Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion [END SPOILS WARNING] Addressing Karlach (PLEASE PUT SPOILERS IN TAGS)

You face the "heart" of the Foundry with Karlach in your group. Whatever if you have the Wulbren's bomb or the help of the blind gondian, Karlach feels her engine vibrating/reacting to the foundry and tells you that she feels like this place can be a solution to her heart and ask you to not destroy the foundry yet.

Here you already have a choice :
Choice 1 : You find this possibility too dangerous, as the Steel Watchers are a really bad things and you destroy the Foundry anyway.
=>Consequence : After the boom, Karlach yells at you, considering you betrayed her and condemn her to die. She wants to explode with you but doesn't have the energy to do this. After a monologue where she's devastated to have been betrayed again by someone she trusts, she leaves your group. Later when you face Gortasch, he let you understand that Karlach faced him in order to avenge herself of him, and tried to kill him by booming her heart. But he was too smart to fall into a so obvious trap and she have exploded for nothing. Quest ends here. (Bad end for her)

Choice 2 : You listen to her and don't do anything to the Foundry. You quit the place.
=>Consequence : As the Foundry still exists, Steel Watchers are not destroyed, so the fight against Gortsach will be way harder. Quest continues with Step 2.

Short cinematic transition and you're outside. Again, different choices but related to who you saved/kill/listen to :

Choice 1 : pre-requisite : Gondians are dead (you don't save them/you let Wulbren kill them) and Dammon is safe : You ask Dammon if he can create a new engine for Karlach with the help of Ironhand gnomes. As he's a decent blacksmith, he uses all the infernal iron you have to create a "heart engine", which is a quest item.

Choice 2 : pre-requesite : Gondians are alive (so you save them in the prison + you take their side/listen to Barcus) : You ask Gondians to create a new heart to Karlach. As they're the best blacksmith in Fayrun, they use all the infernal iron you have to create a "quality heart engine", which is a quest item.


Dammon/The Gondians forge the new heart. As Karlach is super excited, Dammon/Gondians tell you that the actual engine in Karlach is too unstable to be replaced here, and she have to return to Avernus to replace it. She's a bit angry to hear that, but she agrees to make one last jump in Avernus.

THIS lead the player to a popular place for all of us : the House of Hope.

So here Karlach can have her "heart surgery". But this place is the place of Raphael, and this Demon is not a Mother Teresa that will allow you to use his house to save someone. At this point if you want to save Karlach, you'll have to kill Raphael (and save Hope btw).

Once it's done (and trust me it's not an easy point to kill Raphael), you can use the House of Hope the way you want with the blessing of Hope.

The game let you the possibility to ask someone's help to practice some surgery, or you can try it yourself with a [Medicine] check. Here's maybe the point where I don't know who we can call, I had Omeluum (if you save him) or Araj Oblodra in my mind but I don't remember all the useful NPC we encounter so far... Anyway you can do it yourself so let's say you do your Medicine Check.

As it's something hard, we can imagine a successful check at 20.
If you succeed the surgery, Karlach is saved.
If you fail the surgery, Karlach dies.

Depending on which engine you have, here's the list of all the ends :

End 1 : You successfully replace the broken engine with the quality heart engine ==> Karlach is now safe and she can live wherever she wants without being afraid of her heart. Even if he's no more organic from years, her feelings are still here and her heart can always melt (figuratively) (Good End)

End 2 : You successfully replace the broken engine with the heart engine ==> Karlach is now safe and she can live wherever she wants without being afraid of exploding. But even if she cannot boom anymore, her heart can overheat sometimes, draining all her energy. Now at the beginning of every combat turn, you'll have to make a constitution check. Under a 7 or with a Nat 1, Karlach's turn ends immediately and her heart deals 1pt fire damage (Good End but with an unconvenient disadvantage on her combat gameplay)

End 3 : You failed the surgery ==> Karlach dies (Bad End)

End 4 : You destroy the Foundry without listening Karlach ==> Karlach leaves the Group and eventually dies later (Bad End)

Other Ends : You don't do any of the 4 steps/Karlach is not in your group when you destroy the Foundry ==> All the actual ends (Bitter sweet/50-50/Bad Ends)