In Baldur's Gate 3 Aunt Ethel is a key character in the quests "The Tea House" and "Save Myrina". She will invite you to her home and offer to remove the larva from your brain in exchange for an eye. In this guide, we will tell you where to find this old lady, whether you should trust her, and whether you should give up your eye.
How to find Auntie Ethel
First meeting
For the first time you can meet Aunt Ethel (X: 193, Y: 545) in the Emerald Grove, where you can purchase some potions and ingredients for them from her. After talking with her, you will learn that she can help you remove the larva, but to do this you will need to go to her Tea House.
Visiting her here is advisable, but not necessary, since you can talk to her later. Let's add that if you kill Kaga in the grove, you will no longer be able to meet with Ethel, so we do not recommend dealing with her ahead of time if you have such a goal.
How to find the Tea House by the River
If you have taken the “Tea House” quest, then simply move towards the marker. Otherwise, head south from the Extinct Village towards the Sunlit Swamp. Right on the border with the new location you will find Ethel (X: 50, Y: 313) arguing with two men. They will claim that the old woman took their sister Mayrina.
With good Insight, you will realize that Ethel is lying. If you immediately accuse her of lying, she will scold you and then immediately disappear. Talk to the brothers. You can offer them your help in finding your sister, which will lead to the start of the “Save Mairina” quest, but they will refuse you and go into the swamp alone, where they will die in any case.
Note: Some players note that the brothers can still be saved. Playing as a drow or ranger, you can tell them that hags are very dangerous creatures, so they need to be careful. In this case, one of the brothers will note that it is better to leave the witch to us. As a result, they will return to the village, and will not go into the swamp (untested, may have worked in an earlier version).
You can also threaten the guys, telling them not to touch the old lady - in this case, Jol and Demir will think that you are on the side of the witch and will attack you. Kill them and then talk to Ethel. She will invite you to her tea house again.
Go to the Sunlit Marshes and continue south. Move carefully, as along the way you can come across many spike traps that can cause damage and cause bleeding or even cause gangrene. You will also be able to pass an Investigation check (20). If you complete it successfully, you will see what the swamp actually looks like.
If you did not fight with Jol and Demir, but were unable to persuade them to return home, you will soon discover their corpses (X: 6, Y: 244). Before this, you can talk to the sheep and pass another test to see the real appearance of the swamp and the animals (they will turn into redcaps). However, even if you fail, you will still later realize that you actually ended up in a Fetid Mire.
As for the Tea House by the River, it is located west of the crashed Nautiloid at the following coordinates - X: -43, Y: 270. Save and then enter the building. Inside you will find Aunt Ethel, who is feeding Myrina with pies. If you previously accused her of lying to her brothers, she will demand that you apologize to her. Don't be rude to her if you want to continue the conversation, or attack her straight away.
If you continued the conversation, Ethel will soon begin to argue with Myrina, forcing her to continue eating. Here you can do the following:
- Say: “Is this Myrina? I have bad news for her." You tell her about your dead brothers. This answer will be available if her brothers died. Then say that Ethel killed them - this will lead to a battle with the hag. If the swamp has not yet been transformed, it will happen now.
- Choose neutral lines without trying to figure out what exactly the witch wants to do with Myrina, otherwise you will also be in for a fight. As a result, we will talk about the parasite in your head and how to remove it.
Give the eye to Aunt Ethel or not
Discuss your tadpole problem with Aunt Ethel. She will say that she can remove it, but you will have to give your eye for it. As a result, you will have two options to choose from. Let's consider the consequences of both decisions.
Give the eye to Aunt Ethel
In this case, the old lady will turn into a Hag, and then take your eye, replacing it with her own eyeball (looks pretty scary), which gives +1 to Intimidation. However, you will receive a "Price Paid" status, which lowers Perception (worse on attention checks). Plus, avoiding witch attacks in the future will be more problematic.
In addition, the Hag will not be able to pull out the larva, as she will report that there is Netherian shadow magic involved, which she does not want to have anything to do with. Naturally, it will not be possible to return your own eye. The choice of eye (right or left), by the way, does not affect anything.
Note: You can give away a companion's eye by switching to it and talking to the Hag. In this case, he will receive a debuff.
You can put a little pressure on the witch so that she gives you Aunt Ethel's Amulet. This is a one-time use item that provides a number of buffs when used. However, in our opinion, he is still not worth his own eyes and a decrease in Perception. So we advise you to refuse the old lady’s offer.
Didn't agree to give up the eye
Then you can simply leave without a fight - the Hag will not stop you, but you will still have the opportunity to attack her.
What happens if you come to Ethel with one eye
By this point, you could very well have lost one eye, allowing Volo to perform his operation. In this case, Aunt Ethel will refuse to help you, because she does not want to deprive you of your only real eye.
Comments
You need to login to add comments.
You can login with