The Wisdom of the Elders is a five-part Stranger side-mission in Red Dead Redemption 2. This quest becomes available during Chapter 5.
Story[]
The Wisdom of the Elders I[]
The player finds a distressed man named Lemuel, laying beside a bridge. The man is incoherent and repedeatly says the word "Butchers Creek" and variants of it, alongside rambling words like "the darkness" and "it's inside me". The protagonist assumes he means Butcher Creek, and takes him there.
There, the player meets a man named Obediah Hinton. Obediah thanks the protagonist for returning his friend. In a sudden outburst, Lemuel attacks the player, and the protagonist is forced to subdue him.
Obediah picks up Lemuel and leads him inside and informs the player that Lemuel is not well and has not been himself since "the troubles begun", before introducing himself. The protagonist asks for money, but Obediah claims that their community does not have much money, and that they can only afford to pay him with friendship and love.
The Wisdom of the Elders II[]
The player revisits Obediah during the night, between midnight and the morning (12:00 AM to 6:00 AM). When the player knocks on his door, Obediah seems to react in frightened manner. He warns the protagonist to leave for his own safety. The player does not know what he is talking about, and Obediah explains that there are "demons," who are coming to attack the village. Very soon after, the player hears a cry for help in the distance, and is forced to go investigate. The cry for help turns out to be coming from a woman whose pigs are being attacked by mangy, rabid dogs, who then proceed to attack the player on sight. The player is the forced to kill the rabid animals in self-defense and saves two other villagers who are under attack as well.
After slaughtering the creatures, the player tells the villagers to urgently get inside their homes and Obediah states that a man told him that the demons will come in many forms and protection would come in many forms. The player tells him that it is just sick dogs that have been poisoned by an unknown substance and tells the villages to shoot any sick animals. Obediah tells the player that they can not doubt the man, who told them that evil has plagued the village. A "shaman" suddenly appears and claims that he can save them. The shaman tells Obediah and the others that the curse has changed and a collection of cursed dark charms in the woods are protecting the curse. The player asks the man if the charms were to be destroyed the curse would be lifted. The shaman tells him that the woods are plagued with demons and it is impossible to destroy them since they are protected by demons. The man tells Obediah and the others that the player is telling them lies that there is no such curse.
The Wisdom of the Elders III[]
The player is told to destroy 13 cursed dark charms in the woods near the village. These charms can be found hanging from the branches of trees in the area. They make a jingling noise when the player is near and will briefly ping on the mini-map as red dots. They will also be highlighted when using Eagle Eye. The most effective way of removing them is to destroy them with a shotgun.
The Wisdom of the Elders IV[]
Obediah will be sitting on the front porch of his house alongside the shaman. The player tells him that he has destroyed the charms and the shaman is in disbelief. Obediah is overjoyed that the player has destroyed the charms. The shaman interrupts them and claims that the player has "set the curse loose", thus making the curse even worse than before. The player recalls that the man stated that the curse would be lifted if the charms were to be destroyed. Obediah seems to be confused by all this. The player tells Obediah that the shaman is clearly hiding something from them but the shaman retaliates by telling Obediah that the player is telling lies and that he has the gift of communing with spirits and demons. The player threatens the shaman and the man runs off. Obediah recalls of an abandoned mine and the shaman told him and others not to go there.
The Wisdom of the Elders V[]
The player investigates the abandoned mine and breaks their way in, but as they proceed deeper into the darkened tunnel, the air begins to grow staler and lower in oxygen (causing the player to being coughing). Once they get to the bottom of the mine, they find that the mine is flooded with tainted water contaminated by highly toxic runoff from lead and arsenic, leaching off into the water from the rock walls around. The air is thick with toxic fumes, causing the player to begin coughing even more. The player decides to take a sample of the contaminated water using a nearby glass bottle.
The player then hears someone nearby and tells them to get out, as the mine is poisoned. Soon after, a dynamite charge goes off, causing the entrance to cave in and leaving the player trapped in the poison-ridden tunnel. With the oxygen flow from the surface cut off, the fumes flood into the area and reach deadly concentrations, causing the player to begin suffocating, causing loud and hoarse coughing and draning their health at a constant pace as they choke on the poison. The player must now quickly escape by following the contaminated runoff water through another tunnel, eventually reaching another area where sunlight and fresh clean air reaches into the underground, stopping the suffocation. Continuing onwards, they eventually reach the surface from behind the waterfall at Kamassa River. During the escape from the mine, the player can find the corpse of a deceased person in the mining tunnel, which can be looted for a Gold Nugget (but doing so will result in honor loss, grave robbing) as well as two Litte Brown Bat carcasses (in good and perfect condition) found just before reaching the waterfall.
After escaping the deadly mine, the player heads back to the village, where they see the shaman with the villagers. The shaman wants Obediah to sign some papers that he claims will lift the curse. Obediah decides to read aloud the papers before signing, to the shaman's surprise, as he did not know Obediah could read. By reading the paper, Obediah reveals that the shaman is working for the Roanoke Fuel Company, and is trying to fool the villagers into signing a paper that would eliminate any responsibility of the company for poisoning the Butcher's Creek area with the mine the player just escaped from. The same paper would also waive any right the villagers have to suing the company for damages. The shaman quickly tells Obediah to stop reading the document. The player decides to confront the shaman over this and Obediah is surprised that they survived. The player claims that the shaman purposely tried to kill them when investigating the mine, before pulling out the sample of the poisonous runoff water and telling the villagers that they were poisoned. Obediah and the villagers still doubt the player's claims, so the player decides to ask the shaman to tell him what this substance is.
The shaman claims that the substance is nothing, but the player decides to shove said substance down his throat, reasoning that if it is nothing, then nothing should happen. This poisons the shaman, causing him to become sick and he then admits the liquid is poison and claims that the company was digging a mine and discovered that there was only arsenic and lead in the ground. The shaman also admits that they hired him to get the villagers to leave. This increases Obediah's and the others' paranoia, and they start to believe that higher spirits have cursed the village through a mining company and that they should appease them. Obediah tells the player to leave and offers the money the shaman left behind as a reward. The player's Honor is also raised.
Missable Items in the Mission[]
Video Walkthrough[]
Trivia[]
- A total of $55 can be collected after completing the stranger mission. It is on a table on the left side of the player same place with the Liability Agreement.
- The charms that must be destroyed are thirteen in number, a number associated with bad luck, thus reinforcing the cursed theme.
- The charms also bear a likeness to a spiritual charm commonly made by both Catholic and indigenous Mexicans, known as God's Eyes.
- The supersition, paranoia and intellectual disability of the villagers at Butcher Creek as well as the rabies in the mangy dogs are both symptoms of lead and arsenic poisoning, most likely caused by the toxic runoff from the abandoned mine leaching off into the groundwater and the Kamassa River and poisoning the environment.
Trophies/Achievements[]
Completing this Stranger mission strand is associated with these trophies/achievements:
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EXTREME PERSONALITY
10
 Bronze
 Reach maximum or minimum Honor level.
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WESTERN STRANGER
30
Bronze
Complete 10 Stranger mission strands.
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100
Gold
 Attain 100% Completion.
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