Tomb of Annihilation

Something evil is trapping the souls of the dead and draining life from all who have been raised from death by magic. This worldwide “death curse” not only prevents the raising of the dead but also causes creatures that were previously raised from the dead to wither and die. The source of this death curse lies in a trap-riddled tomb hidden beneath a lost city in the depths of Chult's vast jungle. With every lost soul, the Tomb of Annihilation grows ever more powerful...

Hello! I had previously attempted to get a Hoard of the Dragon Queen game going, but it didn't quite garner the interest/character applications I was looking for. So we're trying again, with this adventure!

Here are some things you should know before applying:

Player/DM Wise

1. I'm Mountain Daylight Time(GMT-6), so my active hours might be completely opposite of yours if you're a Non-US player. Just keep that in mind if you're looking for a DM with a synced schedule to yours.
2. Players need to be active at least once a day generally, though there is some flexibility when your character's input isn't required.
3. I'll take new or experience players. Prefer not to take people who have DM'd or played this module before.

Character/Adventure Wise

1. Chult's jungle is largely unexplored and very dangerous. Exploration will be a key and frequent component of this campaign.
2. The Death Curse prevents resurrection, if your character dies, they're gone. You'll have to make a new one, or exit the campaign if that's your prerogative.
3. Port Nyanzaru is a bastion of civilization on the northern edge of the jungle, a city of commerce run by the merchant princes.
4. During the creation of your characters, I want you to consider why they want to stop the death curse, and how they will interact with a dangerous, unexplored jungle.
5. No Eberron\MtG content. No Homebrew races/class. UA is allowed on a case-by-case approval basis.
6. This adventure runs from level 1, up to level 11.

Character Application

Name:
Class:
Race:
Backstory:
Ability Scores: Re-roll 1's once. Arrays worse than standard array can be re-rolled once.

Name: Jailen Whitemane
Class: Warlock | Hexblade(Flavored as the Raven Queen?)
Race: Fallen Aasimar
Backstory: The earlier years of Jailen's adulthood were spent trying to do right by Myllandra, his guide. She would lead him along the Sword Coast, aiding townships that were recently struck by disaster. He would help with repairs, tending wounded, or even working as a stand-in farmhand. It wasn't exciting or adventurous, but the effects of his helping hands were tangible, and that was enough for him. 

Things took a downward turn the past two years, as Myllandra set him on the trail of a destructive undead spellcaster marauding through the Greenfield region. She was careful to keep him out of the monster's path - but the feeling of helplessness as he came upon the victims overpowered him.

He performed a ritual to reach through to the Shadowfell, forming a pact with the Raven Queen. The act caused his angelic guide to forsake him - Myllandra has not contacted him since. While he was unable to track down the renegade mage who had destroyed the lives of so many, Jailen has taken solace in the newfound abilities his Patron has bestowed upon him, and the purpose her directive to hunt intelligent undead gives him.

As the death-curse rages across Toril, he has received visions from the Raven Queen urging him to the jungles of Chult, where the source of this soul-stealing magic might be found...

Ability scores: 14 9 8 11 12 17

(Sounds fun. Question: Do Ability Scores have to be rolled?")

Name: Perfir

Race: Elf

Class: Druid

Backstory: Perfir was a simple elf, living in the woodlands of his home village, believing in balance and what's right, while having an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. During his free time, he enjoys heading to the library and soaking up the juicy information from its books... until he read all of them, that is. With every book in his village read, he left it in search for more knowledge, as well as to help others he finds. Eventually, he became one with nature and got quite used to several harsh environments, especially those of the jungles

Perfir eventually stumbled across the jungles of Port Nyanzaru, where he heard word about the area's death curse. He finds the curse quite harsh and wrong, so he set off for the port in hopes of dispelling the Death Curse.

Ability Scores (Point Buy): 12 9 11 14 14 13

Name: Valamir
Class: Divine Soul Sorcerer
Race: Tiefling (Glasya)
Backstory: Valamir and is fraternal twin Norcan where born to parents that were famous adventurers. Their father was Tibern Onc a once exiled tiefling noble that became a famous bard and adventurer after helping to defeat a red dragon along with their mother Hilina an Asimar Paladin in service to Tyr. Each of the siblings took after one of their parents with Valamir born a tiefling and Norcan an Asimar. Due to the dangerous nature of their parents life, the twins were left with a former member of their parents adventuring band, an old wizard named Ilam who resided in Candle Keep.

Valamir first showed off his divine magic when he used it to cure a small cut he had gotten, surprisng many since he had never shown any sign of being very religious. In order to understand his magical abilities, the young tiefling began to study deep into what could have caused it, eventually linking it to the divine blood granted by his mother. In order to better control his magic, Valamir continued his magical studies along with his brother.

