And thus ends the Eurovision Song Contest Job where the company investigates a white supremacist terror group in Malmö, Sweden. This arc of the game took four sessions and in the final session, things go south for the group and then some. A game campaign recap can be found here, followed by descriptions of certain scenes that led us to the finale.
Eurovision time
A thematic change in the game is that the players discovered that the Lampir-blood boosted terrorists were not merely from a fringe group, but part of the conspiracy that led to the top levels of the Försvarsdepartementet (Ministry of Defence), who was trying to bring down the Socialdepartementet (Ministry of Health and Social Services) who had become our allies in Sweden. Therefore, we were not just running our operation in neutral territory, but in a country that was steadily becoming an enemy territory.
The party split up between Jacob, Misha, Rose with borzoi hound Abraham Lincoln; and Sami, Zlatan, David with the other borzoi hound Abraham Van Helsing.
Team one would guard Romany singer Milla Cesarescu – lead singer and social activist of the band Half Kingdom – in her Malmö hotel room before the contest from attacks that her security detail will not be prepared to deal with. Team two would rendezvous with Snorre Dahlquist, the Health Ministry Special Agent, to visit the late (no thanks to Zlatan) Dr. Ishmael Sjöberg‘s house in Blackeberg, near Stockholm.
Three game highlights followed.
Highlight One: Blackeberg and Södermalm
Team One had to rush because Dahlquist’s second in command Hagar Thurson jumped the gun and seized some evidence from Sjöberg’s house.
Thurson was taking the evidence to the Ministry of Health’s high security research site named Polysequencing Labs in Södermalm in the middle of Stockholm. David and Dahlquist attempted to intercept Thurson there while Sami and Zlatan went to Blackeberg. They found – in a secret room in the house – academic notes from the 1980s of Soviet studies of psychic phenomena from the University of Leningrad. There were also photos of the Health Minister Teddy Hogbarn’s family and his house marked on a map on the wall. Was his family in immediate danger?
Then came reports of an attack at Polysequencing Labs over the radio. They drove back there to discover the building on fire after a terrorist attack and Dahlquist in a coma being loaded onto an ambulance. They grabbed Thurson and convinced him to talk by letting him believe they were a black ops consultant team working with Dahlquist. He reported that David was killed in the attack – shot in the head as he shielded Dahlquist – and his body had probably been burned to a crisp in the building. Thurson realised he had screwed up by leading the terrorists from Blackeberg to Polysequencing Labs. To atone, he promised to follow the team’s orders to the letter.
Sami gave Thurson a burner cell phone before driving off to ensure security for Teddy Hogbarn’s family house in Lidingö before agents from the Ministry of Defence took charge and cordoned off the area.
Highlight Two: Malmö
The Eurovision finale show would be held that night, and Half Kingdom would be performing. Jacob convinced band manager Zoe Lindstrom and Milla to allow them to be in their security detail. It wasn’t difficult as Zoe had seen what happened to Nova Lind. Misha was preparing to be a bassist in Half Kingdom when a bomb exploded outside the hotel. They fled down the emergency stairwell but realised that a few levels beneath them, the fleeing public were being attacked as they descended. And the screams were getting closer.
Misha held her ground with Lincoln and the bodyguards while Jacob led Milla, Zoe and a number of her coterie into the seventh floor corridor. The assailants were a pair of fanged human-like figures who were running on the walls. Misha’s kick did not even rattle their advance. One vaulted over Misha and went after Jacob’s party while the other attempted to kill Misha. It failed because Lincoln jumped, bit its neck and kept biting as it shrieked in pain, gurgled and died. Misha ran after the other creature, grabbing a fire axe from the wall.
The second creature leapt at the group as Jacob was about to force open the elevator doors. Jacob threw a flashbang grenade. Everyone was deaf and dumb for the duration. Then Jacob was knocked to the ground as something flew past him. Blind and deaf he tried to crawl away. Suddely he felt warm liquid spray all over his body. He tasted blood. Misha arrived and it turned to attack her. But then Lincoln bounded from the stairway and took it down by its neck.
But it was too late. The creature had torn Milla’s neck out which had bathed Jacob in her blood. Zoe was livid, but the shaken team gathered their wits and ordered the security detail to take her away from the hotel.
Agents of KL in KL
Highlight Three: Lidingö
At first there was nothing except for what appeared to be a well-guarded street near Minister Hogbarn’s house on the island of Lidingö. There were police officers patrolling streets. But when a K9 unit showed up Van Helsing became skittish. The officer and his German Shepherd appeared to be mesmerizing other policemen on the streets. That was Sami and Zlatan’s cue.
Zlatan drove up and Sami let Van Helsing out who pounced on the K9 officer. But the officer’s body armour prevented Van Helsing from ripping his throat out. Sami noticed that the K9 unit German Shepherd was mesmerising other policemen on the streets. He fired with his automatic shotgun twice. Both slugs hit the dog, but it was still on its feet! Meanwhile, the K9 officer flung Van Helsing off him, who then knocked into the German Shepherd, who only then for some reason fell unmoving onto the sidewalk.
Seeing the K9 cop advancing toward them via the rear view mirror, Zlatan put the car in reverse, hit the sidewalk causing the car to bounce up and ran over the creature. It was still alive, flailing under the Passat’s rear wheel. Sami blasted the pinned creature in the face with his shotgun. It only stopped its inhuman shrieking when Van Helsing ran up and started eating it.
The other police officers were now snapping out of their fugue state and saw Sami, Zlatan and Van Helsing in the process of killing another policeman and his dog. Van Helsing, happy and full, leapt back into the car and they screeched away. Another police car started chasing them, but Zlatan managed to lose it quickly by skilfully navigating the suburb streets of Lidingö, and escaping before police and the Ministry of Defence blocked all exit off the island.
Epilögue
- Sami and Zlatan torched the Passat with the last of the thermite, saved their go-bags and stole an amphibious aircraft from a marina outside Stockholm. They rendezvous with Jacob, Misha and Rose on the island of Funen before flying out of Sweden.
- Before burning the Passat, Zlatan noticed that Van Helsing was showing an aversion to sunlight. A quick radio comm to the other team confirmed that Lincoln also displayed the same characteristics as well. Sami volunteered to put them down. Perhaps in the next session.
- Health Minister Hogbarn knew that it was “Dahlquist’s consultants” that had saved his life and relayed his thanks through Thurson. Hogbarn was an ally if they ever had to return to Sweden. The Ministry of Defense had now started to interfere with Ministry of Health’s investigation of the terrorists’ bioweapons – the mutant mycoplasma haemocanis virus.
- Half Kingdom‘s surviving members went underground to hide from the terrorists.
- The team did not get to enjoy the Eurovision Song Contest finale.
- Group Heat level: 5
What other strangeness await the intrepid agents?
Other Nötes: Zlatan’s Levelling Up
In-game, Zlatan purchased Pilot (Boat) 1 and Pilot (Airplane) 1 for the use of the amphibious aircraft. Zlatan’s post-game advancements include new skill purchases: Tradecraft 1, Preparedness 1 and Hand to Hand 2. Pilot (Airplane) was also increased to 4.
What other strangeness await my PC Zlatan?
