All of Aunt Ethel’s victims that can be saved in Baldur’s Gate 3

Aunt Ethel is a secondary character in Baldur’s Gate 3but his vulgarity and cruelty leave marks on every player who crosses his path. Ethel is a witch who uses her magic to fulfill the requests of others, often in nefarious and deceptive ways that bring about their death. Much like some stories about genies or the monkey’s paw, Ethel grants magical benefits that technically meet the requirements of what someone asked forbut ultimately they leave us much worse off.

The player character can attempt to deal with her to remove her mind flayer parasite, and in doing so will encounter a few others that Ethel has tricked into fates worse than death. The main person players will find involved in a deal with Ethel is Mayrina, a woman who wants to exchange her unborn child for the return of her husband’s life. But she’s not the only person Ethel has taken advantage of; in his cabin in the first act and in his lair in the third act, Players encounter many people cursed by the witch and can even save some of them.

Saving Mayrina and the Anti-Hag Support Group

A multi-act work that requires some research

Mayrina is first encountered in Ethel’s cabin in the first act, held hostage by Ethel and waiting to have her child so she can exchange him. Players can investigate Ethel’s cabin and attempt to rescue Mayrina, eventually finding her in a cage in the basement. Here, fighting Ethel opens up the choice of “killing” the witch to free Mayrina, letting Ethel keep her, or pass a charisma test to let Ethel go, save Mayrinaand collect a powerful item.

Mayrina will not be happy with the failure of her deal to resurrect her husband, but it is clear that Ethel never intended to play fair. She intended raise Mayrina’s husband Connor as a zombie, what the party can still do in an attempt to be useful. Whether or not Connor is resurrected, Mayrina goes from here to Baldur’s Gate (potentially with her zombie husband in tow) and forms an anti-witch support group there. Mayrina’s group includes several others, all wronged by witches, and exists to protect them from future harm.

Unfortunately for Mayrina, Ethel didn’t break up with her. Even though players “killed” Ethel in Act One, she returns in Act Three send one of your redcap friends to the support group and turn Mayrina into a sheep with a cursed doll. Find the support group in Old Garlow’s Place, find the doll and clean it with a remove curse

The spell will encourage one of Ethel’s cronies to summon a cast of crabs to kill the group. If the group manages to kill the Triumph in the encounter, Mayrina and the rest of the group will be safe.

Saving mask wearers

Lifting the veil from these tortured souls

The other large group of people who need to be saved are the Whispering Mask

users, Ethel’s enchanted slaves who guard her hiding places. There are four in Act One and four more below the Blushing Mermaid in Act Three, where Ethel makes her new home. They consist of different groups of people who have made deals with Ethel, each hoping to free themselves from some affliction or gain something. only to end up in eternal servitude to the witch.

In each location, the wearers of the masks are called masks of servitude, vengeance, and terror, with corresponding thematically relevant powers. In the first encounter, there is also a mask of regret, and in the second, there is the owner of the Blushing Mermaid, Captain Grisly, still known by his name. Each of these servants will be compelled to attack the party unless they succeed on wisdom saving throws each turn. The important trick to save these characters is not to kill them in their fights, but rather to knock them out.

Knocking out these characters will allow the party to loot them and remove their masks, but It’s important not to do this until Ethel is dead/missing or removing the mask will kill the wearer. Simply use non-lethal attacks to neutralize these guards, defeat Ethel, and then return to take off the masks. Most of these characters went through a lot of mental trauma to return to their lives, except two: the Mask of Regret in the first act and Captain Grisly in the third act. Both will thank the party for freeing them, and the former will even join the anti-witch support group.

Two easy-to-miss characters that can be helped

Victims trapped by rocks and mirrors

Two easiest characters to miss are Efrin and Lorinboth found in a quasi-museum display of Ethel’s victims in her basement in the first act. Each came to Ethel with requests that ultimately left them trapped in her clutches. Efrin had a disease, called Ladueger’s Bite, that he wanted stopped, and Lorin was nervous about the future and wanted to see what was coming. Ethel turned the former to stone, petrifying him, while cursing the latter to see people (including himself) as they would eventually be, mostly as decaying corpses.

Unlike most of Ethel’s victims, however, these two are still alive, and both can be helped after Ethel leaves her cabin. Lorin is easy; all the party needs to do is return and speak to him after defeating Ethel. He will express gratitude for being saved and leave. With Efrin, players should be more careful, following the process outlined by a Reddit user kyuven87. First, they must bring a potion of Basilisk Oil

to your body, a cure for petrification that can be found in the Ruined Village and the Underdark.

However, if the party did not “kill” Ethel during the first fight, but instead let her leave, freeing Efrin will cause him to die immediately. Only if Ethel is “dead” can he be saved. This is because he has never been sick; instead of, her illness was a curse in itself, inflicted by the witch. De-petrifying the dwarf after killing Ethel will free him and allow him to make it out alive.

Rescuing Vanra, Ethel’s latest victim

Saving a child from the clutches of a witch

Finally, there is Vanra, a child who was eaten by Ethel at the beginning of Act Three. Vanra was eaten, but she is not dead, because Ethel plans to turn Vanra into a witch swallowing her and infusing her with his power. Vanra’s mother will give the player a clue about her disappearance, and the anti-witch support group will offer help to save the child. This comes in the form of a poison, called the Witch’s Curse, which will make a witch vomit a person who has ingested it.

This poison is not actually necessary to save Vanra, but it is useful, and the support group must be saved first to obtain it. From there, the group must venture to the Blushing Mermaid, confront Ethel (who is disguised as Captain Grisly, the owner) and chase her to her basement lair. After defeating her masked guards, the group fights Ethel for the last time. To save Vanra, they must throw Hag’s Bane potion at Ethel to hit her or knock Ethel out with non-lethal damage. This allows them to open the witch and let Vanra out.

The fight does not end until Ethel is dead, which can only be achieved if the party destroys the pearlescent mushrooms around her lair that can revive her. Either way, once Vanra is eliminated, she will flee the scene and return to her mother. Vanra is certainly traumatized, but as long as players don’t kill Ethel before freeing Vanra Baldur’s Gate 3she will eventually make it out alive.

Source: kyuven87/Reddit