Searching & Clues

After a room is cleared (no monsters, encounter resolved), you may search it once. Mark the room with an S on your map so you don't search it twice.

• Roll on the Empty Room Search Table (d6).
• Corridors are searched at -1.
• Halflings may spend a Luck point to reroll a search.

The roll

Typical base-game Empty Room Search results:

| d6 | Result | |---|---| | 1 | Wandering monsters! They attack from the rear, surprise. | | 2–4 | The room is empty. | | 5–6 | Find one: a Clue, a Secret Door, or a Hidden Treasure. You choose. |

(The Abyss / Chaos / Forsaken Depths rulesets all use the same table; check the per-ruleset reference for variations.)

Clues

Write CLUE on a character's sheet. After three clues (across the current adventure or campaign — base game), or four clues in Four Against the Abyss:

1. The character earns one XP roll.
2. The character picks one major secret discovered (see your ruleset's secret list — base ruleset has three; Abyss has four).

A secret can be a monster weakness (+2 Attack vs one boss type, party-wide), a deal with a monster type (they let you pass — but no treasure), the location of secret treasure (declare an empty room becomes a hidden treasure cache), or other ruleset-specific perks.

Secret doors

If you choose "secret door," you reveal a new exit from this room. Roll a new d66 room beyond it. Secret doors are great late-dungeon insurance when you've explored most of the map.

Hidden treasure

Hidden treasure is rolled at 3d6 × 3d6 gp in the base game. Before you collect it, roll on the Hidden Treasure Complication Table (d6):

• A 1–2 triggers an alarm — wandering monsters arrive.
• A 3–5 is a trap of level equal to the result. Rogues may try to disarm.
• A 6 is a ghost guardian — only a cleric can ban it.

Hidden treasure is the highest-yield action in the game and the riskiest. Plan for the complication before you announce the search.

Searching corridors

Allowed, but at -1. Most parties skip corridor searches unless desperate. The math says it's worth it only when you have a halfling for re-rolls or a rogue for trap-fail mitigation.