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Descent to Avernus (D&D 5E)

Sarevok

Lord of the Underworld
Roleplay Type(s)
The Last Stand The warrior lay on his back, shield-arm outstretched in a futile attempt to ward off the inevitable. Beneath him, the jagged rocks of the ground off the dirt trail bit into his back. The chill wind was fierce, biting into his exposed face and arms. Blood poured from countless wounds across his face and body, pooling below him as it spread and his life seeped from him in crimson magnificence.

Overhead the moon shone high in the sky, bathing the world below in its silvery luminescence. It was breathtaking, and under any other circumstances would have been considered beautiful. But these were far from normal circumstances. This was a time of desperation, and a need that, although pure in its desire was seemingly destined to be unfulfilled.

The darkness of the night was pierced by dozens of hunchbacked shapes as they separated from the darkness as they scrabbled across the grassland and the dirt track towards the fallen warrior. Feral hisses filled the night, a terrible sound that was as primal as it was horrifying.

The warrior struggled back upwards, placing the hilt of his blade into the ground for balance as he used it to stand one last time. Despite his many wounds, and despite his fading strength, a grim smile etched its way across his rugged features as his eyes scanned the dark horizon, seeing the hordes of shapes as they came towards him as one. They were almost indistinguishable from each other, each hunchbacked shape blurring into the next. Holding his bloodstained sword out, he pointed them at the shadows and he laughed, a grim intonement and one for the reaper itself.

Truly, the end was here, and it was one he would face head on in the name of duty.

For this was who he was.

A shape flew out of the darkness, black and shadowy, with pale yellow eyes staring at him malevolently. The brave warrior met it head on, side-stepping the attack even as it came. Limping, clearly favouring his left leg, the warrior turned nevertheless, swinging his sword in response. Metal met skin and flesh gave way with a sickening tearing noise. A head fell, separated clean from the rest of its grey, spindly body as it bounced on the dirt ground. Yellow eyes stared at him balefully until, seconds later, the light faded and there was nothing left but a withered husk.

The heavens above parted, and rain started to fall. Lightning flashed in the sky, and in the second of bright light, he saw clearly the army of monsters as they came forwards.

He saw death come from him. His smile widened.

Another leapt for him, it’s claws extended, reaching for his throat. Stepping backwards, a flare of pain shot up the warriors body from the back of his knee. He felt the injury, a wound he had taken earlier open up, and a warm, sticky substance trailed down the back of his leg. Still, he could not let the pain distract him.

It’s claw sliced across his cheek, opening him up just beneath his left eye. Yet, despite the sudden onset of pain he focussed with everything he had left, bringing his deadly sword to bear. A slice cleaved the monster from sternum to crotch, and it slid from the edge of the blade, two disparate halves separating as it hit the ground, writhing and wriggling in a futile attempt to unite its broken and torn body.

Seconds later it moved no more.

The countless shapes facing him hesitated, for a second. Then, as one, they moved forwards.

His wounds troubling him, his strength almost gone, the warrior fell to one knee, beneath him a river of blood. Raising his face to the night sky, the warrior closed his eyes.

“If anyone can hear me, I beseech you. Save me. Save my city!”

And then, from nowhere, the sun appeared, banishing the darkness of the shadows and the night.

Seconds later, the screaming began.


Salvation It began in the year 1442, known as the Year of Darkenbeasts Risen, when the High Rider of Elturel was discovered to be a Vampire Lord. Little did anyone in Elturel realise though just how far and how deep the corruption ran within the city. The Vampire Lord commanded a vast network of vampire spawn, undead, charmed allies and other sycophantic minions interested in their own personal advancement and seeing the vampire as a means of obtaining power both diplomatic and personal.

The city was infested with hordes of the dead, and although the Hellriders fought valiantly, they could not stop the undead incursion. For whatever small gains they made with the day, the nighttime brought with it countless unspeakable horrors and the streets ran red with the blood of the fallen.

The Elturians prayed to their gods, but the gods would not listen. The undead were too powerful, and too deeply rooted in the city and the final fall of the city seemed to be only a matter of days away.

That is until Thavius Kreeg, High Priest of Torm, stood alone against the encroaching horde. He beseeched for a power to save the city, and this time his pleas were answered.

