As you explore every nook and cranny of the maps in Baldur’s Gate 3, you’ll encounter unique NPCs, precarious situations, and even a little old lady who happens to be more than she lets on. Auntie Ethel is a hag who’s taken a woman named Mayrina, and if you wish to save Mayrina from the hag and learn more about the tadpole in your brain, you’ll want to complete this questline.
BG3 full quest guide: Save Mayrina from Auntie Ethel
How to start the Save Mayrina quest
On a trail south of the Blighted Village, you’ll encounter three men demanding that an older woman needs to return Mayrina—and this will spark a questline where you must save Mayrina from the older woman, better known as the hag, Auntie Ethel.
You will automatically perform an Insight check, which is a Wisdom skill, and if successful, you’ll notice that she is lying and does know about Mayrina.
When she’s found out, she will escape and leave the brothers alive if you choose the option, “You’re lying; you have seen this girl.” With some of the other options, she may kill them. So, be careful.
When you tell the brothers that you’ll save Mayrina, however, they’re in disbelief and will save her. But if you do say you’ll go and save her, Lae’Zel will disapprove, and Karlach will approve. So, if you want to romance either of those companions, your choice does matter, and it leads to the next portion of the quest.
Confront Auntie Ethel in the Riverside Teahouse
From the Blighted Village, you must head southeast and through a swamp-ridden area to get to the Riverside Teahouse, with Auntie Ethel and Mayrina inside. There’s also a waypoint here, so be sure to activate it.
Inside the teahouse, a cutscene will play where Ethel forces Mayrina to eat, and she notices that you have a tadpole in your head. She says she will help you with your tadpole, and you can either accept her help or say that Auntie Ethel is terrible news—only the latter option gets Karlach’s approval.
But if you decide to learn more about the tadpole, she is willing to extract it, but it will leave you scarred, and your eye will take on a unique white shade. If you ask for her help removing it, Astarion approves of your choice, but Shadowheart will disapprove of it.
After realizing she can’t remove it, or if you choose the Karlach-approved option, she turns into a hag and escapes through a secret passageway.
Enter the secret passageway
To enter the secret passageway and follow Auntie Ethel, click on the fireplace at the back of the room to extinguish its flames, and you’ll be safe to go through to interact with the wooden staircase that leads you into the Overgrown Tunnel.
Navigating the Overgrown Tunnel
Follow the path down the steps, and it will lead you to Auntie Ethel in her full-haggy glory, and you can select whichever dialogue option pleases you. I chose “Or what,” and her response was, “Mess with me, and you’ll find out.”
She will disappear, and the chase for Authie Ethel is still on. To follow her, turn left at the firepit, and you’ll see a gnarled door that doesn’t want to let people through. You could try to force your way through, but there is a better option. So, when you get the dialogue option to “Leave,” select it.
And to your right, you’ll find a Whispering Mask on top of a wooden table. Pick it up and equip it, which causes a cutscene, and Auntie Ethel will say her mask suits you. Once it’s over, quickly pass through the door and unequip the mask, and your vision will return to normal.
Although it may be daunting, the Overgrown Tunnel is linear, meaning that you’ll be going one way, and it’s generally in the direction of the glowing green lights.
You’ll notice one behind a waterfall, and you’ll need to jump over the ravine to continue your journey. But don’t go too far, because there’s a Noxious Fumes, poison gas cloud just after it.
Related: Baldur’s Gate 3 Overgrown Tunnel: How to clear Noxious Fumes in BG3
Throw a heavy item like a skull, rock, or book onto the vent to cover it and clear it. But if you didn’t pass the Perception check, you may not see it, so you’ll need to light it on fire, put it out with water, and then either run past the vent or block it off with a stone.
From here, you can navigate across the narrow ledge until you descend some knotted roots, roughly at the coordinates X:-367 and Y:551, and then down another level of the knotted roots. On your right will be another Noxious Fumes poison cloud, so get rid of it and head into the Ancient Abode. I highly recommend using one of your short rests if your health is low and performing a separate save file here in case you need it.
Defeat Auntie Ethel and Save Myrina from the burning cage
Once you enter the Ancient Abode, a cutscene will play with Auntie Ethel spewing a load of profanities at you—she is pretty creative, and it’s a shame we have to kill her.
Auntie Ethel is a tough old hag with 112 Health, and she has normal levels of resistance against poison, fire, lightning, psychic, bludgeoning, slashing, and piercing damage. The one ability I’d say you should watch out for is the one where she copies herself. These copies can hurt you, so be careful.
But you can dispel them by hitting them. Because of this, if you have a Sorcerer, Wizard, Fighter, or Rogue, and you have the Magic Missile, you can use your three individual shots on each of her clones. It’s honestly a cheat code ability in this fight.
But once you’ve slayed the hag, you can use the glowing orange device to bring Myrina’s cage down. But if you’re in the fight and you’re worried about the cage’s “health” because Ethel sets it on fire, you can always use a water spell, a bottle of water, or even a water barrel if you’ve got one.
Unfortunately, once Myrina is out of her cage, she yells at you and doesn’t appreciate you “saving” her because she made a deal with Ethel. Ethel would bring her husband back from the dead, and Myrina would give up her baby. She runs off and leaves you behind.
Find and bring the wand to Mayrina
At the back of the cavern, towards the glowing light, you’ll notice a wooden door, roughly at the coordinates X:-419 and Y:585.
Go through the door and into the Acrid Workshop. Here, you will notice a stone table with candles on it, and on top of the table is a wand called Bitter Divorce.
Pick it up and follow the quest marker to the mushroom circle, which takes you from the Acrid Workshop and into the Putrig Bog.
To your left and up the steps, you’ll see Mayrina, and you’ll need to talk to her. After a few moments, you’ll be given some dialogue options, including using the wand to bring back her husband—select it.
Before you resurrect her husband, you’ll be given another choice—whether you will resurrect her husband or break the wand in two. I chose to resurrect her husband, and it was horrifying.
She soon learns that Auntie Ethel’s version of “bringing someone back from the dead” isn’t what she had in mind. And she demands the wand to figure it out herself—this is the option Karlach approves of. But you can also keep the wand if you want.
And you’ll complete the quest as soon as Mayrina and her zombie-like husband run off together.
Saving Mayrina is a wild ride from start to finish, but you’ll encounter several exciting NPCs and gain romantic favors, depending on your dialogue options.
Related: Baldur’s Gate 3: How many acts are there in BG3?
