Summary

• Netherstones are crucial for beating the final boss in Baldur's Gate 3, but players have fail-safe options if they lose them.
• Dropping the stones in an underwater prison triggers a chain of events leading to their recovery by the player.
• Larian Studios' approach to storytelling mirrors a good Dungeon Master, allowing for player freedom and creative consequences.

The Netherstones serve as late-game maguffin in Baldur's Gate 3, with all three of them required to beat the final boss. Throughout the game's second and third acts, players must search for and take these stones off of the Chosen of the Dead Three. They are each incredibly powerful and irreplaceable magic items necessary to dominate the mind of the Absolute, and losing them can mean a game over.

Luckily for players who either accidentally or intentionally lose the stones, the game devs included some interesting fail-safe mechanics to prevent this from killing their characters and dooming the world. As it turns out, the writers at Larian Studios went pretty far out of their way to provide contingencies for even these worst-case scenarios.

The Stones Can Be Saved By An Unlikely Aquatic Hero

A Fail-Safe For Everything

YouTuber underwater prison controlled by Archduke Gortash, is by far one of the worst places a player could drop the Netherstones.

It can only be visited once per game, as it explodes shortly after players arrive. In the case that players drop the stones within its flooded halls, their ally, the Emperor, will strongly suggest they seek them out along the shore of the city. In most cases, the stones can then be found within the inventory of a group of hostile Sahuagin, enemies from the Iron Throne who arrive at a fisher's dock.

However, in the event these Sahuagin have been encountered and killed before entering the Iron Throne, the stones will instead have been found by a local fisherman, Old Troutman, who will sell them cheaply to the player. But even this fail-safe can be thwarted if players have previously murdered the innocent old dwarf. In this specific and highly unlikely circumstance, players will be able to find the Netherstones in the gullet of a dead fish washed onto the sand. No matter what players do, the ocean will return the stones to dry land.

Larian's Storytelling Exemplifies The Spirit Of A Good Dungeon Master

As outlandish and unlikely as dropping the stones is, the fact that Larian Studios planned for it shows that they understand the chaotic whims of their audience. More than that, they play into them. They give players the freedom to make odd choices, with consequences that are both comical and clear, making it obvious that they acted carelessly without excessively punishing them.

This attitude illustrates how a good Dungeon Master can react to a chaotic party in D&D. Players can be hard to predict and may make choices that lack logic, instead opting to act in character or add a bit of comedy to the game. Baldur's Gate 3 shows that DM's don't need to punish or ban this behavior to tell a good story; rather, they just need to be open-minded and creative when it comes to reacting to player actions, allowing players to make mistakes and roll with the repercussions.

Source: Proxy Gate Tactician/YouTube