The Grey Mother (Predux)

The Grey Mother (Predux)
Episode	Episode 1
Missions
Previous	Echoes Of Astrid
Current	The Grey Mother (Predux)
Next	Paradise Lost (Predux)
Region	Mountain Town
Characters	Will Mackenzie Grey Mother

Spoiler Warning: This page may contain spoilers from the story of The Long Dark.

“

The old woman might be the last survivor in Milton. She seems to know more than she's letting on. She might be the key to understanding what happened to Astrid. In-game description

”

The Grey Mother (Predux) was the third mission of the Predux Episode 1: Do Not Go Gentle of the Wintermute story. It has since been replaced after the V1.47 Wintermute Redux version of the game, but is still playable to those that download versions V1.15, V1.30, or V1.37 of Steam version of The Long Dark by using the Time Capsule.

This episode has since been replaced by current the version of The Grey Mother.

Objectives

• There's a Firewood Bin outside Grey Mother's house. Stock it with fuel you find around town -- Sticks, Firewood, broken down furniture, or Coal if you can find any.
• Grey Mother will starve unless you stock her pantry with food. Scavenge what you can from the environment around you. Some food sources are easier to find than others.
  • [Optional] Break into the gas station and ransack it for supplies.
  • Gather food for Grey Mother wherever you can find it, and put it in her fridge.
• Grey Mother seems tired. Try Talking to her after she's had some time to rest.
• Investigate the tunnels leading out of Milton. Grey Mother wants to know what happened there.
• Grey Mother seems deep in thought. Return to her once she's rested a while.
• Something precious was stolen from Grey Mother. Find it, and return it to her.
  • Search the Milton Farmhouse for a Safety Deposit Box Key.
  • Retrieve the contents of the Safety Deposit Box and return it to Grey Mother.
  • Find Lily's grave marker and pay service to her memory.
  • Retrieve the climbing gear from Lily's trunk.

Overview

Grey Mother asks Will Mackenzie to find firewood to keep her fire going, or else she will not tell him anything about Astrid Greenwood's whereabouts. Take the Hatchet in the shed behind the Milton House (Grey Mother's) and search the Toolbox for a Prybar (which you will need later).

Abuse Grey Mother's Fireplace as much as you can to cook food and melt snow/boil water, as the fire duration is infinite. Take care not to take, search, or destroy any items in the house label with dark red text, as this will lower Grey Mother's Trust in you.

Harvest the amount of firewood specified (changes depending on difficulty) from the nearby forest and town. Break down furniture while looting homes and place the firewood inside of the Firewood Bin on the porch of Grey Mother's house (make sure you gather food but don't eat it for later will looting houses). Coal can be found next to the burned down Old Schoolhouse, Sticks in the forest, and cedar limbs can be hacked up, even Newsprint counts. Return to Grey Mother once you acquire enough firewood.

Grey Mother will then demand Mackenzie to stock her Fridge with food, as she will not last the winter without something to eat. She suggests to Mackenzie to ransack the Orca Gas Station since Mainlanders are so good at stealing, though if you're feeling guilty about stealing instead give to her what nature provides. Either way, find food containing calories and place the required amount in her fridge. She will then ask if you ransacked the Gas Station, and will somehow always know if you are telling the truth or not. You can either:

• Lie that you did steal if you did not steal from the Gas Station (Though Grey Mother will see through this lie and remark that you are a kinder soul than she imagined despite being a Mainlander)
• Tell the truth if you did not steal anything from the gas station, in which case Mackenzie will reprimand Grey Mother that if anyone returns to Milton and finds all their food in her pantry, they will not be very helpful to her, giving Grey Mother pause. (She will comment that over the years she has learned to be disappointed with everyone, but she misjudged you.)
• Attempt to lie that you did not steal anything if you stole from the Gas Station (though Grey Mother will see through this lie, and remark that if you'll lie to her about this, what else will you lie to her about)
• Tell the truth if you did steal from the gas station (Grey Mother will comment that you might have what it takes to live through this long Winter)

Either way, judgment will be passed, or not passed, onto Mackenzie, and Grey Mother will reveal more about her encounter with a women that sounded like Astrid, though it sounds like she begins talking about someone else. Grey Mother will then ask you to come back later so she can rest.

