I have long been fascinated with the Pagan Ritual Site. The fact that there is so little information contained within the game explaining it's purpose makes it even more enigmatic.

Until recently I believed that the site existed in sort of an information vacuum within the game. The only reference to the ritual site that I was aware of were the three voodoo symbols located near Lakay.

Recently I watched a youtube video posted by how I play. He claimed that there was a link between the paintings located in Hidden Tunnel and the Pagan Ritual Site. I had never heard this theory before and I was skeptical about the connection after watching his video.

I had been to Hidden Tunnel before and seen the paintings but his video made me curious. I decided to return and take another look.

I will describe what I found in the next sections.

Hidden Tunnel Paintings

There are a series of nine paintings located within Hidden Tunnel. Each painting depicts the same scene. A person appears to be impaled, surrounded by five separate entities. Next to them is a large red being.

The first painting is located near the cave entrance. This painting is slightly different than the rest. It appears to be cut in half. Two of the five entities appear on the opposite side of the large red being.

This means that if you were to only view the first painting you would not have a complete understanding of the depicted scene. You need to go deeper in the cave to see the full picture.

The eight other paintings are located in the area where the Devil Man lives. There are three paintings located next to each other on one wall of his home. The other 5 paintings form a ring around a fire deeper in his lair

Who is in the paintings?

Each painting depicts seven separate entities.

There is a person that appears to have been impaled on a stake.

Above them is an illustration of a white horned beast. In the bottom right hand corner is a second horned beast with red hair.

There are three people illustrated using black paint. The person on the left appears to have a spiked head or possibly mask. The person on the right appears like a ghost or spirit, or possible serpentine in nature. The person on the bottom appears to be using a spear or weapon to impale something. They could be impaling a person or animal, I am not certain. All three of the beings appear to being smeared in white paint.

Next to each painting is a large red being with orange on the face. This red being bears resemblance to the red beings illustrated in the paintings located at Mount Shann, which is near the Hidden Tunnel entrance. I believe these beings may be giants. The skeleton of a giant is located on Mount Shann.

Link to the Pagan Ritual Site

The impaled man was not enough for me to conclusively link the Hidden Tunnel paintings to the Pagan Ritual Site. What convinced me was the painting located above the impaled man. A white horned beast. A goat. The head of a white goat is located at the top of the actual Pagan Ritual Site, just like in the painting.

Night Folk

I believe the people depicted in the painting are Night Folk.

It was already presumed that the Night Folk were linked with the ritual site. The symbols painted on the ritual site are found near Lakay. The Hidden Tunnel paintings confirm this link.

The painting of a woman by a fire inside the building at Lakay may be depicting an actual ritual at the pagan site. The women is wearing white and holding a serpent, which resembles the person depicted to the right of the impaled person in the cave paintings.

Devil Man, Painting Origins and Hand Painting

I could be wrong, but I do not believe the Devil Man is linked in with the Pagan Ritual Site. I think at some point in the past the Night Folk inhabited Hidden Tunnel and created the paintings when they lived there.

I have seen people question the distance between Pagan Ritual Site and the related symbols at Lakay. Why are they are far apart? The Night Folk could have created the ritual site if they lived in Hidden Tunnel at some point. The two locations are not far apart.

There is one other painting that is displayed several times inside the cave. The painting containing numerous pink, black and white hand prints. I am not sure what to make of it at the moment.

Sources

I would like to thank how i play for posting his video explaining the link between the Hidden Tunnel cave paintings and the Pagan Ritual Site. This information may be widely known to others, but I was not aware of it until I saw his video.

Conclusion

I would like to apologize in advance for the quality of some of the painting photos. The lighting in the cave is extremely poor. I highly suggest visiting the cave sometime and drawing your own conclusions.

I find these paintings fascinating. I believe we can infer what actions need to be performed at the Pagan Ritual Site by studying the paintings.

There is an instruction manual for the Pagan Ritual Site!

Links

how I play (Investigate The Unknown 3)

https://youtu.be/MEpQ3mNkcQM?si=cJdn3CzYQ_FvRWv4

edit 1: I am now pretty sure that the illustration on the bottom of the cave painting depicts a person being impaled, not an animal.

I have not had any new breakthroughs, but I would like to share a few things I have learned for others that are attempting to solve this mystery.

Correction

First I would like to correct a statement I made in one of my previous post. I said that the lights on the Reutlinger pocket watch will only stay illuminated if you stay within the fence line of Beecher's Hope. This is incorrect. It seems you are able to travel outside of the fence line in all directions, sometimes 50-100ft. The search area for possible clues has been expanded.

Chores

I discovered something that further implies a link between the ranch chores and family dinner. One of the chores that needs to be completed is selling off the goods (eggs & milk) at the market. This chore is typically one of the last to be performed because it has several requisite chores that must be completed first.

