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Baldur's Gate 3 has a lovely main story that is a big hit with fans. However, its Side Quests are arguably even better. Most of the game's Side Quests are vague in their directions, all the more to encourage exploration.
One such Side Quest features a young woman named Mayrina, who has mysteriously gone missing after going to visit a Hag named Auntie Ethel. Further investigation reveals that her brothers are worried about her and adds "Save Mayrina" as an optional objective in your Journal. Keep reading for everything you need to know about completing this Side Quest and saving the damsel in distress.
How To Begin The "Save Mayrina" Side Quest
To begin the "Save Mayrina" Side Quest in Baldur's Gate 3, you should interrupt the conversation between Mayrina's brothers and Auntie Ethel. This conversation takes place just outside the entrance to the Hag's Bog. Once you get involved in the conversation, you will be asked to either side with Auntie Ethel or to side with the boys. Before you respond, you can roll an insight check to get more information about the conflict.
- If you side with Auntie Ethel, the trio will all proceed towards Auntie Ethel's home.
- If you side with the boys, she will reveal her malicious nature and disappear.
To get the most information about Mayrina and speak further with her brothers, you should side with them.
After Auntie Ethel has disappeared, you can speak with the brothers about their plans and offer to help rescue Mayrina. They will, however, turn down your offer to help. Regardless of whether you volunteer to look for Mayrina, the Side Quest will be added to your Journal at this point.
How To Navigate The Bog
Next, you will need to enter the swamp where Auntie Ethel lives. Doing so will trigger a Perception Check with a high DC. This will determine how much of their true surroundings your party sees. Passing the check will make traversing the area much easier, but it is not required to continue. A success will reveal the swamp's poisonous nature, making it show up as "The Putrid Bog" on your map. A failure will make it appear to be a bucolic place called The Sunlit Wetlands. In either case, you will need to investigate the swamp while avoiding its hazards. There is an abandoned camp, and the bodies of Mayrina's brothers to loot before entering the cottage.
You can use Speak with Dead to get some additional information from them before entering the cottage.
How To Avoid The Traps
The first major hazard is the traps in the water. If you step on one, it will cause some chip damage and a nasty status condition called Open Wound. This can then transition to Rotting (a significant and long-lasting debuff that can only be removed with Lesser Restoration) depending on your character's Constitution. Staying on the path will avoid them. Alternatively, if your party passed the initial Perception check when entering the swamp, you can spot and disarm them.
Fighting The Red Caps
If you fail the initial Perception check, then you will be faced with a small herd of Sheep wandering around the Swamp. If you succeed, these "sheep" will be revealed as Red Caps. Red Caps are dangerous Fey with high damage output and health pools. These are Ethel's minions. To remove the sheep illusion after failing the first check, you can succeed on an Animal Handling check — this is easier if you use Speak With Animals. Alternatively, you can just attack them with the illusion intact, but this will make your characters Surprised.
Because of the place they occupy in the swamp, and their limited roaming, it is quite easy to sneak around them. However, not fighting them here will risk Auntie Ethel calling them in as reinforcements later. Usually, it is best to take them out before entering Auntie Ethel's House, so you don't need to face them and the hag at the same time.
During the fight, the Red Caps will deal devastating melee attacks with a chance to inflict the Bleeding Status. They will also buff themselves with Bloodlust, further increasing their damage.
You can break concentration on Bloodlust by targeting the caster.
To make the fight easier, try to sneak up onto the high ground where one of the Red Caps stands — you can probably kill this one quickly and then take the positional advantage in the fight against the others.
Speaking With Auntie Ethel
Entering Ethel's house outside of stealth will trigger a dialogue. In it, Ethel is forcing Mayrina to eat. When she sees you, she will attempt to bargain with you to remove your parasite in exchange for leaving her alone. Agreeing will not remove the parasite — Ethel fails due to the magical protection around the tadpole. However, it will damage your eyesight, giving you disadvantage on Perception Checks for the rest of the campaign.
When you turn her down on her offer and continue to press her about Mayrina, this will trigger combat. Ethel will take on her true form as a hag and teleport Mayrina away. If she takes significant damage (but doesn't die), she will become invisible and try to flee on her next turn. It is possible to kill her here, but you'll need to be leveled up and have high nova damage. Paladin Smite, Rogue Sneak attack, and a lucky roll on a high-level wizard spell are the way to go here. If she successfully flees, then you'll need to follow Ethel into her lair.
