Solo Tabletop RPG Review & Actual Play – Into the Odd Part Two

Into the Odd Remastered (Mophidius)
Written and designed by Chris McDowell
Graphic design by Johan Nohr

You can purchase this game here.
Read Part One here.

The treasure hunters feel along The Coral’s spongey-smooth exterior, careful not to slice a hand open on the jagged bits and edges of the cracked shell. Edmund holds out his hand and helps Poddin step onto the outcropping of sand between the Coral and a gray morning tide sloshing in and out. She points out a large opening they could use to enter the structure and step closer. It’s a sandy slope that likely fills up at high tide. It’s dark down there. Poddin goes first, sliding down on her bottom, reaching the Pit, and turning her lantern on. Edmund comes down shortly after that.

The Pit is a dark cave; the echoes of the waves outside on the sand roar inside the chamber. It’s also an entryway to many other areas of the Coral with five exits, not including the slope Edmund and Poddin came down on. There’s a steep chute even further down. Next is a damp-looking crawlway that requires scooting along one’s belly. In front of the pair is a hallway filled with a yellowish-white foam. Edmund wonders if it is an acidic defense mechanism. Next to that is a small alcove that breaks off from the pit, and then to their left is a wall that looks soft, like the meat of a crab.

Edmund gestures to the alcove. It is the least cumbersome place to enter, and he isn’t too keen on squeezing through any narrow passages. He’s struck by how overwhelmingly red everything is, and upon closer inspection, he realizes it’s because of the pulsing red coral that covers the walls. There’s another bit of red: a lump of meat partially dissolved on the ground, a brown pouch tangled up in some viscera stringing off the central pile.

Edmund begins to feel light-headed and feels himself tripping over his feet; he sees Poddin stumbling forward. 

WIL save – passed

Poddin WIL save – passed

Both treasure seekers maintain their wits. Edmund snatches the bloodstained pouch, and back in the Pit, he finds 20 shillings within.

Edmund looks to Poddin on where they should go next. She narrows her eyes, looks at each option, and points at the Foam Room. Edmund looks at her with visible annoyance. That one? Something tells me there’s some good treasure down that path. They push into the foam room, quickly finding themselves wading up to the waist in the bubbly stuff. Edmund is hit with the pungent, briny air of the ocean here. The passage leads forward towards the direction where the foam is coming from.

Once in the next room, they discover it is the Source of the material. A metal pipe emerges from the floor, spewing a steady stream of foam. Edmund is surprised as he’d thought this was mainly an organic dungeon, but this implies the human touch. Does someone live within this gnarled mass of coral? He makes mention of this to Poddin, and while they speak, a murmur spills forth from a ceiling grate. They both stop and listen; Edmund picks up the looping gibbering chant.

The Church of the Bullet had made language acquisition part of their mandatory schooling, so Edmund was taught many tongues from across the land. It’s been a while since he put any of them into practice. Concentrating, he listens to the repeating message and tries to make some sense.

Roll: WIL 14 vs. 15, failure

Edmund can make out some basic words: something about “place” and “happen,” but he gives up.

Traveling further, the pair find themselves in a cavern with two doors side-by-side and a chute leading deep into the ground beneath. Most shocking is the little fat crustacean man stuck at the mouth of the chute. He looks up at Edmund and Poddin, grunting and gesturing with his crab-like claws towards the slide downwards. The little crab man is insisting they take a ride down the chute. Edmund looks to Poddin, she to him, and shakes her head. Sorry, little crab man. Edmund does not speak his language, but he could guess these are curse words.

The doors. Edmund steps up to the left, finding it warm but not hot. The door on the left has some coral growing on it. Both are metal. Poddin suggests they choose the warm door. Edmund thinks it over and decides to agree.

Empty human-sized metal cages hang from the ceiling of a room that looks very much constructed, not a natural outgrowth. Warm air gently blows from somewhere. There’s another door straight ahead. Edmund reaches out and pushes one of the cages. A whistle blows. This triggers an immediate moisture extraction from some device hidden in the walls. 

