The Second Four first, a look back… after the previous adventure I got some time to think about what I learned (or could have learned). there are some rules that I definitely didn’t follow (and knew about, but decided to continue ignoring for consistency) both in the RAW (rule as written) and RAI (rule as intended) sense. at least as far as I know. one of those was using the Protect spell for save checks, and another was regarding considering a Boss as outnumbered to apply benefits to the rogue (Pettic). in the end it didn’t matter because the fight ended horribly, from a win/loss point of vieve (I was actually very pleased with the outcome). since then (while preparing for my time in Sitges, yay!) I re-read the rules (fully on the plane today), and also compiled my doubts (either because of how they are written or unclear ambiguity). I discovered there are: a group in Facebook, Four Against Darkness Adventurer’s Guild (I refuse to link Facebook, but you can search for it), where the creator (Andrea Sfiligoi) contributes and answers doubts often a Patreon, which I found about recently a BoardGameGeek forum, with a Rules section, where Dafrca does a wonderful work addressing doubts and bringing a consolidated view of rules. I have no clue how involved they are in 4AD, but if they are just a fan, they are working greatly on behalf of the community. mainly the last source was very useful for me to refine some of my questions (at least for the core game). they might not be big things, but coming from an engineering background I like to know how things are MEANT to be, even if I might end up tweaking them. “have fun” should always be the main rule for non-competitive gaming, I reckon, and homebrews contribute to that (your fun cannot be wrong, unless it harms somebody). one of those rules I now understand better has to do with the 6 as an automated success, and how to combine that with the exploding die rule. apparently, in the newer version (I might buy that), the exploding die applies to attacks, defences and saves. IMHO that makes sense, because it is somehow similar to the auto-success, but it integrates better across dice rolls. I will apply that. anyway, with an updated understanding in my head, I reviewed my strategy (things I didn’t do, things I did too much of), and I will try to use that knowledge on a new session (which was meant to happen tonight, but tomorrow there is an early screening, of course). I will add at least some notes about that newer session. the main thing might be that I will try to keep track of everything in a single page of the XL softcover Moleskine that I used a few times to support/store/save games. a bit smaller than a DIN A4 page. the goal is to avoid having multiple pages, or having to print. a second point is that I will try to reduce the amount of in-the-moment writing happening. as good as it could be, going back and forth between a paper/map/die and the computer breaks the flow. the laptop will probably be nearby anyway, but instead of recording everything going on here, it will go on the paper first (I saw a video where a map was annotated via footnotes, which I think would work well). the last point is that I will focus a bit more on survival (reduce risk), by not searching or going back so often. AND paying more attention to the preparation (bandages!), which I barely did with The First Four. let’s see. now, a quick intro. Intro Julienne hasn’t heard from Pettic in a couple of days. yes, he went adventuring into a dungeon, and this was meant to take some time. they were also not living together by any chance, and there are reasons why he might need to hide (fear of retaliation, paying some debts). perhaps the group were just celebrating, or licking their wounds or wounded pride. this is the fourth night though [it really is, I started on the night of 2025-10-04, finishing on 2025-10-05, and today is the 8th] and she has been thinking about it since then [I have, although I know how that adventure ended]. she had been holding on until now, hoping to get some information, clarity about what to do, but it is the time to do something. and not just her, but also Remoura. and perhaps some of her other friends. {{monster,frame Julienne Elf (Level 1) Live :: 5 Wealth :: 7 armour :: Shield, light armour, heavy armour. weapons :: Any. attacks. :: L added to attack rolls (except 2H), and spellcasting. +1 against orcs. Items light armour. :: leather armour reinforced with metal links. hand weapon. :: a rapier, with a silky band wrapping the hilt. bow. :: dark oak, with pearlescent tips. }} \page she doesn’t know exactly where to go, but she knows Pettic and his friends started from somewhere, so they will go to the same place, get ready and head towards