I noticed that if you complete all, or I believe even the majority of the chores and then sell the goods, the time automatically shifts to 4PM. Family dinner is set and waiting for you. This will happen even if you complete the chores early in the day, say by 9-10AM.

I believe this is occurs for a reason. The developers wanted the player to immediately participate in family dinner if all the chores had been completed. If the player completed all the ranch chores, and then had to to wait until a certain time for dinner to start there would be a chance they would wander off and do something else, missing dinner.

After Dinner Events

I have discovered 5 individual after dinner event sequences performed by the family after dinner.

I am still trying to figure out what causes the sequence to change to a different one. The family will be locked into a specific sequence, sometimes for days at a time. Meaning for example that Abigail will always go to the front porch after dinner, and Jack will sit by the tree, and they will do this after every family dinner for days at a time.

I believe that completing all of the chores will cause the after dinner actions to cycle to one of the separate five sequences, but I am not 100% sure.

The differences only involve the actions performed by Jack and Abigail. Uncle is always be the last to leave the table. Abigail either cleans the tables, or stands on the front porch. Jack will sometimes stand on the front porch or sit by a tree with Rufus. Sometimes Jack will read in a chair, or in his bedroom. The book Jack happens to be reading is what leads me into the next section and what I think is the most interesting discovery.

Jack's Book

The book Jack is reading on his bed and in the chair is called The Castle Above the Moor. It is one of the nineteen books that is located on the bookshelf inside Beecher's Hope.

The end of the readable passage of the book details a character in the racing towards a ship on horseback, attempting to save someone from certain death. Several words seem to be out of place or used incorrectly.

The fact that he was reading this book made me very curious. Based on all the evidence the Family Dinner Mystery seems to be some type of timed event, or "race".

While looking deeper into the possible meaning of this passage I discovered an extremely interesting post made by u/The_Media_Guy regarding this book, and two others that can be found on the bookshelf. Here is what u/The_Media_Guy discovered about this trio of books:

>More and more I find myself paying attention to the 19 books on the shelves at Beecher's Hope, especially the three fictional romances by Mrs. Hescott Childers - Castle Above the Moor, Castle Above the Glen and The Castle in the Field of Lavender.

>I had never given these more than a cursory glance in-game and thought they were just exaggerated parodies of turn of the century romance novels, but these are bizarre, near clones of each other - peppered with strange adverbs and repeated words that are completely out of place.

>These have all the classic earmarks of steganography, where a hidden message is buried in plaintext. If you are a student of Victorian era ciphers and codes this will look very familiar to you. This would very much be a period authentic way to hide a message in Red Dead.

All 3 books seem to tell a similar story, with different characters and wording. Each book ends with some sort of race against time. Could the solution to this mystery be hidden in these books? Does anyone happen to be familiar with Victorian era ciphers?

Other

The more I think about the silo, the more I find it odd and out of place. Why would a small ranch need such an enormous silo? The Marston Family crops would not yield nearly enough to fill a silo of that size, and they do not have enough cattle to need that much feed storage. The ladder and the door at the top seems to becon me. Maybe once the mystery is solved it will open up and reveal a giant spaceship.

Does anyone happen to know what the item is in the last photo I posted? It is sitting on a small table in the living room of Beecher's Hope.

Links

Cipher Text? Steganography? Full Text of Herscott Childers Books -

https://www.reddit.com/r/RDR2mysteries/comments/1illmm9/cipher_text_steganography_full_text_of_herscott/

https://www.reddit.com/r/reddeadmysteries/comments/1illnzc/cipher_text_steganography_full_text_of_herscott/

Previous posts -

The Reutlinger Pocket Watch and the Family Dinner Mystery (Part 1):

https://www.reddit.com/r/reddeadmysteries/comments/1sg3l9r/the_reutlinger_pocket_watch_and_the_family_dinner/

New Developments in the Family Dinner Mystery (Part 2):

https://www.reddit.com/r/reddeadmysteries/comments/1sgxswm/new_developments_in_the_family_dinner_mystery/

Recently I made a post about a clock I had discovered at Pleasance House, west of Amarillo. There is a clock sitting on the nightstand and I had noticed that the number 11 had been replaced with the roman numeral for 13. I found this very intriguing because it is very similar to the defect exhibited on the Reutlinger Pocket Watch. This watch has the number 8 replaced with the roman numeral for 13.

In the comments of my post u/Lolo_Loves provided me with the results of an exhaustive investigation that had occurred several years ago. This investigation was helped along by the entire r/reddeadmysteries community. They were able to locate 13 clocks scattered across 11 separate locations on the map. Each clock had the same defect as the clock located in Pleasance House. It was presumed that these clocks were related to the Reutlinger watch, but other than the clocks having different numerals replaced with the number 13, there was no conclusive link.

