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Ready to visit a deceptive hag for a spot of tea? Baldur’s Gate 3 (BG3) side-quests are most often delightfully cryptic. One of them is the ‘Save Mayrina’ quest, which you can pick up from the Sunlit Wetlands south of the Blighted Village.
True to this game’s playstyle, each step you take within this side-quest is laced with complexities and choices to spice up your gameplay. Should you save Mayrina and help her escape? Or should you let the hag live to catch another prey? The choices are thrilling and help curate a variety of intriguing endings to the ‘Save Mayrina’ quest.
Starting the Save Mayrina Quest- Locations and More
Rescuing Mayrina from this demonic hag is no easy task. A lot depends on how you start this Act 1 side-quest from the get-go. To start the quest, venture to the west of Druid Grove.
After you cross a stone bridge, you finally reach the Blighted Village. As you walk down the hilly slope south of this village, you finally head towards Sunlit Wetlands, where you see 2 men scolding an old lady.
This lady is Auntie Ethel, the Riverside Teahouse proprietor, and is not who you think her to be. As you get closer to this hotheaded trio, you understand that these 2 men are accusing Auntie Ethel of kidnapping their sister, Mayrina. Since this is a long side-quest, we will map out every possible outcome of your strategies to complete this mission.
It Was an Illusion All Along!
We don’t let young, hot-blooded folks admonish innocent elders now, do we? But that’s the point. On passing a DC20 Perception check in Sunlit Wetlands, you will see the true nature of this area.
It isn’t all sunshine and greeneries you see it to be, but a musty and treacherous swamp with traps in all places. On a failed Perception check, you’ll continue seeing the bright, fresh, and vibrant forest that you know the Sunlit Wetlands to be!
Let’s Talk About the Ethel in the Room
After bumping into the angry brothers and this old lady in distress, you have 2 ways to approach and diffuse the situation.
You can choose to scold the angry men. However, this will end with you fighting the brothers. On the other hand, if you take the brothers’ sides and choose to criticize the old lady, she’ll teleport away.
Siding with the brothers helps you spare their lives and also receive vital information on where to find their captive sister, i.e., at Auntie Ethel’s Gnarled Teahouse. From here, you begin your journey towards the kidnapper’s lair to save the helpless captive.
If you fail to convince the brothers not to head towards the Riverside Teahouse to save Mayrina, you’ll find their bodies on the way to the Teahouse.
This turnout is not too shocking to grasp, but at least now you know this is the correct path to the Teahouse. You can use ‘Speak with Dead’ to commune with these corpses and learn how Auntie Ethel and her Teahouse are not what they seem.
Upon arriving at the Teahouse, you’ll meet Auntie Ethel and Mayrina. Here, you have some time to chat with them, and can make one of the 2 choices here:
Tell Mayrina About Her Dead Brothers
If you choose to disclose to Mayrina about her dead brothers, keep in mind that things unravel quicker than you expected. It will anger Ethel, leading to her transforming into her original hag form and disappearing along with Mayrina.
Additionally, a couple of Redcaps will appear, disrupting your progress. After defeating these scraggly beasts, you can move forward. To do so, check behind the Teahouse fireplace to find an illusionary wall and sneak through!
Don’t Tell Mayrina About Her Dead Brothers
If you don’t talk about her brothers within this short window of opportunity, she’ll teleport Mayrina away. In the next scenes, you can choose to tell her about the tadpole parasite in your brain. To this, she’ll say she’s ready to help.
Dealing With the Frog Issue
Before accepting Ethel’s help with your brain’s parasite tadpole- just know that she’s lying.
If you take her help, know that it comes with grave consequences. Her procedure will involve plucking one of your eyeballs out, giving you the permanent Hag-Eye status. While Hag-Eye gives you +1 to Intimidation checks, you get a perpetual -1 to your Perception checks.
Not to forget, Hag-Eye also bars critical hits, so all in all, it’s a complete bummer to let Auntie Ethel cure your brain.
Behind the Fireplace
If you choose the option to tell Mayrina about her dead brothers, a different story unfolds. So why go for fighting a hag with disadvantage rolls when you can sneak into the Overgrown Tunnel?
Since her fireplace is an illusionary wall, you can find a passage behind it leading to the Overgrown Tunnel. Here, you’ll find the most random objects around. The most important of the lot is the ‘Whispering Mask.’
After you enter the Tunnel, you’ll find the Gallery showcasing all her previous victims. After taking the ‘Whispering Mask’ from the table here, start the following process:
- Cast ‘Protection from Evil and Good’ on yourself. After this, put on the ‘Whispering Mask.’
- Going in further, you’ll encounter a wooden wall with a face. On a successful skill check upon interaction, the face will turn out to be an illusion and nothing more. Meaning you can pass through. But read the next point before entering the next room.
