Saving Mayrina from 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.
Finding Mayrina in Baldur’s Gate 3
You first encounter Mayrina’s brothers just outside of the Riverside Teahouse. It’s 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 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. 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. Ethel 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.
Accessing the Basement / Overgrown Tunnel in Baldur’s Gate 3
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 pretty 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, and then walk through the door. But take the Whispering Mask off quickly once you’re through, or Ethel will possess you.
With the mask on, walk through the Gnarled Tree 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.
Fight the Four Masks in Baldur’s Gate 3
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 an 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 making a saving roll against going prone.
When you’ve defeated all four Masks, you can opt to loot their corpses and then head east, toward the waterfall. If you fail to defeat all four Masks, the survivors will appear in the boss fight later.
How to Navigate the Traps in the Overgrown Tunnel of Baldur’s Gate 3
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, saving and reloading saves 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 unsure which jumps to take, here are the three you’ll need.
Related: How to Speak with Animals in Baldur’s Gate 3
How to Rescue Mayrina in the Teahouse in Baldur’s Gate 3 (BG3)
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, giving her a chance to escape.
You can also cast Ray of Frost or Create Water to stop the fire from spreading on the cage.
How to Beat Auntie Ethel in Baldur’s Gate 3
When you first encounter Auntie Ethel in the Ancient Abode, she’ll 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.
Long range attacks are fantastic for the clone portion of the fight, particularly if you can hit your opponent more than once. That makes magic attacks like Eldritch Blast and Magic Missile ideal. But be careful not to knock Ethel off the edge if you want to collect the rewards at the end!
Once Ethel gets to the end of her health, around HP 20, approach her. She’ll beg for her life.
Should You Kill Auntie Ethel in Baldur’s Gate 3?
Choosing to kill Ethel will net you the rewards on her body. These items are:
- Corellon’s Grace (staff): You gain +1 to unarmed attack rolls and damage. While the wielder is not wearing armor, they receive +2 to saving throws.
- Tarnished Charm (amulet): Makes it easier for the wearer to succeed at Death Saving Throws.
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. Be sure to grab the Crone’s Staff and the Bitter Divorce, as it’s necessary to tie up some loose ends.
The Bitter Divorce is why Mayrina is here. She came to Auntie Ethel to ask her to resurrect her husband. And in return, she’d give the hag the baby she’s pregnant with. Auntie Ethel would have then turned the child into another hag.
All Choices and Consequences for the Bitter Divorce Wand and Mayrina in Baldur’s Gate 3
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’s 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 then have three options.
Give the Bitter Divorce to Mayrina
If you point the Bitter Divorce at the coffin, you’ll resurrect Mayrina’s dead husband, Connor. He’ll be a shambling corpse, alive but without a soul. Mayrina will be dumbstruck and devastated, but she’ll still want to keep her husband.
The Bitter Divorce is what allows you to command her husband. You can give it to her, and she’ll thank you. She’ll then leave to take her husband to Baldur’s Gate to try and find a cure. You can find both of them in Act 3.
Keep the Bitter Divorce
If you want to have your undead summon, you can approach Mayrina and learn more about the wand. Once you do, you can summon Connor. Connor is a level 1 undead with a low armor class. This means he’ll generally be targeted first. But because he has the passive feature Undead Fortitude, which keeps him from being killed in one shot unless hit by critical or radiant damage, he can tank at least two blows. That might be the saving grace for your team.
But if you go down this route, Mayrina will be furious, cursing at you, and then collapsing on the ground sobbing. Eventually, she’ll run off. This may influence how she interacts with you when you meet her again in Act 3.
Snapping the Bitter Divorce
Once you tell Mayrina that the wand might be able to resurrect her dead husband, she’ll beg for you to bring him back. If you opt to snap it instead of pointing it at the coffin, she’ll be shocked and then curse at you. She’ll then collapse onto the ground, weeping before running off. This is very similar to how she acts if you opt to keep the Bitter Divorce. However, in this route, you break a girl’s heart and you don’t even get an undead summon.
