ToME WikiA Princess Quest is one of the random quests that you can encounter when you enter a dungeon level.
The random quest feeling would be "Leave me alone, stupid (monster)" where (monster) is the thing that has trapped the princess. After the quest feeling, you will read the usual level feeling message.
Once you have entered the level, you can look at your quest status (by pressing ~ to "Display current knowledge", then selecting "(8) Display current quests") for more information.
Captured princess!
A princess is being held prisoner and tortured here!
Save here from the horrible Rotting corpse.
Number: 12, Killed: 0.
In the above example, the monster is a "Rotting corpse", there are 12 of them, and the adventurer has yet to kill any of them.
TobiasParker: Control-Q, shows that stuff alot faster.
The reward for completing the quest is a choice of one of three items (you are shown the basic type, e.g. Cloak, Sheaf Arrows, Phial, but not the identified forms). The items are guaranteed to be at least {excellent}, though they may of course be cursed artifacts.
The princess also guards the only down staircase on the level, so you must either complete her quest or use alternative methods (like the Thunderlord level teleport) to get deeper into the dungeon
Anon: control-q is caught by the display driver and the help page on this is buried somewhere. It is usually easier to type ~8. The princess usually hands out junk but it can be sold, alchemists can leech it. Funny thing is that they have unlimited supply of princesses. Noxious clouding gets them angry, they die, they implore you.. Just don't step into the lava that surrounds them sometimes without resist (all obs. ToME 2.3.3)