Il Cimitero Sulla Collina (Threads of Fate, Session VII & VIII Recap)

-I'll be using this post for two recaps, since Session 7 & 8 took place at the same adventure site.- 

This campaign has had some strange twists and turns, from adventuring to slife of life business simulator then back to adventuring. The players seem to be enjoying it, I'm enjoying it,gaming life is good.

Here's the blurb I wrote for the Sugar & Spice (Threads of Fate, Session VII) event page:

Madame Aki & Mr.Hubble learned a valuable lesson, killing weird plague-masked entrepreneurs sends even weirder peeps your way. The Night paid a visit to the Pink Pearl and wrote up a new contract; the Pink Pearl will provide fresh bodi-er I mean brave adventurers to send on her errands. Three nights after Aki signs a letter arrives at the doorstep of the Pink Pearl...

The Cast

Aki Ashina, Fighter 2:
A young woman hailing from the far eastern lands of Japan. Wears a eyepatch, speaks kinda fluent english and is looking for something or someone...

Axel Hubble. Fighter 1:
A man who mourns his dead sister, also goes on adventures now I guess.

Richard Islands, Fighter 1:
Ex-soldier, now poor mercenary. Looking for work.

Cillian McCleary, Specialist 1:
Irishman in a hostile land.


The letter essentially said to travel to Italy and find a small town named Pavia west of Milan. There the dead rise from their graves at the local cemetery, the characters are to find the cause. The player's had been wanting to get back to adventuring and now was the perfect time. I'll be writing this recap bullet point style since I'm going from memory. (Ref Notes: I essentially just fast traveled the party to Italy which is probably bad but fuck it I just wanted to get to the adventure.)

• Party arrives in Italy after long harrowing journey. The discover Italy is struck with the plague and many of the villages and towns they pass are ghost towns. They party meets some of the body removal company on the road and do there best to puke from the stench of death.
• Plague masks are bought to counteract the plague.
• They find the small town of Pavia and see a huge walled cemetery on a hill towards the back.
• They ask the remaining residents if they have seen any dead men walking. No one has.
• The party discovers that the cemetery is owned by the widow Francesca who's husband died last year.
• The party makes their way to the cemetery and finds a young man with sandy brown hair digging graves. Introductions are made and the party inquires about Francesa with 20 questions. The boy is suspicious and tells them that he'll pass it on to her that they want to talk to her. The party agrees and seemingly takes their leave.
• Instead the walk the further in to the cemetery and find a small house in the middle of it. The party deduces this must be where the widow lives. The stake out in a local crypt and wait for night to fall. They know from their previous investigations in town that Francesca is a night owl.
• Night falls and a woman emerges from the house. She has brunette hair, leather wrapped around her arms and strange pistol with two barrels in her hand.
• The cemetery which was almost pitch black lights up with candle light, lit by no one...
• The caw of a crow can be heard in the distance.
• They party follows, or attempts to follow Francesca. That's when they encounter the first dead.
• A man steps into the candlelight, his face is pale and gaunt. His clothes are shabby and stained with dirt but it's his eyes that catch the party's attention. Around his pupil's have a eerie white light around them. "Good evening" he says then lunges at the party.
• Initiative breaks out and the deadman tries to take a chunk out of McCleary but misses.
• The party manages to get some solid hits on the undead and take him out.
• All the comotion draws Francesa to the scene. She accuses the party of being grave robbers and levels her custom pistol at Islands. They explain that they've come to help and investigate the dead rising from their grave. She doesn't believe them but at this point welcomes any help she can get. She tells them the dead started rising after her husband died almost a year ago. He was the first to wake up and came to visit her at their house in Pavia. 
• The party immediately puts two and two together and asks to exhume the husband's grave. Francesca refuses but relents after the party pleads that it may be the only way to stop the dead.
• Francesca leads the party to her late husband's grave only after being attacked by more of the strange white ring-eyed dead. No PC casualties.
• They make it to the grave and Islands & McCleary see the grave has a large stone slab over it. Francesca explains she had it put there to insure her husband doesn't escape again.
• Francesca doesn't want to see her husband again so she begins her patrol of the cemetery, Aki joins her and are attacked by more white ringed dead. No casualties. Aki hears a crow and strange whispers coming from behind a crypt. She investigates and finds an albino crow whispering to a grave. She tries to shoot it but misses. It flies away.
• Meanwhile back at the grave after an hour the duo manages to get to the coffin and open it. They see a withered old corpse with a bullet in it's head. They also find some treasure: a gold ingot and a weird box. They steal them of course. McCleary hides the gold bar in the pile of dirt.
• Aki & Francesca return and Francesca's see's that the gold bar has been stolen, she pulls her pistol on the double thieves. They manage to talk their way out of it somehow. (Ref Notes: Looking back I should have had Francesca shoot one or both of them.) They rebury the husband and are attacked by more white-ring eyed dead. The candles go out and Four small children emerge from the darkness into the party's torchlight, they have exaggerated grins on their rotting faces.

