entire quest from how to start it, what choices to make along the way, and how to beat all of the tough fights. If you are still in Act 1, be prepared for one of the most challenging quests you’ll find this early in the game. But don’t worry, I’ve got your back as someone who has already beaten it.
Quest Details Up Front
Here is what you should know about this Save Mayrina quest before you even start it in Baldur’s Gate 3:
- Quest Location: Southwest of the Emerald Grove in the Wilderness in Act 1
- Quest Giver: Mayrina’s Brothers/Auntie Ethel
- Requirements: None (available from the start of the game after the prologue, but you should try to aim for level five or higher).
- Length of Quest: 2-4 hours (depends on the choices you make and how long the fights take you)
- Quest Difficulty: 9.5/10 (If you are doing this when it is first available. Still pretty challenging even if you come back during Act 2 to do it)
Save Mayrina Quest Synopsis
You stumble upon two brothers who tell you their plea to help them locate their dear sister, Mayrina, who has been missing for some time. They inform you about the tragedies that befell their family recently and how her disappearance could be connected. In the end, they believe that the old hag, Auntie Ethel, in the swamps has something to do with Mayrina’s disappearance so you go to investigate. But at the same time, Auntie Ethel wishes to give you the chance to have her remove your parasite. What will you do?
Brief Walkthrough
Save Mayrina is one of the longest and most challenging side quests you’ll find in all of Baldur’s Gate 3, let alone this early in the game. I have a shortened, brief walkthrough below for everything you need to do to complete the game in case you are lost. But you should probably take a look at the extended walkthrough below for extra details about what you missed.
I always recommend everyone to do this quest in Act 2, if possible, as you want to be at least level five at the bare minimum to not get destroyed in this side quest. Here is everything you need to do to complete the Auntie Ethel side quest:
- Talk with Auntie Ethel at Druid Grove and learn about her special powers and potential to remove your parasite. (This is optional, but I highly recommend it for some context)
- Head southwest of the Emerald Grove near the swamps and meet with the two brothers to start this quest.
- Confront Auntie Ethel and pick a side in the argument. I suggest siding with the brothers and going with them to investigate.
- Visit Auntie Ethel’s house further southwest in the corner of the map and in the swamps.
- Speak with Auntie Ethel, and don’t accept her offer whatever you do to have her remove your parasite. Trust me, it’s not worth it.
- Confront her about the missing Mayrina or attack her outright (I don’t recommend the latter).
- Defeat her minions who appear.
- Chase after Auntie Ethel into the secret cave.
- Convince the talking door to let you through.
- Defeat the next wave of minions.
- Confront Auntie Ethel one last time and fight her.
- Defeat Auntie Ethel and either let her escape with Mayrina or save her.
- Find the magical wand Auntie Ethel left behind.
- Choose what to do with Mayrina, her husband, and the wand to complete the quest.
Save Mayrina Extended Walkthrough
Without a doubt, this side quest is going to be one of the more challenging and lengthy pieces of content you can find in the first Act of Baldur’s Gate 3. For this reason alone, I highly recommend doing this quest later on when you are level five or nearing the end of Act 2. Yes, you can come back and do it later.
Here is everything you need to know to get you through all of the fights and other parts of this lengthy Baldur’s Gate 3 side quest.
Meet Auntie Ethel at the Druid Grove
It all begins with how you prepare before the quest even begins. While this isn’t technically required in the slightest, I recommend going to Druid Grove in Act 1 and meeting with Auntie Ethel there. She is in the western part of the camp near where all of the Tieflings are.
You can speak with her, and if you pass some skill checks, you can convince her to tell you more about her magical powers. She will even learn about the parasite you have stuck in your head and offer to remove it for you using her impressive powers. While she seems like a sweet lady, you may find something unnerving about her.
This bit of lore and context helps to make this quest better, and it sets you on the path to the quest itself as she wants you to meet her at her humble abode in the swamps.
How to Start the Auntie Ethel Quest
From where you are at the Emerald Grove, you need to head southwest. In fact, where Auntie Ethel lives is in the far southwestern corner of the Wilderness map in Act 1. On the way there, you want to head to the coordinates of about
When you reach this location near the entrance to the swamps region, you’ll come across two brothers arguing with the poor Auntie Ethel whom you met earlier. This is the start of the side quest, as you learn how the brothers are looking for their missing sister, who has been gone for too long.
They believe the old hag, Auntie Ethel, is the culprit behind her disappearance and believe her to be a powerful witch of some kind. You can side with either one you like since the quest will continue either way. I recommend siding with the brothers, though, and investigating Ethel with them.
