2026 Reviews - Corpse Trail to Hell
Maybe it's the fact that I just had to spend an hour hacking a space in the frozen mound left by the snow plows on my sidewalk to fit my garbage bins, but I feel like talking about a winter-themed adventure at this time of year. My next review is going to be Corpse Trail to Hell, written by Karl Druid for his weird western game Frontier Scum. I ran it using the intended system.
The premise of this one is simple-- the PCs have been hired by the Battercod Lubricate Company to cross a massive expanse of frozen ocean ice to reclaim one of their ships that is said to be carrying a fortune in whale oil. All they need to do is get there with loads of supplies and just squat on the ship until the thaw in a few month's time, and they'll get 10% of the cargo's value-- enough to set them up for life. Naturally, once they actually set out on the mission they will encounter arctic beasts, rival adventurers, frozen corpses, and the dreaded Flaywinds that howl across the flat expanse of ice.
Getting it to the Table
I've reviewed a few other adventures for Frontier Scum and nearly all of them were written by Karl-- the interesting thing is that they're all pretty unique in their format and presentation, ranging from the incredibly bare bones and concise (Cattledash!) to the incredibly elaborate and artistic (Tides of Rot). Corpse Trail to Hell falls neatly in the middle; it's got a clean simplicity to its layout that makes it very easy to read and utilize at the table, but there are also some nice unique mechanics and procedures introduced to help make the scenario come to life.
The module opens with a section of dialog from the quest-giver (a representative of the Battercod Lubricate Company) which is a nice quick way to set the tone, and then it moves to some GM info that establishes the intended form that the adventure should take as well as some special guidelines for preparing PCs for the scenario. The adventure is laid out in two Acts. The first details the long and grueling trek across the ice as the PCs attempt to reach the wreck of the Ichabod Noster, and the second act details the exploration and recover of the wreck itself.
The main difference here is that PCs are able to "requisition" special equipment from their employer that will help them in the job-- notably, some of this equipment specifically is only useful in "Act II" of the adventure, so players will have to think about what they're carrying both in terms of inventory slots as well as what they might run into later. After that initial GM intro, there is a two-page spread listing all of the equipment that can be requisitioned (each PC can only choose 4 things, of course) as well as some new PC backgrounds that are tailored to fit the setting-- we've got whalers, icemongers, looters, and clamdashers (naturally).
Act I is basically an endurance test-- the PCs follow a procedure that determines how many frozen corpses they pass during the day ("markers" to indicate how far they've gone across the ice) as well as how much their fuel and food rations have depleted. They have a few choices they can make during travel, such as halving their rations to conserve food, hunting or fishing to replenish them, or "hunkering down" to wait out inclement weather. All of these have consequences, naturally, and the procedure also ties in random events that happen on the trail. One thing I really like about this is how each event includes what time of the day it occurs-- the whole journey is largely abstracted so you don't have to get into the granularity of what you're doing every single section of the day, as that can get tedious very quickly. Mixed in with the events are creature and NPC encounters, and all of the stat blocks are included right where you need them. The events table also introduces a sort of timer in the form of a rival group of adventurers hired to recover the wreck as well. It's quite possible for the PCs to overtake this other group, kill them, and steal their steam tank ice crawler to finish the adventure.
Act II is a more traditional pointcrawl setup that focuses on a climb up the face of a massive iceberg and the exploration of the Ichabod Noster, stranded at the top. The GM intro to this section has some bookkeeping based on how events played out in act one with the rival party, and the PCs will have to adjust their stats based on whether they brought certain pieces of special equipment that would make the frozen climb easier.
The climb is an interesting procedure as well-- it's left a bit more abstracted as a series of points, and between each point PCs have a choice of either taking a roundabout and easy path or climbing directly up the ice face, typically a more difficult path. Each point is unkeyed; instead, the intention is that each point represents a potential random encounter from a list that is a good mix of fights, dangerous choices, hazards, and loot, with each encounter being unique once it occurs. I'm not sure what the purpose of doing that would be, though-- the adventure recommends that the GM should pre-roll the encounters and make note of where they occur, but at that point why not just assign them in the module itself?
The shipwreck is more traditionally keyed, and once the PCs reach it they start to discover that this is no ordinary shipwreck, and that something weird is going on with this unnatural ice. There is plenty of opportunity for them to discover either riches beyond their wildest dreams, or disturb a powerful elemental spirit that wishes to cover the earth in hoarfrost and will kill any who stand in its way. That's what happened to my group, incidentally.
Finally, the module ends with some recommendations as to how the players might conclude the adventure, as a lot can depend on the choices and events that happen during the lead up to the end. It's left very open-ended with no "intended" solution in mind, which is always nice.
What Worked?
- Fun procedures for what could easily be tedious bits. Act I focuses on a multi-day trek across flat ice, and this could definitely get tedious if you're playing out every part of every day and just ticking off your supplies each time. The PCs can pick up equipment that helps them in this stage of things, so there's a lot of potential for variety and the procedure just made it feel a lot more engaging at the table. The same is true for the ice climbing section of Act II-- player agency is maintained with different choices of path to take, and it flows easily.
- Lots of good little Karl tidbits and easter eggs. From the clamdasher background to the appearance of another magical sword with a hilariously cumbersome name (which gains more power if the player can remember and recite the name from memory), to the introduction of ice magic as a result of the strange powers at work, this adventure adds a whole new dimension to the weirdness of Frontier Scum.
What Didn't Work?
- The random encounters in lieu of keyed locations during the climb just felt like it wouldn't add much to make them random as the game unfolded. It took no time at all to pre-roll them and then I was able to describe what the next point looked like, so I really didn't see the purpose of doing it on the fly.
Final Thoughts
Another solid, weird, and quirky adventure from Karl Druid. There really isn't much more to be said about this-- my players had a blast even though they died horribly, and it was a breeze to get ready for play. You can get Corpse Trail to Hell in PDF form on Karl's itch page and I highly recommend it. Thanks for reading!