The Mysterious Disappearance of a Prince
by
Natigol Dumman
of Niole Dra
531 CY
It's been about a hundred years since young Prince Luschan II, heir to the Duchy of Gradsul disappeared from the face of the Oerth into the dungeons of the despicable Princes of the Sea where today his bones still rot in a damp, sea salty prison. I have heard the naysayers. I have identified those sympathetic to the cause of chaos and criminality. They say I pinch old wounds to make them bleed. But justice has not been meted out. The guilty have not been exposed for making a child grow up without a father, a wife without a husband. Such crimes against Keoish nobility cannot be ignored, but they are for lack of "proof."
The Princes themselves hold the skeleton, the proof, in their cellars and will not confess their part. So it is left to me and my Keoish warriors of the quill to wage this final war to salvage the truth from the Flotsom and Jetsom of history. We can definitively say our lost prince is within the Hold of the Liar Cowards for our prince is found nowhere else. Our opponents say our logic is specious. I say their arguments are suspicious. The ideas tossed about are many and convoluted about where the prince has gone all straining hard well beyond reason to step carefully around the most obvious answer. I have heard that his ship was sunk by sahuagin, mermen, krakens, or a storm. I have heard that he has disappeared into the mystery of Porpherio's Garden or in the Amedio Jungle. I have even heard such preposterous theories as that he defected to the Tilvanot Peninsula, or to the former Great Kingdom and is a personal advisor to Ivid III. There have been sightings of him in Scant, Wintershiven, and many people swear they see him in Greyhawk every year. It's all hogwash. The answer is right in front of our faces and I'll tell you why.
Luschan II was born brother to our Imperious King Tavish III of Keoland. As long as Tavish still lived, Luschan would remain Duke of Gradsul. He was second in line to rule the kingdom should misfortune befall the king. Luschan was instructed in all of the noble arts: swordplay, reading, penmanship, and courtly etiquette. He would be a fine duke.
But once he took his seat in Gradsul, he became infected by the disease of adventure. Being the last civilized port to the south, Gradsul was a haven for bootleggers and vagabonds who lived in the wild south. They would come to port with fantastic stories of dangerous savages and cities of gold deep in the untamable jungles of the Amedio. The fortune in spices and exotic woods that came from the Amedio was incentive enough to go exploring. So when Tavish had secured an heir Luschan felt compelled to seek adventure in a legendary new world. But where?
For the year of 432, before he left Gradsul, he was constantly involving everyone he met in discourse about the fabled city of Tamoachan. "Streets paved with gold" he would say, and "A city of gods to grant your greatest wishes." Most had nothing to say. At very best, people would tell him such a voyage would be perilous with the upstart pirate rebellion to the south. Count Manz said, "Just you wait and the Wealsun Proclamation will grant those things you seek right here in Keoland. It would be a mistake to go now." And such would have been true had not Tavish III died and his spineless, faerie son been given the throne.
Duke Luschan would hear none of it, however. When Luschan's hired wizard, Ledank the Lizard, reported that he had sound divinations on the location of Tamoachan, he immediately made preparations to go. Luschan had been secretly working with Ledank, a diviner mage whose inspiration was entirely loot, for a while to locate the lost city and without any fanfare they both left on a royal warship named the Keohawk early one morning in 433.
That was the last account of them anyone has confirmed without a doubt.
The Sea Dogs admitted witnessing a single Keoish warship heading south and avoiding confrontation, which the Hold cowards were willing to oblige.
There was also a claim by Atet Sambhedi, a one-time ambassador from Ket to the Sea Pigs when the villains were attempting to make alliances with the enemies of Keoland, that Luschan and Ledank were at a dinner on Sybarate Isle hosted by the traitorous Porpherio Profoundeus. Excuse me if I question the honesty of a sweaty goat herder.
Duke Luschan was captured by the pirates and imprisoned for the rest of his life in their dungeons. This is fact. No other possibility is plausible.
That the ship sunk by sahuagin is not likely. At the time of the voyage most vessels were armed for war with highly skilled soldiers and some warships housed battle wizards. The sahuagin war bands had already been greatly depleted from previous attempts to sink Keoish and pirate ships. Attacking humans became a dangerous business for the sea devils, so they laid low. The proposition seems more likely in this day and age when the ships are not armed for war and the sahuagin grow bolder in their strikes.
