Who is the Princess? 

Gown

A long white gown with three layers of cloth tied around the waist. Each of the layers represents an aspect of the royal house: blue for insight, red for valor, and green for peace. The sleeves have been ripped off and the front laces undone. 

Why are her feet bare?

They fell apart during the journey. They were meant for marble floors not dirt roads and stone ruins. 

What does her sword want?

It wants to find it’s final resting place. 

Pronouns?

She/Her

Exploring the Ruins

Card: The Hierophant, a tomb

The princess pushed aside the stone slab and stuck her torch inside the dark room. Sitting in the middle of the floor was a large, stone casket. She entered and noticed the top slab was broken in half and the face was revealed. There was nothing but bones remaining, no clothes, no jewelry, nothing. 

Card: The Magician, Hollow voices

She felt a hand on her neck and she turned around to see nothing. She still felt the presence on her back and it creeped into her ear.

“Stay,” it whispered. 

Coin Toss: 2 Tails

She swung the sword around and it clattered off of the top slab. The presence began to squeeze around her neck and she could feel it prying her mouth open. She began to panic and smashed the sword down against the skull. 

It crumbled and turned into ash but the presence was creeping down her throat. She stumbled then dashed for the door, still choking.

Card: Death, a shrine(kinda??) 

She barreled down the dark hall and bust into an open chamber. She fell to the floor and caught her breath. Above her was a large stained glass window, higher than any she had seen in the city. She rolled onto her back and stared up at the figures depicted. She didn’t recognize any of them but the sword she knew. 

Card: Page of Wands, dark halls

The princess stood up and approached the stained glass. She noticed now that it reached the floor and encompassed the entirety of the wall. She reached out with the sword and went to tap it, but it went through the glass completely and pulled her inside a dark hallway. Before her was a large intersection with five different directions.

Card: 4 of wands Torchlight

She had dropped her torch in t

he tomb and took another one off the wall. She held the sword in front of her, closed her eyes and pointed the tip at each of the entrances. It felt the lightest on center right hallway and down it she went. 

Card: Ace of Swords Precarious heights

She walked confidently forward down the long hall towards the new light she saw.

Coin Toss: Tails Heads

The floor beneath her shook suddenly and began to fall. The princess leapt forward across the hallway and barely managed to grab a hold of the ledge in front of her. She watched as the torch fell down into the pit and was extinguished. She had returned to darkness. Her bare feet scrambled against the wall but eventually stuck and she was able to pull herself back into the hallway. 

Card: Two of Wands, Glowing sigils

She was fortunate that there was some light at the end of the passage. She went forward with one hand on the wall until she found herself in a bare room. The glow came from a series of glyphs hovering in front of the walls. She reached out to touch one but the sword began to vibrate and shook her entire body. 

Coin toss: 2 Tails

She ignored it and touched the glyph. The wall came to life and started to encompass her hand. The rock crept up the wrist and towards her elbow. She screamed and pulled but the rock continued to engulf her. The cursed sword vibrated and shook and the princess dove the sword deep into the glyph. Steam poured out and her arm came free from the wall but not free from the stone around it. She could still feel her fingers but there was no way to remove the stone at the moment. 

Card: Nine of Swords, Menacing Statues

She sat down upon the floor and watched as the other glyph walls crumbled to reveal statues behind them. A stone glowed bright in each alcove and illuminated the statues. Each of them were young women, their faces twisted in screams of panic. The princess looked down at her stone-covered arm and knew she had almost been one of them.  She stood up and jabbed the glowing stone with her sword until it fell to the floor. She tied one to her stone arm and another she placed in her waist cloth. 

Card: Six of cups Deep Water

This passage was a dead end and she would need to return to the intersection. Using the glow stone as a light she made her way back to the fallen floor. The gap was too far to cross and she couldn’t see how far down the pit was. She took the stone from her waist and tossed it down the hole. It fell for about ten feet before the princess heard a splash and she watched it sink further down. She would have to jump. 

Coin: Heads, Tails. 

The water was uncomfortably warm when she hit it and the water was more shallow than she expected. Her leg slammed against the floor and she felt her ankle twist and nearly snap. The weight from her stone arm dragged her down but she struggled and was able to reach the surface. 

Card: Ten of Cups: Creeping Vines

Using the glow stone the princess could see the surrounding cavern. The walls were covered in a thick vine that shifted and moved in the light. She swam over to one side and used the vines to climb her way onto a small platform. 

Card: Hanged Man, Ancient Rites 

She stumbled to her feet; her ankle was almost unusable but she was able to use the sword as a cane and hobbled down the only passageway. She found herself at the bottom of a large, hollow tower. A stone staircase spiraled around the edges but a small altar stood in the very center.  It was three concentric circles engraved upon the floor and in the center a small dias made completely of mirror. The sword began to pulse softly as she approached. The pulsing became more frequent the closer she stood until she found herself in the center of the mirror. 

When she looked down she saw more circles engraved around the edges of the mirror. The sword pulsed again and she saw its tip move slowly, carving a new circle. She looked up again at the tower, wondering how far up it went when she found it getting further and further away. She looked down at the mirror and realized she was passing through it slowly and she floated down to the room below. 

Card: Ace of Wands 

She reached the bottom of the pit and saw before her row of  impossible arches. They reached higher than any building she had seen. The sword continued to pulse more and more frequently and she continued down the passage. When she had reached the end there was an inky black nothing. 

Where there should be a wall, or altar or something, the void filled the camber from the floor to the impossibly high ceiling. The sword began to vibrate and pull itself towards the void. It wouldn’t let her release her grip. She stumbled onto the floor and grabbed and scrapped at the stone floor. She banged her stone arm against the floor but nothing stopped the sword. 

She cried and screamed then resolved herself. The sword continued to pull and she lifted her stone arm and smashed it against the fingers holding the sword. She smashed and smashed until she was unable to hold the blade and it flew into the nothing. She was finally free. 

Epilogue: 

The princess eventually made it back to her city. She was found bloody and shaking against the city wall and was brought back by the guards. Stone masons were able to free her arm from the rock and after several months she was able to use it again. Her other hand was completely unsalvageable and she kept it hidden in her clothes for the rest of her life. She never spoke about what she saw to anyone.