Having successfully built and developed their fort, the player is informed by Aster that King Roald requests that they hold a banquet at the fort to celebrate their becoming a noble. This banquet will be attended by the royal family and select members of the nobility, which means that it will be a political minefield. Aster says that they need to build a kitchen for the fort, find someone to manage it and gather supplies. After building the new kitchen, Aster suggests that the player install their sister, Bianca, as the manager. There hasn't been a lot to gather in the way of local supplies- mostly hollyhock (which is poisonous) and dubious meat. Luckily, it's customary for the guests to bring food and drink, so they should be set.
The first guests to arrive are King Roald, Queen Ellamaria, and two others. Ellamaria is incensed- their retinue was attacked by Zamorakian cultists less than a mile from the gates, and she's even more unimpressed when Aster informs her that Fort Forinthry doesn't actually have any troops stationed there. However, the royals are confident that the cultists won't dare to attack the fort, even if their previous attack cost the royals some of their supplies. The two others with them are introduced as Simon, the meek royal wine taster, and Iris Ruthven, a spacey cousin of Duke Horacio who's attending as his representative.
The next person to arrive is Bianca. She and Aster greet each other warmly, and we learn that while Bianca is an excellent chef, she's unfortunately clumsy, and her clumsiness is why she lost her last job. She heads off to prepare the feast, and the next guests arrive: Duke Cole Hoarse, his fiancé, Lord Rodney Midas, and Hoarse's dog Princess. Hoarse is the Duke of Edgeville, and he's quite curt and unpleasant, while Rodney is more flamboyant and outgoing. The final guest is Duchess Alba Hyett of Lumford, who's very obviously not at all happy about having to be at the banquet.
With everyone having arrived, preparations continue. Duchess Alba brought an entree that King Roald can't eat, so he's having something different. Upon hearing about this, Duke Hoarse demands to have the same thing, which Aster assents to. Ellamaria and Bianca seem to know each other, though Ellamaria has trouble remembering Bianca's name. Rodney mentions that the chef is making hollyhock sorbet for dessert, and explains to Duchess Alba that while the leaves of hollyhock are poisonous, the roots are safe to eat when boiled, and are considered a delicacy. He mentions that his second wife was a master alchemist before her death, and that he's been married quite a few other times.
The feast begins. Duke Hoarse immediately begins criticising the fort, but Duchess Alba defends the player, pointing out that the king asked them to build it without giving them any assistance. This sparks an argument between the royals and Duchess Alba- during the famine Kerapac caused, King Roald sent requests to discuss the topic of Lumford's food stores, and when they were ignored, he seized part of the stores. Duchess Alba saw the requests as unreasonable and unfair, while Ellamaria says that just the fact that Lumford had food stores meant that Alba was hoarding grain while the capital starved.
Iris tactfully asks the player to tell them about their adventures. After telling them a story, the guests applaud them. Ellamaria mentions her past as a warrior, and Rodney throws in a snarky comment about how Ellamaria was so devoted to her adventures that she left herself no time for things like rest, recreation and relationships. Before they can start fighting, Duke Hoarse starts coughing, collapses and dies. The player and Aster order the fort locked down; Alba says it's ridiculous to lock the fort down because Hoarse choked on his dinner, but Simon and Rodney agree that Hoarse was poisoned. Alba implies that Rodney might have done it, and Aster points out that A, the only people who could have poisoned Hoarse are in that room, and B, everyone ate the same food.
Roald says that an attack on the Duke of Misthalin is an attack on the kingdom, so nobody can leave until exactly what happened has been determined. Ellamaria tells the player that since it's their fort, they have until sunrise to find out what happened. Aster is all too happy to help, having spent years of reading mystery novels. The guests have spread out throughout the fort, and Aster suggests questioning them and looking for clues.
There are a number of clues to find, such as the nut roast that Alba brought as an entree- King Roald is severely allergic to nuts, but she brought it despite knowing that. Next, a half-buried box of jewellery, fit for a queen. There's a book called 'How To Poison Dummies For Dummies', along with a lot of ingredients and vials- and a page has been torn out of it. This turns out to be Simon's- as the king's wine taster, he uses the book as part of his job, but lost it when the royals were attacked en route to the fort. He identifies the page that was torn out as the one on detecting poisons, and tells the player how to do so. Using this, the player tests Duke Hoarse's meal and finds that he was poisoned with hollyhock.
Upon talking to Bianca, she says that she'd worked for the king and queen in the past, but was fired after accidentally breaking an heirloom. The box of jewellery turns out to have been Ellamaria's, which she lost when the royals were attacked. Bianca found it and intended to keep it for herself, but she doesn't deny it when confronted. Iris offers little assistance, but she mentions that Duchess Alba hates Zamorakians because of an incident with her family. King Roald, meanwhile, adds that while Hoarse was a difficult man, he isn't sure what anyone had to gain by killing him. He admits that Duchess Alba was right, he did seize part of Lumford's stores, but only because they were desperate, Lumford was barely affected by the famine and Alba had refused all efforts to communicate. He understands why- Alba served his father as a knight, and his father was a cruel, ruthless monarch who treated his subjects and Alba's family terribly.
