Your only escape

Duchess Lucilla Katharina was on the run. After her late husband had been deposed, she had fled her duchy with a small retainer of loyal servants and a few knights. They had been attempting to pass undetected through these lands on their way to more friendly kingdoms. The duchess had made the decision to veer close to the old ruins of Xerasm in hopes to avoid the roving bands of mercenaries dispatched to capture her. This had been a mistake.

As they had been making camp beneath the dark canopy of the old forest that bordered Xerasm, they had been ambushed by bandits. Lucilla did not know if they were in the employment of those who had overthrew her husband, but it did not matter. Her knights and guards fought as well as they could, but they were soon overrun. The duchess and the remainder of her retinue were to flee into the trees to avoid capture. Lucilla had been running for what felt like hours now, pursued by the sounds of screams and cries of the bandits and her other servants and squires being picked off and nabbed around her in the chase. Now all alone, the cragged walls of the sunken city of debauchery loomed before her out of the murk from which they had been dragged into.

The duchess glanced over her shoulder at the sound of angry voices approaching through the trees. She could hear the hesitation in the bandits' calls as they approached, they too feared the old ruins. If she decided to brave the dead city's ruins, she knew the bandits would not follow. The duchess had , it was either certain capture, or to take a chance in the buried halls of Xerasm. Steeling herself, the woman plunged forwards into the city.