Odd Trails

****O******dd Trails** is a roleplaying game that many children in Nagspeake play. In the game, players create a character (typically according to the many Odd Trails manuals) and play that character in the campaign.

Meddy in particular enjoys it. She taught Milo the game, and he plays with her, and also with his father who played Odd Trails as a boy. Marzana also enjoys the game.

## Information

### Gameplay

**Milo**: No. Like the kind with monsters and dungeons and dice with a million sides? That's what we're doing?

**Meddy**: Yeah. But for a real game we'd need more people and a game master and all that stuff. We're kind of making up something of our own.

— *Greenglass House*, pg. 53 |  | ”

Odd Trails is a role-playing game in which your character and other characters have adventures. Typically the game includes a game master. A character's ability scores determine their chance at something, and then a die is rolled to determine whether or not the character succeeds. Players of Odd Trails typically make a map of their character's game world. Sometimes in the game characters can find smaller rewards or treasures to help lead them to the big one, called plums.

In Odd Trails, there are four types of characters: captain, blackjack, warder, and warrior. There are also non-player characters, who typically provide information, clues, tools, and other things. The manuals provide information on different types of playable characters and what they are like, however, sometimes players will not go according to the manuals and do things such as combining character classes.

A locus or similar object is often used to help channel the energy of the character. Players typically use figurines to help them visualize where they are compared to obstacles, enemies, and other things on the board. Players typically make maps of the game world.

#### Escaladeur

An escaladeur is a type of blackjack. An escaladeur's exploits include Zephyr's Passage, for quick and invisible running; Irrisistible Blandishment, the ability to make anyone do as you ask; The Fabulist, the ability to make others believe your lies; and the Moonlighter's Knack, the ability to steal anything protected by a key or combination. An escaladeur is rated high in dexterity, wisdom, charisma, and athleticism.

#### Harbinger

A harbinger is a transmundane warrior type. The harbinger's exploits include summoning a scholiast.

#### Scholiast

A scholiast is a character that can be summoned by a harbinger and usually takes the form of a bird. They usually stay within one hundred feet of the harbinger but can travel farther by way of a reliquary. Scholiasts are typically non-player characters, and invisible to other non-player characters.

#### Tiercer-Signaler

A tiercer-signaler is a type of blackjack similar to an escaladeur.

#### Ecstatic

An ecstatic is a transmundane warrior. They use emotions to influence those around them. They are rated highly is charisma, constitution, and wisdom. They can use objects to boost their magic.

Ecstatics can use their emotions for big 'power whomps', which constitutes most of the ecstatic's exploits. Some others include Ecstatic Fervor, when an ecstatic absorbs a blow, their energy outpour can empower their allies; Ecstatic Wrath, when an ecstatic absorbs a blow, their anger unsettles enemies; and The Unfurling Eye, being able to see into the minds of their allies.

#### Solitaire

A solitaire is a transmundane warrior. They are loner monks who have some type of mind-body fusion and often fight with martial arts. They make good blackjacks and are rated high in dexterity, wisdom, charisma, and athleticism. They use a locus to help focus their energy and power. A solitaire's exploits are mostly about combat. Some others include Clear-Sighted Perspicacity, which allows the solitaire to find out the weaknesses of their enemies and use them; Pensive Elutriation, being able to clear your pain through a reverie; and the Spinner of Lore, using a wide knowledge of information to manipulate those around you. Ecstatics are also able to occasionally bend time.

#### Theurge

A theurge is a transmundane warrior. They can perform the exploit Tarncap Reveal.

#### Prestidigator

A character that can perform the exploit Hickham's Fluctuation.

### Manuals

#### *Blackjacks of the Roads: Highwaymen, Sharpers, and Empirics (Advanced Player's Handbook)*

*Blackjacks of the Roads* is a large hardcover book that Addie Whitcher owned a copy of. Milo Pine read some of it while playing an escaladeur, reading some parts of the overview and also checking out (and often thinking about) the list of the blackjack's exploits, such as Zephyr's Passage, Irresistible Blandishment, The Fabulist, and The Moonlighter's Knack. Milo still had it on his desk the following year.

#### *Ostiaries and Summoners*

This is what Meddy called *Transmundane Warriors of the Realms: Harbingers, Summoners, and Ecstatics* by mistake.