Pettic’s most probable destination. is it her business to adventure? no, she envisioned a different life for herself. but she has some skills for it, and Pettic is missing. and she has motivated friends, joining her in the way. firstly, there is Farluk’s sister, Remoura. very different inclinations but still a concerned sister nevertheless. {{monster,frame Remoura Farduk Barbarian (Level 1) Live :: 8 Wealth :: 5 armour :: Shield, light armour. weapons :: Any. attacks. :: L added to attack rolls. Items light armour. :: reinforced leather vest, pants and boots. hand weapon. :: two hand greatsword. }} they joined forces with another cleric who knows Ardanmalusa. the relationship is not clear (they might share the same faith, but who knows). {{monster,frame Cordelia Cleric (Level 1) Live :: 5 Wealth :: 2 armour :: Shield, light armour, heavy armour. weapons :: Any. attacks. :: L/2 added to attack rolls. L added against undead. spellcasting. :: Blessing up to 3 times. Healing (d6 + L life points) up to three times. casting from scrolls, L is added only to Blessing (L1 otherwise). Items light armour. :: leather armour. shield. :: a metal shield with an engraved sigil. hand weapon. :: a silver hammer. }} the trio was also joined by a common friend of Julienne and Pettic, eager to support her on the search, either of his friend or of news about him. even if it meant retrieving his remains. “whatever you need from me, Julienne. just ask”, he said. {{monster,frame Porchimwitz Wizard (Level 1) Live :: 3 Wealth :: 11 armour :: None. weapons :: Light weapon, sling. attacks. :: L only added to attack rolls from spells (including scrolls). puzzles. :: L added to rolls to solve puzzles and riddles. spellcasting. :: 2 + L spells. to be prepared before starting the adventure (multiple copies are allowed). Spells Blessing. :: removes a curse and some other conditions. Fireball. :: attack roll. against minions, slay a number of creatures equal to the roll minus the level of the minions (1 creature minimum). doesn’t affect dragons. Lightning Bolt. :: attack roll. kill 1 minion or inflict 2 wounds to a boss. Sleep. :: attack roll, defeat one boss of d6+L minions. doesn’t affect undead, dragons, etc. Escape. :: normally, or instead of a Defence roll, the wizard teleports to the first room. Protect. :: +1 to a character’s Defence rolls for the battle. Items light hand weapon. :: a shillelagh with a polished stone for a knob. spell book. :: contains coded annotations for the known spells. writing tools. }} knowing Pettic and Farluk, the grouop assumes the lost party was impetuous and didn’t prepare thoroughly. “they were basically kids in search of fame and glory” (and riches). instead of that, this search party has a goal: finding them. and they will not be reckless. once they reached the last known place of reference, and gather some indications about they previous party goals, they rest for the night. upon waking up, they pulled all their resources together and visited the main store/warehouse of the village. there they purchased: a lantern. definitely a must, dungeons are dark. Remoura doubts Farluk agreed on going ahead without one. Porchimwitz will carry it. bandages for all that should be enough preparation for the moment. and they don’t have that many funds anyway. \page an entrance following some indications from the village folk, they enter the forest and, after a while, find the double doors the barkeep mentioned. “this might be it. it is what the barkeep said most interested Pettic”, said Remoura while sheathing her greatsword and pushing to open the doors. “it certainly looks like it”. the whole party joins to push and the doors open to an empty and quiet room, with no signs of anybody (apparently), or any kind of remains, darkness and dust. they enter, lighting up the lantern that Porchimwitz carries. of the two options available to them, they choose right and immediately are confronted by five zombies. their first encounter! they are more prepared than they though: Remoura and Cordelia took care of most of them, with some help from Julienne’s edge. moving forward, they are surprised by a flurry of darts, which is triggered by the elf. she manages to avoid them, find 10gp in a small pouch and… that’s it, this is a dead-end. the party need to go back. from the entrance room, the now turn left. Remoura gets surprised by a trapdoor that opens beneath her feet and she falls, taking some damage. she is helped back up by the rest of her companions. she is sturdy and just brushes the incident off. in that room they also find some coins. finding nothing else, from that room they open a door into what seems to be a closet, or some abandoned construction project. a couple of gold pieces (3gp) are