If you don’t, I will go ahead and spoil that they meet a gruesome death. Now it is time to visit Auntie Ethel and give her a piece of your mind.
Arriving at Auntie Ethel’s Home
To find Auntie Ethel’s house, follow the mostly linear path from where you meet the brothers to the house through the swamps. There is an illusion over her home, which should break if you side with the brothers and try to investigate the truth surrounding her. If not, attack one of the sheep she has to reveal the truth.
Enter Auntie Ethel’s home and speak with her to continue the next part of the quest.
Should You Let Her Remove Your Parasite?
As part of the conversation with Auntie Ethel, she will offer you the chance to remove the parasite in your head from the mind flayers. I will tell you right now: do not pick this option, no matter what. There is absolutely no benefit to this choice, and you will lose some stat points permanently if you go this route.
This is not like the Volo experiment or any of the other options you come across in the game to get rid of your parasite; this is entirely negative in every way. She won’t even get mad if you refuse, so what you want to do is press her on Mayrina and tell her that she has to let the poor girl go.
How to Defeat Her Minions
When you finally make an enemy of Auntie Ethel and tell her to let Mayrina go, you have two options here. The first is to go ahead and attack Ethel directly and try to stop her here. If you do this, you’ll speed up the quest and make it a whole lot easier in the long run, but it is hard to get her before she escapes.
Instead, I recommend simply accusing her, and she will run away with Mayrina in tow. She opens up a secret cave passage behind the wood fire she has burning in her house. But before you can chase her, a few of her minions attack you.
This is a highly challenging fight if you do this at around level two or three, like I did. There are only a few minions, but they hit hard. The benefit is they take a long time to reach you as they run to her house, so you can set up traps and AOE spells and even attack them from range. Astarion will be a huge help here with his sneak attacks, and you certainly want to have a full party before taking on this fight.
After the fight concludes, be sure to loot the enemy bodies and the house itself. Rest up and chase after Auntie Ethel through the secret passage she made when you’re ready.
How to Enter the Talking Door in the Cave
When you arrive in this secret hideout for Auntie Ethel, you’ll find masks all around the room and the remnants of her past subjects. The key part here is the talking door you can speak with.
Your job here is to convince the door to let you through, which isn’t an easy task. Alternatively, there is a glitch where you can pan the camera around and see through the optical illusion.
If you click on the ground behind the door, you’ll be able to avoid the door illusion and walk through to the other side. However, this is a glitch, and there is a chance this could be patched in the future. For this reason, I recommend saving the game and trying to persuade the door normally.
Defeating the Second Wave of Foes
When you pass into the next room, you have an extremely tough fight on your hands with more of her minions. There are also plenty of traps in this large arena that you’ll have to deal with. The key here is the fact that the enemies are almost all on higher levels than you, so your attacks will have poor accuracy.
The goal for your melee and ranged characters alike is to climb the ladders to reach the foes. Once on the same ground, they are much easier to deal with. I recommend keeping your group together and focusing on one enemy at a time. They are scattered and can outnumber you, so taking them out one at a time together makes this fight much easier. After winning the fight, continue onward to the next area.
How to Defeat Auntie Ethel
In the next room, it is now time to confront Auntie Ethel one last time. As you might expect, this will now lead to a major boss fight and one of the toughest you’ll find this early in the game, especially because of the multiple objectives in the middle of the battle.
Ethel herself is pretty strong with powerful magic that she won’t hesitate to use against you. But she isn’t alone, as she will summon three copies of herself, which are also quite powerful. At the same time, though, Mayrina is in danger within the cage that she is in.
For this fight, the focus should be on the copies and Mayrina above Auntie Ethel herself. The copies deal a ton of damage if left unchecked, but all you need to do is hit them once, and they disappear. I recommend something like Magic Missile, which can hit more than one target and instantly take out a couple or even all of them if divided up properly.
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How to Save Mayrina From the Fire
Once you deal with the copies in this fight, it is now time to focus on Mayrina next. You can even send someone to save her while the others focus on Auntie Ethel and the copies. The goal here is to have one of the party members reach the giant glowing orange-ish orb on the other side of the room.
This is near where Auntie Ethel starts out fighting the player. If someone is able to interact with this, it will stop the fire from burning up the cage Mayrina is in. You have to do this, too, or else she will die once the cage’s health bar reaches zero in the fight, which is honestly quite fast.
If Mayrina dies, you’ll fail the quest and miss out on the amazing rewards you can get from it (more on that in a bit). It is imperative you have someone go after the orb to save her from the start. After that, it is a chill fight as you can focus on finishing off Auntie Ethel and outnumbering her once her copies are gone.