After passing several hours, she will remember hearing voices in town, those voices came from the tunnel past the Gas Station, go there and come back. Mackenzie tells Grey Mother about how the Tunnel out of Milton is collapsed and that Astrid might have made it though, but Grey Mother realizes that she and Milton are now finished and wanders off into deep thought. Leave her be to get some rest and come back later.

After passing several hours again, Grey Mother then demands that you go to the local farm, and then the bank in order to retrieve something for her. Mackenzie is confused, asking how this will help him find Astrid, but Grey Mother urges Mackenzie to go, because then he will see why they left "her to die." Mackenzie will comment that Grey Mother seems a bit off now, but she will deflect by saying that she is old and that the mind tends to wander sometimes for her, continuing to remark that "They should have helped her."

Make your way to the farmhouse down the road, and search the body in the barn close to the Farmstead holds Lock Box Key to a lockbox in the farmhouse. Find the key to the house in the blue truck and then go inside into the bedroom and look for the urn on the fireplace, then take the Bank Deposit Box Key 15 inside. Go to the Milton Credit Union and take the Bank Manager's House Key to open the Bank Manager's House, then open the bank vault and use the key to open deposit box 15. Return to Grey Mother.

Returning the Deposit Box to Grey Mother, she opens it to find a string of Pearls inside, angering Mackenzie for making him run around to fetch jewelry for Grey Mother. The old women will firmly ask that Mackenzie have faith, and to do one last thing for her before offering to help Mackenzie find Astrid. Mackenzie angrily refuses, saying he's finished helping the old women do her chores. She responds that then he will die like the others, and begs "the man who fell from the sky" for one last favor, with Mackenzie reluctantly agreeing, before being handed Grey Mother's Pearls and being told to take them to someone named Lily. Mackenzie finally realizes that this whole time Grey Mother was not talking about Astrid, but Lily. Grey Mother then asks Mackenzie to take the pearls to her at the Graveyard. Mackenzie asks why Lily is there, but Grey Mother tells him he will find his answers when he goes there.

Head out of town to St. Christopher's Church and find the Graveyard. A cutscene will play with Mackenzie finding Lily, placing the pearls on a headstone reading Lilith Barker. Return to Grey Mother and she will thank Mackenzie for putting an old women's worries. She will explain what happened to her daughter Lilith Barker and then give Mackenzie a key to Lily's trunk containing her daughter's old climbing gear, offering a way out of Milton. Mackenzie says that he will send help for her, but Grey Mother says that her journey is over, and that his is just beginning, for this new world is for the strong.

Go upstairs and find the blue Trunk containing Lily's gear. Take the Mountaineering Rope and Lily's Map and the mission will end.

Grey Mother's Trust

Grey Mother offers unique items, knowledge, and side missions as rewards for better earning her Trust during this mission:

Items That Increase Trust

• +1 Stick
• +3 Reishi Mushroom
• +5 Bandage
• +10 Military-Grade MRE
• +25 Can Opener
• +30 Fresh Rabbit Pelt or Cured Rabbit Pelt

Trust is also earned from completing major tasks during the mission.