found scattered around in that room, and they go back, heading now north and reaching an intersection. while searching and looking for clues about the fate or whereabouts of their friends (did they go left? right?), they are jumped by 3 zombies from a dark corner. Julienne reacts quickly with her bow, and Porchimwitz clubs the remaining two with his shillelagh. “were these them? we only met zombies. is this the lair of a necromancer?” they fear the worst. putting aside their concerns, the push forward into an empty corridor and then north. a group of five skeletons awaits them, and the combo of the barbarian and the cleric works to take them down swiftly. *“see? they are surely dead. the way those bones lie on the ground remind me of Pettic after a evening in the tavern. it must be him.” the wizard seems pretty convinced. perhaps he is afraid, or just wants to stop search for some other reason. *“don’t say that! that’s silly and is not helping anyone. we need to find them!”, replies Julienne. she won’t stop until they are found or there is a clear proof of their demise, and their remains retrieved. they’ve been roughly one hour and a half inside this structure and the tension is palpable. up north, four goblins that seemed to be patrolling are put to rest mainly by Julienne, with a barrage of arrows from the back, her determination sharpening her skills. amongst their remains, a brooch that could be sold for around 140gp. Porchimwitz gets this, as it is easy to carry for him. the corridor has a door to the right that opens to a big room. apparently the lair of a minotaur. it attacks Remoura heavily, but she is quite effective and with some help from Cordelia the party is victorious. they take a moment to rest and reflect. this part of the lair seems different from the previous areas (at least the goblins and the minotaur were NOT already dead). Cordelia has been fighting quite effectively up to this point, and she realises her skills have improved [she levels up to level 2, so now she is actually more accurante against non-undead creatures as well] to the right, a big room awaits, in the middle of it, a wooden trunk with inlaid metals and strange grooves, hinges, holes, knobs with inscriptions. it is some kind of puzzle box. Porchimwitz puts the lantern on the floor and kneels down next to it to try and open it. a loud sound deafens the party, while the wizard turns around holding a bleeding left hand with his right. his scream suffocated by the abrupt snap of wooden and metal blocks. “well, that was obviously NOT the way you open it.” says Julienne, smiling at the wizard. they all laugh. *“please, Cordelia, keep an eye on me.”, says the wizard as he turns around to try again. the rest of the party surrounds him, expectantly. moving carefully, with a more sensitive left hand, he takes his time. there are new sounds… clang, rasp, screech… ting… click, click, ping, click. the trunk opens. it doesn’t contain too many things of value other than a gem that might be worth 40gp. *“I’ll take that. it is better to distribute the load, just in case.”, says Coordelia while reaching out. “there must be something else here” searching further, a clue as an inscription on the side of the trunk, hidden being some of the assorted contents. they breath, things seem to be working out. they might find the party soon. doors to the north and the south are available. they go south, trying to find a way of connecting this with the initial rooms. two corridors that act as a kind of buffer lead to a room where Remoura’s foot is caught into a bear trap as she enters. she forces the trap open and steps out of it with an injured foot, limping [she has -1 to attack and defence roles now]. on the far side of the room, there is a lightning bolt spell scroll in some alcove. everybody agrees Julienne should take it (the barbarian doesn’t want to do anything with it or any magic). it looks like another dead end, but there might be something else here. while searching, eight gobling swarmings surprise them. they are quickly taken down by the party though, under a barrage of arrows, hammer blows, wide swings from Remoura and the rabid shillelagh of the wizard, who is saving his spells. the goblins panic and try to flee, but only one manages to do so, as the barbarian finishes one down with a flourish. before continuing, the cleric heals Remoura. “we cannot afford you limping any more, let’s fix that right now.” \page the party goes back to the bigger room searching the corridors for clues, or secret doors, but they are truly empty. from the large room with the puzzle, they head north. out of the five hobgoblins they find there, only one manages to flee. the barbarian and the cleric are a very powerful duo on