A second sun appeared in the sky over the High Hall of Elturel, and beneath its light the undead faltered. The Vampire Lord and his spawn were blasted to dust in mere seconds, and the remaining undead forces, confused and directionless, were routed by the surviving Hellriders.

Elturel had been saved, and above it all, Thavius Kreeg was hailed as the saviour of the city.

“If anyone can hear me, I beseech you. Save me. Save my city!”

For a second, poised in time, poised in eternity, everything stopped. The monster leaping for his throat froze still, captured like a fly trapped in amber. Behind it, the army of creatures all in unison stood still, they too were unable to move, bound as they were by a power so great that it could stop time itself.

Except for the warrior, except for Thavius Kreeg, priest of Torm.

Confused, he blinked, moving his arm slightly just to confirm that he himself was not caught up in the same effect that everyone else was. Even the rain itself hung suspended in the night sky, almost to the extent that he could reach out and touch it.

Then, a second later, a voice spoke. Although the voice was feminine, it also had a metallic-like quality to it that was almost alien-like in its tone. Clearly this entity, whoever she was, did not hail from Faerun.

"Your god has abandoned both you and your city to its fate. But it need not end like this. There is another way, and all you need to do is reach out and embrace it."

A bright light then shone forth, piercing the dark with its brightness and intensity. Thavius shielded his eyes from its luminescence, fearful was he that it would blind him with its strength and power. At its core, within the light itself, was a humanoid shape. It stepped forwards slowly towards him as he turned its face away.

"Who are you?" the confused warrior asked.

He felt something, a cold hand reach out and brush his cheek.

"Your saviour, if you are willing to pay the price for such salvation."

Thavius resisted the urge to turn away. There was something strangely....compelling about the figure and the words that she spoke.

"What price?" he said through gritted teeth. He should not be speaking to this creature, whoever or whatever she was, but he could not help himself. He was drawn to her as a moth would be to the bright light it landed on before the spider devoured it.

"I will destroy the vampires. For the next fifty years I will keep the city of Elturel safe. I will hold it close to me so that none can threaten it, by my divine will. But after the fifty years pass, the city and everyone inside of it will belong to me."

Thavius swallowed. Say no. Do not deal with this entity. But what could he do? What choice did he have? He was damned if he did, and damned if he did not. The Hellriders could not stand against the undead army, and they were fighting a losing battle. Elturel would fall within the week. If he did this though..... Perhaps he would find a way to reverse what would come to pass. There must be a way, there was nothing that was truly binding. Was there?

He swallowed again. It was the lesser of two evils.

"You have a deal. But you must tell me, who are you?"

He didn't see it, but he felt the entity within the globe of light smile.

"My name is Zariel."

Seconds later, the sun rose over Elturel.

The Fall of Elturel Zariel had told the truth. For fifty years a second sun shone over the city of Elturel, directly over the High Hall. This sun came to be known as the Companion, for that is what it was. It was a companion to the people of Elturel, and a reminder that no darkness could ever come to root in the land again, not while they had their guardian angel to watch over them. And so Elturel became a land of unending daylight and, for a time, enjoyed a period of prosperity and peace they had never known before.

Thavius Kreeg himself was hailed as both a hero and a liberator, having faced the undead horde in his last stand and having triumphed over evil the way that only a person who was both holy and strong in his belief could. For it was believed that Thavius's bravery had inspired the gods to spare Elturel and send to them the second sun that was their salvation. Many came to see the holy land, as it was now known, to see the miracle of the second sun. Those too who sought refuge from the evil that was prevalent elsewhere in the Realms came here, looking for the sanctuary that the Companion brought them. Elturel grew both in stature and prosperity, and the people genuinely believed in this age of enlightenment that had been ushered in with Thavius's bravery.

Only Thavius himself knew the truth, and that he had traded the city from one evil to another, and this knowledge stayed with him for the next fifty years. For he knew that after this time, Zariel would come, and that he had effectively sold the souls of everyone inside the city to the archdevil. But by this point, the once holy warrior of Torm had fallen so so far that all he was concerned about was saving himself. Before the eve of the turning of the fiftieth year, Kreeg left Elturel, stealing away into the night, well aware of what was about to unfold.

Fifty years passed, and it was in the Year 1492, the Year of Three Ships Sailing, that the sun over Elturel turned black as night.

