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. She will tell you to immediately head for Benita's office, which is in the north-west of the Abbey.

Sister Anna's death
Abbess Benita wants you to investigate the murder of one of their sisters, which she had not yet told the others about. 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 will also request to be subtle in their investigations as she doesn't want the murder to be known. She will give you 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. West of Benita's room is the applicant room, which contains another searchable bed containing a similar 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.

Questioning the Suspects
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. When you have spoken to the suspects, correctly you will be notified that you have gathered clues that will appear in the chat box in red text. Make sure you get all the clues to continue.
 * Sister Cecilia - located in the Altar Room of the abbey, with the choir (2 Clues)
 * Sister Debora (Feet) - located in the clock tower (2 Clues)
 * Sister Elena - located in the kitchen (3 Clues)
 * Valerio (Troubadour) - located outside the abbey (2 Clues)
 * Sister Catherina - located in the Altar Room of the abbey, opposite the side of the choir (-2 Clues)
 * Note: Question the Abbess then search Elena's room

All of the questions must be asked of each suspect.

Run through all the options when speaking to each suspect, to avoid missing the clues, resulting in failing to continue the quest.

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. Follow her demands to the word. (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 of their mistake. As soon as it is fixed she will come out of the clock; You may now question her.

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 north-eastern room of the abbey). In the cellar, a small cutscene will show Sister Elena dying, having been attacked by The Killer, with Sister Cecilia standing next to her. The Abbess instructs the adventurer to search for more clues from the second murder.

First, investigate the bloodstains and the body. '''Do NOT search the Reliquary (providing that it is open). If you choose yes and are not wearing anything Saradomin related, you will get hit for your current lifepoints minus one.''' Search the robe cabinet to the southwest. Be sure to look carefully, as it can be difficult to find in the dark.

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. Make sure to read the letters once you have them. Talk to Benita about them.

Next, search the sack in the kitchen to the east of the Abbess (where Sister Elena was). Talk to Valerio (after having read the letters or only the options from Sister Anna's death are available) 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 (will not work if you have not found all previous clues). 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. Benita also appears, and after a brief conversation. 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 A New Victim as 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, or tri-candle stand next to the Reliquary and put the cabbage on it, taking care that you don't accidentally eat it. More could be picked from the centre of the Abbey. Search the robe cabinet for a set of Citharede robes, put them on the candelabrum to finish off Sister Cabbage and hide in the cabinet.

The Final Conflict
Another cutscene will play 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.

Once at the clock tower, 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, Isabella, and dressed her in Abbey robes to look like Sister Anna's 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 twelve o'clock, where the both hands hits the topmost notch. Contrary to most clocks the thin hand is the hour hand and the thick hand is the minute hand.

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. You must talk to Sister Debora first or Anna will ignore you. Anna will break from her madness and regret her actions. Three options will appear as you talk to Sister Anna. However, choosing any of them result in Sister Anna falling off the tower, either by her own delusional choice, or by your own choice, the choice will not affect the outcome, or the rewards of the quest.

Finishing Up
After the cutscene you are returned to Abbess Benita's office, where you have two choices:

You can either reveal Anna as the culprit, to the horror of the Abbess, who will indicate that both her resignation and the possible disintegration of the order may result. The second choice is to hide the sad truth and insist that "The Ripper" demon is the offender.

Regardless of your choice, Abbess 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 each Illuminated god book is made, you will receive 10,000 experience in both Prayer and Crafting, per type of (completed) god book. (Making a total experience reward possible of 60,000 in both Prayer and Crafting.)
 * The ability to obtain Saint Elspeth's Holy Cithara from the Reliquary beneath the Abbey and gain an additional 50,000 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 days after.

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

 * The quest is probably based on the novel and movie "Name of the Rose" by Umberto Eco.
 * This is the first and currently only non-holiday quest to directly reward an emote. The Lost Tribe rewarded two emotes, though not directly.
 * In the quest log, near the end, 'killer' is misspelled as 'kiler'.
 * On the first day of the quest's release, the rewards 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."
 * Your Adventurer's Log will say "I discovered the identity of the murderer in the Citharede Abbey" once you have finished the quest.
 * 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.
 * 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 devised by William Paley. This analogy is a philosophical argument that compares the world to a clock, and God to the clock maker.
 * The name Cecilia is the name of the patron saint of music and Sister Cecilia in the quest is the choir mistress. The choice of name is probably a reference to this, both in terms of the character and the monastery she is a member of.
 * The name "The Ripper" might be a reference to the real world unidentified serial killer, Jack the Ripper.
 * There is a glitch where in the murders all you can see is the dungeons wall.
 * The quest rewards were known before the quest was released, as Mod John A (Developer of the Quest) told the quest rewards at RuneFest 2011.
 * After the quest you can talk to Sister Cecilia and she asks for your advice in whether she should leave the abbey or not. Saying yes will result in her becoming a musician near Valerio.
 * One Piercing Note is technically NOT actually the first fully voiced quest, as the Unstable Foundations tutorial is technically a quest and has fully voiced NPCs.