the front. Porchimwitz finishes the two fleeing ones with prejudice [14 thanks to the exploding 6]. “are you sure you are a spellslinger, Porch?” amongst their remains, the party finds another brooch very similar to the first one (140gp value). “is it…? is it a pair? they look very similar. it might be something to investigate. later.” of the options available, they choose to go south, to avoid going deeper into the dungeon. they prefer not to push their luck too much and ensure they have an easy (or at least shorter) route to leave the dungeon. they are not finding anything clearly pointing to Pettic’s party and are tired and confused. they have spent most of the afternoon here already, perhaps almost 4 hours. in the next room, they fight six orcs, Julienne, Remoura and Cordelia take down one each. they receive some damage and things start looking bleaker, until the wizard drops his shillelagh and this time sends a fireball to kill the orcs [18]. his first spell and a very successful one. amid the ashes and the charred remains, a faint glimmer of metal: 18gp. in the next (and symmetrical) room, an iron eater is met by arrows and a flurry of blows from the barbarian. it tries to flee and (a now usual sight) the wizard clubs it to death. it is not exactly his strength, but his last experiences in this dungeon have added up to increase his confidence and self-reliance. [Porchimwitz levels up and recovers the usage of the fireball spell] further south, a kind of a hub room with three doors (including the one they came from). there is a catoblepas there. “what is it doing here?”, they ponder, while the formidable barbarian-cleric combo puts it to rest, after it hits the party three times. this was a hard fight. Julienne requires healing (and receives it from the cleric) and after that she feels replenished and restored, more prepared for whatever it is to come [she levels up]. they also find a scroll of sleep, that the wizard picks up. the goal is still to find an alternative path to the entrance. looking at the sections of the dungeon as currently mapped, they decide to go west. they enter an empty room, with a high ceiling. the light of the lantern cannot reach the very top. it seems to be a dome, quite big. on the opposite side from the entrance, there is some corridor, leading to… nothing. another dead end. “maybe it was a ritual room, or some storage easily reachable from the entrance? I know we are near.”, says Julienne. *“it could be, perhaps the structure grew further, and the main entrance was abandoned, or there was some kind of roof or structural collapse?”, says Cordelia. they decide to search and end up finding a secret door, at the end of the corridor, indeed leading south towards the entrance. it is not a real door, just a section of the wall that they manage to move through, removing some plans of wood, and some rocks and other rubble. through the new opening, they party sees five vampire frogs and a door on the south wall, which they are pretty sure will lead to the main entrance. Porchimwitz tries to get the foes to sleep (he puts with shillelagh away upon seeing the enemies and understanding how close to the entry the party is), but they resist the spell and it comes down to blows from the usual suspects. in the room, other than the door, they find 6gp. the party approaches and tries the door: it is locked. looking at their map, they are 100% sure this door should lead back to the initial room. “weird, we didn’t see it from the entrance. well, it doesn’t matter.” it is surely locked, with what appears to be a very simple lock. it is very sturdy [Level 2 lock, Level 6 door] lacking the skills to manipulate the lock, Remoura just charges against the door (10+1), busting it open. the door indeed opens back to the main entrance. but the sound of the pieces of wood, splinters and thin sheets of rock breaking against the floor (apparently that was used to conceal the door from the other side) attracts a herd of rats. then of them. adrenaline pumping through her blood from her recent effort, Remoura blasts them and takes 7 out in one go, while Porchimwitz bashes the remaining 3 with the shillelagh. panting, he is healed. decisions the party is just next to the entrance, and they take a moment to rest. they are a bit discouraged, and hesitate regarding what to do: they can head back north to explore deeper they could restart the search at an unexplored right split in an interection they could go back home “I don’t think they were here.” “unless they were the zombies and skeletons we fought initially.” “very doubtful.” “well, we got a clue.” “sure, but a clue for what?” “not sure.” “ok, team. we have been here for five hours, it will soon get very dark, and I don’t think