One Piercing Note

One Piercing Note is a novice quest which continues from the legend described in the story of The Song From Before The War. The theme of the quest is that of a murder mystery, specifically uncovering the motives of the murder. The quest is the first one to be fully voiced and contains an extensive amount of audio.

Starting Out
Head east from Al Kharid over the stile past the Desert strykewyrms to the Citharede Abbey. A Strykewyrm hunter will speak to you before you can enter and tell you about the Abbey of Saint Elspeth. As you enter the Abbey, you will hear a group of troubadours singing, and one of the sisters waiting for you. Speak to this Sister Catherina. She will tell you that Abbess Benita has asked her to wait for an adventurer to arrive, but she doesn't know why.

Sister Anna's death


Abbess Benita wants the adventurer to investigate the murder of one of their sisters. She says she last saw Sister Anna at Vespers the day before, and found her body when she didn't turn up for Compline. She hands over key to Sister Anna's cell, so that her private room can be investigated. She also wants Sister Anna's body to be inspected, and for the people around the Abbey to be questioned.

Abbess Benita asks the adventurer to be subtle in your investigations as she doesn't want the murder to be known. She gives the adventurer a notebook to keep track of progress with the investigation. This can be useful if missing a clue, since lines of investigation are crossed out if all the clues involved with them are found.



Cell
Sister Anna's cell is in the south-east corner of the Abbey with the rest of the cells. Read the doors to find the correct one and open it with the key. Here, investigate the bed to find a cloth fragment, and the window to reveal it was broken from inside.

Search the beds in the novice room west of Abbess Benita to find a second cloth fragment.

Body
Sister Anna's body is in the infirmary, in the south-west corner of the Abbey. The abbess prepared it for burial herself and forbade the other sisters from seeing it. Investigate the body simply by clicking on the bed covered with grey blanket. The information about Sister Anna's body and her wounds will be revealed.

People
A total of five people found in and around the monastery will need to be questioned. The order in which you speak to them does not matter.
 * Sister Cecilia - located in the Altar Room of the abbey, with the choir
 * Sister Debora - located in the clock tower
 * Sister Elena - located in the kitchen
 * Valerio - located outside the abbey
 * Sister Catherina - located in the Altar Room of the abbey, opposite the side of the choir

Sister Debora (called Feet when first encountered), who can be found upstairs in the clock tower in the north-east corner, confuses the adventurer with Sister Catherina and asks for help with setting up the correct time on the clock. She says how the clock is incorrect, which can be fixed by rotating the hands. The clock is mirrored, so do the opposite of her demands. (For example, if she says the clock is 20 minutes fast, then turn the clock forward 20 minutes.) If set the wrong way she will let the adventurer know for their mistake. As soon as it is fixed she will come out of the clock.

Return to Abbess Benita and say that you are finished. If clues are missing, she will say how many have yet to be found. Once all the clues are found, say who you think is the killer. The option chosen doesn't matter since the result will be the same. A cutscene occurs and a scream will be heard.

Sister Elena's death
Follow the sound of the scream to the cellar (the stairs to the cellar are located in the northeastern room of the abbey). In the cellar, a small cutscene will show Sister Elena dying, having been attacked by the killer. The Abbess instructs the adventurer to search for more clues from the second murder.

First, investigate the bloodstains and the body. Search the robe cabinet to the west. Be sure to look carefully, as it can be difficult to find in the dark. Note: if you wear your Seers' headband, you will have no trouble seeing in this room.

Return to Benita and ask for the cell key for Elena's room, which she will give. Search her bed and a bundle of letters will be found. Talk to Benita about them.

Next, search the sacks in the kitchen to the east of the Abbess (where Sister Elena was). Talk to Valerio and Cecilia about the murder. Finally, speak to Cecilia and learn that she saw the Ripper demon.

Once all the clues related to Sister Elena's murder are found, return to Benita to submit what you have found and she will ask who killed Sister Elena. Again, the option chosen does not matter. She then asks the adventurer to bring Sister Catherina back inside for her own safety.

Sister Catherina's death
Go outside and talk to Sister Catherina, who is dancing with the troubadours. Pick the first option to take her back inside. She agrees to go back in, but another cutscene occurs. As the player passes through the gateway, the gate comes down and Catherina is locked outside. The player may only watch as "The Ripper" jumps down and kills Catherina. Valerio rushes to try to save her, interrupting the killer, but is too late.



Climb up the ladder near the gate and operate the winch to open the gate. Go out and investigate the body or talk to Valerio. After a brief conversation with Benita, who also appears. The adventurer and Valerio are summoned to the Abbess' office.

In the office, you again have to choose an option for who you think is the murderer, but it again does not matter. In further conversation, suggest making a trap to catch the killer. Suggest some new bait for the killer.

After the conversation, pick up a cabbage from the small field and then head downstairs to the cellar. Move the nearby candelabrum next to the Reliquary and put the cabbage on it. Search the robe cabinet for a set of Citharede robes, put them on the candelabrum and hide in the cabinet.

The Final Conflict
Another cutscene appears where "The Killer" arrives and attacks the dummy. Exit the cabinet and try to knock the killer out. However, the killer is not knocked out and runs away up the stairs. Chase it around the abbey. Small cutscenes will play to show where the killer is running.

It heads to the kitchen, then outside to the gate. The gate is closed so it turns around, runs through the altar room (where it seems to dislike the choir) and finally climbs to the uppermost level of the clocktower.
 * Note that your character loads into a separate instanced area to chase the killer, and it is possible to leave this area and return to the regular game area. If this happens, go back down into the cellar and then up, this should reload you into the instanced area and allow you to chase the killer and continue the quest.

