The Baldur’s Gate 3 Quest Hooks: How Netherian Stones Can Resurface in Surprising Ways
The creators behind Baldur’s Gate 3 have woven a tapestry of moments that challenge the main quest line. A player known online as Proxy Gate Tactician pushed through every possible obstacle, seeking to discard an artifact crucial to the story and uncovering a trove of new content in the process.
In the game’s third act, the trio of Netherian stones from the Crown of Karsus can end up in the hands of the hero, granting domain over the Elder Brain as the finale unfolds. It might seem tempting to abandon these stones, but the developers have crafted a landscape packed with contingencies that keep the artifact in play. The endgame is designed so that even seemingly decisive mistakes don’t guarantee loss; the stones show up again in other forms if the player isn’t careful.
Proxy Gate Tactician verified this through firsthand exploration. After trying every available method to shed the stones, he found that Larian Studios had built clever, almost playful reappearances for the artifact. In one scenario, a surprising ally emerges—the most unlikely of creatures, a fish, becomes part of the artifact’s journey.
There is a route to try leaving the stones within the underwater prison of the Iron Throne, a containment that self-destructs after each exit. When that happens, the artifact might wind up with a trader. Even if the trader is eliminated before visiting the Iron Throne, the stones aren’t necessarily lost: a coastal fish in Baldur’s Gate can swallow them after the prison explosion and later reveal them again in the game world.
Another distinctive moment occurs if the Netherian stones slip away inside the Steel Guard Foundry. In this case, players may encounter marauding kobolds scattered across the game world, with the artifact eventually turning up in the kobolds’ inventory. The breadth of these outcomes becomes apparent when watching the gameplay below, which showcases several such paths and their consequences.
The content creator notes that many of these outcomes appeared only after extended hours of play. In one video, the author mentions passing the 1,400-hour mark before encountering several of these scenarios for the first time. Some of these paths may reflect updates added after the game’s initial release, underscoring how Baldur’s Gate 3 continues to evolve with new patches and tweaks.
Beyond this patchwork of possible outcomes, there has been chatter about a forthcoming major update for Baldur’s Gate 3. Industry discussions have touched on potential expansions that could bring new chapters to Fallout and Ultima in the future, signaling a broader conversation among players and developers about how storylines can expand across different franchises. Analysts and fans alike note that updates often reshape how key artifacts like the Netherian stones influence the late game, keeping the narrative dynamic and open to fresh discoveries. Progression watchers also connected the dots to recent announcements from Larian Studios about ongoing development work and future content iterations.
As with many big game releases, conversations around Baldur’s Gate 3 continue to spill over into wider gaming communities. A recent wave of criticism directed at Genshin Impact has sparked broader debates about representation and social issues within online games, a reminder that player communities often intersect with real-world conversations while they explore virtual worlds. This broader context helps explain why players stay engaged with patch notes, dev diaries, and long-form playthroughs as they chase new theories, hidden paths, and unexpected returns of familiar items across imagined landscapes.
Sources and reports from industry outlets have helped map the evolving story of Baldur’s Gate 3, illustrating how a single artifact can catalyze a web of possibilities across locations, encounters, and outcomes. The game’s designers appear intent on rewarding curiosity, experimentation, and persistence, inviting players to map their own paths through a landscape where even a fish can shape the endgame. The result is a living world that rewards patient exploration and attentive play, turning what might seem like a setback into a doorway to new content and surprising discoveries.