Baldur's Gate 3 mostly treats summons and party members the same when it comes to gameplay. That means you can leave your entire party behind and plow on ahead through the game with Scratch, the loveable and seemingly immortal pup.
That's exactly what u/ThrowRA_dependent did when they reached Act 2, sending Scratch into the bowels of Shar's Temple all alone, until they eventually ran up against Yurgir, a hulking Fiend from the Nine Hells trapped in a contract with Raphael.
You can get through this encounter with dialogue alone, completely avoiding combat. However, with Scratch, that should be impossible. Yurgir has a few passives and abilities like Darkvision, Invisibility, and Watchful Hunt, but notably, he doesn't have Speak with Animals. How he understands a dog is a bit of a mystery, since he doesn't appear to have telepathy like some fiends do. This shouldn't be possible... right?
The real explanation is that the game treats Scratch like any other party member, but I want a real, tangible answer that we can apply in-universe. If Yurgir can't cast Speak with Animals, how does he understand our dog? The answer might lie with the Hoarding Merregon.
As broken down on...