- In the next room, you’ll find 4 Masked Victims. These mask-wearing entities are possessed by Ethel, which can only mean one thing. You wearing your mask marks you perfect for similar mind-control. So remove your mask before entering here.
- You can choose to kill them all or spare their lives with enough harm that lets you escape to the next room. You can also opt for some non-lethal damage skills and spells.
- Beware of the poisonous gas that the next section of your path has.
- Before jumping into the waterfall that comes your way, look up to the left, and you’ll notice a ledge.
- If any of your party members still have a mask on, all of you can pass through the illusory tree wall and find a teleporter in the room.
- Use the teleporter to get to the Underdark. You’ll need to avoid traps to spot Mayrina inside a cage.
Confronting Auntie Ethel to Save Mayrina
Confronting Auntie Ethel in her hag form is no easy task. You’re now in the Ancient Abode, where you spot Mayrina in a cage dangling from above. Beneath her lies a deep and dark trench.
If Auntie Ethel spots you and your group, she’ll summon several copies of herself and set Mayrina’s cage on fire. The objective here is to save Mayrina from the burning cell within a limited period.
Behind the Fireplace
There are 2 fool-proof to save Mayrina from the cage and from Auntie Ethel overall.
Go Tactical
One way to not get into combat from the get-go is to not approach Mayrina’s cage. Instead, you can take this time to position the party for the most efficiency.
Try placing Gale in the chamber’s right-hand corner and ensure he has the spell ‘Magic Missile.’ Keep 3 other party members on the left-hand side, preferably melee attackers, for maximum combat damage,
Move Gale forward at the beginning of the combat. If Auntie Ethel sees Gale, she’ll set Mayrina’s cage on fire. This action is time-sensitive, and the cage blazes for a few turns before burning to a crisp, thus permanently failing your side quest.
Ethel summons 3 clones herself of 1 HP each, and since Gale moves to the right side of this chamber, she teleports towards the opposite left end. This site has 3 of your other characters ready. During Gale’s next turn, he can use his Magic Missile to turn these clones to dust.
Remember that Ethel’s clones carry the same effects as her, i.e., hexes and poison. Make sure they’re your first target during the combat.
While the rest of the party attacks the hag, Gale can activate the Control Orb in the chamber, which lowers the cage. Use the spell ‘Create or Destroy Water’ to diffuse the engulfing flames. You can also throw a vial of water at the cage if you do not have the spell.
If Gale’s not near the Control Orb, you can use the spell ‘Misty Step’ to teleport near it or even use ‘Magic Hands’ to reach the Orb.
This way, you free Mayrina all with tactical strategies.
Go Offensive
This is a long side quest, so if you want to leave tactical combat planning at the bog’s stairway, we don’t blame you! Instead, go full offensive in every way you like.
For example, the moment you see Mayrina and Auntie Ethel by the pit, don’t waste any time planning your next moves. Instead, shove the latter right into this bottomless crevice. The best character for it is Karlach after using Rage. Since she now has an advantage on Strength, she can use ‘Shove’ and do the needful.
If you used water to diffuse the fire engulfing Mayrina’s cage, Ethel would teleport her out of the cage and disguise herself as Mayrina. One way to tell apart the imposter (Auntie Ethel) is by checking which Mayrina is wet. You can also use Witch Bolt on the hag, who will be linked to your character after creating a copy of herself. This is also useful for determining who the real hag is when she summons copies of herself.
Since the original Mayrina was inside the cage when you splashed the water, she’d be drenched. So the dry Mayrina is Auntie Ethel in an elusive disguise.
Saving Mayrina
When Auntie Ethel gets to 20 HP, she will try to strike a bargain with you. Her proposal is to let her keep Mayrina while rewarding you with a unique gift. This is a strand of Auntie Ethel’s hair, a one-time-use item that gives you +1 to an ability score.
Killing her might be easy, but you don’t get to snatch her loot after death. These include:
- (Amulet) Tarnished Charm- Helps you with Death Saving throws
- (Staff) Corellon’s Grace- +1 to unarmed attack rolls and their damages. If you’re not wearing armor, you get +2 on savings throws inside!
But you might want both. In that case, roll for intimidation. If you roll 15 or higher, it’s a success and you can intimidate Ethel to give up Mayrina.
Helping Mayrina
Auntie Ethel’s Ancient Workshop is a place of wonders. After your combat, head over to this Ancient Workshop and look for the Bitter Divorce wand. This wand has the name ‘Connor’ carved on it. Teleport out from here to find Mayrina behind the Treehouse, where she’s sitting near her husband’s coffin.
Here, you have 3 choices:
- Snap the wand into 2 pieces, leaving Mayrina sobbing and distraught as she runs away
- Resurrect Connor as a zombie and give her the wand. She and her zombie husband will head to Baldur’s Gate to search for a cure to end this condition. Or you can kill the zombie, angering Maryina and causing her to fight you too.
- Keep the wand on you, and summon zombie Connor to fight alongside you.
Happy gaming!
