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"Princess with a Cursed Sword" by Anna Anthropy is a single-page tabletop roleplaying game about a princess who was handed a cursed sword at her coming-of-age ceremony and cannot put it down. She (it is she, in our case) has just arrived at ancient ruins seeking the place where this sword belongs.
Content warnings on our playthrough for:
…yeah, idk. It's a game that encourages going hard.
The princess crossed the crumbling plaza and shouldered her way through one of the heavy doors, then watched it slam shut behind her. The darkness was profound after the bright sunlight she left – the cracks in the doors and the walls doing nothing to illuminate the broad space. In the darkness, the sword was invisible, but her hand and arm ached with holding it free of her body.
She reached out with her free hand to the wall by the door, and walked it around to an opening into … somewhere.
As she entered the corridor, she could feel a breath of air, flowing from somewhere to somewhere. Her eyes threw up nothings to fill the dark, images of forests and caves and stonework that never existed, until suddenly through these illusions stepped a girl in a fine gown.
"Who are you?" she asked. "Are you here to show me a way out?"
"Stand back", said the princess, holding the sword behind her. "I … stand back. I cannot be trusted."
"But you're alive, aren't you?" said the girl.
She dashed forward. The princess stepped back, stumbling, as the girl looked at her closely. Between one blink and another, she ceased to be a girl and became an old woman, nodding knowingly.
"It's that then, isn't it. Well, nothing to be done – come with me."
And the woman turned and walked away, into the trees that weren't there.
"Wait, what do you mean?", said the princess. "Come where?"
She took two steps forward, and felt her bare foot slip on the edge of a chasm.
As she fell, she reached out, scrabbling, and caught the edge of the hole with one hand and the tip of the sword. She could feel her left leg trembling as she tried to climb the rock surface, but she made it, panting, and sat down for a while to catch her breath.
She stared at the darkness where the pit was for a while, then crawled, trying not to put her weight on her injured leg, probing as she went. She circled the edge until she met the wall she'd been following on its far side, then braced herself against it while she stood.
As she limped forward, she found herself pushing through a curtain into a larger space. This new room was, impossibly, open to a night sky above that should be hours away – the starlight giving just enough light to create the impressions of walls of shelves lining the room.
The princess stared at the constellations, but none were familiar. Her leg ached. Her arm ached.
On impulse, the princess pulled a book out of the nearest shelf. There were tables in the room, under the sky, and she carefully stumbled out to the nearest one and dropped the book on it. She pulled a chair in front of it and sat, sword-arm reaching forward to rest arm and sword on the table. She opened the page and leaned forward, willing her eyes to stop swimming and resolve black ink on the white pages.
They were names. One after another after another, unending. The princess read name after name after name, turned the page, read name after name after name, turned the page, stopped.
"Oh, you saw that one!" the girl said. The princess started, lifted her arms to shield herself from the sudden noise … and saw the sword again.
"You had her down for a thief," said the girl, "put her in a cell for when the executioner had time to take her head. Snick snack! One less mouth to feed, one more coin to keep."
"That's not…" the princess tried to say, as she looked around for the girl.
In her place was a young woman. Was the thief, in fact.
"Threw herself on your mercy, she did", the thief said. "Lucky her – the ones you starved didn't even get that chance."
The thief looked at the princess, and then her sword.
"Oh, I thought we were done with this bit. Your turn, then, to take heads?"
The princess swallowed. "I don't kill people." She could feel her sword arm lightening, her grip on it becoming stronger.
The thief laughed and gestured to the shelves. "Whose names do you think these are? It's not a geneaology, I'll tell you that much."
"Step away", the princess said, as she backed away from the thief. She could feel life filling her sword hand, ready to strike like lightning.
The thief laughed again. "You haven't the heart to strike out one of these names, princess, not even mine."
The princess turned and ran, limping.
The princess stumbled down one set of stairs, across an open space, and then nearly tripped on the first step up across from it and nearly fell into an open door. She looked behind her warily, but the library was empty as she stepped through.
Before her was a shrine – barren, walls stripped of their carvings and tapestries. In the center, where the altar would be, a lion lay on the piled-up cloth.
The princess stepped back, but the door was gone, leaving only a wall. The lion's head rose, staring at her.
They watched each other, princess and lion, as the princess circled the room to a different exit.
