A small chapel, once a shrine dedicated to the memory of those lost to supernatural evil, is now the final home of a man who was once thought the kingdom’s greatest champion, and once its vilest oathbreaker. Now he stands vigil, no longer alive and not yet dead, still going through the motions of a paladin on guard: he maintains his arms, he watches, he counts the hours, he prays.
The legend of Prince Despin would be well-known to anyone from these parts. He was the fifth child and third son of the late King Calben; greatness was expected of him, as a prince, but little would be handed to him. He elected to become a squire of the Order of the Ruby Chalice, and his knighting as a paladin of the order proceeded uneventfully.
He was exemplary as a knight, and because the Order kept out of secular affairs and even wars in favor of focusing on the elimination of supernatural and monstrous threats, was well-liked throughout the kingdom by noble and common folk alike, even up to the outbreak of the War of Succession. As the war dragged on into its third year, however, Prince Despin’s fame went to his head, and he decided to press his own claim to the throne and brought the whole of his Order along with him, compelling the kingdom’s greatest heroes to break their oaths for his own glory. Then he fled and disappeared, accounts differ as to where, and left his commanding officer to take the blame for his attempted coup.
To those who meet him here, Prince Despin is but a shadow of the former legend. He is personable, to be sure, but haunted by his actions. Loneliness has left him extremely talkative, and his long vigil has left him hungry and thirsty, though he tries to restrain himself from even eyeing others’ food and water, taking only what is offered. He will deny the glorifying parts of his legend out of humility and will deny that he pressed his claim to the succession of his own accord; he will claim that decision was made by the commanders of the Order, that he never wanted to be king, and that he protested the decision until being ordered to silence. He knows most of the way around the level, and volunteers any information he is asked for except to knowingly assist in grave robbery.
If directly confronted about it, he will admit why he disappeared: At the height of the war he, and a group of adventurers and wizards, went down into the Tomb to attempt to seal the Pale Gate, to force the feuding lords to find means to settle their differences other than sending people out to kill on their behalf by making killing impossible; to suspend death until they could settle the crisis. Nothing worked as they had hoped, though, and now none of their number can leave the Tomb. He will offer what help he can to adventurers who would see the gate unsealed, though he will not (perhaps cannot) leave the chapel.
Ten Leagues Beneath the Earth 