Princess Tyria of Pelagassus smirked to herself as she looked up at the great doorway in the side of a mountain that led into the dungeon below. Having just turned eighteen and reached her majority, she was now called upon to do as was tradition for royalty of her family - to enter a dungeon alone, face what perils awaited, and return bearing some great treasure as proof of her deeds. Thus would she prove her fitness to rule.
Tyria did not doubt she would be successful; how could she not be? Dungeon creatures were brutish monsters, but she was a human of royal blood and lifelong training. The people of Pelagassus considered themselves superior to all other forms of life and sneered at nonhumans and monsters. Tyria herself was a fine specimen of her people; tall and athletic, with long golden hair bound back in a tail, she wore a fine tunic with a pack of supplies slung over one shoulder and her enchanted rapier, which could penetrate any armor, at her hip. She had everything she needed, and could not fail.
She paused a moment to study the carvings around the dungeon entrance - clearly of non-Pelagan, and probably nonhuman, origin, they weren't worth considering any longer - and then took a torch from her pack and lit it before entering the dungeon, her light held aloft.
She didn't notice the quiet laughter that echoed behind her as she vanished into shadows
***
Tyria didn't know how long she walked down the dark passage, but in all that time she didn't encounter anything - truly, this was shaping up to be a disappointing dungeon. Her torch illuminated carvings on the walls depicting lavish images of monsters and humanoids, but she paid them no mind as she descended further into the mountain. Finally, she arrived in a large, circular chamber, its walls lined with doors that opened on other tunnels. Here she needed no more light, for the room was dominated by a giant crystal that gave a faint violet glow from where it rested on an altar at the chamber's center. Piled around it was a heap of treasure, and Tyria's eyes widened as she took in the sight. She took a step forward.
As she did, a sudden wind rushed through the chamber, ruffling her tunic and hair. Tyria paused, but then it died down; she shrugged as she resumed walking forward, hardly aware that the magic of this place now had her in its clutches. Indeed, as she reached out a hand to touch the crystal, she didn't even notice that her body had begun to transform into that of...