Let’s Play Under the Fourth Kingdom! Part 1: Felix the Dusk Thief
Time to dive into another soulslike from the Kerova-verse! This time I’m playing Under the Fourth Kingdom, a mega-dungeon crawler set in the same world as Tome of the Pyromancer, Dark Covenant Invader and Combat Apothecary.
So how does the game work?
We create a dreg with basic equipment and send them to suffer in the dungeon, hoping to get stronger and finally eradicate the Scourge festering on the deepest level, getting rewarded with promised riches.
Let the suffering start.
There are 8 different backgrounds (or classes) to choose for our starting dreg, each with different equipment, skills, and characteristics.
I’m feeling a bit shifty, so I’ll go with the Dusk Thief. His name will be Felix.
We pick only one skill from the list. I chose Canny (Roll on Treasure Tables with advantage).
We got 3 points to distribute between Strength, Dexterity, Presence, and Spirit. Max starting points are 2, and we can reduce any attribute to -1 to get extra points.
I’m going with 1 in each except for Spirit. Trying a balanced character. Not sure how that’ll go.
We get 4 torches, 4 rations, and d6x10 silver pieces. 50 for me.
We also add 1 to our Convergence Points. This allows us to reroll any result during a session, and it doesn’t stack between sessions (like Kerova says, use it or lose it!).
Here’s the final sheet:
I’ve created this in Google Sheets. It has an auto inventory counter that goes up or down with Strength. If you mark the Utility Belt box, it increases by 5. Feel free to use and change it however you want: Under the Fourth Kingdom Character Sheet.
If you have suggestions about how I can change it, please let me know!
Alright, time to delve.
Gutters
For a quick backstory, Felix grew up crawling the drainage tunnels for scraps, dodging rats, patrollers, and other menaces. Down there, he found early on a talent for picking pockets, slipping through narrow gaps, and snatching valuables that the city cast aside. Some called him a thief. Those were the ones who caught him, of course, chasing him and eventually leaving him beaten and bloodied.
When the Merchant Princes announced the call for dregs to scour the Underdepths, Felix didn’t hesitate. The Gutters were home, and the thought of untold riches was too enticing to pass up.
If Felix returns alive, he’ll never have to crawl another drainage pipe ever again.
I’m starting floors with an empty room with 2 exits. Maybe the procedure is just to start with the generators, but I guess I like it this way.
Now for the first proper room! The first step is to check for lighting, but the Gutters are still close to the city, so it’s still plenty illuminated.
Floor progression is done with a Usage Die (UD). If you don’t know what that is, it’s pretty simple: every time we enter a new room, we roll the associated UD. If the result is 1 or 2, we’ve made considerable progress toward finding the exit, and the UD reduces by one size (from a d10 to a d8, for instance).
We do this until we roll a 1 or 2 on a d4. That means we’ve found the stairs to a deeper level.
Let’s check the UD here:
UD4: 2, stairs found!
Great, we’ve already located the stairs! Let’s finish generating the room. The next step is a description using the tables in the book.
Description + Spark: Stonework + Archaic
Now we determine the area type with a d6 and follow from there:
D6: 3 = Point of Interest (roll on the corresponding table)
d4 Gutters POI: 4 = Pile of clothes and furniture
The passage opened into a chamber of old stonework laid centuries past. Felix had sneaked through this place hundreds of times. It was depressing to realize that the shit, dust, and cold limestone smelled like home.
Against the far wall lay a mound of broken chairs, cracked washbasins, and torn tunics. All of it looked as if it had washed here long ago. The constant dripping from the ceiling made something reflect in the faint light.
I’m scavenging the area with advantage. All checks are made with 2d6 plus bonuses from the associated attribute and modifiers. A result of 8+ is a success.
With advantage or disadvantage, we add a third die and remove the lowest or highest result, respectively.
Scavenging is done with 2d6 + Presence, so 3d6 +1 for us:
3d6+1 scavenge check: 13!
Nice, double 6s! Now we roll a d6 to check if it’s a mundane or exceptional treasure.
d6: 5 = mundane
Ok, now we roll on the Mundane Treasure Table, and our Canny Skill allows us to roll twice and choose the item we want:
2d20: 5, 19 = Ration or Adept Resin.
The Adept Resin gives us a +1 to defense rolls during combat. As the rarer item, I’ll go with that.
And we’re off to Depth Level 2, the Upper Cistern!
But that’s gonna stay for the next session. I’ll keep this one short, as an intro to the game. We’re supposed to award 1 XP at the end of a session (or 2, if we feel it’s warranted), but I’m skipping it this time as it would feel like cheating.
I’m using Dungeon Scrawl to make a simple map for visual tracking.
So far, I’m having a great time! Some awesome rolls right off the bat. Nothing can hurt us, right? This will be a breeze, right?!
Well.
I hope the playthrough makes you wanna check out the game!
Until next time.
Under the Fourth Kingdom is available on Itch.io.
Map created with Dungeon Scrawl.