Episode 14 – Erase and Rewind
April 3rd
The man who revealed himself as Jack Dunnington (Gwrtheyrn the Thin) asked them what they wanted and Annie told him that he knew what it was they wanted. He asked if they had come to join them or fight them. After being evasive for a moment Annie said that she had some sympathies with their aims but was not convinced. Jack Dunnington warned them not to move else he would unleash the Dragon on them.
They asked about the being he had merged with and Jack told them that they were called Aeshrak and that they came from the Otherworld. They had been persecuted there for centuries and now were able to come here and start again. They would make things better here for the humans and guide the world in a better direction. Annie objected saying that humans should be free from a dictator so that they could guide their own destiny. Jack said that humans had made many mistakes and had constantly had wars throughout time making things worse for each other. He told them that Lord Whyte (Gwydion) had helped nurture Aether technology to bring the world to this place and that he had come across the conjoining by accident when he was struck by lightning when he was young. They asked him if everyone had conjoined willingly and Jack admitted that most had not done so willingly, but that all now very happy now that they had done so.
Archdeacon Abbott asked the Dragon what its name was and it replied that it did not give that away lightly. He then asked it several more questions and the Dragon refused to answer.
Annie started to move and Jack Dunnington warned them again about moving. Annie then decided to try teleporting to Mr Dunnington and to teleport him into the cage into the room upstairs. She did this and then popped back in time to see that the Dragon was starting to prepare to breathe fire. Annie touched Archdeacon Abbott and Roger Day next to her and teleported out back to the room she had just come from. The Count touched George and Rupert and teleported back to the hotel. Samheim left on his own scurried back up the stairs and just managed to dodge out of the way of the flame coming his way.
Back in the cell room the three found that Jack Dunnington just disappeared as they arrived, having completed casting a teleport spell away. Samheim crept back down the stairs and spotted Jack was back next to the Dragon. Annie brought the two with her to the top of the stairs and eventually decided to port everyone back to the hotel.
Samheim was ported in and he used his ability to defy gravity to move across the ceiling and came down the far side of the room. There he found two sets of instruments, one which regulated the gas and another that activated the machinery. As he crept around the back of the machine he heard Jack Dunnington speaking in old Welsh. A little while later he began to feel hot and started to get hotter and take damage. He flipped his coin to call the Count who ported him out.
At the hotel they decided to try and blow up the Aetheric equipment in the factory on the floor above the dragon. Annie thought she could rig it to blow and all but Rupert went in to do it. The workers initially were going to try and stop them, but when Roger and George drew swords on them they backed off. Archdeacon Abbott persuaded them that they would be far safer if they left the factory and most followed his persuasive advice before they teleported out back to the hotel.
They headed to the front of the factory where they spotted smoke from the explosion coming from it. They were held off by the guards there and the Count decided to go and check out if the cage room was still there, which it was. They all ported in and there was a huge hole in the factory floor with rubble below. The spiral staircase was a twisted mess.
Sahmeim crawled down the walls down whilst the Count ported down. They started lifting rubble from Jack Dunnington as Annie ported the others down. Samheim found that Jack was unconscious with a gash on his forehead so they tied him up and gagged him whilst Roger Day held a sword at his throat. Captain Edgington took the belt buckle off Jack Dunnington and when questioned about it told them that it was a private matter. Samheim removed strips of clothing and found a blue Dragon tattoo which he tried to carve off his arm. Archdeacon Abbott warned him that this would not work as the tattoo ability was tied to the person’s soul and this was just a physical representation.
Then they started moving rubble away from the Dragon and Archdeacon Abbott healed it. When it awoke it took one look at the unconscious Jack Dunnington and make to eat him. Roger Day was forced to duck away quickly.
Annie told the Dragon that his tormentor would come back one more, but if he helped them he could prevent him from ever coming back to hurt it. The Dragon readily agreed and said it would break out of the factory and follow them to the stone circle at Mossley Height a little way outside Burnley. Captain Edgington told them he would need to go off and see to Rossalyn Rathe and the Count took him off.
The others took a coach to Mossley Heights stone circle where Archdeacon Abbott cast the ritual to make a gate to the otherworld. The group headed down a many mirrored corridor towards Annwn and there at the threshold were met by the three Hounds of Annwn who growled menacingly at the group. Two gouts of flame from the Dragon were sufficient to move the Hounds away from them and as the group advanced the Hounds backed away an equal distance.
As they moved into the mists of Annwn the souls of men began to stick to the group and eventually one on George began to burrow into him and attached itself to his soul. As a result he slowed down and one of the Hounds moved in to attack. George dodged the first attack but was taken down by the second. As the Hound moved in to snap George’s back he summoned all the spirits of horses to him and the herd of Epona answered his call. They took his new spirit joined with a maid with them as they galloped away. Annie decided to head off and turned into a Horse to run away fast. Rhi’ana now free of George spotted the Horse and summoned it to her. Annie was forced to obey, but as Rhi’ana felt the pull back to the mortal world she released her and resisted that pull with everything in her spirit.
Samheim used his magic sword to cut them of himself and then started to do the same for Archdeacon Abbott and Roger Day. As they moved through the mists they spied six large blue runes ahead of them and the Dragon began to use his cold fire to erase the runes one by one. Roger Day having seen his friend fall decided to go and attack the hound in a do or die attempt to avenge him. His attack wounded the Hound but ultimately the Hound triumphed and killed Roger Day just as the Dragon erased the last rune. Roger and Rhi’ana’s souls passed through the newly open gate to Gwynfyd.
The remaining three were blasted by a soul blast as the last rune was destroyed and this knocked many of the souls from them. Archdeacon Abbott, Annie and Samheim headed back to the mortal world and ported back to the Count at the hotel where they told him what had transpired. The Dragon flew off back to goodness knows where.
Annie and Archdeacon Abbott decided that they needed to recreate the 3rd Great enchantment and headed off to find Gwenhyfahr. They eventually told her that they had destroyed the 1st Great Enchantment and asked that she get Merddyn to help them put back the 3rd Great Enchantment. She agreed and together Archdeacon Abbott, Merddyn and Gwenhyfahr cast the ritual to restore the enchantment to the land.
Epilogue
Samheim decided to go and personally stop Arthur’s bid for Kingship. He sneaked into the sleeping chambers of the once and would be King and slit his throat before slipping out of the Castle.
Captain Edgington returned to Rossalyn Rathe and told her that he would give her the buckle if she were to spend a night with him first. She agreed and said that further she would stay with him for 9 months until the baby was born. After she gave birth, she gave the girl to Captain Edgington and then performed the ritual with the three items he had obtained for her. Finally once it was cast Blouddwedd was free to go and seek revenge on Gwydion, the mage who had trapped her in human form so many hundreds of years ago. Believing himself safe against everything as he had the Cross of St. David, Gwydion was surprised when Blouddwedd, the force of nature took that gift away from him and killed him.
