To Kill an Empire

Walkthrough
"You worry too much. The Emperor's never been safer. You think assassination attempts are planned overnight. We discovered the plot. End of threat"

- Penitus Oculatus Agent

Briefing
Astrid realizes what you’ve accomplished and prepares you for the honor of assassinating the Emperor. You’re to head to Castle Dour in Solitude and present the Gourmet’s Writ of Passage to the officer in charge, Commander Maro.

Astrid then tells you that you are to prepare a special meal for the Emperor, with an extra ingredient, Jarrin Root, which is a deadly poison.


 * Item gained: Jarrin Root
 * Objective: Report to Commander Maro
 * Target: Castle Dour courtyard, in Solitude

Impersonating the Chef
Journey to Castle Dour and find Commander Maro, he will be waiting by the tower entrance. After showing him the Gourmet’s Writ of Passage, enter the door behind him.

Once inside, head to the castle chef, Gianna. After telling her you're the Gourmet, she'll ask you to wear a Chef's hat if you do not already have one on. As she mentions, there are a few on the shelves to your left. Go over and put one on, then report to Gianna once more.

Preparing a Poison Stew


She'll ask you what ingredients to put into the stew. Just follow along with it, and eventually you'll be able to put in the final "secret" ingredient, Jarrin Root. She'll then pick up the pot and walk it to the Emperor.

The Emperor will shortly drop dead after tasting the meal, and the guards will become hostile. If your sneak is good enough, hiding as the Emperor is eating the meal helps reduce any and all actions against the guards. Once the Emperor is dead, escape through the back door as instructed.

Alternatively, you may even make the soup normally without adding the Jarrin Root. Playing around with the ingredients will not affect the outcome, however, and will taste "fine" for the Emperor even if you added the ridiculous ingredients that Gianna comments on. Either way, after the tasting, the Emperor will stay alive, and you will be forced to kill the Emperor yourself to accomplish the quest. This is more difficult, however, with the fact that you'll be fully exposed as you do so unless you have a high amount of sneaking ability.

Betrayal
As you escape across the bridge, you'll be stopped by three Penitus Oculatus Agents, along with Maro. He'll explain that the Emperor you assassinated was but a decoy. He goes on to explain that someone within the Dark Brotherhood family made a deal with him that he'd get you, and he'd retract all aggression from the Dark Brotherhood. He then reveals that he intends to break the agreement and kill you and everyone within the Family. He'll send the soldiers after you, where you are given the choice to flee or kill them (the soldiers are relatively weak, so it may be easier to just kill them and save yourself the time of running).

Destroyed Sanctuary
Afterwards, hurry to the Sanctuary where you will find Maro's soldiers have destroyed the place. The quest will then be completed and the next quest, Death Incarnate, will begin.

Bugs

 * A common bug is when you enter the Night Mother's coffin. She starts saying the word "Sleep..." and the console crashes. If this happens either open your latest save and turn the quality of the gameplay down a notch until you pass that part or (for the more patient) wait a few minutes. This however does not always work. It is not a crash or freeze, the NPC's just need to enter within dialogue range and sometimes happen to get blocked and it usually takes up to 6 minutes. Opening the menu and closing it again won't help, as it won't appear and will only slow down the game speed rate. This however does not always work.
 * The three Penitus Oculatus Agents respawn after being killed, and will be hostile, but cannot move or attack. They will block waiting and fast traveling and killing them has no penalties.
 * After preparing the stew and giving it to the Emperor, there was a bug where he would stand over the chair and after drinking the poison, he would not die.
 * No matter how far you run from Solitude, attempting to fast travel always states that "You can't fast travel when guards are pursuing you." (This will even occur if the player is no longer in Haafingar.) Reloading does not fix this. This can happen if the player attempts to flee without killing any of the guards or Penitus Oculatus, and if they kill them all. This can be fixed by entering a cave, and leaving straight after. Guards will appear at the entrance and the "Pay your fines or go to jail" routine will begin. Another way to fix it is to kill a guard in any town and "Pay your fines or go to jail". Sleeping also fixes it.
 * After killing the Emperor, the backdoor used to escape will be locked, and requires a key to exit.
 * Sometimes, when you don't follow Gianna after making the stew, and even if you added the Jarrin Root Gianna will pour a empty bowl, and the Emperor will become stuck in the dialoge; Gianna will repeat the words "I'm so nervous" and the Emperor will not die.
 * Fix for above bug is to kill the Emperor yourself.
 * If you told your follower to wait outside the Sanctuary, he/she won't be there when you return after killing the Emperor.
 * If The player has the Dawnguard plug-in and transforms into a Vampire Lord during the Maro confrontation, the game will feeze and a shut-down will be required to continue.
 * When approaching Gianna and talk to her, she will stop the conversation at "It's just..."
 * If Gianna ends the conversation at "It's just", and you are a vampire, you must cure your disease. This is also confirmed to happen with custom races added by mods on the PC. (The reason for that is most likely the fact that the player's race affects the dialogue and vampires and custom races are coded as a race; Gianna has no dialouge for these races.)