In your escapades throughout the worlds of Baldur’s Gate 3, you will come across a character named Auntie Ethel in the Grove. By all appearances, she seems like a sweet old lady. Looks can be deceiving, however, and as events unfold you’ll be left with a critical selection of choices and scenarios for your character to make.
She invites you out to her cabin and on your way you run into two men questioning Ethel along the road. What you do next is up to you—and will send you down a horrifying path. Spoilers ahead!
Should you defend or expose Auntie Ethel in Baldur’s Gate 3?
If you choose to stand up for Ethel, combat will begin and you’ll be forced to kill the two men. Before entering the conversation you can overhear them asking Ethel where their sister Mayrina is. Ethel will tell you that the girl is staying with her but was sworn to secrecy.
One of the dead men has a letter written by Mayrina in his inventory. In it, she says she’s “going to the hag.” Ethel may not be who she says she is after all. After defeating the two men, Ethel invites you to come to her house for a reward.
Alternatively, you can choose to expose Ethel, she’ll vanish in a cloud of smoke. There’s a brief dialogue with Mayrina’s brothers but they refuse your help and march off into the wetlands.
If you stay neutral, Ethel will kill the brothers and disappear. Unfortunately, there doesn’t appear to be a way to save the brothers from their untimely demise. All you can do now is avenge their deaths.
How do you get to Auntie Ethel’s House in Baldur’s Gate 3?
From where you first meet the brothers and Ethel on the road, follow the path and go right. Ethel’s house is just beyond a small creek. Watch out for sheep though, as these are actually Ethel’s minions in disguise.
If you talk to the sheep, they, and the entire swamp around you, will morph and change into how things really look. Suddenly you’re standing in the middle of a putrid bog talking to a murderous gnome.
Ethel’s minions will leave you alone, but remember that you’ll have to deal with them after you take on Ethel (assuming you head down that path) and each one of these four little creeps is a pain to kill. Be sure and take a rest and recharge before you walk into a fight you’re not ready for.
When you bust in on Ethel’s cabin she keeps on the old lady schtick for a minute but finally reveals her true form, a hideous hag. She’ll offer to remove the tadpole from your brain for a price—we’ll let you decide if you want that or not.
How to confront Auntie Ethel in Baldur’s Gate 3
Something doesn’t smell right about all of this, though, and it’s definitely not just the unwashed murder gnomes outside. Question Ethel and really push her about Mayrina, the young woman in her clutches. Push hard enough and Ethel will disappear along with Mayrina.
Related: Baldur’s Gate 3: All decisions in the Save Mayrina quest, explained
To follow her, throw a jug of water or cast an ice spell onto the fireplace. With the flames extinguished, walk through the fireplace. The wall beyond is a magical barrier that you can pass through. Take the stairs down deeper into the cavern.
Ethel is waiting for you in an underground chamber, seemingly unperturbed you found your way through her hidden fireplace door. You’ll exchange barbs and she’ll disappear again. All around the room are victims of her curses: poor souls whose poorly-worded wishes turned them into exhibits in Ethel’s twisted museum of cruelty.
Related: How to save Mayrina in Baldur’s Gate 3
There will be more to do in this room after you’ve killed Ethel as you can speak to some of her victims after their curses wear off. The ones that are still alive, anyway.
For now, let’s turn our attention to a giant wooden door we’ll need to open to get to Ethel.
How to open the Gnarled Door in Baldur’s Gate 3
Even the doors in this place have a tragic backstory. This puzzle is more straightforward than it looks, though. You’ll talk to the door and try to convince it to open. The thing is, the door itself is just another illusion. You can walk right through it.
Whatever you do, do NOT put on the Whispering Masks sitting on the table beside the door. These will only turn whoever wears them into one of Ethel’s puppets. The rest of your party will need to fight them into submission to remove the mask.
How to Beat Auntie Ethel’s Minions in Baldur’s Gate 3
Beyond the gnarled door, you’ll run into four of Ethel’s minions. These guys are tough so don’t be thinking you can just breeze right past. Unfortunately, if you avoid these guys they’ll just join the Ethel boss fight, making it that much harder. If you’re a wizard or have Gale in your party be sure to cast Sleep on these enemies and take them out one at a time.
We went the extra mile and tried to knock them all unconscious, expecting that once we killed Ethel they’d be set free. They didn’t join the boss fight but returning to this area later we only found pools of blood where we’d left their unconscious bodies. Sadly, you can’t save them.
How to get past the Noxious Fumes in Baldur’s Gate 3
If you’ve come across the Overgrown Tunnels before you’ll recognize the Noxious Fumes that block your path forward here. The quick and dirty way is to run right through them and take the damage they dish out. The fumes are coming from a vent which you can block by throwing an object into them but you’ll need to pass a perception check in order to know where to throw.
You can also just go scorched earth and cast a fire spell or toss an alchemist’s fire and light the gas on fire. You’ll need water or an ice spell to douse the ground so you can pass undamaged.
How to beat the Auntie Ethel boss fight in Baldur’s Gate 3
You’ll come to a large chamber and find Mayrina suspended in a wooden cage over a pit. To one side of the cage is a glowing orb on a pedestal. Move towards it and Ethel will appear, triggering combat.
Ethel will light Mayrina’s cage on fire so open the fight by tossing some water or casting an ice spell on it. You can also lower the cage by touching the glowing orb. Ethel has a few tricks up her sleeve by creating an illusion of two Mayrinas. The one who yells “Save me, please!” is the fake. She can also create several illusions of herself and note that these can still cast spells that pack a punch. A critical hit from a ray of sickness can cost you nearly 20 HP.
Blindness is a particularly useful spell to use in this fight as it will prevent Ethel from attacking and give all of your attacks extra initiative. Lay the hurt on the swamp witch until she gives in.
Once you get her health low enough, she will offer you a permanent plus-one to any stat of your choosing. In return, she asks that you spare her and let her take Mayrina. You will have the option to do an Intimidation or Deception check, either of which will let you get Mayrina and the plus-one ability score.
Some of the writers at Dot were exceptionally, and understandably, skeptical of Ethel’s offer and chose to kill her instead. However, you really do get a permanent ability score for your troubles and save Mayrina if you play your card right.
Finish off Ethel and you can nab two items from her corpse the Tarnished Charm and Corellon’s Grace. Some of us chose to let her flee instead and hit on our Intimidation checks. This presents a reward screen that gives players a choice of one single-use item, all of which are called Auntie Ethel’s Hair.
Since you’re doing this in Act One, there’s a low chance that you’ve already hit 20 on your class’ main stat. For me personally, looting the plus-one Dexterity option pushed me to 20 on my rogue. Pick whichever stat is best for your class, but double and triple check before your hit “accept” because all of the items look the exact same and have the same name. The only difference is the stat they give you a boost to.
Related: Baldur’s Gate 3: How to blow up Grymforge Cave with Smokepowder Bombs
There’s more loot in the back room as well as a portal you can use to teleport out of Ethel’s lair. Return to the room with the Gnarled Door and you can speak to two of Ethel’s recently-recovered victims but they won’t have any rewards for you.
If you took Ethel out, at least you have the satisfaction that Ethel is dead and all her captives are free. Good job you do-gooder, you. Proceed onward knowing that the hag has finally been defeated.
But if you let her flee and took the stat, you should expect to see her again as you approach Baldur’s Gate. Letters between her and her sister sitting around her dungeon and house suggest that she might be headed there to start more trouble.