#### *Transmundane Warriors of the Realms: Harbingers, Sumonners, and Ecstatics*

Meddy suggested that Milo play an ecstatic as his character, finding Transmundane Warriors in the attic, and Milo noted how there were two fighters on the cover. She explained that "transmundane" meant to be beyond the physical, and that these characters typically had mental, emotional, or psychic powers. The characters in the manual included augurs, ecstatics, harbingers, ostiaries, solitaires, summoners, phrenics, and theurges. Milo ended up playing a combination of a solitaire and an ecstatic. The book also included the harbinger's exploit Summon Scholiast. Milo put the manual in his rucksack and later read the introduction, as well as the solitaire's and ecstatic's exploits, and the section on solitaire's loci. He continued to carry the book with him for a while, using the Spooky Action at a Distance exploit to help get Meddy to be able to leave Greenglass House.

## History

### *Greenglass House*

After Meddy found the nautical chart, which had dropped from Milo's pocket, she suggested a campaign, that they search for the meaning of the chart. Milo eventually agreed to Meddy's idea. Meddy brought manuals and together they figured out Milo's character, a type of blackjack called an escaladeur, named Negret. When asked what they were doing, Meddy supplied that the name of the game was Odd Trails, and Mr. Pine revealed that he too had played Odd Trails as a child, and his character had been a tiercer-signaler.

**Meddy**: Let's see... Always check for traps, left is always right unless there's a middle, always put your healer in the best armor and wear your magic rings on your toes instead of your fingers... What else? ...Always have rope... Never mind. You'll figure things out as you go.

— *Greenglass House*, pg. 66-67 |  | ”

Meddy chose the character Sirin, a scholiast who had decided to have an adventure even though she was not supposed to. The two of them began to explore the house, and found tools and costumes for their characters in the attic, which Sirin dubbed the Emporium. Milo was able to create a Chinese past for his character Negret without feeling guilty, something that he enjoyed. Negret and Sirin investigated the guests and discovered some of their secrets, and recovered items stolen from other guests by one guest.

For Christmas, Milo's father gifted Milo his Odd Trails character from his boyhood. Meddy theorized that he'd painted the figure himself. Milo hoped to someday play Odd Trails with his father.

Meddy noted that she'd let Mrs. Gallick think she was in charge because Paul played Odd Trails with Meddy. Milo discovered that Doc Holystone's final cargo was a figurine for his daughter, a scholiast with Sirin painted on the bottom.

After Meddy was introduced to the Pines, Mr. Pine realized how Milo suddenly knew about Odd Trails. Meddy left, but before she did she said she would like to play Odd Trails with them sometime.

Milo kept his father's Odd Trails figurine and the Sirin figurine on his desk.

### *Ghosts of Greenglass House*

Milo recalled playing Odd Trails with Meddy, and missed her. Milo still had his father's Odd Trails figurine and Meddy's. When Meddy arrived, she suggested that Milo needed a character other than an escaladeur, and they went to the attic. They read Meddy's Odd Trails manuals and Milo chose the character Tēngféi, a fervent ecstatic solitaire. He also found a locus for his character. Milo noted that he played Odd Trails with his father. Milo played the character Tēngféi and was able to figure out many of the guests' secrets and find the stolen things. He noted that roamer folklore was a big part of Odd Trails.

When Marzana and Meddy met each other, Marzana mentioned a Tarncap Reveal, a theurgist exploit from Odd Trails, and Meddy instantly liked Marzana. Milo invited Marzana to come and visit and they could play Odd Trails together.

Milo later suggested that they think of Meddy as a scholiast tied to Greenglass House. Milo insisted that, while it was folklore, the folklore was based on reality. He was able to use a reliquary to get her to her father, across the lawn.

### *The Thief Knot*

Milo sent Meddy's reliquary, the Sirin figurine inside its glass vial, to Marzana's house. Marzana did not understand at first what it was, thinking that it was the Odd Trails character he wanted to use in a game and she was to be the game master. Marzana did not know what the Sirin figurine was. When Marzana met Meddy, Meddy told her that it was a reliquary, and Marzana connected it to scholiasts in Odd Trails, though she did not remember much about scholiasts. Meddy told about the Spooky Action at a Distance exploit, and explained how Milo had thought of trying out something from Odd Trails, because folklore had a basis in reality.

Meddy mentioned exploits a few times. When revealing herself to Nialla, she said "Tarncap Reveal!". When Marzana shared her realization that the girl they had rescued had not been Peony Hyde, Meddy compared it to Hickham's Fluctuation, a Level One Prestidigitator's exploit.