Elephants

The Elephants are major characters in Darkwood that live in the Swamp Cottage. They're a family of four; three children (one of which is missing) and a mother. They're dressed in full protective suits (Hazmat suits reminiscent of the World War 2 era) with breathing hoses, and oxygen tanks. Their strange appearance created by the masks is likely the reason for their nicknames, as the Polish-made MUA mask is often nicknamed "Elephant" due to its design.

The mother is a fierce survivor, and somewhat of a shut-in; she forbids her children from going outside, talking to strangers, or breathing any of the 'contaminated air.' She herself argues that said air is the cause of the mutations of all the other inhabitants of the region (she claims too that the Protagonist's muteness is caused by such a miasma). She also claims that the 'book,' quite possibly a reference to the bible, will save them. She exhibits aggressive behaviors too (such as hitting her kids) which suggests her time spent inside the house has driven her mad.

The Cripple will first point the Protagonist towards the Elephants in the Swamp Cottage, by suggesting that they have Oxygen Tanks. Before the player will be able to meet the Elephants face to face, however, they will need to repair the generator outside their house, requiring 10 scrap metal. This, however, is made trivial, due to the large number of bear traps set up all around their home. Once fixed, the Elephants will thank you and open the door. Upon speaking to them, the mother Elephant will give the player a quest. One of her sons ran away in pursuit of his hobby of 'collecting mushrooms,' and you are required to bring him back alive and well.

The Child can be found in the Mushroom Glade behind a locked door in Mushroom Granny's house. Upon retrieving him, the mother Elephant will take him into another room and he will disappear from the game. The player is rewarded with an Oxygen Tank for their efforts.

It is revealed that the mother of the Elephants is the paranoid daughter of Mushroom Granny, and the wife of the Thief. This also means that she is the mother of The Three. They are three of her seven children. One of her children is dead and his decomposing corpse is sitting in the Old Shed.

Epilogue

The Elephants, if they are without the Child, will burn to death in their cottage without him. He will try to come and save his loved ones from the fire, to no avail.

See Transcript

Dialogue

Greeting

• First Encounter

The air is filled with a suffocating, sweet odor of rot.

"Who are you?"

The woman is wearing a heavy, ruined coat. Her voice is suppressed by the cracked gas mask she's wearing.

"Can't you speak? Did someone take away your voice?"

Two children hide behind the woman. The younger one eyes me nervously, cowering in fear. The older one just stands there, motionless.

"You're not from around here. I would have recognized you.
We may keep to ourselves, but I know everyone here.
I would never forget your mug."

The younger child pierces me with its eyes. The steamed visor of his gas mask betrays his rapid breath.

"Your gob looks like that because of this fiendish air, do you know? I bet you can't speak, because you didn't keep your mouth shut when walking through the woods.

The trees and plains are simply beautiful here, and the bushes bloom gorgeously this time of year, but don't let the charm of this land deceive you. The devil lurks between the trees and he gets to you through your mouth and nose."

The older child's grasp on his mother's hand tightens. He does not lift his gaze from one of the hut's walls.

"And? You're just going to stand there?
I know you want something, you leper demon.
You're not getting anything from us.
I don't trust you, leper gob, do you hear me?! I don't trust anyone who breathes this filthy air."

The woman stares at me intensely through the cracked mask.

"Did you take my Marcinek? Was it you who kidnapped him? Talk!

No, that cannot be."

The woman stares at the floor. Her greasy, black hair drops down on her mask.

"It's impossible.
Stupid child, he went out and never came back. He was on about how his granny will take him mushrooming... I have no idea where he... I told him he cannot go outside! I told him that the devil will find him, take off his mask and take him away...

I would look for him, but..."

She lowers her head even more, as if observing the dead flies stuck to her coat.

"You want my trust? Bring my Marcinek back, my stupid Marcinek. Find him and bring him home!

Here's the key to his room. He was spending a lot of time there recently. Maybe you'lll be able to find something there that will lead you to him."

• With the Child

"You brought back my child..."

The woman leans towards the boy.

"Marcin, where have you been?!"

The boy stares at the ground in silence.

"Come here!"

Marcinek walks towards the woman, nervously plucking at his old, torn sweater.

"Look at you! Where's your mask?! And the gas tank from your gracious brother?!

