Waking in a Fantasy World

[IsabellaRose]

You open your eyes and look around. You're in a dark, enclosed place... was it a cave? Some kind of ruin? Light streams in from the left and you can see that you are nowhere near where you remember falling. This place is a ruin, as you expected to find, but not the kind of ruin you expected. These ruins are much more recent.

You are in a throne room, or what was once a throne room. It's a large room, excessive in size, with high vaulted ceiling and long windows along one wall. These windows are hung with richly embroidered, crimson draperies with the symbol of a black steed on them, most of them pulled closed. One window is broken, its drapery piled on the floor amid shimmering fragments of glass. This is the only source of light in the room, but it shows you enough to see the rest of the room.

The opposite wall is covered in ornate tapestries depicting... battles? or are they cattle being driven through mountain ranges? You can't make out details from here, but you see the black steed from the draperies repeated in several of them. One in particular catches your eye. It might be a religious... epiphany? Hell, it could be a depiction of a bad drug trip. You have an urge to go examine them, but your eyes are drawn to the furnishings. It's all wooden and ornately carved in geometric patterns, the twin rows of chairs upholstered with bright crimson fabric with the black steed symbol on each. Several of the chairs are overturned or smashed as if some kind of battle took place here recently. A sword lies discarded on the long carpet that runs the length of the room between the two rows of chairs, and your eyes are drawn to the polished gemstone in the pommel. It must be worth a fortune. From the sword, your eyes are drawn to a bright, fresh stain on the carpet.

There is blood on the carpet, and your eyes follow a trail if it along the carpet, up the steps of the dais, and onto the throne. A bloody handprint is outlined on the arm of the throne. Behind the throne hangs a massive battle flag, crimson with the black steed staring down imposingly from the wall with the word "Valoryn" across the top. Beside the throne lies a lump of a body dressed in rich blue velvet over armor that appears more ceremonial than practical.

You stand and approach the body. As you get closer, you see that the body is dressed in crimson finery befitting a royal. Blood is drying in the long hair splayed out around their head, and beside the body, a crown lies on the floor. It is no simple crown, but an ostentatious and highly wrought statement of wealth and power. Made of gold, inlaid with more gems than you've ever seen in one place, it's a symbol of power. 

There is a sound behind you and you whirl around to see a man standing before you in full plate armor, his surcoat blue with a golden lion on the front. He's clearly from a different faction than the throne room in which you stand. He looks at you, sizing you up, and speaks.

 

• If he says, "My Lord, we are victorious! House Valoryn is defeated!" click here.
• If he says, "Your king is dead, Knight of Valoryn. Surrender or die!" click here. <link forthcoming>
• If he says, "Your father is dead, Princess. House Valoryn has fallen. There's nowhere for you to run." click here.
• If he says, "The Golden Lion of House Edrington is at your service, Lady Valoryn. We have beaten back the monsters and reclaimed your castle, though both our houses took heavy losses." click here. <link forthcoming>
• If he says, "Back away from the crown, you thieving bitch! I'll have your hand for stealing from our dead king." click here.
• If he says, "I knew you were behind this, sorceress. House Edrington won't fall for your magical trickery as Valoryn did." click here. <link forthcoming>

Edited February 11 by IsabellaRose