Escape the Nautiloid

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The Prologue of Baldur's Gate 3 takes place immediately after the opening cinematic, in which the main character is infected with a Mind Flayer larva. The Nautiloid in which this takes place is attacked by Githyanki warriors, allowing the main character to break free. The objective of the Prologue is to find a way out of the Nautiloid.

Quests

Find a way off the Nautiloid.

We've been abducted by mind flayers and infected with some kind of parasite. We need to find a way off this ship.

Areas

Nursery room

This is the room in which the game begins; the main character has broken free out of a Mind Flayer Pod and is standing alone in the room. Around the room there are various empty mind flayer pods indicating that there might be other survivors.

In the middle of the room there is a mind flayer "nursery" i.e. a pool filled with larvae. Upon interacting with it, you can Investigate it to determine that it's about to break apart, or try to touch it in which case it explodes and causes a small amount of damage to your character.

To the south of the nursery you can find a dead mind flayer. Looting him yields a Spiked Bulb.

Further south you can climb up to a small elevation in the room, where a dead mind flayer Thrall can be looted for a Scroll of Mage Armour and 3gp. Lying aside him is a Slave Mind --a human brain preserved in a jar-- that can be picked up.

To the east of the room, slightly southward, you can go up to a larger elevated area of the room, circling around it all the way to the northwest. Along this elevated area you can find: 1. a Cartilaginous Chest containing a Potion of Healing and a Potion of Fire Resistance, 2. a Caustic Bulb lying on a table, and 3. a second Cartilaginous Chest containing a bottle of Alchemist's Fire and a Grease Bottle.

On the west side of the room you will find an illithid restoration device and a door to the next room.

Brain room

The dead bodies of three Lesser Imps will greet you in this room. Loot them for a Potion of Healing and a Scroll of Fire Bolt. Directly aside their bodies is a table on which you can find a Caustic Bulb, three Mucoid Shells, a Sodalite Shell, and a Barbed Device. Behind you, near the door you came in through, there's another table with an Illithid Record and a Hollow Shell.

Further westwards and to the north of the room there is a table on which you can find an Eldritch Tablet, an Illithid Manuscript, and a Dark Mind.

In the middle of the room, a small elevator can get you to an elevated section of the room. Here you will find a dying person sitting on a chair with their scalp removed, their exposed brain telepathically asking you for help. Otherwise, the elevated part of the room contains a pair of Cartilaginous Chests containing random loot.

When you interact with the person in the chair, your character may be able to notice that the exposed brain is not in fact the person's own brain, but rather an Intellect Devourer. You have various options to try to free the creature from the skull, although you can also just leave it in place or destroy it outright. Should you choose to free it and succeed, it can give you a bit of information about where in the Nautiloid you might want to go next (not that there are many options), and it will become a temporary companion who can assist you in battle.

While freeing the Intellect Devourer from the skull, you also have the option of trying to mutilate it to make it more obedient to you, although this seems to be unnecessary as it's obedient to you either way, and failing the ability check while trying to mutilate it will cause the creature to go hostile.

To the west of the room there's an opening in the Nautiloid's shell. An outer path leads northwest, where you have to jump over a gap and will have your first encounter with the Githyanki soldier Lae'zel, who was previously seen in the opening cinematic, also being infected with a larva.

Imp battle room

As Lae'zel jumps down from a ledge to attack you, the telepathic connection between you caused by the mind flayer larva makes her realize that you're not under mind control, and that the two of you could cooperate. She insists that you go to the helm of the Nautiloid, where you can take control of it.

In the room ahead that you need to pass, there are three lesser imps that you need to defeat. This is most easily done with ranged sneak attacks. One imp will drop a Handaxe and another a Light Crossbow. Other than that, you can loot a dead mind flayer in this room for two void bulbs and a potion of healing, and another dead mind flayer who has been incinerated can be looted for a Potion of Speed, a void bulb, and a caustic bulb.

You can exit this room to the west, climbing some stairs out to open air and towards the nose of the Nautiloid.

Nose of the Nautiloid

A short cinematic will play as you walk out into open air, in which the nose of the Nautiloid in front of you is badly damaged by attacking red dragons. Thankfully this doesn't affect our route.

Various dead lesser imps and thralls can be looted here for minor riches and equipment, including a Studded Shield. One incinerated dead thrall all the way towards the nose of the ship has a Potion of Poison Resistance. You just have to jump over some fire to reach the body. She also holds on to yet another brain in a jar, this one called Our Mind.

Turning back, you can climb another set of stairs to reach an upper level of the Nautiloid. Here, an Intellect Devourer will tell you that you must go to the helm of the ship to provide assistance. You can choose to attack, but the ensuing fight may actually prove difficult as there are also two lively thralls here maintaining some cannons. If you want to kill them for the little XP you will get, ranged sneak attacks might be the best option.

There are also two lesser imps towards the south here having some sort of argument, one of them already wounded. Just use ranged attacks on them to easily finish them off.

Talking to some of the dying Enthralled Cultists on the ground around this area can give you a little insight on how they think. One will talk about red, flying rats in the kitchen clawing at him, clearly referring to the imps who attack the thralls. Another will speak as if he's talking to his mother, saying that he's tired and wants to go to sleep early. Although talking to them reveals, rather tragically, that the thralls are just poor, regular humans under mind control, you can nevertheless finish them off for some very minor gold and XP. (They are about to die anyway, might as well put them to rest.)

The path forward is back into the Nautiloid via a corridor to the north, stretching east. There's a mucous membrane you just need to attack to break through, and then a door leading into the next major room.

Sacrificed Cultists / Shadowheart room

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