Blackness.
Your mind is cloudy and hazy.
Pain. You feel pain.
Flashes of sound burst in the distance. You slowly feel awareness coming back, the world leaking back into coherent form. You are in so much pain. Around you you hear familiar sounds: Screaming, the butchery of men, the agony of rape, buildings burning, children screaming, and the cheers of the victors.
"Where am I?" You think to yourself. Slowly you move your fingers, then your toes. A soft moan issues from somewhere around you. You realize it is you and you begin to make your stiff body begin to move again. First one arm, then your leg, then you slowly lift up and look around.
You think hard to remove the fuzziness of the recent events from the corners of your mind and concentrate on survival. "I've got a concussion." You conclude.
Finally, you peer through the dense smoke and realize that you are in a crater, the bodies of men, horses, and weapons of war surround you. The acrid smell of burning flesh mixed with the tinny smell of blood, the pain in your head, and the entrails of the man you ran beside all make you vomit.
Strangely, you feel just a little bit better and your head is starting to clear, "I'm Sebastian, a mercenary, I chose to defend the city of Essitrea against the Turric . I don't think we won... I think I'd better get the hell out of here!"
Looking around you a sturdy broadsword sticks out from a body of a Turric soldier, you recognize the blade as yours. You stagger over to the soldier and with effort pull the blade free from the man's corpse.
Now armed, you know you've got to get out but amidst the rubble and the ruffians running amok, the sounds of battle in the air, and the thudding of artillery, every step could be your last.
You decide quickly that you can either run building to building a fast method of travel but with heavy odds of discovery; try to enter the sewers, an obviously unsanitary means to travel but with less likelihood of discovery, or you can try to hole up in the nearest building and wait for the action to die down.