His love protects us! It fills our lungs with clean air, and this is how you thank him, young man? Your childish behaviour made him very, very angry. Now, we will all have to apologize to him for your stupidity!"

The two kids standing behind their mother flinch.
The woman grabs the boy's hand and disappears in the hallway. After a while, she comes back with an oxygen tank.

"Take it. It's a tank for you. It will protect you from this devilish air, the devil's breath and other evils lurking in this foul place.
It's the only thing i have and the only thing I can give you."

The tank is a little rusty, but it seems intact. On the side, I can see some unintelligible scribblings. The valve opens with a little resistance, but I don't hear the hiss of air. It's empty.

"Do not open the valve without need, you will only waste the clean air!"

She pushes my hand away from the valve and closes it hastily.

"May it serve you well."

---

Showing Items

• Photo of a Road

"I remember this road. The woods devoured it about three years ago. It used to lead to our village. I walked it to school.
The road home... My road home..."

The woman stares into the photo, hypnotized.

• A Photo of Three Boys

The woman takes the photo and freezes.

"...No, I don't know who that is."

• Photo of a Family

"That was a long time ago... a long, long time ago..."

The woman silently hands me back the photo.

---

Gossip

• The rhyme

The youngest child, hidden behind the woman's back until now, finally finds the courage to make a small step towards me.

"One little bear ate a little soup,"

A faint voice can be heard.

"Then another one came and...

Quiet!"

The woman smacks the boy in the back of his head. The punch is so hard, the hood of his rubber cloak lands on his mask's visor.

"Not now, not in front of a stranger!"

• The blessed child

"Apart from these two here... and Marcinek, there's one more boy of mine.... My precious darling. A blessed child."

The woman rests her hands on the oxygen tanks of the children standing beside her.

"His love fills our tanks with clean air. For this, we are forever grateful to him. For the clean air, for the oxygen tanks, for these beautiful masks, and the book, in which the devil has revealed his true image, along with his evil plan. My son took it away from the trees with his own hands, and brought it here to us."

• The Three

"You're just like these lunatics who roam around the woods, searching for God knows what.
There used to be more of them. Guess most of them starved to death.

I remember when they appeared not far from here, must've been around two years ago. Around two dozens of them. They were led by these three weirdos dressed in old rags. They set up a camp at the marsh... there, between the trees.
They watched our house. Stared right into my windows, the oddities. I thought they wanted to kidnap my children, or harm them some other way... But when the night fell, I lost sight of them. There was no one there in the morning."

• If the player completes Piotrek's quest

"Something exploded in the (...) part of the Swamp. Made the ground tremble. Devil knows what it was.
I see you're curious. Investigate it, if you have a death wish. I think it happened in the junkyard."

• If the player gets killed in the Train Wreck dream

"I remember one loitering around here. He used to be a doctor. He would come to the village to treat people. Now he looks like an unholy pig. Face smothered in shit, dressed in rags. This devilish disease finally gets to everyone. You better watch out, or you'll lose your mind too.
He left towards the (...) part of the Swamp."

Trivia

• Taking the Child back to the Elephants is not required for obtaining an oxygen tank, but finding him and hearing his song is. (because his song gives you the code to the chest in the Old Shed, near the Elephants home if you follow the flower trail.)
• The Oxygen Tank given to the player is completely empty, though the mother Elephant insists its full. It's likely that she's breathing the same polluted air as everyone else.
• The room that the Elephants are not in at the Swamp Cottage will be locked, likely keeping the Child there.
• The mother mentions that she has another son which left, and supplies them with the oxygen they breathe. If the player follows the trail of flowers to the Old Shed and uses the code (clued to by the Child) to open its locked door, they will find a body holding an Oxygen Tank, with many more scattered around the area. This is likely the body of her child, "supplying" the air with the gas comes from his rotting corpse and flowers.
• The Elephants and their masks/gas tanks/flowers are most likely references to the real life Plague Doctors in medieval period when peoples believe that diseases are caused by breathing in bad smelled air. Further more, plague doctors would also frequently fill their masks with herbs and flowers to "purify" the air they breathed.
• The Elepehant Mother was at one point visited by the Three (her eldest sons), but she did not recognise them and was relieved when they left.
• The son that died in the Old Shed had found some belongings from an Outsider studying the effects of the plague, she believes these items are evil and linked to the devil.
• One of her rumor refers to the spacecraft crashing in the junkyard.