Today I found a 14th clock and I believe a link between the Reutlinger Pocket Watch and the other 13 clocks.

Earlier I had come across an interesting post about the Reutlinger watch made by u/The_Media_Guy. He had discovered that the watch will actually light up if you attend the Family Dinner event at Beecher's Hope. He reported that the watch behaves very much like a timer, staying on for around 3 minutes. As long as you stay within Beecher's Hope the lights on the watch remain lit.

I found this fascinating, and had recently completed the epilogue so I wanted to give Family Dinner a shot and see what happened. After attending dinner once or twice and running around aimlessly after dinner I realized I needed to form a plan. That is when I started investigating the ranch and found the 14th clock in Jack's room, on his nightstand.

I do not believe it is a coincidence that one of the 14 alarm clocks is located at Beecher's Hope. I believe Family Dinner, the Reutlinger Pocket Watch, and the 14 alarms clocks are all related.

I will now share what I have been able to discover so far and attempt to explain why I feel this way. I am going to break the rest of this post up into sections for easier reading.

The Fourteen Clocks

Each clock resembles an old fashioned alarm clock, and is usually located near a bed or place of rest. As mentioned earlier, on each clock the number 11 has been replaced with the roman numeral for the number 13.

A persistent ticking sound can be heard emanating from many of the clocks. The sound is more reminiscent of a stopwatch rather than an alarm clock. This sound combined with the fact that these are all alarm clocks links this to the Family Dinner timed event involving the Reutlinger Pocket Watch.

Another interesting thing about the alarm clocks is that each one, with only a handful of exceptions, is located near a clock that does not have an unusual 13th roman numeral. The alarm clock located at Chez Porter is no longer available after completing Rob a Homestead (Javier Escuella). I do not know how or if this impacts the Family Dinner mystery.

Here is a list of the location of each alarm clock. I will post screenshots in the comments:

Reed Cottage
Deer Cottage
Pleasance House
Annesburg Gun Smith
Beecher's Hope
The Loft
House in Colter
Taxidermist House
2 in Blackwater General Store
2 in Hill Haven Ranch
Pleasance House
Chez Porter

Family Dinner

At some point in the day Abigail will announce that family dinner is ready. You can come in and start the event at the dinner table inside Beecher's Hope. One thing I found very interesting was a comment made by Abigail at the start of one of the dinners. She said "Aaaannd GO!", very much like what someone would say at the start of a race or timed event. Family Dinner ends once Uncle leaves the table.

After sitting through a number of dinners I started to notice a pattern. Each dinner played out exactly the same during the 3 minutes. Dinner starts, Abigail leaves first, then Jack, etc. Each dinner event happens at around the same time.

I realized that the dinner itself could easily be used as a timer. If you were running around trying to complete multiple actions within Beecher's Hope in under 3 minutes, it would be easy to use the dinner table itself as a sort of timer to tell roughly how much time you have left. "Oh Abigail is still cleaning the table, I still have time."

Here is a list of the actions that happen during Family Dinner:

Family Dinner starts
Abigail leaves table
Jack leaves table
Jack walks out front door
Abigail cleans one side of table
Abigail cleans the other side of the table
Uncle leaves table

After Dinner Timed Event

The event seems to start as soon as you stand up from the table. The event does not trigger if you finish eating and remain seated. I sat there for well over 3 minutes to test this theory out. I believe the time of the event actually varies slightly, but it seems to last around three minutes or slightly more.

The lights on the Reutlinger will stay on as long as you are stay within the fence of Beecher's Hope, with a few exceptions. I ran out of either gate and I was able to travel maybe 30-50ft before the lights on the watch turned off. When I tried to hop over the fence in other locations around the ranch, the lights went off immediately. I believe whatever we are expected to do happens within the ranch.

Chores

I have a strong suspicious that whatever we are expected to do is somehow related to the ranch chores. I recently completed the epilogue, and once you return to Beecher's Hope it is strongly implied that you are now John Marston the rancher and should be taking care of business at the ranch.

It has been reported that Family Dinner even begins early if you complete all the ranch chores. This seems to be the case but I cannot confirm it. At the the start of one dinner Abigail asked me if "Everything had been tended to?" implying she expected the chores to be done.

Jack's Room

Inside Jack's room there is a magnifying glass on his desk. This same magnifying glass is located near the color palette in the Strange Man cabin. I believe it was placed there as a clue in both locations. Inside the Strange Man cabin we were being instructed to look at the paintings and writings on the wall for clues. I believe we are being given the same instructions inside Jack's room. His room is full of all sorts of interesting posters and items. There is an antique globe with a compass built into the base.

Theories

My theory at this time is obviously something needs to occur at Beecher's Hope during the three minutes allotted to us. I think there are most likely multiple tasks that need to be completed during this time.

