The quest to “Save Mayrina” is part of the starting Act 1 of Baldur’s Gate 3 and in traditional dungeons and dragons fashion, you are going to face a number of crossroads where a single choice can change the entire outcome of the story.
This quest is available in the Sunlit Wetlands, where you’ll see two brothers quarreling with Auntie Ethel, accusing her of kidnapping their sister. Upon intervening in the quarrel you learn that Auntie Ethel is, in fact, lying.
It is now up to you to help the poor brothers and save their sister from the torment of Auntie Ethel. After you finish the dialogue, the Save Mayrina quest should show up in your quest log.
The following Baldur’s Gate 3 Save Mayrina walkthrough is going to outline each and every choice you have to make to save the girl from the hag.
How to save Mayrina from Auntie Ethel in Baldur’s Gate 3
To start the “Save Mayrina” quest in BG3, you must take the path leading to the Sunlit Wetlands through the Blighted Village. Along the road, you witness a quarrel between two men and an old woman by the name of Auntie Ethel.
At this point, it is better to choose to side with the two men against Ethel. The old lady disappears shortly after, and the men who seem to be brothers, explain that she had taken their sister, Mayrina, captive.
With that, the “Save Mayrina” quest will be started.
Speak to Ethel
Now, you need to go to the Riverside Teahouse where you’ll see another cutscene in which Auntie Ethel will tell Mayrina to finish her food as she is pregnant and needs to take a proper diet.
By this point, you will have the option to tell Mayrina about the encounter with her brothers. If you choose to do so, Ethel turns hostile on the spot and eventually teleports away, along with Mayrina. You must go through the fireplace to follow them and continue through the quest to save Mayrina.
If you, however, decide not to tell the pregnant girl about her brothers, Ethel will not turn hostile at the moment, but will still teleport away with Mayrina. However, at this point, Ethel also offers to remove the parasite in your eye in exchange for one of your eyes – which isn’t necessarily a great option to pick.
All of your companions will disapprove of the idea, and even if you approve, the old hag would not be able to do it as it is tainted by strange shadow magic.
Reach the Basement
After whatever decision you make, the Hag teleports Mayrina out of the room. If you roam around the fireplace area, you will figure out that it’s an illusion, and there’s a passageway behind it.
Go through the fireplace to reach the old hag’s basement where she will reveal her true identity. There are other people trapped in that basement as well. You can even interact with them to learn more about Ethel by using the “Speak with the Dead” spell.
Go past the Gnarled Door
As you make your way across the basement, you will reach BG3 Gnarled Door. At first, the door seems to be inaccessible, but you learn later that it’s just an illusion and can be passed through easily.
There are multiple ways to go through this door.
- You can pick the Whispering Masks on the ground and equip them to pass the gate. Just be sure to take the masks off later otherwise you will be controlled by the old hag when you fight her.
- There is an Arcane check near the door and regardless of the outcome, once you perform the check you can just pan the camera around to the other side of the Gnarled door to pass through it.
Once you pass the door, you will fight 4 of Ethel’s pawns and enter the Overgrown Tunnel. Note that you can avoid the fight with them by wearing the Whispering mask.
After you defeat the pawns, jump over the waterfall to reach the next area of the “Saving Mayrina” quest in BG3.
Go through the Poisonous Tunnel
This tunnel is filled with poisonous gas clouds and there are many ways to cross this tunnel. You can adopt any strategy that best suits you and your companions.
- You can run through this area using the dash skill and healing yourself.
- If you have Shadowheart as a companion, you can burn the poison with fire and then put out the fire using water. Shadowheart has a spell that creates water.
- If you have Lae’ zel as a companion, you can cast the Feather Fall skill on her and use her special jump skill to easily make your way across most of the poison clouds.
Save Mayrina from the burning cage
Auntie Ethel awaits at the Ancient Abode. Despite your encounter with her last time, she is still at max HP, but the fight is surprisingly easier against her at this stage.
Note that before patch 5, you could simply just sneak up on and push Auntie Ethel off the cliff, killing her easily. After the patch though, you have to fight her head-on.
You will see another cutscene where the old hag threatens to kill you as she has Mayrina held captive inside a cage. She later sets the cage on fire, which is why it is very important to tend to her if you want to save Mayrina in BG3.
You can save Mayrina from burning in the cage by making your way to her and using the mage hand on her. If you use an Interrupter who is invisible, you will be able to save Mayrina from burning without initiating a fight.
You can either use a Water spell to create and splash the cage with water or throw a bottle of water at the cage to douse the flames.
After that, the Battle will start. Ethel will clone herself a total of 3 times during this fight.
You will see three hags at the same time, and while it is difficult to identify which is the real one, damaging a clone will destroy it, and only the real one has debuffs.
As soon as you deal with her, she will pull Mayrina out of her cage and clone herself as Mayrina.
Now you have to figure out which is the real one and which is the hag. At this point, it is important to know which person is Mayrina so as not to kill her. Doing this is simple, as Mayrina informs you herself that she isn’t Ethel.
As Auntie Ethel clones herself for the last time where she turns invisible. You can use an AoE skill or an arrow to reveal her location and deal damage.
Kill or Leave Auntie Ethel
When Auntie Ethel is down to about 10 Hp, you can either kill her or leave her. Depending on what you do will have different outcomes.
- Killing her would make Mayrina very angry as she had a deal with Ethel, and you ruined it.
- Doing the latter where you leave her at 10 Hp will result in Ethel begging you for mercy, and she will agree on granting you any power in return for her life and Mayrina.
If you succeed in persuasion and intimidation you can have both.
If you decide to take Ethel’s offer, she will give you an item called Auntie Ethel’s Hair that you can eat. Moreover, letting Mayrina go was part of the deal as well. Therefore, at this point whatever you choose does not matter, as you have saved Mayrina from Auntie Ethel at last.
The Outcome
Search the hag’s workshop thoroughly as it has some decent stuff to loot. Among her things, you will find a wand called Bitter Divorce that is capable of raising the undead.
Once you are done searching her workshop, use the portal to get out of there and speak to Mayrina again.
You can use the wand to raise her husband from his grave. Now you have the choice to either give her the wand or keep it yourself.
- If you hand her the wand, she will go to Baldur’s Gate in search of a way to return her husband to normal.
- If you keep the want yourself or destroy it, she will be very angry at you.
