Saving the goblin Sazza in Baldur’s Gate 3 has permanent larger plot implications you should consider before making your final choice.
Sazza is a goblin you will have the option to save early in your Act 1 play-through. While it may look like the morally-good choice to save her at the beginning, continuing down this quest line closes off a large portion of the story. If you want to save your evil actions for a later Dark Urge Origin play-through, this guide will help you decide which choices to make and which to steer clear of.
In this post, there are some story spoilers and further plot implications mentioned toward the end. This guide is linear, so you can still follow along while you do the quest with minimal spoilers.
Choosing to Save the Goblin Sazza in Baldur’s Gate 3
When you enter the Emerald Grove toward the beginning of Act 1, you’ll encounter the Tiefling Arka who is about to kill a goblin in a cage. You’re given the choice to step between Arka’s crossbow and Sazza to keep her from firing on the prisoner. While this seems like the right thing to do, saving Sazza is an evil choice in BG3.
What might appear like an easy choice in the moment, like most choices in BG3, closes doors in the story line as well as opens new ones.
If you choose to save Sazza, you have the option to break her out of the Emerald Grove. When you talk to Sazza after picking the lock on the cage and saving her, she tells you of a healer in the goblin village. This healer introduces a new potential option to cleanse you and your party of the parasite.
Breaking Sazza Out of the Emerald Grove
You have two options when it comes to breaking out of the Emerald Grove to save the goblin Sazza.
The first is to simply break Sazza out of the cage and walk out the front door with her. This option isn’t really recommended though, as you have to roll ability checks for every Tiefling you pass, as they watch you walk out with their prisoner. While not impossible, walking out of the Emerald Grove is a challenge and ends up taking longer than the alternative.
Take the Underground Passage
The other option is to pass the page toward the cliffside and jump onto the ledge behind it. With a perception check, you’ll discover the Underground Passage. This is a hidden passageway out of the city that lets you avoid the Tieflings who will stop your escape.
The Underground Passage is the preferred way out of the Grove when saving the goblin Sazza. This way is much faster when you consider the ease as well as the constant checks required to exit the city.
In the Underground Passage, an automatic perception check will highlight a Guardian Statue to your right upon entry.
Make sure you either ungroup or have your entire party sneak to walk past the statue. The Guardian Statue can quickly kill your entire party if it sees you, including Sazza. When you pass the statue, you can deactivate it by pressing the glowing blue sigil on your left.
Once you pass the statue, you’ll encounter a relatively-weak pack of goblins. Unfortunately, they would rather kill you than listen to Sazza. If you would like to, you can sneak to the right and jump onto a ledge. Here, you will find a dead human with a key to the chest further in the cave.
You can technically sneak your entire party past the goblins, but you might not want to. It’s much easier to just kill them and exit further down the tunnel.
After defeating the goblins, you’ll want to sneak again and walk up the hill. You’ll quickly walk up to another Guardian Statue that you want to avoid. The chest is on your left at the top of the hill. With a perception check, you’ll notice that it’s trapped with an enchantment. The key found in the cave, mentioned earlier, will automatically disarm the trap
Returning to the Goblin Camp with Sazza
While Sazza doesn’t accompany you to the camp after you save her, she will meet you at the gate to the Goblin Camp.
At the gate to the Goblin Camp, Sazza will speak to Sentinel Olak. While he is hesitant to let you through the gate, he eventually relents. Further into the camp, you’ll encounter a goblin who is similarly skeptical about letting your party through. With simple ability checks, you’ll pass without any further issues.
Once you reach the inner sanctum, Sazza introduces you to Minthara. While Sazza attempts to betray you, Minthara recognizes you as a True Soul, and threatens Sazza’s life. You’re then given the option to let the goblin Sazza die or save her again.
This choice results in a major point of deviation in the story. You can choose to side with Minthara and raid the goblin camp, potentially leading to gaining her as a companion later in the story, or you can go notify the Tiefling at the Emerald Grove and attempt to ward off the goblin assault.
Why You Should Save Sazza and Aid the Ambush
By saving the goblin Sazza, you have the simplest pathway to raid the Emerald Grove. Raiding the Grove probably isn’t your first choice on a play-through, but it opens up an entire side of the story for a truly unique play-through. In addition, you’ll encounter Sazza with the goblins later in the story, where she wouldn’t normally appear.
There is also an achievement for saving Sazza titled, “She Cannot be Caged!” If you side with Sazza in front on Minthara to spare her again, you’ll earn the achievement.
You’ll Get to Loot the Emerald Grove
While you will lose out on all of the powerful upgrades and merchants that come with remaining an ally to the Grove, you do reap rewards elsewhere. You will get a significant boost in power immediately from all of the items you loot from the Emerald Grove. It is well earned too, as defeating the druids in the inner sanctum is very difficult.
You Gain Minthara as an Ally
While you can technically recruit Minthara later without raiding the Grove, it is quite tedious, involving knocking her unconscious instead of killing her. Raiding the Emerald Grove is the most straightforward way to add her to your party and potentially romance her later on. Minthara is one of the most powerful companions in Baldur’s Gate 3, and offers some of the best single target damage output in the game with the right build.
You Can Save Sazza and Refuse to Aid the Ambush
When you return to the Emerald Grove, they automatically lift the gate for you.
Like we did, you might feel a bit of remorse for saving the goblin Sazza, as it appears like the right thing to do in the moment. After one thing leads to the next, Minthara is trusting you to help slaughter everyone in the Emerald Grove. If this isn’t the path you want to take, you can still return to the camp and side with the Grove.
If you do choose to side with the Grove, you’ll have to help the village hold off the assault. This is much easier with the gates properly lowered but still no small feat.
Baldur’s Gate 3 Gives You Options
Saving the goblin Sazza does seem like the logical choice for many character play-throughs, but it’s easy to bite off more than you can chew. If you find yourself in that position, you could always pull out of the quest early, or choose to never break her out of the Grove to begin with. Like any quest in Baldur’s Gate 3, you can simply ignore and abandon it.
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