How To Enter The Hag's Lair
Entering the hag's lair can be done by turning off the fireplace via interacting with it and then walking through to the hidden passage behind. From here, there will be a steep decline into a foyer room. It is filled with previous victims of Ethel, each locked in a different kind of torment. Here, you will find four Whispering Masks on a table and a locked door that cannot be picked.
Should You Take The Whispering Masks?
Taking the masks is a risky but valid strategy, as putting them on prevents you from being tricked by Ethel's illusions or attacked by her minions. However, you will constantly have to roll Wisdom Saving Throws in order to avoid being controlled by Ethel while wearing the mask. If you go this route, put the mask on only your Wisest character and give them every buff you can (Protection from Evil & Good, Bless, or Resistance are good options). You'll also only want to wear the mask during key sections of the dungeon before taking it off again.
The Main Door
The main door to the Hags Inner Sanctum resembles a face made out of tree roots and cannot be unlocked. Instead, you'll need to interact with it to start a dialogue. In it, you'll learn that the door doesn't like serving Ethel, but it is afraid of her. There are options to make a Persuasion, Intimidation, or Arcana roll to bypass the door. You can convince or threaten it to open, or you can realize that it's an illusion and walk through.
Traversing The Hag's Lair
The Inner Sanctum of the Hag's Lair is divided into two sections: a guard room and a trapped pathway. Both can more easily be traversed by wearing the masks — if you are confident in your dice rolls. Otherwise, you'll need to carefully fight your way through.
The Masked Guards
In the first room, there are five humanoid figures wearing Whispering Masks. They patrol the room pretty well unless you're able to bypass the illusive wall to the right of the door. This can only be done by wearing a mask.
If you cannot bypass the illusion, you'll need to fight them. Keep in mind that these are unwilling servants of Ethel's, so some characters might feel bad about killing them. Consider toggling non-lethal damage in the passives tab of your action bar to knock them unconscious instead. Once you've taken out the guards, loot their armor, then jump to the ledge on the other side of the waterfall.
The Trapped Cliff
On the other side of the waterfall is a cliff-side path leading downwards. Sections of the path are covered in noxious fumes, which need to be cleared before you can proceed. Walk up to the cloud slowly to trigger a Perception Check. A success will reveal the vent where the cloud is coming from. To stop the vent from spilling smoke into the area, you can throw the armor looted from the guards upstairs onto the vent. There should be enough armor to cover all the vents.
Once the smoke is gone, you'll see a pathway littered with little flowers — don't be fooled. These flowers are explosive traps that need to be disarmed before you continue. Either use a check to disarm them, or throw a heavy object on top like you did with the vents.
How To Rescue Mayrina & Defeat Auntie Ethel
After navigating the Cliffside, you will enter a large round room with a cage hanging in the middle. This is the boss room, and entering without Stealthing first will trigger a Cutscene followed by everyone rolling Initiative. It is heavily advised to begin in Stealth, so you can look at the room before the fight begins.
Saving Mayrina
Mayrina is inside the cage at the center of the room, which swings over a bottomless chasm. During the first round of combat, Ethel will try to light the cage on fire. The resulting burning will destroy the cage in three rounds. To save her, you'll need to lower the cage onto solid ground before it breaks.
Controlling the cage is done via the conspicuously colored orange orb on the far side of the room — a fast character should sprint there right away. Getting Mayrina away from the chasm is priority number one because if Mayrina falls, you will fail the quest. Once the cage is on solid ground, you can leave her to her own devices for the rest of the fight.
Strategies For Fighting Auntie Ethel
Meanwhile, the rest of your party will have their hands full trying to defeat Auntie Ethel. She begins by creating illusionary copies of herself before melee-attacking characters at random. These copies can be destroyed by hitting them, revealing the location of the true Ethel.
Don't waste your strongest attacks on an illusion; spend the first round attacking each copy to determine the real Ethel, then focus fire on the Hag.
Any Healing, Regen, or Lifesteal you may have to sustain you through this period will be vital, so make sure your resources are at full.