The adventurers have been invited to the home of Syndra Silvane, a retired adventurer and merchant. You do not know each other, but you chat as you wait in a comfortable lounge and learn that none of you know why your presence has been requested here. A uniformed attendant leads you up a grand staircase to the third floor, then ushers you into a wood-paneled room with a fireplace, comfortable chairs, and a heavy table bearing goblets and bottles of wine. The darkly paneled walls are hung with maps and sea charts. Racks, shelves, and cabinets hold hundreds more rolled-up maps and charts. A person is seated in an overstuffed chair near the fire. You can’t discern a gender, because only the person’s head emerges from under a heavy blanket draped over the chair, and an embroidered hood and silver mask conceal the wearer’s face. Even the person’s dry, raspy voice provides no clue. “Help yourselves to wine, and seat yourselves, friends—I hope I may call you that.” It is Syndra Silvane. She expalins that she has been struck by the 'death curse', an affliction that appeared two weeks ago and is affecting anyone who has been brought back from the dead. They are withering away - some faster than others. Some have already died, while some are barely showing signs of this affliction. Clerics are unable to help, and ressurection magic has stopped working altogether. Syndra explains "“My contacts in the Harpers have learned that the cause of the death curse is a necromantic artifact called the Soulmonger. According to their sources, the Soulmonger is somewhere in Chult. Chult is a peninsula ringed with mountains and choked with rainforests. Enormous reptiles, savage goblins, and an army of undead prowl its jungles and ruins. Mapping the place has always been nigh impossible, and nothing is known about the region’s current geography beyond a few miles from the coast. Working from dozens of sea charts, log books, and explorers’ journals, I assembled everything known about the current state of Chult into one map. I’ll provide it to you if you undertake my mission You agree to help her and she teleports you to Port Nyanzaru, the only major settlement in Chult. Suddenly you find yourself in a city in a misty tropical climate.  The familiar sounds of a harbor—creaking ropes, slapping waves, heavy barrels rolling across cobblestones—mingle with voices shouting and cursing in an unfamiliar language filled with clicks, inhalations, and singsongy words that make it sound almost musical. The aroma of unfamiliar spices and tropical fruit mixes with the wharfside smells of fish, tar, and canvas. Beyond all that, Port Nyanzaru is an explosion of color. Buildings are painted in bright shades of blue, green, orange, and salmon pink, or their walls are adorned with murals portraying giant reptiles and mythical heroes. Every building sports baskets and clay urns of colorful flowers or is draped in leafy, flowering vines. Minstrels in bright clothing adorned with feathers and shells perform on street corners. Multicolored pennants and sun awnings flutter atop the city walls. A crowd of children dressed in feathered hats and capes races past you, squealing in delighted terror as a street performer costumed as a big-toothed lizard stomps and roars behind them. The whole city seems to be bustling, sweating, laughing, swearing, and singing.  Waiting for Syndra is the merchant prince, Watanga O'tamu. She is weakened from her spellcasting and he commands his men to support her to his residence. He introduces himself to you, answers brief questions about the city, and requests that you return to his residence after your first foray into the jungle so that maps can be updated with whatever you find. You find yourself at the Thundering Lizard, an raucous inn near the Red Bazzar. There you see notices from several jungle guides, but you decide to take on the services of Azaka Stormfang. Partly because she agrees to waive her fee if you help her regain a family heirloom that has been stolen and is at the top of a structure called the 'Firefinger'. You also meet the following guides: Faroul and Gondolo Hew Hackinstone River Mist and Flask of Wine You explore more of the city that evening and hear of dinosaur races due to commence in 3 days. You decide that is too good an opportunity to miss and so commit to leaving the morning after the races. You stay the night in the Thundering Lizard. It's not a great sleep as this inn seems to celebrate all night, but you awake the next morning keen to explore the city.