Murder Mystery

Murder Mystery is a unique quest, in that, everything is random and there is a good amount of detective work you have to do on your own. However, there are plenty of clues to be found as to who the culprit is. The murderer varies on every account.

Walkthrough
First, search the murder scene, which is on the east side of the ground floor. Inside will be a pungent pot which you should collect, along with the criminal's dagger (if the pot and dagger are not in that room, log in and back out and they will appear). Search the smashed window to find the criminal's thread, you'll need to investagate the sturdy wooden gate near there to be able to investigate it. Then, go around to the various bedrooms belonging to the suspects to find a number of silver items, all contained within barrels in each room. (There are four rooms upstairs and two on the ground floor.) Look for:


 * Anna's Silver necklace
 * Bob's Silver cup
 * Carol's Silver bottle
 * David's Silver book
 * Elizabeth's Silver needle
 * Frank's Silver pot

Tip: as soon as you figure out whose fingerprint it is, check their story about how they used their poison. As soon as you have one piece of conclusive evidence, you don't need to bother checking any of the other suspects.

Now it's time to get your first piece of evidence. Go to the Gardener's shed and search the sacks to find some flypaper, you may need up to seven sheets, so collect them all if you have the inventory space. Go to the kitchen and fill your pot with flour (the kitchen is next to the stairs). Use the flour on the criminal's dagger, then use the dagger on a piece of flypaper to get an unknown print ('Fill five pots with flour from the Sinclair Mansion' is also a easy Seers' Village task). Dust each silver item with more flour and use the flypaper to lift fingerprints from the items, then compare them to the print of the silver dagger you found at the crime scene (use the unknown print together with everyone of the supects' prints). Once you've got a match, you can drop all the silver items except for your proof. You'll need more than just that for a conviction, though.

Next, you need to gather info about the poison. There's a poison salesman who sells it inside of the pub in Seers' Village. Ask him about the poison and he'll tell you that everyone at the mansion bought some. Go back and ask the person with the matching fingerprints what he or she used the poison for. Then check the corresponding item or area. Things will not be as they said.

If you have found matching finger prints for Eliz, the daughter of the deceased man, then she will say that she had used the poison on the fountain ( aka: Sinclair family fountain). Go and investigate the fountain, but in the dialogue it will say that no one has touched, or poisoned the fountain.

If you have found matching finger prints for Bob, he will say they had a problem with the beehive in the garden (located near the milk seller) and had used the poison on it and you must investigate it. It will say, "The beehive buzzes with activity. The bees definitely don't seem poisoned at all"

If you have found matching finger prints for Carol, she will say that she had used the poison on the  drain  (aka: Sinclair mansion drain) to unclog it, you must investigate the drain. It will say,

"The drain is totally blocked. It really stinks. No, it REALLY smells bad. It's certainly clear that nobody's cleaned it recently."

If you have found matching finger prints for Anna, she will say that she had used the poison on the compost heap (aka: Sinclair family compost heap). When investigated, the dialogue will say,

"The compost is teeming with maggots. Somebody should really do something about it. It's certainly clear nobody's used poison here."

If you found matching fingerprints for David, he will say that there was a nest of spiders upstairs between the two servants' quarters and that he had to kill them all before their pathetic servants whined at his father. When you investigate the spider web, it says that there is a spider's nest here and you estimate there must be at least a few hundred spiders ready to hatch. It's certainly clear nobody's used poison here.

If you found matching fingerprints for Frank ,he'll say that he was cleaning the family crest with it. Go outside, and check the wall. It will mention that it is still dirty, and there is no evidence of cleaning here.

Go back and talk to a guard and tell him you know who did it. Show him the fingerprints, tell him about the poison, and show him the thread from the windowsill, since its colour will be a match to an article of the guilty party's clothing. Case closed!

Rewards



 * 3 Quest Points
 * 2,000 coins
 * 1,406 Experience

Music unlocked

 * Monarch Waltz

Required for completing
Completion of Murder Mystery is required for the following:


 * King's Ransom
 * Recipe for Disaster/Freeing the Lumbridge Sage
 * Seers' Village Tasks:
 * Easy: "Bunch of Flours"

Glitches
Players who work on the quest while logged on to the French language edition of RuneScape may be able to locate David's silver book in Bob's barrel.

If the player has re-coated the criminal's dagger with flour(or any other silver object (confirmed) ), you will keep it after finishing the quest when the guard has relieved you of the evidence.

In some cases, the pot and the dagger will not appear in the room, nor anywhere else in the house. If that occurs, log out and back in and you will see them where they are supposed to be.

Trivia
Murder Mystery Murder Mystery
 * This quest is a reference to the Milton Bradley board game "Clue" (aka "Cluedo").
 * During the quest the poison salesman will say that the poison is called,"Peter Potter's Patented Poison Potion" which may be a reference from the tongue twister, "Peter Piper Picked A Peck of Pickled Peppers," or it may just be an example of alliteration.
 * The name Sinclair may be a reference to Sinclair research, a research company also based in Cambridge.
 * Hobbes mentions that he didn't hear the dog barking, suggesting that the murder wasn't committed by a stranger. This may be a reference to the Sherlock Holmes story "Silver Blaze" which hinges on the same point.
 * The six suspects have names that start with the first six letters of the alphabet.
 * You can keep the criminal's dagger by putting flour on it a second time (after getting the fingerprint.).
 * After proving who the culprit is to the guard he will say, "We don't have many murders in RuneScape." This is strange, due to the fact players murder each other and attackable NPCs all the time.
 * At the beginning of the quest the guard says, Every murder leaves clues to who done it. This may be a reference to the 1942 film, Who done it?.