we want to spend the night in this dungeon with the undead, the goblins or the rats. especially, not knowing what else could be lurking deeper. let’s go back to the village.” they go in to the main entrance, looking forward to exit the dungeon and to the comfort of the village inn and some warm food and drinks. they have learned something new, found some funds and potentially a clue that could lead them to Pettic and his companions. but… \page “what happened?!” an uneasy feeling of lightness. they look around, at each other and a realisation comes into their collective mind. THEY HAVE JUST BEEN ASSAULTED BY invisible gremlins [invisible gremlins take 8 objects]. they heard about this before: adventurers and dungeoneers suddenly losing items, as if robbed. they used to laugh at those stories, thinking they were drunk at the time (or they were drunk tales) or just feebleminded indviduals. they take inventory. amongst the list of missing items: the lightning bolt scroll Remoura’s greatsword (“how could this happen?” “remember when we were just resting?”) Porchimwitz’s shillelagh (“I had it on my back”) Julienne’s bow and rapier Cordelia’s hammer the second of the 140gp brooches the 40gp gem flustered, but without weapons or any means for revenge (and nobody to take revenge on), the party decides to leave. thankfully they are in mostly full health, still have the lantern, some coins and a brooch. “will we ever know if the set was complete or if it was part of some secret? what if they were magical when together?” “do not think about that, Porchimwitz. let’s just go back.” ## taking inventory amongst them, they have 53 gp and a brooch with a value of 140gp. that’s a total of 193gp. “I think it should be enough to restock and re-equip. after some time off. at least for the day. let’s go and check later. for now, drinks are on me.”, says Julienne. “thank you guys for helping me search for Pettic. and your brother, of course, Remoura.” “these are our friends, and we will not abandon their search. we will find them.” {{monster,frame Julienne Elf (Level 2) Live :: 5/6 Wealth :: 2 Items light armour. :: leather armour reinforced with metal links. hand weapon. :: - bow. :: - }} {{monster,frame Remoura Farduk Barbarian (Level 1) Live :: 5/8 Wealth :: 14 Items light armour. :: reinforced leather vest, pants and boots. hand weapon. :: - }} {{monster,frame Cordelia Cleric (Level 2) Live :: 4/6 Wealth :: 11 Items light armour. :: leather armour. shield. :: a metal shield with an engraved sigil. hand weapon. :: - }} {{monster,frame Porchimwitz Wizard (Level 2) Live :: 4/4 Wealth :: 26 Items light hand weapon. :: - spell book. :: contains coded annotations for the known spells. writing tools. lantern. gems/jewels. :: 140 gp value brooch. }} \page outro this was a fun adventure that I managed to play during the Sitges Film Festival of 2025, in between movies whenever I had two or three hours available and my friends were inside some venue. it was an uncommon occurrence, as my schedule was the most packed one, but it did happen. this time my approach was a bit different: playing and taking some notes on paper only, postponing the chronicle until I had some time (October 31st, for instance). also, not trying to record every single roll or action, because that disrupts the flow of the playthrough. another thing I did was keeping track of the map, the encounters and the roster on a single notebook, the one I used in the past to keep notes about the games I played. I think this worked quite well, but a slightly different layout would have been preferable. something to try next. I prepared the characters way before playing, trying to connect the adventures somehow, and refine the statblocks. I might revisit this block structure later. all in all, I am quite happy with how the adventure progressed. it was not the best in terms of in-game rewards, but the event in the last room (which happens to be the entrance) took place right when I was thinking about storing the game away (to go to another film screening), and about what would the party do. fortuitous happenstance for the playing experience. since then (in the last couple of weeks) I have been reading a bit more and thinking about which new adventures, rules or features I should try. I’ve compiled some additional resources for playing as well (laminated cards or blank maps). I will put them to use soon. what else? I took some pictures but didn’t add them yet. they might come into this chronicle or as something separate. I need to decide what works better for me (and for the future, because re-paging Hugo posts with this theme takes some time). enjoy! and try 4AD :: {{wide}} {{wide}} {{wide References: game: Four Against Darkness / on BoardGameGeek }}