A few days after sweeping at The Game Awards, Larian Studios quietly released a free gift to all players. From December 13 until December 24, players can participate in a Baldur’s Gate 3-themed digital advent calendar hosted by Larian.
Ahead of the BG3 release on PC, Larian released the online murder mystery Blood in Baldur’s Gate. This completely free (and still live as of writing) event offered players a look into some of the issues troubling the coastal city before their Tavs would arrive later in the game. Also it offered some clues to the final Origin character, The Dark Urge. Now, the studio is providing another way to engage with BG3, but this time with prizes.
Each day until Christmas, you can log on and play a simple memory card game. Each card features the faces of major and minor characters and creatures. In addition to getting progressively more difficult, each win comes with a digital reward. This includes BG3 tracks from the score composed by Borislav Slavov (who also created the score for Divinity: Original Sin II) downloadable as MP3 and WAV files. Also, every three days you can unlock chapters for an original short story.
How the Gremishka Stole Christmas
“They know not its heart, this “creature infernal” You say to yourself via dialogue, internal I’ll teach it friendship with a yuletide gift! The true meaning of Christmas is sure to mend our rift!”
Chapter Two of How the Gremishka Stole Christmas
So far, completing every three puzzle competitions results in a chapter of the Seussical-inspired story How the Gremishka Stole Christmas. Visual cues denote this story will likely be five chapters long. Two chapters in, the rhyming makes the story feel like a bard should be performing it as a diddy. Gremishkas are cat-like and dwell in places teeming with magical energy. Whereas the Grinch sought to suck the joy out of Christmas, these monstrosities (a D&D categorization—not mine), hunger for the arcane.
*** Minor non-plot spoilers for Act 1 of Baldur’s Gate 3 ***
As part of Forgotten Realms lore and inhabitants of FaerĂ»n, gremishkas make a minor appearance in BG3. During Act 1, you can find gremishkas prowling in Rosymorn Monastery if you fully explore the ruins. This place is kind of out of the way an is easily missable especially if you ignore (or don’t have) Lae’zel in your party. She leads players to this location by insisting that we head to the Githyanki Creche in the Mountains’ Pass. Not only is this seemingly detour worth it for the story, it holds one of my favorite BG3 weapons, the Blood of Lathander. This whole section is so exciting that even as a cat-person I completely forgot about the gremishkas until this Christmas treat.
(via Crit Hit The Giant | Games on TikTok, featured image: Larian Studios edit by Alyssa Shotwell.)