Should You Let Auntie Ethel Take Mayrina?
At a certain point in the fight, when Auntie Ethel is about to die, she will plead with you one last time. At this point, she truly knows that she is going to lose if the fight continues and gives you one last offer. It is here that she offers up some power in exchange for you letting her escape with Mayrina alongside her.
As for what you’ll actually get if you take this offer, it is an extra ability point for a stat of your choice, be it Constitution for more health or perhaps the core stat you use to control the damage for your class, like Wisdom. I recommend saving the game when she does this, which you can do even in the middle of a fight and conversation.
The reason for this is that it is possible to let Auntie Ethel try to run away, give you this extra stat point, and still save Mayrina. If you are fast enough to defeat her while she is on the run, it is possible to eliminate Ethel and rescue Mayrina in the end with no problem. This is a win-win situation since you get a boost to your stats and still complete this quest.
What Should You Do With Auntie Ethel’s Wand?
The grand finale of this quest closes with Auntie Ethel’s death, but the quest is still not over even now. There is still one more part you need to deal with and that is the matter of the sacred magical wand that Ethel uses. If you go into the secret room that Auntie Ethel has, you’ll find the magical wand item.
You can bring this to Mayrina, who will be angry with you for killing the only hope she had of resurrecting her lost husband. As such, you have one final choice to make when you leave via the mushrooms nearby and bring the wand to her.
Here are the three options for how to complete Mayrina’s quest and storyline using the wand:
- Destroy the wand and stop Mayrina’s hope of seeing her husband again this way
- Kill her husband for good, which requires you to kill her as well.
- Resurrect her husband and send them on their way to the city of Baldur’s Gate.
I would say the second route is the worst one possible, and I don’t recommend this unless you are genuinely wanting to be an evil person since the whole point was to save her in the first place. That said, it becomes a question of whether you want to help her move by destroying the wand or feed into her delusional fantasies.
This is because if you resurrect her husband, he will be like an incomprehensible zombie in a way. She will have to go to the city of Baldur’s Gate to find a way to bring him back to normal. I think either of the first or third options is great, but I went with the last one. That is mainly because I wanted to be a heroic character and hope the two lovers could have a chance.
Save Mayrina Quest Rewards
You don’t get too many rewards from the actual Save Mayrina quest itself outside of the Bitter Divorce wand (unless you destroy it) and some valuable experience. That said, you can get a lot of XP from this lengthy quest, and that alone might make the effort worth it for players trying to grind levels in this complex RPG.
However, while the quest completion doesn’t give you a lot of rewards, looting the dead bodies of the enemies in this and Auntie Ethel’s places will ensure you get quite a bit of gold and other items you can sell with people. This can make this quest worth it as well.
FAQs
Question: Is it Possible to Save Mayrina BG3?
Answer: Yes, it is possible to save Mayrina in BG3 if you are persistent and don’t give in to the many attempts Auntie Ethel makes to get you to give up. Follow after the old hag, stop her in the boss battle, and free her from the cage to save Mayrina in the end.
Question: How do You Save Mayrina’s Husband in Baldurs Gate 3?
Answer: The only way to “save” Mayrina’s husband in Baldurs Gate 3 is to defeat Auntie Ethel and use the Bitter Divorce wand to resurrect him from the dead. If you do this, he will not be himself, though, but a zombie-like creature who still requires further saving or permanent death in the future.
Question: How do You Save Mayrina from the Cage BG3?
Answer: The only way to save Mayrina from the cage in BG3 during the Auntie Ethel fight is to send one of your party members to the orange orb on the other side of the cave. Interact with the orb to stop the fire before her cage reaches zero health, or else it will kill Mayrina. You don’t want this to happen, either, since it will mean game over for this side quest and a complete failure.
How to Complete the House of Grief in Baldur’s Gate 3
The Save Mayrina quest in Baldur’s Gate 3 is one of the longest pieces of side content you can find in this already massive game. It is by far the quest that took me the longest to do in Act 1, mainly because I was pretty underleveled when I first did the initial fights in the quest.
It is for this reason I still recommend you do much of Act 2 and then come back to do this quest before moving on to Act 3 and the city of Baldur’s Gate. Once you pass that point of no return, you won’t be able to do this quest unless you start over with a fresh save.
But there is still so much that awaits you in Baldur’s Gate 3 Act 3, including its own lengthy quests like the House of Grief. That is one of the other challenging and confusing quests; you can do this in the game, but we, thankfully, have your back when it comes to taking it on.
Continue reading:
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