The Opulence

The Opulence was a 22-metre luxury seagoing vessel owned by the Dennison merchant family of Marterus. The pride of the family fleet, she disappeared without trace in the summer of 1487 DR with all seventeen crew and passengers aboard, including the family patriarch Urgin Dennison and his son Harry Dennison. Her loss remains one of the most discussed maritime mysteries of the Zendrian Sea [citation needed].

Design and Service

Built as a statement of the Dennison family's standing, the Opulence featured gold-trimmed sails and fittings appropriate to her name. She served both as a pleasure craft for the family's opulent social engagements and as a flagship presence in the harbors of Marterus.

The Final Voyage

The Opulence departed Marterus in the summer of 1487 DR under Captain Jeery Odlirk, a half-orc mariner reputed to have successfully scared off pirates in the past, with navigation under the dwarven ship master Gerdrin Malliard. Her destination remains unknown: discrepancies in the manifests submitted before departure have fueled speculation ranging from the warm waters of Irinor to Meryn's Pyre or even the Burnt Lands.

The last confirmed sighting was on 14 Flamerule, 1487, as she sailed past the lighthouse of Dawnlight. No further trace of the ship was ever found despite a search lasting almost ten months.

Aftermath

All seventeen souls aboard were declared missing and presumed dead, and control of the Dennison trading companies passed to the family associate Polin Garten. Years later, however, a dwarven druid calling himself Brogmar Mossbeard emerged claiming to be Harry Dennison, having survived alone on an island in the Zendrian Sea — a claim since accepted by those who knew the family [citation needed]. The fate of the ship herself, and of the sixteen others aboard, remains unknown. A door carved with the letters "HD", discovered in an unrelated wreck in the Kalani Strait, has been dismissed by scholars as coincidence and by sailors as proof of everything.