Here is an AP of our last game of 2025. It's 1979 words long, so you don't have to read it if you don't want to.
 
Every year I run a game between Christmas and New Year, usually on the 28th December. This year I ran a game set in Italy in 1944, featuring my wife Alison’s PC, Margaret ‘Mags’ Maltravers. Mags is working for Military Intelligence in Field Security Section 2125, which is headed by Lt Colonel Reggie Fairfax. Reggie is a PC of mine, but in this game he was run by me as an NPC and definitely played second fiddle to Mags.
 
(These days all our games are 1GM – 1PC ‘Duets’ – I generally run a game one Sunday and Alison runs a game the next Sunday. I’ve just finished a run in the Dicey Tales setting of Gamboa Station, while Alison has just finished a campaign of a historical fantasy game about Goths, set around AD210 or so.)
 
On 28th December 1944 Reggie is called to a meeting with Colonel Hewson, the head of Section 100 (the cover name of MI6 in Italy). Mags role is allegedly Reggie’s driver, but she has unofficial status as a Military Intelligence operative. Hewson and Reggie hate each other and have done since 1937 in Egypt but have had to co-operate on a couple of occasions before during the Italian campaign. Now Hewson finds himself in the awkward position of needing to ask for Reggie’s help.
 
A Section 100 agent has gone rogue. Daniel Waring used to run a network of agents and assets in Milan, which is where most of the German command is based, along with much of the Italian fascist high command of Mussolini’s rump government as well. He moved on to other duties behind German lines, but on returning to Section 100 HQ behind the Allied lines in Florence, he heard that an agent in his network, Christina Fioravanti, had been killed by SS General Gerhard Kegel. Christina was not only one of Waring’s agents, but also his lover. Daniel Waring crossed the lines on his own initiative and is on his way to Milan to kill General Kegel.
 
The problem is that General Kegel is working for the Allies. He works in logistics and has ensured that vital supplies reach the German front lines just a little too late. The British Indian division managed to break through the Gustav Line in August/September, leading to an Allied advance to the German Genghis Khan Line – thanks to General Kegel’s help in screwing up German supplies.
 
Waring knows all of the Allied agents in Milan and will avoid them at all costs in his plan to kill the General. Hewson sadly has no choice at short notice but to turn to Reggie Fairfax for help. Hewson wants Reggie to either bring Waring back, or deal with him.
 
Hewson provides photographs of Waring and Kegel and also shows them a photo of the dead agent Christina Fioravanti. General Kegel lives in the German Barracks in Milan, works at the German HQ, usually eats at a restaurant popular with German officers (so it has German guards outside), and relaxes at a nightclub - Club del Dolsi Sogni. Unless he wants to commit suicide, or try an attack on the street, Hewson thinks the nightclub is the best place for Waring to attempt to kill Kegel.
 
Reggie got Hewson’s forgers  to provide identification papers for Mags as a Swiss national (Clara) whose occupation is a singer, and Vichy French papers for himself (Lucien), as her agent. Clara is looking for work. (She worked for Reggie earlier in the war in Cairo, gathering information while working as a singer in The Empire Club.) Hewson also provided two syringes containing a fast-acting tranquiliser that should put Waring unconscious for a couple of hours. Mags took one and Reggie the other.
 
Very soon, Reggie and Mags are being transported in British submarine HMS Thrasher, along with members of the Special Air Service’s Special Boat Section. The sub surfaces off the coast behind German lines, and Reggie and Mags are taken by SBS canoe to a deserted shore. A short walk and a bus ride see them in Genoa, where they take a train to Milan. The weather is so bad all Allied aircraft are grounded, so at least the train wasn’t attacked.
 
In Milan they check into a hotel and spend a day checking out the route from the barracks to German HQ, the restaurant, and they also arrange to meet the owner of the nightclub that evening. They also talk to Waring’s successor as head of the Section 100 network, Enzo Caprara (a half English/half Italian Brit) with a view to organising their extraction with or without Waring. Enzo also informs them that Waring’s lover Christina was raped and strangled by Kegel, who had no idea she was an Allied agent. Kegel is a serial sex murderer, and Waring is convinced Hewson knows this.
 
After a short sleep Mags and Reggie goes to the nightclub when it opens, and Mags passes an audition before the manager in his private bar. She then headed off to the dressing room, as the manager was giving her  the slot of a singer called Adelina, so he could gauge the audience reaction to ‘Clara’. ‘Lucien’ later met the manager in his office to talk about wages, and also so Reggie could get a view of the layout if he needed to go back later looking for information.
 
In the crowded dressing room Adelina seemed not upset about losing her slot, and  wearing expensive jewellery went off to see her boyfriend, who was watching the show. One of the other singers said that she was stringing along the boyfriend and hadn’t ‘given out’ yet. Mags went out to sing and had a very positive reception from the audience, which mainly consisted of German officers, fascist Italians, and their attractive companions. After the song she joined Reggie in the audience, and both looked around the room, looking for Waring.
 
