Episode 12 – The House of Wax
March 31st
Archdeacon Abbot had found an invitation to a meeting with the Archbishop of Canterbury in St Albans as he got up. The invitation had said that the Bishop of Bath and Wells had accused him of using sorcery and that he has holding a special meeting before the inauguration of a new Bishop in St Albans. The Archbishop was suspicious and asked a number of questions before heading down the docks to meet an acquaintance. He noted that he was being followed and headed back to the Palace to try and shake the man off. He headed out again in the Hackney Carriage and found a Policeman who he got to stop the carriage that they found was empty. The driver explained that an Italian looking gentleman had paid him well to follow the other cab. Archdeacon Abbott headed to King’s Cross where he spotted the fellow and two friends waiting outside for him. As he approached the station the men came up to him and told him that he must accompany him to see a mutual friend. Archdeacon Abbott told them that he was not inclined to and the man informed him that his two fellows have guns in his back. The Archdeacon was given one final chance to go quietly and when he said he’d rather be dead he was shot in the back. When they tried a second shot the guns both jammed. The Archdeacon, sprightly on his heels headed into the station and fetched the police. When they spotted the police they turned on their heels and fled. Archdeacon Abbott continued to get the train to St Albans, on the way he magically healed himself in First Class. At St. Albans the Archbishop of Canterbury told him that he had not been summoned. Archdeacon Abbott showed the Archbishop his seal and they agreed it must have been forged. With responsibility for Church security it was up to the Archdeacon to find the leak.
Lieutenant Day suggested that he and Isabelle Rouchard quickly left the house they were in and headed to another of the empty houses that he had scouted out earlier. There he began talking to her and he found out that she had a blue tattoo of a knot of flowers on her back. Roger Day explained to her a bit about the Awakened and she looked on incredibly. She told him that sometimes she had dreams of her with another man, and these dreams were littered throughout history. Lieutenant Day wondered whether he should try and awaken her but for now decided that it was not a good idea. He asked her about where she was being held and she told him it was a big place where there were lots of people who didn’t move and that some of them were real looking people. She mentioned that one of them looked like Queen Victoria. She also gave the Lieutenant a good description of her captor.
That evening George rode towards to the army camp in Blanford Forum. There he checked the fence around the camp and found a hole he could scramble under it. Checking the outbuildings he finally found one with sleeping soldiers that he could steal a uniform. He then tried to enter the prison block but was stopped by some guards who did not think a private had the rights to see the prisoner. Seeking a distraction he warned all the horses in the yard that a predator was about. They panicked and the guards went to quieten them down. Under cover of the distraction George slipped into the building and headed down to the cells. Down there he found a smoking guard whom he knocked out and took the key from him to free Harvey Morris. They scrambled away from the buildings and under the fence to head for the nearest inn on George’s horse.
Annie spent the evening talking to Gwenhyfahr about the situation. Once Gwenhyfahr had understood the threat of the entities fusing with the Awakened she pointed out that now the fused Awakened would also come back just as the non fused Awakened did. As there was no way that they could unfuse them at present then they could just pick off the Awakened one at a time. They spoke about possibly allying against the threat but there were two potential sticking points. Firstly Arthur and Taliessin would not trust each other now after what happened and secondly there was the problem of the Count of St Germain. The death or capture of the Count had been the price that King Oberon and Queen Titania had extracted from Gwenhyfahr to allow Arthur to go free and get their help. Annie agreed to help them but said that she would not assist in killing the Count who had saved her life on many occasions. Not knowing where the others might be, she decided to pop back to Lambeth Palace to find Archdeacon Abbott. They started to talk about what had occurred in the past day.
Samhaim decided to lay low at a safe house and sent out some of his contacts to go and find out what was happening out in London. As he was relaxing the Count of St Germain appeared nearby. The Count told him that they were all in danger as the more of the Awakened that were converted the worse the others chance of escaping the same fate. They really needed to stick together and find out who or what was doing all this. Incidentally he told Samhaim that Annie had betrayed them all and gone over to the enemy. He had spotted her going into the Conway Castle where Arthur and Gwenhyfahr were based. The Count said that he would gather them all up together and take them to his safe place in Berkshire. Samhaim told him to come back the following night for him.
The Count collected first George and Harvey, then Lieutenant Day and Isabelle and took them to his safe house (a gap in reality that only he could open) in a field in Berkshire. He then popped into Lambeth Palace and found the Archdeacon talking to Annie. He told her that he knew she was a traitor and had sided with Arthur. She said that she did want to kill the Count and he made her do a faerie blood pact that she would not try and kill him before he would trust her. He then ported them both back to his safe house.
The group spoke about there options and then suddenly Harvey Morris recognised Isabelle as Drystan’s lover Iseult. They questioned Isabelle a bit further and she remembered that alongside Queen Victoria she remembered seeing Nelson. It was then that Lieutenant Day twigged that she must have been describing Madame Tussuards house of waxworks.
1st April
The group decided to send Annie and the Count to London to scout out the waxworks s o that they could port into the museum that night.
That evening the Count went and fetched Samhaim and they all brought him up to speed. They then ported into the Waxwork museum. Just after they got there they heard someone slowly approach the room they were in. Samhaim hid in the room they were in and the others went and hid in the ladies loo. Samhaim waited and spotted the guard go round past him. He then waited half an hour to time the guard’s round. As the guard came back Archdeacon Abbott fired a sleep spell at the guard. They then tied him up and gagged him. Isabelle indicated that they had kept her downstairs and Samhaim unlocked the door and they headed down the stairs. Samhaim spotted a tripwire and made sure that the others all didn’t set it off.
At the bottom was a small room with a door. A light could be seen underneath it. Lieutenant Day tried to look through the keyhole but could only see a load of waxworks in the room. He however could hear someone in the room as Samhaim walked up the wall above the door. Lieutenant Day charged into the room and was surrounded immediately by waxworks that sprung into life and began to grapple and squeeze him.
The Count and George charged into the fray whilst Annie changed into a panther. Samhaim ran through the upper part of the door and round the walls. Archdeacon Abbott asked Isabelle to scream for help. Roger eventually freed himself and started hacking at the waxworks. The Count hacked some down and ported around to avoid getting caught in their grasp. The Archdeacon began firing off spells to push the waxworks back to the walls and knocked Drystan back just as he had scooped some hot wax into a bucket. Samhaim attacked Drystan, slashing him badly as the fused Awakened scrambled for his sword. George started to withdraw from combat as he wanted to get Isabelle to pretend she was being threatened. Annie got herself trapped and ported behind Drystan just as Samhaim slashed at him again. With a supreme effort Annie bit at Drystan and killed him. The waxworks instantly stopped as soon as he fell.
The group searched the room but only found some money, a wallet and a pocket watch with the initials HMcM on the back of it. Unable to find anything else they decided to question the guard. He told them that Hamish McCrinnon was the waxmaker and he’d been here ten years. He’d never really been that strange but he did come and go at all hours. They asked where he lived and he said that he thought it was somewhere in Edgeware – there was a directory of staff addresses under the front desk.
They headed to Drystan’s house and found five wardrobes filled with clothes within it. Additionally they found a set of plans of the Aetheric fusing device with Whyte’s Glass logo emblazoned on the top of it.
