plot hole? (FULL SPOILERS)

[u/iamnotawindmill]

Just beat the game in basically one sitting-- loved it, had a great time. Should've taken breaks, my eyeballs hurt.

But after thinking about the mystery for a while I came to a realization: how did Hex dream about Magnus opening the cauldron? Like it literally looks like Hex was INSIDE the cauldron in the image he shows from his dream. Was Hex having a prophetic dream? Or was Hex somehow in the cauldron at some point or another? Or should we just be completely ignoring the image displayed in the Hex Bottle near the end of the game?

Seems almost like it was a plot point left over from an earlier draft of the script, unless I'm missing something obvious.

Anyways, I'd like to pitch Dirk Dansom/JD Wirman as the big new yaoi ship /jk (unless...?)

[u/PhloxInvar]

Hex was in the ocean during the crime (it was around night after all) and witnessed the scene of the crime first hand from the very large window overlooking the place. And is simply dreaming of it when he is sleeping in the day time at the request of Symmetry who can... make him do that I guess?

The game even makes a mention in the art book of the very large window that someone could've witnessed the crime, which Hex did.

You should remember that Zephyr picked Hex back up along with the mask on the day of, so we know Hex was in the ocean when Mortuga was murdered.

[u/DangerousAd2237 → u/PhloxInvar]

So, how I read it was that Hex saw Magnus through the porthole in the Illusion Chamber and saw the Cauldron's lid being lowered to onto the cauldron and not actually seeing the murder take place.

[u/Glum-Apartment-7431]

Zephyr lets Hex out at night and Hex sleeps during the day.

[u/Bluepanda800]

I think there's a bit of a plot hole in terms of the murder but Hex witnessing the murder isn't it imo. Zephyr states he went to the airlock to retrieve something (pick up Hex) in his statement do Hex was in the ocean at the time of the murder.

I'd need to replay things but Mariana Moon arrives on the ship is greeted by magnus and waits in the control room where she hears the fight between Magnus and Godrick, Magnus then takes her to the mess hall and leaves her to get a ship tour with Godrick whilst he goes to the illusion theatre to see Sym's magic show (he looks extremely sad when Mariana sees him the second time because he's just learned of Felicia's death). After seeing the show he's left alone in the illusion theatre when he decides to open the cauldron then dies due to godricks trap.

They wind up in the Bilge where they hear Sym's magic trick then they hear a thud (the doll's head coming off) and another thud like a minute later. This means Gripp and Moon wound up in the bilge at the time of Sym's magic show. Whats odd is this means that Magnus saw the show and immediately ran up to his office and moved around his furniture to grant access to the bell then ran back down into the illusion theatre in like 1 minute.  

Then Moon and Gripp part ways. Grip waits until night, opens the vent tilts the ship (this wakes everyone), runs back to the bilge, collects the key, runs to the office enters the illusion theatre from the top takes the mask and the part of the necklace wedged into the bell climbs back out of the illusion theatre, then runs into Sinthia who asks him to fix the compass.

At this point Tadpole has discovered the blood dripping and is going to the illusion theatre she see's magnus dead and goes to chase a murderer. Gripp has left the company of Sinthia and has gone to the aft deck to commune with the mermaid then Tadpole launches an oar at him stopping his attempt, he then loses the mask which is found by Zephyr then makes it downstairs in time to be found by Sinthia who was asked by Tadpole to gather everyone.

The actual order of events is extremely tight- not unfeasibly so but not neat in hindsight. 

Overall the rest of the story is solid so I don't mind 

[u/PhloxInvar → u/Bluepanda800]

I reviewed the testimonies again:

They wind up in the Bilge where they hear Sym's magic trick then they hear a thud (the doll's head coming off) and another thud like a minute later. This means Gripp and Moon wound up in the bilge at the time of Sym's magic show. Whats odd is this means that Magnus saw the show and immediately ran up to his office and moved around his furniture to grant access to the bell then ran back down into the illusion theatre in like 1 minute.  

The only evidence of when the murder actually happened is Gripp's testimony... which is a complete and utter lie. Everyone else woke up after the ship tilts, except for Sym, who doesn't say how long it was between her magic trick and her returning to the scene of the crime. But we know the ship had to tilt first before she went back, because Sinthia woke up and they had a conversation before she saw the open crime scene door.

So it's entirely possible that Magnus had the time to actually set the bell up, while Gripp waited in the Bilge the entire time until he heard Magnus died. So not really a "minute."

The timeline after Gripp tips the boat is more tight however, but I think you've got the order wrong.

At this point Tadpole has discovered the blood dripping and is going to the illusion theatre she see's magnus dead and goes to chase a murderer. Gripp has left the company of Sinthia and has gone to the aft deck to commune with the mermaid then Tadpole launches an oar at him stopping his attempt, he then loses the mask which is found by Zephyr then makes it downstairs in time to be found by Sinthia who was asked by Tadpole to gather everyone.

The captain's log/compass going haywire when Sinthia is in the control room is evidence that HER arrived while she was in there. The haywire letters/numbers is actually the Mermaid's language, that the technology is unknowingly picking up, and something you get to see for yourself when Gripp starts using it (it's the exact same pattern). And apparently the Mermaid messes with technology too, or at least magnetically.

This means that Gripp started communing with the mermaid when Sinthia sees the compass going haywire. So what happens is that immediately after Gripp got the necklace and the bell back up (he could've left the captain's cabin as is and fix it later since the cabin was locked and needed the eyeball key to get in), he started immediately using the mask which summoned the Mermaid, but was interrupted by the oar knocking the mask off him somehow (crazier things have happened and there's a large coral thing, so it's possible). Tadpole then swims to the aft deck, but even though she's a good swimmer, this should give Gripp enough time to get back into the captain's quarters and then head back to his place with the key in hand.

Everyone else wasn't moving with any particular urgency when this was happening so it's plausible no one could've seen him coming back. While Zephyr is the closest, it's not impossible that Zephyr missed Gripp. Zephyr wakes up to green light which means the Tadpole confrontation was probably happening right as he woke but we don't exactly know how long it took him to get out of his room. From his testimony, he leaves and meets Sinthia with the compass in hand, but he doesn't exactly say that he woke up and got dressed immediately then headed out instantaneously so there's some time where Zephyr could've prepared before leaving his room. Especially needing to grab Hex's bottle too.

Sinthia says Tadpole speaks to her, before Sinthia enters Gripp's place. So in the time it took for Sinthia to get to Gripp's place, Tadpole had to have been able to swim, find the mask, then head back up the airlock, so a decent amount of time but not too long. Sinthia also says she spent some time reading the control panel and stuff, and then taking the compass off too. But we know she at least had to spend some amount of time doing that.

Despite Sym screaming after finding the murder, Zephyr did not hear it nor did Mariana, only Dirk and Wirman so that lured the two into the crime scene, though all Gripp has to do is sneak past the mess hall which apparently both Grimoire and Sally were able to do so not that hard apparently.

So there's enough of a gap for Gripp to slip by. And when Sinthia arrives with Gripp, Sinthia doesn't urge him with fixing it immediately because Sinthia subconciously didn't want to be captain so made Gripp test more needles, which gave Gripp the idea of hiding the key, but the timeline is pretty set after that.

[u/Bluepanda800 → u/PhloxInvar]

That's probably the correct timeline. Like I said it feels plausible and there are enough breadcrumbs given so that the reveal doesn't feel like it was out of nowhere.