Wilderlands One-Shots: The Red Gates of Chudengora
A special one-shot session to celebrate third birthday of our Wilderlands campaign Conquering the Barbarian Altanis. Players controlled a set of characters whom were tricked into being he first ones to open the mythical Red Gates of Chudengora.
Denril’s Tale of Chudengora written by Kublaibenzine whom played Amril the Clumsy and Denril Lighttoes. Crumpled Scroll by Akragon of Apollo courtesy of Theo whom played Akragon and Erevos.
Adventurers
| Character | Class | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Amril the Clumsy | Dwarf level 1 | Short and stocky dwarf. Been around for some time. Impressive mental fortitude but two left feet. |
| Denril Lighttoes | Elf level 1 | Malnourshied, weak and weedy elf with no muscle and constant chest problems. Dreams of adventuring, but no one wants him. |
| Inlissior | Elf level 1 | A dwarfish-looking elf. Handsome and blessed with fake-looking beard. Weak cough plagues him. |
| Bullon | Dwarf level 1 | An elvish-looking dwarf. Dashing and attractive. |
| Akragon | Cleric level 1 | Tall, well-built, plague survivor. Devout. |
| Erevos | Thief level 1 | Dark haired and dark eyed lanky and wiry thief of quick reflexes and wit. Enjoys civilisation. |
Denril’s Tale of Chudengora
The Gods alone knew how we reached the top of Bludgeon Peak, but there ahead of us was the long staircase leading to Chudengora. Our employer must have been desperate to hire a bunch of raw adventurers such as ourselves, or he figured our low salaries were worth paying on the off-hand chance we would find the Red Gates open.
Well, we proved him wrong and some of us even made it out.
The gates were wide open and we entered the antechamber of this fastness, full of awe and pride. The floor was some kind of elven concrete, the scale was a bit underwhelming, yet our attention was captured by 6 statues, 5 male and one female, clearly deities. Oddly, the male statues had clearly been decapitated cleanly and swapped around. They were all bearded, arrogant looking beings. Our Cleric recognized one as representing Medicine, while the others could be guessed at as Death, War, Craftsmanship and Justice. The female was unknown, haughty looking in her peasant robe.
There were 3 single doors and one double door, all leading to the unknow and all made of fine, iron-bound wood. We scattered to listen for sounds beyond the doors. It was perhaps unwise of us.
Erevos was the first of us to fall, as half a dozen fire beetles burst through the northern door. Within seconds he was neatly severed in two. Amril the Clumsy fell next, hacking at the beasts. Typically, he tripped over his feet and the beetle just gored him.
We survivors fled through the open northern door while the beetles feasted on the corpses. The room had old weapons racks and rudimentary tables in it, all damaged by time. There was but one exit, East, so we took it and closed the door behind us.
We were in a long corridor with a door at the end as well as a junction south. We opened the door to discover a small room full of crates caked in the dust of ages. As we sneezed and coughed in fits, 13 giant rats came down the corridor at us. We closed the door, Akragos the Cleric throwing a vial of burning oil as we did so. Inlission still took a mild bite in the process. When we opened the door again, the vermin were dead or gone and we hastened south without exploring the crates, for fear more would show up.
We soon reached a 4-way intersection. The western side held a door, which opened onto what might have been a reception hall, all ruined now. On the opposite side was a door, which we estimated led back into the antechamber.
Backing out and going west, we entered a circular room. There were 5 masks on the wall and a spot where a sixth had once rested. Seated beneath that spot was a decayed skeleton in antique chain. A corridor exited the room on the east side. We took it and found a north south corridor. To the north we immediately found an iron door, which we were unable to open.
We then went south, taking the first corridor to the west, entering an irregular, almost T shaped space that contained empty bookshelves and two more exits to the west. We suspected the upper west exit led to the north and back towards our entry point.
We doubled back to the corridor and found a southern facing door which led to a dead-end room. This contained a damaged altar dedicated to War and half a dozen large sconces, each containing a skeleton with an odd metallic sheen. We backed out hastily and went back to the irregular bookshelf room.
Here we took the southernmost corridor running west, which soon turned south and ended at another door. Opening this, we were confronted by an overwhelming stench and the sight of old carpets and furniture overgrown by orange mould. Fearing the worst, Bullon tossed a flaming vial in and closed the door for a few minutes.
Re-opening the door did not reveal anything moving, so we hastened across the room to a southern door. This gave on to what appeared to be a large 20-foot-wide corridor running east and west, with a double door nearby going east and a single door south.
The double door east gave on to a large circular room that might have once been barracks. A corridor led north from it into a room full of crates, less dusty than the other batch.
Back in the east west corridor, we tried the south door. It was a room with detritus and parts of 4 skeletons. A corrido ran east from it. We heard echoing voices in the room and uncertain of what it meant, we did not explore here further, but closed the door again and went west down the wide corridor.
We soon noticed another door giving south. Entering it we beheld a long, wide steel reinforced oak table covered in multi-coloured stains. The walls had iron shelves, also stained. The ground was strewn with broken vials and coloured oozes. The smell of rot and acid pervaded. We entered anyways. There were two doors herein. An eastern door led to a small library full of rotting tomes. Exploring for a few minutes we found a book of ancient lore, a map of an area completely unknown to any of us and some odd elvish book of games with their rules. We left all and went back into the alchemical room to try the south door. This gave onto another storage room full of crates and a door leading south, which we could not open.
Again, we backed up to the large east-west corridor and went west. It led us to a very large circular four-way intersection with a statue holding a trident – the head was again one that didn’t match the body.
Realizing that the northern corridor led back to the antechamber, we headed in that direction, stopping only to explore the first door on the west. This gave onto a dog leg shaped room with two exits. The table therein seemed to contain playing pieces similar to those mentioned in the book on elven games. We backed out and resumed our journey north, ignoring a door on the east side.
When we reached the double doors that we estimated must lead to the antechamber, we opened them with great trepidation. We were lucky and left through the main entrance to take the news the news of our findings to our employer.
We were pleased to be alive, proud of what we had done, but sad about our two lost friends.
Crumpled Scroll by Akragon of Apollo
#Wilderlands #OneShot #SessionReport
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