To Kill an Empire

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’re going to prepare a special meal for the Emperor, with an extra ingredient that she hands you. Before you depart, you can ask for more details on Jarrin Root and other information. Astrid tells you one taste of Jarrin Root is deadly, and she means it. (If you go to your inventory and eat it, you’ll drop dead. Higher level player characters might survive eating the Jarrin Root, as it does only 200 points of damage.)


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

Impersonating the Chef
Journey to Solitude and locate the sprawling Castle Dour atop the hill. Step into the large courtyard and find Commander Maro waiting by the tower entrance. He certainly isn’t going to let anyone in with the Emperor staying. After showing him the Gourmet’s Writ of Passage, enter the door behind him. (if you wear a chef's tunic and hat, the Commander will say something different)

Once inside, you'll meet the girl Maro told you about, 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's 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 could help reduce any and all actions against the guards. Once the show is over, run out 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 give the slow clap to you, and then explain that the Emperor you assassinated was but a decoy. He goes onto 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 is planning on breaking the agreement and plans on killing 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 before Maro destroys the place, and the quest will be completed. The next quest, Death Incarnate will start immediately after gaining some distance to the Sanctuary.
 * After obtaining the Gourmet's Writ of Passage, if you speak to Balbus, he will offer you a unique piece of silverware named Balbus's Fork. Balbus can be somewhat difficult to locate, as he wanders around Skyrim with no set schedule.

Bugs

 * After Gianna presents the stew if you run you may hear the Emperor die but when back tracking you walk back into Gianna, who was killed by the Jarl's men.
 * If you are a vampire Gianna's dialog replays over and over preventing you from leaving the castle.
 * The three Penitus Oculatus Agents respawn after being killed, and will be hostile, but cannot move or attack (Xbox 360)
 * 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. (PC)
 * 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." Reloading does not fix this. Happened attempting to flee without killing the guards, and with killing them all. I fixed this by entering a cave, and leaving straight after. Guards appeared at the entrance and did the usual "Pay your fines or go to jail" routine, putting everything back to normal. Another way to fix it is to kill a guard in any town and "Pay your fines or go to jail" and then its back to normal. (Xbox 360 and PS3)
 * After killing the emperor the backdoor used to escape will be locked and must require a key to exit. (Xbox 360)