There's secret dialogue supporting Baldur's Gate 3 fans' favorite forbidden romance locked behind an impossible nap⁠—but someone managed to find it anyway

Karlach from Baldur's Gate 3 flashes a confident smirk.
(Image credit: Larian Studios)

For a lot of Baldur's Gate 3 fans, the real romantic pairing of the game isn't between their Tadpoled Adventurer and a companion, or even Raphael and Withers, but rather tiefling Barbarian Karlach and erstwhile infernal smith-turned-heart engine mechanic Dammon. There's certainly some sparks there in the game, but as reported by GamesRadar, an inaccessible camp scene makes it way more explicit.

If you take a long rest on the Nautiloid crash beach before meeting too many companions, you'll be treated to a special one-off camp scene where your origin character reckons with their past⁠—we previously reported on how this shakes out with the Dark Urge (spoilers: it's rad).

When playing with Karlach as your origin character, there's a normal version of this scene, and also a secret one involving Dammon that's currently impossible to access in the game⁠—you need to have met Dammon, but also never have left the starting beach, making this an impossible nap to take. YouTuber Sparrows swapped the flags for this scene, allowing it to play out as normal.

After musing about having escaped the hells, Karlach's thoughts turn towards Dammon, the smith capable of repairing her heart⁠—in more ways than one? "I ought to keep him close. Really close.

"And then, next time he leans in to listen to my heart, I take his chin in my hand and I lift his face to meet mine and I⁠—stop it, brain! This isn't the time! Is it?"

Mama mia. It keeps going from there too, if you pick the right dialogue option for Karlach's internal monologue. Thoughts of Illithid tadpoles soon take over though: "I'm all nerves now, all starry, as my head explodes, showering him with skull fragments to reveal a mass of tentacles⁠—OH GODS."

Daydream ending notwithstanding, it's certainly a nice touch for fans of the pairing⁠—including the characters' voice actors. Both Samantha Béart and Frazer Blaxland have spoken approvingly of the idea, with Béart even addressing this specific scene: "You know me and [Frazer Blaxland] say that Karlach & Dammon being into each other is canon? Well this is pretty clear (and unfortunately cut for the time being)."

That's all well and good, but I actually think we can agree that Karlach's canon pairing is with my Half-Orc Paladin who's good at everything⁠—we all love that guy, don't we?

Associate Editor

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.

Read more
A BG3 Tav kissing Karlach in one of the updated Patch 6 kiss animations.
All Baldur's Gate 3 romance options: who you can pursue
Two characters from Avowed looking to the left and standign in a jungle with a shaft of light piercing through it
Those mad lads at Obsidian were bluffing us: Avowed does have a tiny bit of companion romance, as a treat
Baldur's Gate 3 villain Raphael, staring intently at the viewer.
"Eager to get me on my knees, Raphael?" Baldur's Gate 3 mod lets you romance the silk-tongued cambion devil, although maybe you shouldn't, yeah?
Astarion
Players are still finding edge-case Baldur's Gate 3 scenes, like one where you play as a kidnapped Astarion even if you made your own player-character
Avowed - Kai smiles happily at camp
How to romance Kai and complete his Battle Scars companion quest in Avowed
Dragon Age: The Veilguard Neve kiss
All the Dragon Age: The Veilguard romance options and what you should know about them
Latest in Baldur's Gate
Minthara BG3 looking upset
Another round of Baldur's Gate 3 unearthing reveals Minthara can end up living in a sewer, an unused beach ending, and more
Gale, a wizard from Baldur's Gate 3, looks very bloodied and very sad at the player while a celestial midnight blooms behind his depressed mug.
Baldur's Gate 3's stress test update fixes heartbreaking bug that wiped out Honour Mode runs at the last possible moment
Baldur's Gate 3 player character made to resemble Geralt of Rivia from The Witcher.
Wait a minute, Geralt of Rivia actor Doug Cockle was in Baldur's Gate 3 this whole time
Half Orc wearing rare Bhaalist Armor in Baldur's Gate 3 standing in front of Astarion and Karlach
It turns out you can get Baldur's Gate 3's best assassin armor without killing a baby angel elephant and joining a cult, all you have to do is pickpocket a ghost
Gale, a wizard from Baldur's Gate 3, looks very bloodied and very sad at the player while a celestial midnight blooms behind his depressed mug.
Baldur's Gate 3's stress test update has, mercifully, made one of its new OP cantrips halfway balanced again—but it's really still quite good
Withers Big Naturals mod image - Withers with big naturals
Sure, why not, here's a guy beating Baldur's Gate 3 without a race or class at all
Latest in News
Lara Croft Unified Art
Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics lays off 17 employees 'to better align our current business needs and the studio's future success'
A long bendy arm stealing money from people in a subway car
'You're a very long arm. You steal things. It's a comedy game,' explains developer of comedy game where you steal things with a very long arm
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway
Image of Cersei Lanniser from Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Steam early access trailer
A new Game of Thrones RPG is coming to Steam today with a cast of 'familiar faces,' which is good because it's really the only way to tell it's a GoT game at all