Ellamaria doesn't have much to add, except for showing that she's become very blasé about death and assassinations after having escaped and witnessed many of them. Rodney, meanwhile, says that Hoarse may have been a bit of a dick, but he was also a kind, compassionate man who loved and cared about his people and his fiancé. Rodney's long list of dead spouses comes up, and he denies having killed any of them, saying that it was simply bad luck. Finally, there's Simon, who admits that his role is largely superficial (in that he only tastes the royal family's wine and other drinks, not their food), and that he doesn't like his job and misses when Bianca worked for them.
The player and Aster go to the roof of the town hall to discuss their findings. They don't get very far (aside from the player's suggestion that the meals may have been mixed up, and Duke Roald was the real target) when an assassin attacks, hurting Aster and trying to kill the player. The player kills the assassin and finds a note on the body, written by the murderer of the duke. The murderer sent the assassin after the player and said that they'd open the gates to the fort, and also reminds the assassin that Aster is to be kept alive. Aster is baffled at that, and the player goes to check on the guests.
As the note said, someone knocked out the guards and opened the gates to the fort. Several dark beasts invaded, killing Simon before Ellamaria killed them. The player and Aster go to question the guests again, and find more information: someone tried to destroy Hoarse's will, and succeeded in rendering most of it unreadable. Rodney admits that he and Ellamaria were lovers, but her ego grew and became unbearable. He also mentions that Ellamaria and Bianca were close friends in those days, which Aster is surprised by. When asked about it, Ellamaria says that she gave Bianca the job of the royals' personal chef after they married because they were friends, but, like Bianca said, fired her after she broke the heirloom. Ellamaria thinks it wasn't an accident, and says that Bianca was jealous that Ellamaria became queen and believed that Roald only married her for her beauty, which Roald denies.
Duchess Alba, when asked, admits the cause of her issue with Roald: it's not so much about him as it is about his father. Her son, Henry, was a sickly boy and an outcast who was recruited by Zamorakians and got caught up in their misdeeds. King Roald's father decided to make an example of Henry, who was still quite young, and had him executed. This was twenty years ago, and Alba hasn't recovered. She admits that Roald is an honest man who gave her the duchy both in honour of her service and to make amends for what his father did, but he still bears his father's name.
Iris admits that she's been sending letters to her friends despite the fort being shut down. As an apology, she gives the player an Amulet of Spanielspeak, which they use to talk to Princess. Princess leads them to a Zamorakian cache of supplies, which includes a letter telling a new recruit that their target will be visiting Fort Forinthry for a banquet, that their assassin is only there as a last resort, and that they need to eliminate the target without drawing attention to themself. Finally, Rodney admits that he was the one who burned Hoarse's will, because Hoarse left everything to Princess.
With that, the player gathers the suspects together for the obligatory summary of their findings: the murderer found Simon's satchel by the road after he lost it when the cultists attacked. They tore out the page on detection and dumped the satchel in the courtyard to frame him, not that it worked. As the player had theorised, Roald was the true target, not Hoarse- the plates got mixed up. The murderer wanted to protect Aster, hence the why they told the assassin not to harm them, and their ultimate motive was to hurt Ellamaria by killing what she cares most about, King Roald, which the Zamorakians gave them the chance to do. In the end, there's only one person who could be the culprit: Bianca, who admitted to finding the jewellery, knew that hollyhock was poisonous, had the opportunity to poison the food and knew that Simon wouldn't taste it, and had a bad relationship with Ellamaria.
Bianca, now cornered, gives the obligatory Motive Rant about how even though he wasn't her target, the duke was a highborn leech who was merely born into power he neither deserved or earned. She says that while Simon's death was an accident, he didn't respect himself enough to try to better his life. She then turns on Ellamaria, asking if she was meant to sing her praises for the opportunity of serving her and Roald, and says that Ellamaria always thought she was better than her, and she doesn't deserve the throne she was handed.
Roald cuts her off and says that by trying to kill him, Bianca has committed treason. Aster begs for mercy on Bianca's behalf, but doesn't get it, with Roald just saying that Bianca will be sent to Varrock and tried for her crimes. Everyone leaves, and we cut to two weeks later, after Aster's return from a much-needed break. They say that they're doing much better, and that Rodney is in the kitchen. When asked, Rodney says that as one might expect, a dog cannot legally inherit a duchy. As such, Edgeville passed to Hoarse's younger sister, who never liked Rodney or Princess, and banished them both from Edgeville. Aster offered Rodney a job, and so he's taken up the role of the kitchen manager.
With that, the quest is complete!
