Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General What's the point of Auntie Ethel?

So ... the hag in the swamp. I don't get it.
It's not that the quest isn't amusing. However, why would I go there, even as a good PC? I have this interesting parasite in my brain, and from what I gathered up to that point, my focus is getting rid of said parasite, because it can turn me into a mindflayer any second now. Why would I then wander of into a swamp to rescue spme maiden, when the intro dialog between the hag and the brothers is uninspiring, to say the least.
Even if it wasn't - why would I spent precious time going there. It really doesn't make sense to me, apart from metagaming in terms of "Look, another area to discover."
Can someone enlighten me?

You can actually first meet Auntie Ethel in the druid grove, and if you talk to her there she'll claim she can remove your tadpole

I hope they fix the quest because it's my favorite so far -- I love the art, the changing of the swap. Larian really gets the creepy bits of old European fairy tales.

For a good party it starts with self interest but becomes a rescue quest. She claims to have an artifact that can cure. You are skeptical but there is something strange about her, you find that there a someone in need of rescuing, when you get further in you find more and more victims.

Yeah this quest is great. I wish I could finish it though because it is so unique.

Actually found her by accident looking for something else for a quest heh. As for saving the human .. why? .. none of my business with what's going on here.

I managed to miss the first encounter with her at the Druid grove, so it was a random encounter while exploring. It still felt like a natural progression as a rescue mission, and there are many of those in the game.

Even if you're playing a more neutral or evil party, there is always the lure of XP and loot when completing one of these side quests. Leveling and better gear makes the party stronger for encountering any obstacle along the path to getting rid of the tadpole. As for the urgency of the main plot, I think Larian does a fairly good job in showing through various dialogs that the tadpole is either dormant or aimed at a higher purpose, instead of just a quick transformation.

You're essentially asking "Why do side quests exist?"
I have an RPG history spanning almost 40 years and this one in particular is one of the best side quests I've ever stumbled across, ever.

If you don't want to do side content, just focus on the main quest? I don't understand your question.

I guess we could take this approach to every side mission, in every game ever, not just RPGs? Why would I investigate an iron shortage, and inferior iron, when I just witnessed a party kill my foster father coming after me? Why couldn't I just tell the dwarves "help me fight the blight, or don't look to us for help when you're overrun by darkspawn"? Why couldn't I tell the Normandy crew to deal with their side issues while I pursue the main quest, and still succeed at the Suicide Mission? I'm sure there's an exhaustive list of side quests I could prattle on about, but the fact is, they're all over the place in gaming, from Table Top games to MMOs, and they have been, forever.

Evil party playthrough .. not saving anyone but have still been getting rewards.. Pretty great actually. But sometimes you can save someone accidentally just because you want to be brutally honest lol.

I only did the place on my first character while trying too find a way to bypass the village. I saw Auntie Ethel assaulted on the road and knowing the old lady I "protected her". She invited me to her Teahouse which I went to visit. But she attacked me after I spotted her illusion. All that followed was self defense.

I almost ran off with Connor too, but then I had this hilarious image of the girl entering Baldur's Gate with her husband.

Well the tadpole does not seem to be much of a threat in the whole story. Besides, once you figure out that she is a hag you deduce that she can remove it. Still it is a sidequest, something we've found more pressing than the main story for decades.

My son has been kidnapped? I must rescue him at once, but this settlement needs my help first as well as two hours worth of playtime hammering wooden planks into place. Yes I am the reborn god and only I can recover these precious artifacts to destroy arch villain, but I need to move up in the fighters' guild hierarchy so let me kill some rats first.

The good thing is..you don’t have to. Life is full of little choices.

In all my playthroughs I managed to miss Auntie Ethel in the grove. So my introduction to her was a seemingly random encounter at the entry of the swamp. Standalone, I found that conversation a bit forced and strange, as she got into my face when I asked what she had been doing to that girl. I mean, before I take sides, I want to actually know what is going on. As a motivation to explore a rather significant portion of the map, I felt that this was particularly weak, which led to my original question.
If she was supposed to tell me in the grove that she was able to remove my guest, it would have been all the motivation I needed. I do know asked myself how I missed her. I thought I had explored the grove quite thoroughly. Just goes to show...

It is hard to connect smoothly, but Aunti Ethel is first introduced in the grove as a possible healer, as you go to her hut it exposes her story line with some bonus items, in doing so you open up more of Gale's personal quest and Asterion's. Also there is an option to save the Grove by exposing Kahga with her dealing at a large tree out there.

The natural lure of most players are the goblin quest chains, so you tend to over look the bog other than trying to clear the map.

This could be introduced a bit more fluidly as the story pushes you to goblins at the moment.

One of the coolest things about Larian Studios is the fact that you can wander if you want and discover stuff on your own OR, take on quests like this one, which often go off into totally unexpected directions. There generally is almost ALWAYS more than one way to accomplish things in their games, and BG III is no exception.

I hate rpgs that only pretend to offer freedoms to do what you want. BG III is fantastic because there really is no "right way". This results in being able to have many playthroughs, each with memorable different things.

I bumped into Auntie at the druid camp, and she was quite friendly. While she seemed a bit odd, I missed the clues that her whole swamp wasn't quite what it seemed, and went there looking for tea and maybe a cure for my tadpole troubles. Bumped into the brothers, and it was clear trouble was afoot.

The whole episode played out sweetly until the final encounter, and Ethyl froze in place when we snuck up on her and attacked deep in her cave lair.

I assume this is a known bug?

We find out early one, potentially day one from netty, that the tadpoles are dormant, that and ethel is a potential savior herself, so our Tav's have time to go out and explore options, smell the roses so to speak.

Not to mention the true soul dwarf

To be honest, Auntie Ethel is a product of Larian's writing style. Why is there an evil swamp hag in the first bits of the game? Because it's a fantasy cliché. It isn't there because it makes sense for the story or because it's realistic for that location, it's there because Larian are the masters of stereotypes and tropes. "Let's have a devious swamp witch here because why not!" It's just part of their cartoonish design.

Or maybe because the green hag is a low-level monster that lives in a suitable area?
Maybe because she can give us a hint about the parasites?