Welcome to NGB and our Baldur’s Gate III walkthrough for the Our Fiery Friend quest! This guide will cover everything you need to know so you can easily complete the quest.
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How to Begin the Our Fiery Friend Quest
Our Fiery Freind is the companion quest for Karlach in Baldur’s Gate III. You’ll receive this quest automatically after allowing this fiery lady to join your party.
How to Recruit Karlach
Karlach can be found on The Risen Road, west of the Emerald Grove, along the river. If you have Wyll in the party, you’ll be led to her, as tracking her down is part of his companion quest.
When you find her, you’ll learn that she was forced against her will to fight on the front lines, and when the opportunity presented itself, she fled in hopes of returning home. You’ll then have the option to let her join you.
If Wyll is with you, you’ll need to convince him not to attack her first. If you don’t have Wyll, he will show up, and you’ll still have to try to get him to stand down—or you can deal with him. The choice is yours!
Our Fiery Friend Walkthrough
Deal with the Paladins of Tyr (Hunt the Devil)
As part of the deal with joining your party, Karlach will ask for help dealing with the Paladins of Tyr that were sent after her. They can be found up the path from where you first met Karlach in a building.
Make sure you are at least Level 4 before heading inside to begin a conversation with Anders. He’ll claim they want to be left alone, but if you read his thoughts, you’ll learn they are after Karlach.
Further, if you pass the insight check, you can tell he’s lying. Call them out on their BS to start a fight against the trio. After winning the battle, Karlach gets a little heated and starts burning the place down. It’s best to exit the building and let her do her thing. Speak with her when she calms down, and then exhaust her dialog options.
The Hellion’s Heart
After dealing with the paladins, Karlach will inform the group that her engine is running hot and she needs an infernal mechanic to get it tuned up. Luckily for us, if you talked to everyone in the Druids’ Grove, you’ll know that Dammon in the Hollow fits the bill.
Make your way over to his makeshift smithy and speak to him. Dammon will say he can fix Karlach’s engine but he’ll require Infernal Iron. You can loot one from a chest in an abandoned forge on the east side of the Whispering Depths. To reach it, travel to the Blighted Village, then climb down the well.
Once you have the iron, take it back to Dammon, and he’ll fashion something for Karlach. It’s not a permanent solution, but it will work until he comes up with something. Afterward, speak to Karlach.
Once you start Act II and reach Last Light Inn, you’ll come across Dammon again. Speak with him there in the forge to receive some good and bad news. If you collected more Infernal Iron before leaving Act I, you can give him one now so that Karlach can touch people.
After that happens, you better pull her in for a hug! Also, make sure to speak with her afterward. This objective will also be completed.
Act I Infernal Iron/Metal Locations
Before heading onto Act II, you can find additional Infernal Iron/Metal at the locations listed below.
- Whispering Depths (Blighted Village) – Shown in the image under The Hellion’s Heart
- Goblin Camp – In Dror Ragzlin’s personal stash behind the throne
- Zhentarim Hideout (under Waukeen’s Rest) – In a locked chest behind a locked gate at the very northern part of the area
- Gyrmforge (Underdark) – Speak with Stonemason Kith and pass all three skill checks
Act II Infernal Iron/Metal Locations
These are some of the locations where you can find more Infernal Iron/Metal during Act II.
- Mason’s Guild (southwestern part of the area) – on a table near some cranes
- Gauntlet of Shar (northeastern part) – Defeat and loot Yurgir
- Gauntlet of Shar (vault west of Ancient Sigil Circle) – Lockpicking the 30 door
You must reach Act III to progress toward the objectives below.
Find Lord Gortash
After completing the Defeat Ketheric Thorm main quest, speak with Karlach to learn about her history with Gortash. She’ll then tell you that she wants to hunt down and kill the man.
Once you reach Wyrm’s Rock Fortress in Baldur’s Bate, Gortash will invite you to attend his inauguration ceremony. Head through the doorway on the right (east) to find another set of doors leading to the Audience Hall. Enter the Audience Hall and head towards the throne to trigger a cutscene.
During it, you’ll have to convince Karlach not to attack Gortash right now (or let her charge him to no avail).
Before hunting down Gortash, you should tackle the quests listed below. They are tied to him and will either help in your battle against him or make it easier to get to him.
- Avenge the Drowned
- Avenge the Ironhands
- Rescue the Grand Duke
- Save the Gondians
- The Blade of Frontiers (up to the Iron Throne)
Confront and Kill Lord Gortash
Once you’re ready, you’ll need to travel to Wyrm’s Rock Fortress using the northeastern entrance of Lower City (this is where you first entered the city) by the Basilisk Gate waypoint. From there, you’ll want to head down the hallway to the Audience Hall. Along the way, there will be a couple of groups of enemies trying to stop you.
Upon entering the Audience Hall, you’ll have to deal with another group of enemies with some mechanical devices thrown in. The device will emit waves of flames in their immediate area or launch grenades that blow, damaging your characters in the blast radius. You can destroy them using attacks from a bigger two-handed weapon, but they will explode, damaging those within range.
Once all the enemies have been taken care of, head to the throne and go to the right to find a passageway. Take it to reach the upper level of Wyrm’s Rock Fortress. You’ll then need to follow the walkway around to reach Gortash’s office. Make sure to bring someone with high perception, as the way to Gortash is littered with traps.
Once you enter his office, you’ll have to approach him in the back section to trigger a cutscene to begin the fight. As this is part of Karlach’s companion quest, we recommend bringing her along. A couple of other things to note before the fight. Gortash will be accompanied by three of his henchmen, who will aid him during the fight.
As soon as combat stars, Gortash will put a barrier on him and one of his henchmen, which reflects attacks for a turn. This will happen throughout the fight due to the various devices scattered around his office. You can try to destroy them, but there are quite a few, so it might not be the best approach. Additionally, when Gortash’s health gets around the halfway point (give or take), he’ll hulk out, growing in size and gaining extra health. There will also be around 6 to 8 Manifestation of Tyranny scattered throughout his office. You’ll need to destroy them to return Grotash to normal.
The way we handled this fight was a bit simpler. We started by clearing out the traps in the area outside of Gortash’s office and then ungrouped Karlch from the party. We then cast Longstrider on the party and sent Karlach to start the fight while leaving the rest outside.
Once the battle began, we moved Karlach back outside while positioning the party to deal with the enemies following her. Once she got outside, we cast Wall of Fire through the entrance to deal some extra damage to the enemies as they emerged. This let us fight Gortash without his traps and gizmos.
Doing it this way also means you’ll have to finish off Gortash while he is in his Hulk form. Once of this, henchmen will also try to cast hold person on your characters.
After Gortash falls, Karlach will want to inspect the body to see that he’s dead for herself. You’ll do this by taking control of her and interacting with him. This will trigger a cutscene where she’ll temporarily leave the party, saying she’ll see us back at camp. This will also complete the Our Firery Friend quest. You can then head back to camp to speak with her. Afterward, she’s free to join you again.
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