When they reached young adult hood, Norcan grew bored of life in CandleKeep and left. Valamir was sad to see his brother go but respected his wishes. About two years passed before he received a letter from one of those his brother had left with. In it he found the news that his brother had traveled to the land of Chult. During this time his brother had been slain in battle and for some reason was unable to be revived. In desperation, Valamir set out to Waterdeep in order to charter a ship to Chult.

Ability scores: 7 15 13 8 12 12

Quote from CherryBomb314 >>

 

 
If you want you can just do point-buy I suppose.

Name: Rai Swansong
Class: Ranger
Race: Drow
Backstory: Rai is the eldest daughter of House Swansong. Her mother Azonia Taimar'a was a former professional boxer and her father Jai Swansong was a scout who lived near Cormyr. Rai's parents are respected by the folks of the surface and met other good-natured drow. The Swansongs were targets of the vicious evil denizens of the Underdark. Rai grew to love nature and history. Her father took her to Mieklikki-Con. After waiting in line for hours, she finally met Drizzt, who regarded them with scorn. Jai, having a love for heroes of Cormyr, brought Rai to the Knights of Myth Drannor table where she met Azalar Falconhand, son of Florin and Dove. The two struck up a friendship and Rai apprenticed under him, learning woodworking. Rai found the goddess Mielikki, who tasked her with being the head of the Parks Department at the city of Waterdeep, a position Rai doesn't care for. She doesn't care for her coworkers in the open, but does take a liking to them and will offer them words of her encouragement. She's close with her Deputy Director Tahnis Grey - as close as Workplace Proxminity Acquaintances can be, and does take her role as a defender of the forest very seriously. She will often take adventuring jobs and travel far so she can be out of the office, and to get in some fishing.

OOC: If you didn't quite understand the backstory, Rai is essentially a female dark elf version of Ron Swanson. My purpose is to not play Rai like the stereotype of dark elves. She can be unpleasant toward others but that's because that's her personality.

Ability Scores: Ability scores: Standard Array

Name: Quentin "Hunter" Swiftbow

Race: Variant Human

Class: Rogue <Scout Build>

Character Sheet link: https://ddb.ac/characters/32406501/0sBR4X

Ability scores: 14 13 12 17 9 16

Backstory: Hunter is a former army scout from Cormyr who is looking to bring back his brothers. His younger brother enlisted. He and his older brother enlisted to keep him safe. Hunter was assigned to the scouts due to his natural abilities in stalking game unseen and deadly aim with a bow. His older brother was an officer with the lancers along with his younger brother. Both were killed in action. The news of both of their deaths, particularly the beloved younger brother was a shock to their father. Mad with grief he blamed Hunter with their deaths and tasked him with their resurrection. His attempts have been thwarted by some foul sorcery. He is here to research a lead that the source of the obstacle lies in Chult.

Ability scores: 14 16 9 15 13 12

Quote from alilspookyrooky >>

Quote from CherryBomb314 >>

 

 
If you want you can just do point-buy I suppose.

 Thanks, I updated my application

Name: Oju 

Race: Goliath

Class: Fighter

Backstory: Oju has resided no where for long, finding danger haunting him as much as his past. Wearing wrappings around his face, Oju hopes to conceal the physical effects of his trauma, but his mental state shines through his hollow eyes. Birthed through ritual rites involving the spawn of a demonic lord, and thrust through fires of intense punishment that caused intense burns across his face Oju runs from his past using his granted abilities as tools for survival in this unfair world.

Usually serving as escort for science teams and various researchers, knowledge of the Death Curse caused his migration to the port in search of possible jobs.

Str - 16 Dex - 13 Con - 16 Int - 10 Wis - 12 Cha - 8

Ability Scores: 

Name: Norven
Class: Life Cleric
Race: Firbolg
Backstory: The story was Norven fell off a slaver ship and washed up near Calimport. He was found and taken to the temple of Ilmater by a smuggler named Marcus, who thought it bad luck to leave the strange infant to die. Norven doesn't have any memories of it, his tribe of origin, nor his previous name, if he even had one. Raised at the temple, he was very helpful to the clergy, and took The Broken God's teachings to heart. 

The only other Firbolg he knew was an older travelling druid from Chult called Nevasa who sometimes came to the temple and to other libraries in Calimport to collect books. At first she avoided Norven and his many questions about Firbolg tribes and the Firbolg way of life, but soon they became friends. Norven learned that she was researching resurrection to find a way to counteract the Death Curse affecting her tribe. 

Years passed since Nevasa's last visit, and Norven was worried. He found passage to Port Nyanzaru and started to enquire about his friend. He was afraid at first at the thought of the dangers of the jungle, but he was pleasantly surprised by the bountiful vegetation and strange little creatures he could see at every step. This city Firbolg felt at home.

Ability Scores: Ability scores: 14 11 15 17 14 14

Name: Sylrila Dond
Class: Monk
Race: Half-Elf
Backstory: Hailing from a monastery located within the Cloud Peaks, Sylrila is currently searching the Sword Coast for a means to cure her master. Long ago, in the adventuring days of his youth he had been slain and raised by a cleric of Selune. The death curse took hold of him, and she could only watch in horror as he decayed before her eyes day by day. Like many, she is frantically searching for answers to the affliction, hoping to find a solution before her master meets his final end.

