Baldur’s Gate 3: Auntie Ethel Questline [120+ Hours Experience]

Baldur’s Gate 3 has many quests, and among them, there is one that includes Auntie Ethel. Dealing with Auntie Ethel BG3 is probably one of the most annoying parts of Baldur’s Gate 3, as it could take a little of your time. But you don’t have to worry about that anymore as in this guide I will thoroughly explain everything you have to do to deal with Ethel.

Where To Find Auntie Ethel in Baldur’s Gate 3?

To find Auntie Ethel, you will have to wander around the swamp south or southwest of Blighted Village. You will find her interacting with two guys, where you will step in. You can decide on the dialogue to try to help the guys and then, after some talking, help them find Mayrina.

Metting With Auntie Ethel

As soon as you enter the Riverside Teahouse, a cut scene will start where you will see another guest named Mayrina. You will see Auntie Ethel asking Mayrina to finish eating a pie as she is pregnant. After that, she will notice you, and you will give her an introduction. Then Auntie will notice the parasite in your head, and without you asking for it, she will offer to help.

But she won’t help you without a deal. In exchange, she would ask for one of your eyes, but just for a moment, as she just wants to kiss it and give it back to you. Now here I would recommend you not to give your eye as she will fail to remove the parasite. However, she will give you a useful item but giving her your eye won’t be worth it as she will become hostile in a few moments.

In the quest, you end up fighting Auntie Ethel BG3 in order to save Mayrina. So giving her the eyes will prove to be disadvantageous for you. Auntie Ethel won’t hurt you as she will only use her true form and escape from the fireplace if you reject her offer, so don’t worry about that. Now you can begin your journey.

Searching The Teahouse For Some Clues

Wandering around the Teahouse will lead you to a fireplace where you will do a perception check. However, upon a successful perception check, you will notice something isn’t quite right. That is because the fireplace is an illusion, and you can walk through it. After doing so, you will find a hidden stairway.

If you wanted the useful item and agreed to the deal Auntie made, then you will find her in Overgrown Tunnel that you will find by going down the stairs. However, she will not be the same as when you met her, as she will be in her true form. As an Old Hag, she will demand you to leave and then disappear.

You will probably find the place extremely creepy (like I did), which will lead you to believe that something isn’t right. There are some things you can interact with, too, so if you feel like doing it go on. However, the next main step is getting past the Gnarled Door.

How To Get Past Gnarled Door?

For more clues, you must get past Gnarled Door. But upon interacting with the door, it will show you some visions of people that Auntie Ethel has killed. No matter what you do, the door won’t open, so you get to the same you did with the fireplace. This door is illusionary too, but make sure to equip the Whispering Mask before as it might be necessary.

Upon entering the door, you will encounter 4 people who you will have to fight. During this fight, you will feel that they don’t want to fight you as they keep rolling for Wisdom Checks just not to fight you. It will also seem like there is something that is making them fight you, so you will have to fight them.

How To Deal With The Gas Pits?

After you have successfully defeated the 4 masked enemies, you will have to head south and then west. By doing so, you will find a waterfall. Jump across the gap, and that’s where you will find a wide cloud of gas. It’s fairly easy to deal with the gas as you can just put it on fire and then remove the fire with water to travel through.

Now you just go to get past each of the gap pits you will enter a new area, Ancient Abode. This is where you will save Mayrina and fight with the Old Hag.

Saving Mayrina In Ancient Abode

You will see Mayrina in a floating cage where she’s yelling that she doesn’t want to be rescued and wants to stay here. As you get closer, a cutscene will start, and after that, a battle with the Old Hag will be inevitable. Players should remember that this will not be easy as Auntie Ethel is level 5, and she has deception.

As soon as the battle starts, the Old Hag will throw a bottle at the cage Mayrina is being kept inside. The cage will be on fire, so to save her, you have to put the fire out by using any source of water and then get her out of the cage. You can use throwing bottles or even a water-related spell to take out the fire.

How To Defeat Auntie Ethel In Baldur’s Gate 3?

When your battle with Auntie Ethel starts, she will clone herself three times. This will make it difficult for you to figure out which one is real, but you can destroy the clone with just a little bit of damage. The best way to know which one is real is by hitting her with a debuff. 

So, if you put the debuffs on her, you will be able to tell which is the real one, as only the real one will be debuffed. Upon hitting the real one, she will call you bloody clever clogs. After this phase, she will pull Mayrina out of the cage and clone herself as Mayrina. But this won’t be difficult as the real Mayrina will say that she is not Ethel.

When you successfully hit her, she will make clones a third time now. Now she will make four clones, and the worst part is that she will go invisible. If you were paying enough attention, you would know that when she created 4 clones, she dashed to a spot where no clone was. She will stay there until she is no longer invisible, but using an AoE spell will end that effect prematurely.

Different Ways To Defeat Auntie Ethel (Old Hag)

Now you can either kill Auntie Ethel in BG3 or make her beg for her life. If you get Auntie Ethel to around 10 health, and at that moment, if you end your turn, she will beg for life in exchange for power and let her go with Mayrina. If you want to save Mayrina, then with a successful roll, persuading or intimidating the Old Had will let you have both power and Mayrina.

Helping Mayrina

After dealing with the Old Hag, you will find a door that will lead to the Acrid workshop. There will be many weird potions and some other stuff. If you saved Mayrina from Auntie Ethel, then there will also be a wand known as Bitter Divorce. Now pick up the wand to help Mayrina.

Mayrina is gone back to the Riverside Teahouse, so you can head back there by using the glowing portal at the end of the room. You will find Mayrina standing next to the coffin of her husband. That is where you tell her that you have the Bitter Divorce and you might be able to revive him. 

If you revive her Husband Connor, Mayrina will still be a little disappointed as he is not in his original state. But she has the desire to fix him. Connor will serve whoever has the wand, so you have the option to give the wand to Mayrina. You must not revive Connor without talking to Mayrina, as he will wake up angry and hostile toward you, so then you will be forced to kill Connor.

My Thoughts

One of my favorite parts about Baldurs Gate 3 is the absurd stuff you can do. You can lick spiders, get your eye poked out by a jester and you can eat the hair of a magical old lady to gain more ability points.

Naturally, I will recommend that you definitely try this quest out regardless of preference. It gives a lot of experience, there is a lot of treasure hidden in the Teahouse, and you can potentially gain a lot of approval from whichever companion you want to romance based on your decisions.

That’s almost everything you would want to know about Auntie Ethel BG3. The quest is quite long, and there are some annoying parts, but this guide is drafted just so you could be able to do the quest easily. While you are at it, you should take a look at Baldur’s Gate 3 best Paladin Build for a perfect showcase of an Oath of Vengeance build. 

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