Crackling lightning descended from the dark sun, and it engulfed the entirety of the city. It arced through the streets of the city, killing all those whom it struck, turning them into burnt piles of ash where they once stood. Yet they were the lucky ones. It was those who survived who suffered a worse fate still as the orb of darkness hanging over the city drew all of it, buildings, stone and screaming civilians alike into the Nine Hells. Elturel was ripped from Faerun, only leaving behind a smoking crater where the once great city had stood.

Elturel was pulled into Avernus, the First Layer of Hell, at the behest of its ruler, the fallen angel Zariel. Appearing over the River Styx, black chains of obsidian sprung from the ground, attaching themselves to the chunk of rock that had been ripped from Faerun. Innumerable devils began to swarm up the chains to attack the fallen city as the chains attempted to pull it into the fetid waters of the River Styx. Overhead the Companion continued to shine its baleful light over the dying city, flinging lightning into the city itself.

And that would have been the end for Elturel, had it not been for an army of demons that attacked the flank of the devils as they attempted to overwhelm the city. Fallen to infighting from the Blood War, the demons and devils fought each other, and the dying city of Elturel served as the grim backdrop for this hateful conflict.

This is where Elturel stands today, chained to the blasted landscape of Avernus, teetered precariously on the very edge of oblivion itself. There are scant few survivors in the city, and those that are still alive work tirelessly not only to keep themselves alive, but to halt the obsidian chains as they inexorably draw the city itself into the River Styx. The demons and the devils fight, and the streets of the city run red with blood. They cannot stand for much longer, and the city itself will inevitably die.

***​

You awaken inside the fallen city. Around you there is nothing but chaos. Buildings fall around you, and there are explosions of flame coming from every which way. In the sky overhead, a strange black sun casts its dark light down on the crumbling city. Hunchbacked, twisted shadows dart from nook to crevice, and the sound of screaming fills the air, only to be cut off suddenly.

The first question you ask:- where are you? But even this one is perhaps not as pressing as the second one that immediately flashes to the fore of your conscience:- what happened?

And that is the crux of the matter, because there is one thing you are certain of.

You died.

You can recall the moment of your death with startling clarity, almost as if it had just happened, however there are dark spaces, holes in your memory that hide some terrible truth from you. Something happened, you are sure of it, but what that thing was and just how you came to be here is lost to you. All you know is that you have to move, before the city itself crumbles around you and all is lost.....


About the Game Welcome one, welcome all, to what is my own telling of Descent to Avernus. In this game, you will be beginning in Avernus itself as you wake up inside the fallen city of Elturel as everything quite literally goes to hell around you.

Your characters themselves all died prior to the start of the game, this may have been while they were within Elturel as it was brought into Avernus, or the place and cause of their deaths may have been completely separate. The events that led you to be here in Elturel and the reason for your supposed resurrections are a mystery that will tie into the overall arc of the game.

In terms of tone, expect this to be a dark and mature game in tone. There are some pretty unpleasant things going on, and as you traverse Avernus in search for a way to free Elturel from its predicament and, hopefully, your own, expect to see some pretty dark and disturbing things going on. Please, let me know in advance if there are any trigger topics or things that are a hard no from you in terms of content for a game.

That all said, I am a storyteller by heart and by nature, the more interesting and nuanced a character you can give me, and if you are an avid roleplayer who loves in-party interactions I would love to hear from you.

This game will be LGBTQ friendly.

Alignment and Morality This game will touch on topics such as the nature of corruption, whether it is possible to redeem the most corrupt of souls, and conversely whether the purest of heart can be corrupted. For that reason, and for reasons that I will touch on in the application section itself, I am removing alignments altogether. For this game, the idea of a binary good/evil, law/chaos axis is not one that sits well within the framework of this game. In terms of the PC's and NPC's encountered in the game, I am not looking at this in terms of absolutes. Each character and personality will be more nuanced than that, and alignment in the world is to be presented in shades of grey rather than black or white.