...and that's where we ended it for the night.

Session VIII

The Cast

Aki Ashina, Fighter 2:
A young woman hailing from the far eastern lands of Japan. Wears a eyepatch, speaks kinda fluent english and is looking for something or someone...

Axel Hubble. Fighter 1:
A man who mourns his dead sister, also goes on adventures now I guess.

• Only two players this Session so I had Islands and Richards mysteriously disappear(flee) into the night.
• Aki, Hubble and Francesca manage to fend off the dead kids with minimal injuries.
• I don't remember if it was last Session or this one (Ref's Notes: I need to take better notes for these recaps or write them ASAP but fuck it this a recap not some professional shit. lol) but the party had fought a "boss" zombie. While exploring the cemetery they heard a voice bec-I remember now, it was last Session. Anyways they heard a voice coming from one of the crypts pleading for the party to let the dead man out. They decline. It then offers to tell them a secret if they do. They decline again. While walking away it yells out to McCleary by name and offers to tell him a secret about his wife and child back in Ireland. This gets his attention. He walks up to the crypt and the man tells him his wife is having quite the time with the neighbor man. He offers more secrets from heaven if he opens the door. McCleary declines the dead man roars with laughter and says his friends are here. The party is surprised as plague-ridden corpses lumber to them, additionally a small child-like zombie sneaks around and opens the crypt. The Floating man emerges from the darkness. Francesca shoots the plague-boiled corpses.
• The Floating Man is a strange emaciated corpse with the signature white rings where his eyes should be. Hubble's is grabbed during the battle by the Floating Man but luckily manages to escape it's grapple check before he is thrown down from 20ft in the air. The battle ends when the floating man is speared to from air to the ground. 
• Ok now back to Session VIII. Aki & Hubble curses their party members sudden disappearance but continue exploring the cemetery on the hill. Aki remembers the weird crow she saw earlier and tells Hubble. They begin to suspect the crow is the real interloper and start hunting it down. After more random dead encounters and barely missing the white crow they finally manage to sneak around and find it. It's whispering in a strange language to a grave from atop a tombstone. Aki shoots it but barely misses it. Hubble tries and hits but his bullet seemingly hits a strange invisible force. The trio are then blinded by a bright white light and a booming voice almost deafens them. It says "Who meddles with the machinations of heaven!" The voice then tells Francesca that she is destined for Sainthood and tells the other party members to slay Francesa and promises a reward if they do so. Aki & Hubble are hesitant but agree after Francesca wishes to please Heaven. After this the duo feel no qualms whatsoever and go forth with the execution. Francesca kneels with hands outstretched towards the heavenly light. Aki draws her sacred katana and cuts! and rolls a 1 and instead lops an arm off. Francesca howls and keels over in pain. Aki panics and looks a Hubble who has his hand over his face.Aki then puts poor Francesca out of her misery by slicing her throat. "Good" the voice says and the light immediately dims and fades to nothing. Aki and Hubble look down and Francesca and then back at each other. "We should get out of here." And they did.

and that was pretty much it for these two sessions. Hope you enjoyed it!

Read Session IX here!