Even after 180 hours of Baldur's Gate 3, I never realized there's a game-spanning unmarked quest to find a stray cat a new home

Malta the orange and white cat in BG3 closeup — (Image credit: Larian)

I have sunk so much of my life in Baldur's Gate 3, and it just keeps surprising me. YouTuber DragonsDream demonstrated an absolutely delightful little unmarked quest to find a stray cat a new home in Act 3, and I know exactly why I've never seen it before: you have to effectively fail another quest all the way back at the beginning of the game to make it happen.

Derryth Bonecloak, dwarf apothecary, only wants to adopt a cat if she's single come Act 3. This can be accomplished one of three ways: not completing the Act 1 Underdark quest to find her addled husband, Baelen, finding him, but somehow killing him in the process, or successfully rescuing him and giving him a dose of the Noblestalk mushroom, which causes him to regain his faculties⁠. Baelen returns to being an abusive brute, and Derryth subsequently divorces him.

I've never had a save lacking Baelen come Act 3 before⁠—those first two conditions require failing a pretty easy quest, all things considered, while the third locks you out of special cutscenes for giving the Noblestalk to Shadowheart or the Dark Urge. Not to mention, it hardly seems like a kind thing to do to Derryth.

However you arrange it though, if Derryth is single and in no way ready to mingle come Act 3, you can deliver one of two charismatic talking stray cats from the mean streets of Baldur's Gate to the good life under her care. DragonsDream shows the process for sending her Malta, the noir-obsessed orange cat who narrates his own life, but you can also apparently deliver her Myshka, a cat who speaks his own special language and thinks your character is his mother. Regrettably, only one of these fine felines can find a forever home at Bonecloak Apothecary.

I'm still blown away by this little quest⁠—a Pet Pal side deal to help a stray cat is pretty classically Larian, but tying it to world state changes you'll have set in stone dozens of hours previously is truly next-level. Maybe I'll find a way to ensure Baelen has a little "accident" the next time I play through Baldur's Gate 3.

Ted has been thinking about PC games and bothering anyone who would listen with his thoughts on them ever since he booted up his sister's copy of Neverwinter Nights on the family computer. He is obsessed with all things CRPG and CRPG-adjacent, but has also covered esports, modding, and rare game collecting. When he's not playing or writing about games, you can find Ted lifting weights on his back porch. You can follow Ted on Bluesky.