(Also very aside, but I have never even heard of the Iron Flask. What's that?)
It’s in the chest that you can take from Rugan (in the cave besieged by Gnolls). It can be fed to Gale or opened … cautiously.
I do disagree with you on the mechanics, though. I’m not saying they can’t be improved, but while some cRPGs are designed with the expectation that you’ll do anything they let you, personally (and within reason) I appreciate the more sandbox/permissive approach in BG3 that lets me do lots of stuff but expects me to ask why, and in some cases maybe decide not to. I agree that in some cases this can lead to frustrations or puzzlement for newer players, but personally I’d rather have that learning curve and then, once surmounted, be able to play the game in the way I want, than have a more prescriptive engine that railroaded me. I think the trick Larian are trying to pull off is that of encouraging or discouraging certain behaviours around which the game can be balanced by making them easier or harder, while still allowing players to bypass drudgery and do things their own way if they want to. Sometimes this works, sometimes not, but generally I get the sense that the failures are because this is a really tricky balance to strike (or just because of bugs) than because of sloppiness or carelessness on Larian’s part.
