Early on in Baldur’s Gate 3, in a war-torn and unstable area known as Druid Grove, you encounter a red-haired and fiery goblin called Sazza. Sazza has been captured by the Tieflings and locked away in the back of the Druid Grove camp. When you encounter the foul-mouthed goblin, there is sure to be some discontent amongst the companions. Inherently good characters, recognizing the value of their alliance with the Druids, would want to execute the goblin right then and there.
However, those of you roleplaying a character with a bendy/flexible moral fiber would see this as an opportunity to free the goblin, in order to form a new partnership with her leaders. Right from the beginning, Sazza is pretty ill-tempered (which is expected, after being caught by a race of demonic warriors descended from the devils of nine hells). She is naturally pissed off, assuring the very people, allies of the Druids, who can help her escape that goblins are sure to burn the Druid’s Grove to the ground.
Where to find Sazza in Baldur’s Gate 3?
Once you encounter Sazza the Goblin in Baldur’s Gate 3, she engages in dialogue with you. She offers a unique prospect of scheduling a meeting with the Goblin clan leadership if you decide to free her. The immediate decision you have to make is whether to stop two Tiefling NPCs, who are standing guard, from executing the goblin right then and there. If the players decide to let the NPC go ahead with the execution and kill the goblin off, the scales are tipped in the favor of good-aligned characters.
Leaving Sazza behind
Leaving Sazza in Baldur’s Gate 3 behind to face her death is the best option for those of you undertaking a broadly good-aligned campaign. This move allows players to highlight and secure their existing partnership with the Druids. This option, while very undramatic, presents an excellent choice for good-aligned or even neutral characters. However, leaving Sazza behind to face her destiny, and allowing her to die, no matter how noble, doesn’t have a significant effect on the rest of the gameplay. One has to assume that Goblins, enraged by the capture and then the death of one of their own, would not take too kindly to Druids.
Rescuing Sazza in Baldur’s Gate 3
The decision to save Sazza and attempt a partnership with the Goblins in the upcoming war is a straightforward evil-aligned option. All the good NPCs that witness Sazza’s rescue need to be killed by the player. The decision to free Sazza itself creates a rift between the party, with good-aligned characters expressing their disgust with the player who even suggests such a thing. While this presents a natural choice to side with stronger allies for the evil-aligned players, good-aligned players will effectively change their journey if they opt to free the goblin.
In order to save Sazza from execution, you have the option of either killing the Tieflings guarding her cell through combat or employing creative means of goblin’s escape. If you want to avoid bloodshed, you can opt to undertake an intimidation or persuasion skill check. If passed, you can escape along with Goblin immediately. However, if failed, you then have to beat the Tieflings in combat. Once the guards are dealt with, you can talk to Sazza.
Upon engaging in dialogue with Sazza, she informs you about the True Soul Gut, a powerful goblin priestess, known for her ability to cure any ailment. Sazza informs that she can help you find the priestess and convince her to cure you by removing the Mind Flayer’s parasite.
It is worth mentioning that this isn’t the only way to remove the parasite, which can be done by undertaking a whole different quest altogether. However, if you have already convinced Tieflings to spare her life – either by combat or persuasion, you can go ahead and free the goblin.
While you can still leave the goblin behind to rot and die, evil-aligned characters surely wouldn’t mind rescuing the goblin to gain access to the priestess. You can use weapons to destroy the door to the makeshift cage of the goblin’s cell or use thief’s tools to open the prison door. Once you do this, you are tasked with getting Sazza out of the Druid Grove and back into the goblin camp.
There are two ways to go about this:
- You can lead Sazza through the Tiefling camp. This requires you to pass several Tieflings along the way, who obviously wouldn’t be happy that you have broken their prisoner out. You either have to kill the Tieflings that threaten to attack you and your party or pass a persuasion or intimidation skill check of 15 in order to stop the Tieflings from attacking you. This can be tricky, considering the significant number of Tieflings present at the camp.
- Alternatively, you can sneak Sazza out of the Tiefling camp using a secret passage. Navigating the passage can be a little tricky but you encounter no Tieflings when going this way. In order to access the secret passage, you’d have to jump onto a ledge behind Sazza’s cage. You then have to get one of their party members to pass a perception skill check once on this ledge, revealing a stone door that helps you escape the Tiefling camp.
While this route is comparatively easy and without combat, it isn’t necessarily a stroll in the park. There will be several traps along the way that you have to notice and disable to safeguard your party. These traps are Guardian Statues that shoot fireballs at travelers. These traps have to be disabled in order to pass safely through the passage.
Note: There are several ways to navigate the secret passage. However, if you stick to the southernmost route, it will be much easier for you to find the priestess.
After successfully navigating the secret passage, you will encounter a bunch of goblins on the other side. Despite having Sazza there, you still need to defeat the goblins in combat. There are several foot soldiers as well as a goblin archer on a nearby hill. While battling these goblins, it is essential to keep Sazza away from the fight. If Sazza dies during the skirmish, the quest will end. You cannot revive Sazza once she dies, so it’s best to keep her hidden during the battle. She has very low health and stamina, so in a way the fight is a task for you to keep her safe from her own kind.
After the battle, you can find an unconscious Findal, an NPC in Baldur’s Gate 3, whom goblins were trying to kill. In order to revive him, you’d have to throw a healing potion right beside him. If the healing potion hits the NPC directly, he dies. If he does die, he can be looted and you can obtain a helmet called Arcane Circlet. If he survives, you’ll face a similar conversation you had while saving Sazza. However, if saved, Findal goes back to the Druid Grove, and characters with Folk Hero trait will be awarded 25 XP as well as one inspiration point.
Once out of the passage and finished with skirmishing, Sazza leads you to the Goblin camp. This is one step towards forming an alliance with the goblins and getting the parasite removed. However, it is important to understand that saving Sazza doesn’t necessarily mean that you have sided with the goblins. You can still go back to your alliance with the Druids and support them during the upcoming battle.
The bottom line
Saving Sazza in Baldur’s Gate 3 offers two distinct advantages. You can engage with the goblin priestess and get the parasite removed, thereby negating the need to undertake the separate ‘Remove the Parasite’ quest. This can get a bit tricky, as even after removing the parasite, the priestess and goblins try to kill the players and characters. You have to be cunning, sure not to trust goblins, and not drink the potion in order to get avoided from being drugged by the Soul Gut.
Sazza also rewards her rescuers with a magical dagger called Assassin’s Touch. The dagger can be thrown at an excellent range and deals additional damage to sleeping or knocked-out enemies.
To sum things up, Baldur’s Gate 3 offers a unique gameplay experience by offering you the freedom to choose your own alliances to complete the game’s main quest. Along the way, you are tasked with fleshing out your own characters, vaguely breaking into two distinct categories — evil-aligned or good-aligned. Good-aligned characters are your rebellion, the light side of the force angels, while evil-aligned ones gain pleasure from breaking the set alliances and seek havoc and destruction. You can have both types of companions in your party. And the companions you partner up with at different moments in time, have a huge impact on the progression of the game.
