Episode 13 – The Glass Factory
April 2nd
Rupert Edington has been recovering at his house when his serving man brought him a strange letter to a man called Pwyll Twiceborn. Captain Edington asked the man to leave the letter which he opened and read before there was a knock at the door. Rupert Edington’s man barely had time to announce a sobbing maid how rushed into his room. It seemed that Rosalyn Rathe had been kidnapped by four east end men this morning and although they had reported it to the police they hadn’t seemed too active in finding her.
Just as Rupert was asking the maid some questions there was another knock on the door. Rupert’s serving man told him there were some men from the Dorset regiment here to arrest him. Rupert promptly disappeared out the back door and headed to Mrs Rathe’s house.
There he investigated the kidnapping from the conservatory and spotted some artefacts on the table in the corner. Apart from that the only signs of a struggle were some broken vines. As he was examining the area a voice appeared in his head telling him that they had Rosalyn and if he wanted to free her then he must give himself up at the Whyte’s glass factory in Burnley in exchange for her life. He wanted the voice to assure him that she was still alive and show her in London, but the voice told him that she was already heading north to Burnley.
Rupert Edington headed out and used his tattoo ability to spot the watchers at his flat and at Lambeth Palace. He sneaked past them to leave a note for Archdeacon Abbott before heading on the train to Anglesey and then onwards to Burnley.
The rest of the group at Drystan’s house in London studied the plans to try and see if they could tell how it worked. They estimated that there were only about 16 aetheric engineers in the country could have made it. The Count suggested that perhaps they should go to the factory and destroy any more of these devices that might be being made there.
George remembered that his boss had probably been responsible for doing the patent on this. Annie and George headed off his old patent office where they spoke to George’s old boss who had processed the patent application. It seemed that Lord Hubert Whyte had registered the patent via one of his clerks and he had registered a number of other patents at the office. Indeed Lord Whyte had been one of the sponsors of Jonas Wildthorpe’s in his first forays into Aether research some 32 years ago.
The group did some research in the British library and after a few hours found a picture of Lord Hubert Whyte as well as some details from Who’s Who. Samheim recognised the picture as the man his sight saw in the carriage heading north with Bran and the Cross of St David. Lord Whyte had been struck by lightning when he was 8 and has been a cripple ever since that day. He is apparently a strange recluse who inherited a glass business and his title from his father who lives about 20 miles from Burnley in a manor house.
The group decided to head north on the overnight train and Samheim headed off briefly whilst Archdeacon Abbott bought the tickets. Samheim came back disguised as a clerk.
April 3rd
At Chester Captain Edington joined the train; spotting the group in their compartment he joined them. They exchanged news, not having seen each other for some time. Captain Edington told them that there was perhaps a solution to the problem but that it involved removing the first great enchantment’s mark within Annwn. This would involve journeying there and avoiding all the perils that this would entail as well as requiring cold fire from a Dragon to remove it.
When they finally arrived in Burnley the group checked into the Sparrowhawk hotel and decided to go and check on the factory around 5pm. The factory was on the edge of the town and had 8 foot high walls with barbed wire atop it. There were also a number of guard towers dotted around the walls with guards with guns who had a brown haze around their auras.
They decided to wait until the men clocked off at 6pm and accost them in the pub. The men coming out the factory also had brown auras and went straight home. The innkeeper they spoke too complained that since the temperance group had started in the factory a few weeks ago they had lost a lot of trade.
Archdeacon Abbott decided to go and ask at St Stephens’s church. After the local vicar Right Reverend Joshua Morgan had finished his rather dull sermon the Archdeacon accosted him. It seemed that the factory had started a new sect of religion called the True Way and since then the men had stopped coming to the church. He had sent a letter to the local Bishop advising him of the situation. Archdeacon Abbott promised that he would investigate and asked about a factory worker who lived on his own. Joshua told him about Old man Hannington and sweeper who was 55 and lived a mile outside town on his own.
Everyone but George (who decided to watch the factory) decided to go and visit Old man Hannington, walking to his place. There they burst in and interrogated Old Man Hannington. He told them that he was happy now, happier than he’d ever been. He said that he was not like them, though Annie and Samheim were different to the other two. Mr Jack Dunnington had become the factory manager some 10 years ago but he had only in the last few weeks began giving the workers the gift of enhancement. It seemed that there was a big red dragon that lived under the factory for some 15 years but it was only after he was enhanced that he could remember it after having seen it. They decided to exorcise the entity from old man Hannington and after Archdeacon Abbott had completed it the man started crying. They left him tied to the bed and headed back to town.
They started to make a plan involving Annie rescuing Rosalyn Rathe and decided to get Annie to go fetch George first. She changed into an owl and then landed on George’s horse’s back to bring him back. Then she flew over into the factory and spotted Mrs Rathe on a second floor room in the factory. In her owl form she teleported into the cage that Mrs Rathe was being held into. She awoke and screamed as Annie teleported her out and back to the hotel.
Rosalyn was pleased to see Captain Edington again and embraced him, whispering something into his ear as she did so. She did not seem overtly shocked by the recent events and begged leave to talk with the Captain privately. When they returned they discussed a plan to go into the factory. Annie was to teleport in with the Count and Samheim. The Count would then teleport back and bring the others into the room with the cage.
As they got into the room they heard a movement down the corridor. Captain Edington stayed behind the door and Samheim climbed up the wall above the door. The door was opened by Christian Cooper and Lady Anne Blunt next to him. Lady Blunt tried to persuade George to join them so that they could be together forever. She tried to remonstrate with him that the Awakened were no different from the newly conjoined people, however George was having none of it. Lydia Becker said from the side that they were trying to build a new society where things such as equality for women would be commonplace. George once again rejected it and then Captain Edington pushed the door shut.
Christian Cooper pushed the door back open and used his tattoo power to blind most in the room. He leaped in and slashed at George whilst Captain Edington (who was not blinded) attacked him from the rear. The battle was fought in earnest with Lydia Becker proving a potent force in arms whilst Christian was eventually beaten down by Captain Edington. Eventually one of the soldiers from the Dorset regiment and Gawain came into the fray and Annie changed from an owl to a wolf. Archdeacon Abbott used spells to grease the floor and push back Gawain out of the room whilst Samheim attacked from above. George broke Lady Blunt’s whip and Lydia Becker severely wounded Captain Edington. The tide began to turn as Captain Edington decapitated Lady Blunt and Lydia Becker was forced to go on the defensive. Once the soldier also fell Lydia was faced with 4 opponents and she eventually went down too. That just left Gawain, who, berserk at the faeries was felled by all and sundry.
In the next door room they found Orville Hammersley in a cage killed by a crossbow. Further down the corridor they found Jack Dunnington’s office and they scooped up the papers from the desk.
A discussion was held as to whether they should retreat at this point but eventually they decided to continue on into the factory and down the spiral stairs into the basement. There they found a man next to a red dragon and a funnel leading into a flow of glass.
