Rescue Volo – Baldur’s Gate 3

Volo always goes where the story is, which sometimes gets him into trouble. Can you rescue him from his latest predicament?

Background

After meeting with Volo in the Emerald Grove, he’ll head over to the Goblin Camp to learn more about the Absolute. However, when you see him there he’ll be under duress, with the goblins forcing him to create ballads about their leader Dror Ragzlin. No matter what you say at this point — heckling him or helping him — he’ll run out of ideas (if not creatively made up words), and his master Gribbo will take him into the Shattered Sanctum. This encounter will trigger the quest.

Walkthrough

You’ll find Volo locked up in a cage on the eastern side of the Shattered Sanctum. Gribbo will be there watching over him. When you talk to Gribbo about her “pigeon,” you’ll get several ways to free him:

• If you want to buy Volo, then you’ll get dialogue options offering from 20 to 500 gold. The lowest Gribbo will take is 250, but if you’re playing a Rogue then you can entice her with “a bulging bag of fake gold,” and she’ll take that instead. When you agree on an amount, Gibbo will give you the Cage Key.
• If you have your Illithid Power available and beat a DC-2 Wisdom check, then you can order Gribbo to give up Volo, and she’ll dutifully hand over the Cage Key.
• If you pass a DC-9 Intelligence check to detect Gribbo’s thoughts, then you’ll learn that she hasn’t told Minthara about Volo yet. If you threaten Gribbo about this, then she’ll decide that it’s better to be safe than sorry, and she’ll let you have the Cage Key.
• You can get the Cage Key by passing a DC-10 Deception or Intimidation check when talking to Gribbo.
• You can pick open Volo’s cage by beating a DC-10 Sleight of Hand check. But if Gribbo sees you or hears the cage door open (which seems to happen every time), then she’ll attack you.
• You can kill Gribbo and take the Cage Key off her corpse. Gribbo only has 7 hit points, and she won’t have any goblins helping her out, so the battle should not be difficult.

When you open Volo’s cage, Volo will continue to be Volo, and he’ll be more excited about the story he’s going to write than thankful for being rescued. At this point you can invite him to your camp, or not — but it won’t make any difference. No matter what you say to Volo, he’ll quaff a Potion of Invisibility and head to your camp. When you talk to him there, you’ll complete the quest and receive a Blazer of Benevolence.

Afterwards, Volo will become a semi-permanent member of your campsite. He’ll act as a shopkeeper (although you might need to press the “trade” button in the conversation interface to see his wares), he’ll tell you everything he knows about mind flayers — including that they have tentacles! — and, if you reveal that you have a parasite, and ask him for help, then he’ll request time to research the matter.

The first morning after you take a Long Rest, Volo will have an answer about your parasite. He’ll tell you that it should be just behind your orbital socket, and that he might be able to dislodge it with a needle. If you agree to this plan — saving first, of course — then Volo will pull out a knitting needle and begin poking it around in your right eye socket. When that doesn’t work, he’ll pull out an ice pick. You’ll get four chances to stop the procedure. If you allow Volo to finish, then he’ll pull out your eye rather than the parasite, but in exchange he’ll give you a replacement eye that will allow you to see invisible creatures, which you might find useful later in the game.

Note: If you went to Auntie Ethel (in the Putrid Bog) for help, and she tainted one of your eyes, then you won’t be able to undergo the procedure with Volo. But you can use one of your companions instead, so you’ll at least have See Invisibility in your party.

Another Note: Volo’s eye, unlike Auntie Ethel’s replacement, looks like a normal eye, just with a mix of brown and blue coloring that you won’t be able to change using the magic mirror in your camp. But it is roughly equivalent to Blue 3 at the magic mirror, which means you can change your left eye to match it. If changing the eye coloring of your main character is out of the question, as above you can use one of your companions for the procedure instead.

After the procedure, Volo will make a hasty exit from your camp, and he’ll head to Baldur’s Gate, where you’ll meet him again in Act 3. So if you like having Volo around as a shopkeeper, then you should delay having him poke out your eye. If you decline to let Volo help you, then he’ll eventually head to Baldur’s Gate anyway, but he won’t leave until the start of Act 3.