Item from baldurs-gate-3 by Larian Studios
Karlach's mechanical heart — an Avernus-forged device that makes her a living weapon but is slowly burning her alive, fixable only with increasingly rare infernal iron and impossible to fully repair outside the Hells.
The Infernal Engine replaced Karlach's heart when Gortash sold her to Zariel as a blood war soldier. It runs hot — hot enough to ignite anything she touches, hot enough to prevent her from being held, kissed, or comforted without causing burns. Infernal iron can temporarily stabilize it, but each repair is a patch on a failing system. The engine is Karlach's tragedy made physical. She escaped the Hells, she's finally free, and her own body won't let her enjoy it. The warmth she radiates is both metaphor and mechanism — she is literally too much, burning too bright, consuming herself. The endgame forces the cruelest choice: return to Avernus where the engine functions but freedom doesn't exist, become a Mind Flayer to survive in a body that isn't hers, or die free on the docks of Baldur's Gate, finally at peace and finally cooling.
Also known as: Infernal Engine, Karlach's Heart, The Engine, Infernal Heart