Once at the clocktower, the killer takes Sister Debora as a hostage and it is revealed that the killer was Sister Anna. You cannot fight her, only have a conversation with her. She believes she is the Spirit of Saint Elspeth and that Saradomin wished the dancers to die. She explains that she killed all the sisters because of their lust to dance, which she finds evil in her possessed mind. She killed the Abbey applicant and dressed it in Abbey robes to look like her body.

There is no way to convince her to release Debora and surrender. To stop her, go down one floor and operate the clock mechanism, setting the time to the hour.

Return and talk to Sister Anna again. The bell will ring, causing her to cower due to the noise. Sister Debora pulls off Sister Anna's claws, throwing them off of the tower. Talk to Sister Debora and she will leave. Anna will break from her madness and regret her actions. Three options will appear as you talk to Sister Anna. However, any of them result in Sister Anna being thrown off of the tower, either by herself or by the player.

===Finishing Up === After the cutscene you are returned to Abbess Benita's office, where you can either reveal Anna as the culprit, or you can hide the sad truth and insist that "The Ripper" demon is the offender. Regardless of your choice, Sister Benita will thank and reward you.

Congratulations, quest complete!

Rewards



 * 2 Quest points
 * Citharede robes
 * The ability to recharge 33 Prayer points per tick while listening to a Musician (when wearing all 4 Citharede robe-pieces).
 * 250 experience
 * Troubadour Dance emote
 * Ability to make Illuminated god books (with a requirement of level 60 and )
 * The first time an Illuminated god book is made, you will receive 10k experience in both Prayer and Crafting experience per book: making a total of 60k experience in both Prayer and Crafting)
 * The ability to obtain Saint Elspeth's Holy Cithara from the Reliquary beneath the Abbey and gain an additional 50k Prayer experience. Certain other items are needed to achieve this and are listed here.

Music Unlocked

 * Valerio's Song - upon entering the Abbey (quest not required)
 * Traveller's Tale - upon exiting the Abbey gate during Sister Elena's murder investigation
 * Troubadour Dance - upon exiting the Abbey gate when tasked to escort Sister Catherina back
 * Citharede Requiem - during the first cutscene of funeral ceremony

Pre-release
In the lead-up to the quest, the Lore The Song From Before The War was released, containing hints about the quest and the lore attached to it. A One Piercing Note developer's blog was also released.

The location of the quest was revealed at RuneFest, and the desert was altered in an update a week before release to make room for the Abbey.

Audio hints were released through Skaldrun's Images forum thread, the first time audio hints have been used:


 * http://soundcloud.com/keildest/choir-part-1/s-736Mg
 * Lyrics: Holy Elspeth guide our tongues to sing to Saradomin's grace. Grant us the vision that you saw to hold before us all our days.
 * http://soundcloud.com/keildest/choir-part-2/s-DG95j
 * Lyrics: Teach us to stand fast, as you stood, undaunted by the demon's cries. The clash of battle shook you not, nor heeded you Zamoraks lies.
 * http://soundcloud.com/keildest/choir-part-3
 * Lyrics: Teach us that single piercing note that rang out with your final breath. Thou shook to ash the demon's heart; brought it to silence and to death.

Trivia

 * On the first day of the quest's release, the reward portion on the quest help said "The spoilers departed with a shrill scream. We'll reveal more soon, once we've pieced together the evidence."
 * After the quest, players can talk to Cecilia, the sister that leads the choir. She'll ask the player if He/She thinks it best to leave the abbey and join Veleros crew.
 * One of the suggestions you could make when trying to find the killer is "I'll kill them all and Saradomin can sort it out". This is a reference to the phrase "Kill them all and let God sort them out", supposedly said by the papal legate Arnold Amarich, during the siege of the French city of Béziers in 13th century.
 * In addition to being the first fully NPC voiced quest, this is also possibly the most violent quest to date, featuring not only relatively high levels of blood, and textual descriptions of corpse mutilation, but also a fully animated death sequence. The only other quests up to this point that involve NPC death are Ritual of the Mahjarrat, While Guthix Sleeps, The Void Stares Back and Dragon Slayer, and in most of those cases the sequence involves immolation, whereas One Piercing Note involves an NPC being stabbed to death, complete with blood and sound effects.
 * The quest bears much comparison with the Murder Mystery quest. Both are novice, no-requirement murder mystery quests that take place within a relatively confined area. Also, both feature a character named Anna (Anna vs. Sister Anna). The quests also have characters whose names begin with the first few letters of the alphabet (Anna, Bob, Carol, David, Elizabeth and Frank in Murder Mystery vs. Sister Anna, Abbess Benita, Sisters Catherina/Cecelia, Sister Debora and Sister Elena in One Piercing Note). The two quests are explicitly contrasted in the developers' blog released before One Piercing Note, which stated that the main difference between the two is that Murder Mystery focused on the who of the murder while One Piercing Note focused on the why.
 * When you ask Sister Debora about what she thought of Sister Anna she makes a reference to the Clock Maker analogy. This analogy is a philosophical argument that compares the world to a clock, and God to the clock maker.
 * The quest completion scroll contains a spelling error, saying that you are rewarded two quest point, instead of points.
 * During the part of the quest where you chase the "Ripper", a glitch occurs involving one of the doors to get stuck shut in the abbey, making the only way for you to get past it is to walk directly through the door.
 * The "Ripper" demon resembles the creature from M. Night Shyamalan's "The Village"