As she pulled the new door to the shrine closed, she turned and saw a face in the darkness, eyes glittering in the weak light of the torch they held.
Then, stepping out from behind that face, another, holding another torch. Then another. And another. A muttering began, growing louder and angrier as the faces and torches multiplied.
"What is…" the princess said, and then felt her sword arm rise, and heard the crowd begin to yell. "No, stop—" she interrupted herself, using her other hand to force her sword arm down, but they were upon her in an instant.
She was struck once with a torch, and fell. Kicked on the ground, and she rolled, screaming as the sword tore through her gown and sliced a shallow gash in her skin. Kicked again, her arms flailing, and then left sobbing in the silence as the footsteps fled.
She lay on the ground a long time, eyes pouring with tears.
Suddenly, the lion was above her. She stared, terrified. Then its head bent down, and it licked her wound, and she lost all awareness in blinding pain.
When she recovered enough to reopen her eyes, her throat was sore but no-one was there. Her hand reached for her wound and found a strip of fur.
After a long time, she rose, and limped forward again into the darkness, skating her left foot forward and then bracing herself with it as she brought her right up to hold her. The darkness once again formed imaginary shapes – shelves of books, walls of carving, trees.
Her foot hit dirt. She blinked and looked up. The sky was covered in clouds, now, with a faint glow where the moon presumably hid. Reaching forward, she touched one of the trees she saw.
Stepping around trees, she saw a light among them. As she approached it, she heard singing – the thief's voice, singing.
She pressed herself against a tree and peeked around it.
In the center of a circle of censers was a cage with a bird, singing the thief's song. Around it she saw guards – her guards, in her colors.
"My turn, isn't it?" said one, eyeing the bird.
"Nah, you swapped with me, it's mine," said another, drawing a dagger.
"That was last week, you buffoon", said the third.
"Nah, he's right," said the first, "we did swap. Forgot about that kid – those never feel real. All yours."
In a breath, the princess realized what was about to happen.
"I believe that one's mine", the princess said, and stepped out.
The guards all turned, the one lowering his dagger. "Didn't realize you were joining us, Your Highness", one said. "Right, then," said another, "don't keep us hanging, show us your stuff. Fine sword like that, can't wait to see."
Calmly, majestically, the princess limped between them to the cage. She looked at the thief, who paused to look back at her.
She grabbed the cage and ran. The guards yelped behind her in dismay, then followed, yelling. The thief laughed gleefully.
The princess rain, pain flaring with every other step. A path appeared through the trees and she turned to follow it. The thief's laughter and guard's yelling continued as the path shot out of the trees and up a hill to a open circular plaza of stone.
As she crossed the boundary, soldiers stepped out of the darkness to block her. She was surrounded.
"Can't do that, ma'am", said the third guard. She turned to see them join the circle of soldiers. "She's gotta die, else it all falls apart."
"Rule of law", said a soldier. "If we don't set the laws, they will, and then what'll come of our money?"
"Gone, all of it", another soldier said. "We need this, ma'am, or there shan't be any kingdom at all."
"Just do it", said the first guard. "Your sword knows how, that's why you have it."
Choose, said the sword.
Silence fell, sharply. Even the thief stopped laughing. The red light of dawn edged the horizon.
I'll have my blood, it said. Will it be hers, or yours, or theirs?
Silence reigned as the princess and the thief walked into the center of the village. The princess's gown had been given up at some point for a tunic, and her bare arms were crisscrossed with stripes of fur. Today, the thief was middle-aged – old enough to know what's up, young enough to still move fast. The sword was black as ever, a hole in the light of day.
The residents looked between each other, then suddenly a young man stumbled forward. He glared back at the woman who shoved him, then looked at the princess.
"Guildmaster left this morning. Courier came on a horse, the two of them rode off together." He pointed. "That way."
The princess turned to follow the direction, then stopped. The thief was hanging back, looking at the man.
"You want in, don't you." she said. A gasp was heard (though not from the one who shoved him). The thief continued: "Well, don't keep us waiting. Get your things."
"I can't. They need a smith."
"We'll live," said the woman, "you won't. Not with that much anger in your veins. Go kill the bastard." She picked up a bag from between her feet and held it out to him.
Silence fell again. Then he took it.
Without another word, the princess, the thief, and the journeyman walked outwards.