How to save Volo in Baldur's Gate 3

If you're wondering how to save Volo in Baldur's Gate 3, or if you've already saved him but you're now wondering whether you should let him perform his gruesome surgery on your face, you're in the right place. The main story of Act 1 takes you to the Goblin Camp, and you'll be given a number of objectives once you get there. 

After initially meeting Volo in the courtyard, saving him from his goblin captors is added to your to-do list, and if you manage to pull it off, he'll return to your camp and offer to research a technique to fix your condition. So without further ado, here's how to save Volo and the consequences of letting him operate on you.

How to save Volo 

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The Goblin Camp is quite a tricky area, so you'll want a few levels under your belt before venturing there. It doesn't seem to matter whether you free Volo before tackling the three goblin leaders, or after, though I did it after when most of the guards had already been dealt with.

The objective marker on the map gives you the location of Volo's cage, but you can check again on the screenshot above. It's inside a small room, up the stairs to the right of the "main hall" where you first speak to Priestess Gut. When I went there—after killing the leaders—there was one guard inside the room which I was able to take out easily. If you go this route, you can then loot the body for the Cage Key and release Volo. If you'd rather keep things friendly, you can pickpocket the guard for the key or lockpick the cage to release Volo from captivity.

You'll have a few straightforward dialogue options to choose from during the conversation, and most of them will end with him heading back to your camp.

Should you let Volo perform his technique on you? 

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After returning to camp for the first time after rescuing him, Volo will have a marker showing he wants to talk to you . After learning how and why he was a prisoner at the Goblin Camp, he'll tell you he knows about Mindflayers, among other things. He won't believe you when you tell him about your experience with them so you can choose to let him examine you. 

He won't do anything invasive at this stage, he'll need more time to research what he wants to do next. In the meantime, you'll get the Blazer of Benevolence light armor as a reward.

End the day at your camp and the next morning, Volo should have another speech marker. Speak to him and ask about the research and he'll tell you he's found a technique that could work. Basically, he wants to have a go at your eye with a needle to get to the parasite behind it. You'll be presented with several dialogue options but they all basically boil down to Do it or Leave. 

• If you choose to let him operate, you'll ultimately lose your eye but gain a false one which offers you the ability to see invisible creatures over a short distance. You'll get lots of descriptive narration of the process, and several opportunities to stop him, which frankly are incredibly difficult to resist, considering what is happening to your character. If you continue, things get more gruesome and you'll lose your eye. Once he starts, Volo will always leave the camp  if you tell him to stop once he's started, or after the surgery is complete.
• If you choose to leave, Volo will warn you that you only have days to live but you'll save your eye. He doesn't appear to leave the camp if you don't let him operate, but it's unclear what use (if any) he has.