Thinking that mermen were responsible for the disappearance of the ship is almost insulting because Keoland has had a peace treaty with them since 392. I will grant that there was Oolioo's Uprising in 411 that was in open defiance of the treaty by the mermen, but it lasted for two months during which ten ships were sunk before Oolioo was captured and the rebels were quelled. A single random attack by disaffected mermen is not likely.
Similarly, krakens do not destroy one ship per month. Like all territorial hunters—talk to your natural scientists—there is a consistent pattern of killing that continues as long as food is easy to obtain. In the past fifty years only two krakens have hunted in Keoish waters and their presence was immediately recognized though it took two weeks to find and kill them. When Luschan vanished there were no reports of sustained attacks by sea creatures of any kind to the north or south or anywhere along the coast. The Keohawk was not eaten by a monster.
Storms. No. Luschan planned his travels so he would not encounter tropical storms in the south. He left in early Sunsebb when tropical storms do not generally occur. In addition, the priests of Procan in Monmurg and Port Toli take very careful note of each tropical storm that strikes the coast each year. In 433 there were no tropical storms all that winter. It just does not seem likely that Luschan was a victim of the weather.
For some reason if there is any kind of magical mystery for a hundred miles then it always seems to be the reason for anything unexplainable. I can't tell you how many strange disappearances have been blamed on Porpherio's Garden. It is true that the mystical site remains as yet unplumbed, but to suggest it as the fallback solution is an extreme flake out. Really, let's be honest. Nine out of ten disappearances of personages in the Hold are the result of an assassin's dagger in the night followed by feeding the fish, not Porpherio's Garden. I can believe that Luschan made an appearance in Porpherio's Garden, whether a Kettite said so or not, but I would think that it was really a meeting between Porpherio and Ledank since wizards tend to care less about matters of honor. Luschan would not have consorted with a known enemy of the Keoish navy. But then to suggest that Luschan then stayed in the Garden or was captured by the wizard I think is quite a stretch. Nobody ever disappeared in the Garden until after Porpherio himself disappeared and there are thirteen years spanning the time of Luschan's voyage and the sealing of the Garden. Why did nobody else who visited see him during that time? Why would he have only captured Luschan of all of the people who visited? What of Ledank? What of an entire warship and its crew? There are too many questions unanswered to foist the solution to this mystery upon Porpherio and his magical land. It makes me think that it cannot be the truth.
Now, if I had to pick a second answer to this case, I would say that Luschan actually reached the Amedio and was immediately set upon by the savages with all hands lost. It is not unusual. It happens all of the time. There is one important difference between Luschan's case and all of the others. We know what happens because we routinely discover ships littered with savage spears and arrows all about the bloody decks of ships set adrift in the sea. The Keohawk has never been found. Maybe Luschan penetrated the jungle and found his city of gold. Where is the ship? Where are his men? King Tavish sent a fleet out for ten years searching for his brother and he found not one trace of where he could have gone. We must be given credit here. Keoland tried its best to locate the evidence in the jungles, but it is clear that all evidence was purposely erased.
And then there is the issue of his sightings all across Oerth. I can think of nothing more ludicrous than the idea that a Keoish noble would choose to work for Ivid III at his court. Or why in Hell would Luschan go to Wintershiven? Why would Luschan deny his royal heritage? He was Keoish through and through. And again, what of Ledank, the ship, the crew? None of these sightings make any sense. None of these sightings are sustained either. What? Has he been underground for a hundred years to appear momentarily in Scant in 477? I believe all of these cases must be mistaken.
This mystery has already cost Keoland its empire. The disappearance of his brother so enraged Tavish III that he led that ill-fated mission against the Princes through the Hool to attack Westkeep. Tavish knew what I know. Duke Luschan II was a victim of the pirates. The Princes should admit their evil and end this obvious charade. Even if Keoland's future no longer contains empire, the Princes must return Luschan to rest in his homeland or Keoland has no option but to shatter the paltry confederacy, take their lands, and find our lost duke. We have only one option and we must act soon for the insult can be born no longer. Prince Jeon Tarrick, we will have satisfaction.
~*~