Three minutes is a fairly long time, and the ranch is not that big. The alarm clocks, stopwatch sounds, and the comments made by Abigail indicate that whatever needs to be completed should not be done at a leisurely pace.

I believe completing the ranch chores prior to dinner is involved, and possibly wearing a specific outfit. I have been wearing the "Rancher" outfit during all my tests.

As far as the 14 other clocks, I think that there may be an an item or clue near each clock that we need to discover. Maybe once all the clues are analyzed together it will point us in the right direction.

I do not think that we need to perform any action at the location of the alarm clocks. I could be wrong, but I feel the mystery would be too complicated and cumbersome to solve if it involved going to so many separate locations to perform a specific action. I could be wrong.

I do not think that the actions taken during the 3 minutes need to happen at a specific time of day. The reason being is that the time that Family Dinner can occur can vary greatly. I believe it is something like between 3:00PM and 8:00PM. If the solution required a specific time to be unlocked this variance in start time would cause a problem.

Thank You

I would like to give a big thank you to u/Lolo_Loves, u/The_Media_Guy, and u/regularjoeseph and everyone else who participated in the posts that they made.

Conclusion

Please let me know your thoughts or theories? Do you have any ideas about what actions need to occur at Beecher's Hope? Do you have any thoughts about potential items to interact with? Are there any specific outfits that need to be worn to unravel this mystery?

Edit: There may be more alarm clocks! Keep your eyes peeled.

Edit 2: I found a 15th clock in the master bedroom of Beecher's Hope. I will post photos in the comments.

Links

Alarm clock investigation (Part 1):

https://www.reddit.com/r/reddeadmysteries/comments/s44ig7/found_7_clocksall_same_type_and_style_with_the/

Alarm clock investigation (Part 2):

https://www.reddit.com/r/reddeadmysteries/comments/sqi0jy/updated_from_last_post_on_alarm_clock_found_with/

Reutlinger Pocket Watch:

https://www.reddit.com/r/RDR2mysteries/comments/164a3sh/red_dead_reutlinger_watch_anomalous_behavior/

The secretive fraternity of men is based in Saint Denis. They seem to be modeled after real life Freemason organizations, and possibly the Corinthian Club based in Scotland. People claim they are also tied to Chelonianism and worship the sun in a similar fashion.

The members generally wear long Corinthian blue coats, with either a gold vest or neckwear. There is a lot of variation in the outfits of their members, so I do not think the club had the strictest standards. I spent several days in Saint Denis and discovered at least 8-9 members. They can be encountered throughout the city at various times. They are often hanging out in front of the club building or walking nearby. They can also frequently be found in the Bastille Saloon. I saw several residents of Saint Denis who were most likely members of the club, but I did not include them in the count. Usually the shade of blue of their coat was a little too dark or light.

I encountered a member of the Corinthian Club in Blackwater. He was being mugged and I intervened, and he said I would be rewarded with a favor. There is also the corpse of a club member located between the Witches Cauldron and the Fairvale Shanty. During the mission "A Bright Bouncing Boy" a club member can be seen standing menacingly under the tree during the entire first part of the cut scene, staring at Marko and Arthur.

The building the Corinthian Club is in is very interesting. The building is directly connected to the Théâtre Râleur. On the other side of the club is the Saint Denis Supreme Court. The building shares a lot of similarities with the Bank of Rhodes, including the large columns located on the facade of both building. The symbol representing the club is placed on the building in multiple locations. There is a large lighting rod located on top of the building. It makes me wonder what would happen if lighting struck the rod.

There are also many peculiar details on the outside and inside of the Théâtre Râleur. It is housed in the same building as the club as I mentioned earlier. The top floor VIP balcony has a door the leads directly into the club, though the door is locked. On the facade of the theater are carvings of flowers which resemble the sun. The inside of the theater is very elaborate. There is a rotunda in the lobby has what appears to be a large golden sun on the underside of the dome. There are also sun symbols within the windows of the Saint Denis Supreme Court.

The decorative bars located at the ticket booth of the theater are the same bars used for the Bank of Rhodes tellers. After noticing this and having spent several days in Saint Denis I decided to visit the Bank of Rhodes to do some more investigation. As soon as I got off of the coach guess who I saw walking up to the bank. Another member of the Corinthian Club! He did not seem to pleased that I was there. Do you think the decorative bars in the bank and theater resemble anything? They seem to fit along with the sun theme of both buildings.

The last thing that piqued my interest was the fenced off area in the back of the Corinthian Club. The entire area has spiked security fence, except for one area where you can climb over. The only thing I found interesting was this bottle of cordial which can be used to give relief to cholera. This could be just random trash. I am not sure if these bottles are common. I know similar bottles can be found in Pleasance and are though to be related to the plague that occurred there.

What do you think about the Corinthian Club? Are they just Rockstar proving a bit of world building, or is there something more to them?