Adelina walked from the powder room to join a German officer at his table. It was General Gerhard Kegel. Reggie suddenly realised that Adelina looked very much like Kegel’s victim, Christina Fioravanti. Even though she had exchanged a few words with her, Mags had not noticed the similarity, but now she saw a resemblance. A family resemblance? Then Mags spotted a man leaning against the far wall of the club, who was looking at Kegel’s table. It was Daniel Waring. Did Waring exchange a glance with Adelina?
 
Waring stubbed out his cigarette and walked out of the club. “It’s the bloody sister!” said Reggie.
“And I bet they are going to kill him tonight,” said Mags.
 
Thinking quickly, the two agents decided to follow Waring. If the ‘loving couple’ were going back to Adelina’s apartment tonight, Waring would be waiting. Mags quickly collared another singer and asked if she knew where Adelina lived, “I thought I’d send her some flowers, as I took her spot tonight.” She got the address.
 
Outside on the darkened streets, slick with rain, Waring got a cab. Reggie hailed another and it was time for “Follow that cab.” Waring left his ride outside a big apartment building. It was the address Mags had been given. Waring had already left the stairwell and, Reggie and Mags presumed, had already entered Adelina’s apartment. Reggie failed to pick the lock to the apartment, so forced the door. Inside, all was quiet. There were three doors off a tiny hallway. Left was the small bathroom, and right was the tiny kitchen. The door directly ahead opened on the largest room, a sitting room with large windows facing the street. Mags pulled back the heavy drapes to have a gun thrust into her face. They had found Waring.
 
Waring advanced from the window and ordered Mags and Reggie to sit down on the sofa after kicking their pistols across the floor to him. Reggie tried to get Waring to see that thousands of Allied lives could be lost in the coming months if he pursued his revenge. Reg made a bad job of this as his heart wasn’t really in it – all he could think of was how he would feel if Kegel had murdered his own wife or stepdaughter.
 
Waring said that Hewson was willing to protect a sex murderer, who had killed other women as well as his love and Adelina’s sister. Mags ripped into Waring (subtlety is never her strong point) and called him selfish and short-sighted. “We’ve all lost people in this war! I’ve lost my best friend who I’ve known since school. She was gunned down by the Gestapo in Paris. What you are doing will prolong the war in Italy – more lives lost, you selfish bastard!”
 
In the middle of this, the door to the apartment opened. The door to the hallway was wide open and Adelina and Kegel could see into the living room. Waring fired at Kegel but (lousy roll) hit Adelina who dropped like a stone! Kegel turned and made for the door to the stairwell and Waring ran after him, stepping over Adelina. Reggie retrieved their two pistols while Mags made after Waring – she caught up with him by the front door. Reggie couldn’t fire without a risk of hitting Mags, who was now trying to plunge her hypo into Waring.
 
Waring hit Mags in the face with his pistol butt, as she succeeded in emptying the drug into Waring. He hit her again as she gave him a smacker back – but he managed to break free of the tussle and head for the stairwell. Mags pursued Waring down the stairs as he raced after Kegel, who had by now made it out of the building. Halfway down the stairs Waring staggered and as Mags caught up with him she kicked him down the next flight with her stiletto heels. Then Waring finally fell unconscious. Reggie caught up with them and picked up Waring. They returned to the apartment.
 
(A roll indicated that no one came out of the other apartments to investigate the noise – in Milan in ’44, if you hear a pistol shot, you obviously stay indoors.)
 
In the flat they found Adelina still alive. Mags attempted to deal with the bleeding from the wound while Reggie phoned Enzo Caprara. Enzo turned up with a car a while later and helped them transport the two bodies to a safe house, where a doctor was waiting. Reggie and Mags went back to their hotel room (which was just across the street) and got some rest.
 
They returned the next morning, to find Adelina – or rather,  Paolina Fioravanti – stable and awake. Like Waring, she was not happy with the way things had turned out. Enzo had organised their travel to Genoa. Hewson had a man in Genoa with a radio who could contact Hewson and arrange pick up by submarine. As soon as Paolina was fit to travel they could set off. Waring was a broken man with the failure of his plan and agreed to return to Section 100 HQ.
 
Then Enzo received a phone call from Kegel. He wanted to meet in the public gardens by the museum. Enzo sent Reggie and Mags.
 
Kegel was in civilian clothes with a hat pulled down low on his head. He wanted out. After the Allied spring offensive was a success, he wanted Section 100 to collect him and get him behind Allied lines. He had no intention of being dragged back to Berlin for a heroic last stand against the Red Army. And he wanted money. Money for a new and comfortable life. Reggie and Mags agreed to his demands and then returned to the safe house.
 
Mags talked to Waring. “I’m sure when the time comes, Hewson will be only too happy for you to be the man who meets Kegel to bring him to ‘safety’.
 
It was time to get the train to Genoa.