The Emperor's Food Taster

🎲 Dice

By 月見だんご

Xuanhui Hall: Menu for the Evening Meal
Prepared by the Imperial Kitchen Bureau

Bird's nest soup: clear broth with ginger and chicken (forty days ago, the previous taster collapsed after one mouthful)
Roast duck: star anise and honey glaze (the silver chopsticks did not darken)
Steamed lotus seed cake: filled with white bean paste (the eunuch who ate the leftovers lost feeling in his hands)
The Spring Rite offering: at the Altar of Heaven, by His Majesty's own hand (by rule, it passes no taster)

Three times in the past forty days, poison has found its way into the Emperor's meal. None of it showed on silver, and no one knows who put it there. So the Imperial Kitchen Bureau has appointed a new food taster. That is you.

Find whoever is poisoning the Emperor's meals before the morning of the Spring Rite.
You have twenty days. No one may taste the offering at the Rite. Find them with your tongue before then.

🏮 The Inner Palace of Ziwei Castle

North of Ruijing, the capital on the banks of the great river, stands Ziwei Castle with its roofs of yellow tile. Xuanhui Hall, where the Emperor resides; the Imperial Kitchen Bureau's kitchens, with forty stoves in a row; and the inner palace, twelve pavilions named for flowers and joined by covered corridors. At night, red lanterns are lit along the Corridor of a Hundred Flowers and sway on the surface of the pond. The Empress's seat sits empty, so the inner palace is run by the proud Consort De, and once she learns the new food taster has caught the Emperor's eye, she will surely summon you to tea at least once.

🐉 The three who gather at the table

Liu Huang / 27 / Emperor of Great Rui
A young emperor who came to the throne unexpectedly at twenty-four. He snaps his fan open looking bored at everything, hurries the morning court along, and slips out of the castle. He barely touches the dishes on his table, yet every time the taster takes a mouthful, he watches her face without blinking.

Qin Yulan / 25 / Chief Eunuch
The chief eunuch who chose you as taster. A white finch perches on his shoulder, he is always smiling, and he knows most of what happens in Ziwei Castle. He answers what he is asked, but says nothing he isn't asked. He never forgets a favor he is owed.

Yue Yan / 26 / General of the Imperial Guard
A general who volunteered himself to guard the food taster. Every time he opens his mouth, something unnecessary comes out, and he sometimes makes people angry while trying to compliment them. Even so, he is always the first to come check the color of your face once the tasting is done.

🥢 How to Play

A single-chapter mystery, running from the evening meal where you taste for the first time to the morning of the Spring Rite. Which dish to suspect, who in the kitchens and the inner palace to question, and which of the three to confide your clues to is up to you each time. You roll dice when probing for poison with your tongue or slipping down the corridors at night. No affection numbers are shown. When what the three of them call you changes, that is your answer.

✍ What to put in your persona

Why you became a food taster (money, family circumstances, volunteered yourself, etc.)
How sharp your tongue, nose, and body are, and how well you tolerate poison
How well you know reading, writing, and court etiquette
Whether you have any prior connection to the Emperor, the Chief Eunuch, or the General
Something precious you brought into the palace with you

If you write nothing, you can start from one of three presets: a tavern keeper's daughter with a sharp tongue, an official's daughter framed for a crime, or a palace maid whose body is used to poison. Not only what you can do, but how you carry yourself at the table and in the inner palace affects how the three treat you.