Alternatively...

Name: Shaphi
Class: Rogue
Race: Tiefling
Backstory: As fledgling member of the Zhentarim, there are few in this world that Shaphi shares a genuine sense of camaraderie with. None greater than her best friend and partner in crime, Allorim Waine. Misfortune befell the duo during a botched smuggling deal, and her long-time friend was slain. Though she was able to scrounge up(steal) the money to pay for a resurrection ritual, the priest told her that such an act was impossible these days. This was the first she heard of the death-curse. Abandoning her duties to the Black Network, Shaphi has gone rogue in a bid to either find a way around the curse, or the means to reverse it.
Ability scores: 14 17 13 16 14 9

I take it "worse than standard" means lower total point value?

Ability scores: 15 10 15 11 17 15

Ability scores: 10 15 11 15 15 14

Name: Melody over the Meadows (goes by Melody)

Class: Bard

Race: Tabaxi

Backstory: Melody was once part of an adventuring party consisting of her, her mate Guide to Arrows, a cleric, and one other. While on a job escorting a merchant caravan they were ambushed by bandits where Guide took a lethal blade in defense of one of the clients. The cleric tried to revive him but the Death Curse caused the spell to fail. Now Melody has come to Port Nyanzaru after hearing about a possible cause of the curse hoping to end the curse so that no others need to feel her pain.

Ability Scores: Ability scores: 13 13 16 15 11 15

Name: Gramdahr Bloodkith

Race: Hill Dwarf

Class: Wizard

Backstory: Gramdahr's clan were mighty warriors, each of them with great skill and prowess in combat. One day, during a great battle with hill giants, Gramdahr's father perished. He was later revived by the clan cleric, along with many other soldiers who died that day. When the death curse surfaced, many of them started to die once more, and the clan was quickly reduced to half its population. Gramdahr left, swearing that he would end the affliction no matter the cost.

Ability scores: 15 12 15 16 12 14

Name: Agatha Liethen

Race: Half Elf

Class: Ranger

Backstory: Agatha spent much of her life in a small temple devoted to Oghma. While many hours were spent in study, learning what she could from the books held in the temple, she was an antsy youth, and would often be found outside. First, she would help with tending to the small garden, but it did not hold her attention for long. She became friends with the son of a hunter over time, and began to go out with them on hunts occasionally, learning how to wield a bow. Whatever she caught, which at first was not much, was brought back to the temple for them to use. Eventually, the area that they lived in began to become more dangerous. Few there were fighters, so she took it upon herself to  she took up training in more weapons for if some tried to come to the temple for anything more than rest or knowledge.
Proving herself several times, the priests of the temple began to ask her to go out for them. Most of the time it was to retrieve something for them, or to do some research. Recently, word has reached one of the priest's ears that there are strange occurrences in Chult. One of the priests, originally from Port Nyanzaru, was concerned, and friends with the ranger, asked Agatha to go and investigate what was going on.

Name: Baeshra Kothar

Class: Druid

Race: Lizard folk 

Backstory: Baeshra is the protector of her tribe, a local tribe deep within the jungle. When the curse hit, the foul nature of it, the extreme perversion of the natural order was seen as a direct assault on the tribe's careful balance with the harsh conditions around them. The elders sent her off in search of, and to destroy whatever caused this perversion. 

 
Ability Scores: Ability scores: 10 15 14 12 12 11

Name: Yeren I'Valonril
Class: Wizard
Race: Human
Backstory: Scholar

Yeren spent many years researching the ability to cheat death or at least, buy some more time as his wife passed away from some uncurable hereditary disease. On the day of her passing, extreme regret hit Yeren like a tonne of bricks. Had he not spent all his time awake researching, he could have spent it with the one his loves. He swore he would find a way to turn time itself and be with her one more time.

A few years later, he heard whisperings of a Death Curse in Chult, typical babbling of drunken village idiots but something clicked in Yeren's head. He quickly gathered his belongings and sets out to find a passage to Chult. To be with his beloved.

Ability Scores: Ability scores: 16 15 9 12 10 10

Name: Claude L'Trébuchet

Class: Fighter
Race: Goliath
Backstory: Soldier: Claude is a hearty woman even among Goliath standards, she towers over her kindred at a whopping 7' tall. Her size and strength are what drew the attention of her clans artillery division. She has a knack for ranged combat and the strength to hurl heavy boulders. She was living a good life among the warriors, that is until she took an arrow in the knee. With no room for injured grunts, she was abandoned by her tribe and forced to seek her place elsewhere in the world.

Ability scores: 11 10 15 15 16 15

Putting together a character if you've still got space.

Ability scores: 15 12 14 13 14 13

Apps closed. Chosen party has been dm'd.