Your characters will have all done some pretty questionable things in the past, but equally you have done and are capable of acts of purity and goodness as well. Just where in this complicated and convoluted world you sit in will be entirely down to you, however, one thing I need to stress here is that I do not want murder-hobo's who are quite happy to stab and betray their fellow PC's in the back applying. You are working as a team and whilst I appreciate that there may be disagreements between PC's, that's all natural and expected, I dont want to see characters who would be willing to abandon/kill/sell their companions to the first devil they come across. This will be a mature game and I want to see mature players willing and happy to tell a story applying to this.


About the DM and Character Submissions A little bit about myself. I am a long time player of D&D who has been playing for the last thirty years, going back to the days of AD&D and the crazy times of 2nd Edition when there were dozens of campaign settings and dozens of books being released each and every month.

I love to write in all honesty, its one of the things that keeps me going and I absolutely love deep and emotional plots. I am hoping some of that shines through here with the game that I am trying to present. I'd love for fellow writers and storytellers with an equal amount of love for role-playing and interactions to join me on this tale

I would first of all like to gauge what interest there is in this game. Following this, when I create a character thread I would like to see submissions presented in the following format:-

Name:
Race:
Class:
Personality Traits:
Bond:
Ideal:
Flaw:
Appearance:
Personality:
Background:
See below notes
RP Sample: See below notes

I will require some specific things to be built into your background. In your past, your character will have done some noteworthy act of heroism that I would like you to incorporate. Equally, and on the flip side of the coin, your character has also committed some sin or otherwise morally dubious act that they are ashamed of. Both of these acts should be something significant, and in the case of the morally dubious act I would prefer you to secret this to me.

Your RP Sample should deal with your characters last moments before they died. Tell me what happened, what they were feeling in terms of emotions. Did they have any regrets?

Lastly, I would like to know about you as a player. Could you answer me the following:-

1) What interested you in submitting a character to this game?
2) Are you happy to commit to a long-term play by post game?
3) How familiar are you with the Descent to Avernus module? Have you ever played it before?
4) What sort of things do you look for in a Play by Post game?
5) Conversely is there anything you don’t want to see in a Play by Post game or any hard no’s in terms of content?

Starting Level: 5
Ability Generation: 27pt buy.
Starting Wealth & Equipment: As per Class and Background. No starting gold, however you may take one uncommon magical item into Avernus with you.
Starting Hit Points: Max at 1st level, either roll or take class average for remaining levels, no rerolling 1's or 2's.
Acceptable Sources: PHB, DMG, Tasha's, Monsters of the Multiverse (minus Giff / Firearms, sorry!), Xanathar's, SCAG
Posting Rate: 2x/week
 
Yo, this is rad, got room?

No ones seemingly talked around here but.. never know.
 
I'll throw my dice into the ring for this.
 
hello! i would be interested if this is still open! i haven’t been able to find a d&d group irl so i don’t have a lot of practice but I would love to give it a shot! :)
 
count me guilty as charged for being interested.
1) What interested you in submitting a character to this game?
The main reason being iv never done a post-by-post game of D&D and iv been looking to still play D&D while I and my group take a break from D&D. [I kinda cursed as a forever dm.]
2) Are you happy to commit to a long-term play-by post-game?
I came here, so if I'm not happy to commit to it I wouldn't be here. But yes I am happy and obliged to commit to a long-term play-by post-game.
3) How familiar are you with the Descent to Avernus module? Have you ever played it before?
I'm familiar with the setting of Baldur's Gate, and the setting around the Descent to Avernus module. Yes, I have played it before but we didn't get far before our group fell apart, as we started from chapter one and we ended right before we entered chapter three.
4) What sort of things do you look for in a Play Post game?
The most important part for me is reliability and the ability for me to "play" when i have the time, since regular sessions require for a group to people to agree to a single time, and here i can just make a post [two posts per week in this case], wait for people to reply and stuff, so its generally more relaxed style of playing.
5) Conversely is there anything you don’t want to see in a Play by Post game or any hard no’s in terms of content?
I don't think i have anything i don't want to see in the game, but if something does come up that doesn't fit then i will just simply inform you.

But i do have a question what about races, and backgrounds from books like "Curse of Strahd" and "Guide to Ravenloft"? As in can we use them.
Im asking since my first idea for this was a Reborn Haunted one.
and it also brings out another question. What about multiclassing, are we allowed to do it as long as we meet the stat minimum for it?
 
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Oh, very interesting. And I think I have a character idea that might fit. I'm interested if this is still open.
 

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