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Jul 05, 2023

How to Save Mayrina in Baldur’s Gate 3 (BG3)

You're really risking a lot for someone who doesn't want to be saved. Saving Mayrina from the Auntie Ethel is no easy task. It requires quite a bit of strategy, gumption, and stabbing an old hag that

You're really risking a lot for someone who doesn't want to be saved.

Saving Mayrina from the Auntie Ethel is no easy task. It requires quite a bit of strategy, gumption, and stabbing an old hag that refuses to die. Here’s how to save Mayrina in Baldur’s Gate 3.

Mayrina is suspended in a cage above a pit. Approach her, and Auntie Ethel will set the cage on fire. The only way to Save Mayrina is to interact with the glowing Control Orb on the far side of the arena. This will cause Mayrina’s cage to lower and for her to stumble out.

You can also cast Ray of Frost to stop the fire from spreading on the cage.

Auntie Ethel will start the fight by cloning herself three times. Each of these clones can do damage equal to the original. But damaging them once will cause them to disperse. But once Mayrina is freed, Auntie Ethel will take her and transform into her.

Mayrina will then take on the appearance of Ethel, and Ethel will take on the appearance of Mayrina. So, kill “Mayrina”. Once you do, the illusion will dissipate, and you’ll be back to facing the real hag.

Once Ethel gets to the end of her health, around HP 20, approach her. She’ll beg for her life.

If you’re still looking for Mayrina, check out our full walkthrough for this quest below.

You first encounter Mayrina’s brothers just outside of the Riverside Teahouse. A place that looks perfectly idyllic… so long as you don’t pass any skill checks that reveal the Putrid Bog underneath. If you reveal the bog, you’ll quickly learn that things aren’t all that they seem. The sheep are vicious, man-eating Redcaps, the apples are poisoned, and there is no shortage of traps.

But continue through, and you’ll eventually find Auntie Ethel and Mayrina in the teahouse. This teahouse is at the coordinates X: 61, Y:262.

Within, you’ll find a distressed Mayrina and Ethel. Chat with Auntie Ethel, and feel free to be sassy. She likes that, and she’ll eventually reveal that she knows all about your tadpole problems. But don’t make a deal with her, as it will just give you a permanent -1 stat. Instead, tell her you’ll think about it or just leave.

Now that you have free rein of the house, you can go upstairs to steal a few potions. Including a Greater Healing Potion, which will be helpful in the fight to come. If you get caught, that’s okay. Auntie Ethel will become temporarily hostile but flee through the fireplace. Instead, you’ll have to fight three of her Redcap buddies who will come in from the Putrid Bog. They each have about 31 HP.

I almost recommend taking this fight, as you’ll have free access to the half a dozen potions scattered around the house, plus whatever other loot looks tempting.

With your new vials in tow, approach the fireplace. You’ll trigger a perception check for all four of your characters. Shadowheart has +3 perception, so she’s a good character to have in tow for this. If one character passes the perception check, you’ll learn that the fireplace is fake.

Go through it, and you’ll find yourself in a very morbid basement. Auntie Ethel will tell you to get out, but she’s quite harmless at this stage. She’ll vanish, telling you that Mayrina is already being marinated if you ask where the girl is.

You can explore the basement, but there’s really only one thing we need to do here. Speak with the Gnarled Tree door. The door will reveal that it was once a human and that it once let other people through. If you pass a persuasion or arcana check, you’ll learn that the door is transparent. This will allow you to walk right through it.

If you don’t pass the perception or arcana check, you’ll need to put on one of the Masks on the basement table, then walk through the door. But take the Whispering Mask off quickly once you’re through or Ethel will possess you.

Instead, with the mask on, walk through the transparent door. You may have to wiggle around your camera to make this work. And it’s also possible you’ll need all four characters to be wearing the mask. I noticed that this triggered the Ethel and death sequence the fastest, so be wary.

Once you pass through the doors, you’ll encounter a large tunnel with four hostile combatants. Each of them are wearing masks. And unfortunately, you’ll have to kill them.

Yeah. Even if you remove the masks and knock them unconscious, they’ll stay hostile to you. Perhaps this is a bug, perhaps it’s oversight. Either way, it’s disappointing.

I highly recommend keeping your characters away from each other as the Masks love to use area of effect attacks. Additionally, if allowed, they’ll all take the high ground. If you’re struggling in the mud, you can always jump over it to avoid having to make a saving roll against going prone.

When you’ve defeated all four Masks, you can opt to loot their corpses and then head east, towards the waterfall. If you fail to defeat all four Masks, the survivors will appear in the boss fight later.

So, the next part looks bad, but it’s pretty easy to navigate. You’ll want to avoid the green Noxious Fumes and the red lotus flowers scattered around the area. To do this, you’ll be jumping. A lot. Still, be very mindful of your party. The AI is kind of dumb, and sometimes they’ll wander right into a trap, triggering a series of explosions. If you’re not above it, save scumming is a good idea, since there’s a boss fight after this section.

The only downside is that some of these jumps hurt. Like, -7 HP hurt. Gale has Featherfall, which you can use to nullify this damage for the whole party. If you’re not sure which jumps to take, here are the three you’ll need.

Related: How to Speak with Animals in Baldur’s Gate 3

Choosing to kill Ethel will net you the rewards on her body. These items are:

But if you choose not to kill her, you’ll get a permanent stat increase of your choice. The tradeoff is that she’ll demand that she keep Mayrina. You can go with this deal, or you can use persuasion to convince Ethel to let you keep Mayrina and the stat boost. But to pull that off, you’ll need to hit 20! The choice is yours.

Either way, once the Hag is gone, the quest is done. You can go into the back room to find a teleporter out of the dungeon, plus a few goodies. Including the Crone’s Staff!

If you head into the next room, you’ll find a whole menagerie of items. Including the Bitter Divorce, a wand that’s inscribed with Mayrina’s husband name. You can give this to Mayrina, who will be right through the portal next to her husband’s coffin.

Speak to her and tell her about the Bitter Wand. You’ll have two options:

If you use the wand, Connor will resurrect as a zombie. You can then let Mayrina keep him, and she’ll take him to Baldur’s Gate to try to find a cure. Or you can keep himself yourself, and then you can summon a low-level zombie whenever you like. Kind of cruel, and not that useful mid-to-late game, but do you.

If you opt to snap the wand, Mayrina will run off crying.

This whole quest was a depressing, traumatizing trip. If you need to wash out your brain, can I recommend recruiting the local dog?

A lawyer turned game journalist, Daphne Fama spends an inordinate amount of time playing games across the spectrum but she'll always have a soft spot for horror and JPRGs. Want to see all the best animal pictures the internet has to offer? Follow her on twitter at @DaphneFama.