Trust Levels And Unlocks

• 25 Trust: Knowledge: Milton History - Worldbuilding information about the history of Milton.
• 50 Trust: Gameplay Tip: Sharpening - Gameplay tip about how to maintain Bladed tools. (Also gives Whetstone)
• 75 Trust: Knowledge: The Collapse - Worldbuilding information about the Collapse.
• 125 Trust: Cache Location - The location of a Supply Cache, updated on your Map. (One of the caches for Milton Supply Caches)
• 175 Trust: Side Mission: Distress Pistol - Information about where you might find a Distress Pistol. (Light Up The Night)
• 225 Trust: Blueprint: Rabbit Skin Mittens - Unlocks the Crafting Blueprint for Rabbit Skin Mittens.
• 300 Trust: Knowledge: Perseverance Mills - Worldbuilding information about Perseverance Mills.
• 375 Trust: Item: Mountaineering Boots - Grey Mother gives you with Mountaineering Boots. (sic)

Transcript

The Grey Mother (Predux)/Transcript

Differences from Redux Episode 1

Several plot points and locations have been replaced/altered since the Redux re-release of Episode 1:

Plot Points and Gameplay Changes

• The Trust system has been completely removed from the game.
  • Certain items, furniture, and containers inside Grey Mother's home have dark red text, signifying that they are owned by her. Taking, searching, or Harvesting any of these items will produce a small message that the player has lost Trust with Grey Mother.
  • The hidden cache that Grey Mother gives directions to at 125 Trust was replaced by the note Medicine in my backyard.
  • The side mission Light Up The Night was replaced by Highway Robbery (mission).
  • The knowledge that Grey Mother gives was replaced by the Collectibles the History of The Collapse, Town of Milton, and the dialogue option "Perseverance Mills."
  • The Mountaineering Boots are rewarded after completing the side mission One Last Thing.
  • The Rabbitskin Mitts are rewarded after completing The Basics of Survival.

• There is far less emphasis on the actions of the escaped Convicts from the Crashed Prison Transport Bus in this version of Episode 1. Grey Mother's house shows no signs of a struggle, with no dead Convict in the shed, no bullet holes in the wall facing away from her chair, and no knocked over furniture. The Old Schoolhouse apparently burnt down after many people took shelter inside by choice, rather than being forced inside by Convicts. Astrid simply passed through the town confused and wounded before making her way through the tunnel out of town, avoiding all the panic going on in Milton. The only dead convict that appears is the one next to the Crashed Prison Transport Bus.
• The Fireplace displays a timer of 10 minutes until it burns out, yet it will never goes out. This was fixed in Redux, with the fire displaying an infinity (∞) symbol instead.
• The playground of the Old Schoolhouse is different post Redux. Mackenzie does not express his horror and sorrow upon walking near the burned schoolhouse. The small detail of broken glasses and child sized sneakers is missing around the schoolhouse.
• Methuselah and Hobbs do not appear at all in this Episode (Hobbs did not exist as a character at the time and Methuselah only appears near the end of Predux Episode 2).
  • Further more, the Prison Transport Manifest only lists 12 prisoners, Hobbs missing.
• The moral choice involving ransacking the Orca Gas Station when getting food for Grey Mother, and how she somehow always knows what choice you made regarding it, is similar to how Methuselah comments on your choice to spare or kill Hobbs in the Redux, despite how neither were present to witness your actions.
• Going to the Orca Gas Station is optional if the player has enough food to satisfy Grey Mother. In Redux, it is mandatory to go there in order to meet Methuselah.
• Martin Barker hold a Lock Box Key (Predux) that opens a Lockbox inside the Paradise Meadows Farm. This Lockbox was cut from the Redux (along with the Emergency Kit Note), however Hobbs now holds the same Lockbox (it is now filled with cash instead of supplies).
  • An Urn inside the Farmstead house holds the Bank Deposit Box Key 15, whereas in the Redux, Hobbs has it in the Lockbox.
  • The concept of a key inside an Urn would be reused for Episode 3: Crossroads Elegy, with a key hidden under a Vase during the mission Trauma.
• Returning Grey Mother's Pearls to Lilith's grave is mandatory to finish the mission. This would be made optional in the Redux with the side mission One Last Thing.

Game History

• UPDATE 1 August 2017 (Update):
  • Added to game.
• UPDATE 17 December 2018 (Update):
  • Removed from the game as part of the Redux edition.