Edmund and Poddin reel from the sudden sense of the moisture in their sinuses being evaporated in seconds, the dry sting of pain, and then rush for the other door. Swinging it open and not looking, the pair move. In the next room, they begin to feel the moisture being restored but have stepped forward without looking, and Poddin tumbles over the edge of a Shaft to Nowhere. Edmund rushes to grab her hand, but from the shadows slithers a Crawling Carapace, a larger version of the tiny crab man from the other room. It slinks forward, mandibles snapping, dripping with steaming ichor Edmund knows is intended to kill. 

Edmund fires his pistol at the Carapace – 4 dmg.

Poddin attempts to pull herself out of the shaft – DEX 7 vs. 12 – her fingers slip, and she finds herself losing her grip.

Carapace bites Edmund – Edmund feels his muscles tighten, a cold rush through his blood.

Edmund shoves his pistol into the mouth of the Carapace, firing a bullet to both wound and break it – 4 dmg.

The Carapace slumps over dead.

He pulls Poddin up, and they collapse on the ground, panting for breath. They rest and drink from their water. Recovering.

Edmund notes another metal door to the left. They rise and carefully touch the door. No heat or stinging. Edmund pulls the handle and swings it open. There is a misshapen room on the other side, with walls lacking the smooth curves as previous spaces. It appears that something with massive fists had pounded dents into these walls. No signs of any attackers lying in wait. They enter.

Poddin is drawn to the glowing runes on the wall directly across. To the right is a corridor with a room at the end and a left turn before that is reached. Edmund keeps Poddin’s hand from touching the runes, reminding her of the empty cages in what he refers to as the meat jerky room. He gestures towards the long corridor, holding his lantern before him. 

Edmund chooses to pass the branching hallway and go to the end of the corridor. There, he and Poddin discover a large chamber with glittering particles in the air and clinging to the walls. The lantern light makes this appear magical, though nothing happens to Edmund or Poddin. 

Two doors. One with a red handprint. The other is a white one. Poddin studies the doors intensely. She tries the handle of the red door. Nothing. The white hand door provides a give. An altar sits in the middle of the room with a white glove on it.

“I have a theory,” she tells Edmund after closing the door. “I’m bettin’ you cain’t open this door.” 

Edmund is confused and walks up to the white-hand door, pulling the handle. And she’s right. The door won’t budge. 

“Try the red-hand one,” she says, a sly grin on her face. Edmund pulls the handle, and it gives. Opening to an almost identical room with an identical altar. On top of it sits a red glove. He takes it, unsure of what either of them will do.

“White worked ’cause I ain’t keeled no one in here. You killed that big ol’ lobster fella, the red hand.” Edmund is impressed.

Return to the Bellowing Corridor. The floor is slippery from the sea slime.

DEX save roll – Edmund falls and takes 2 dmg; Poddin stays up and helps Edmund to his feet.

They slide the glass door away and enter into Signs of Life. Walls covered in twitching yellow slime, a balloon-like Pulsing Sac throbs, slowly working across the floor. Poddin touches it, and it emits a piercing Psychic Attack – all lose 6 WIL. Edmund pulls Poddin away and down the stairs to the right. 

They stumble into a dimly lit room with a glass dome pushing up from the center of the floor. Peering through, they see the waters below. Something is moving down there. Poddin is about to put her weight on the structure when Edmund grabs her shoulder. Remember the cages; we must be extra careful about what we touch here.

Stairs descending….they take them. The end.

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I decided to stop there rather than continue through the premade dungeon for a few reasons. This is a good system, but I have realized it is tricky to do dungeon delving with premade adventures, especially as a solo player. It begins to feel more like a Choose Your Own Adventure when I’m searching for more improvisational flavor. 

I had a lot of fun with the Dark Space/Cthulhu Dark premade scenario because it was still open as to where my character was going next; it had that random element. I also enjoyed dungeon delving using Mork Borg’s Solitary Defilement mechanics and incorporating The Perilous Wilds into my Dungeon World solo game. Admittedly, I felt bad that I wasn’t finding the magic with Into the Odd that so many others had mentioned online and realized the dungeon scenario was probably the thing. In retrospect, I think using Mythic 2e’s lists to power the dungeon would have been a better choice, allowing the structure of “my” dungeon to be different from the one provided in the book.

Into the Odd is a unique and smooth OSR system, but I need to lean into my solo randomizing tools more the next time I pick it up. I am very excited to explore Electric Bastionland, Mythic Bastionland, Cairn, Knave, and all the other games that cite this one as a significant inspiration.