Low Estate/Turns/Turn 7

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• Aernoud van Nevel (josh_g): forest wanderer — FATE ▣▣▣▣▢ • Stress ▢▢ • Consequences unused (2), unused (4), unused (6)
• Antheunis Opgieten (lpsmith): slippery urchin — FATE ▣▣▢▢▢ • Stress ▢▢ • Consequences unused (2), unused (4), unused (6)
• Boudin Verdonk (maga): bravo and expeditor — FATE ▣▢▢▢▢ • Stress ▢▢▢▢ • Consequences unused (2), unused (4), unused (6)
• Mattius Rothmann (Fang): brutish warmage — FATE ▢▢▢▢▢ • Stress ▢▢▢▢ • Consequences unused (2), unused (4), unused (6)
• Willem de Vos (Jota): student magician — FATE ▣▣▣▢▢ • Stress ▢▢ • Consequences unused (2), unused (4), unused (6)
• Lazer Dennis (Rob): manic-depressive man out of time — FATE ▣▢▢▢▢ • Stress ▢▢▢▢ • Consequences unused (2), unused (4), unused (6)

Djinn Kata

Water pours down from the ceiling, dripping through the remnants of Willem's illusion, but all eyes are on the growing cloud of steam that surrounds Antheunis and the figure. A whistling trill comes from the djinn and it is met by a splashing roar inexplicably coming from Antheunis. Somehow, comprehension comes to Antheunis: eons of time in the open desert, and, with age, the geas and the shift to the brass lamp. The sensation of the bargain: the lamp is opened, the djinn freed, and then dismissed again to the safety of the lamp. Time passes, and the lamp changes hands -- riders carry it across the desert to the great open-air market, it goes on a ship to a foreign land, sits on a shelf, is bought and sold and bought again, and finally ends up here. A woman calls it forth, quizzes it, is unable to understand, dismisses it again. The lamp returns to the shelf, and sits there until a chance tremor sends it crashing to the ground. The djinn emerges -- but with no one there to dismiss it, it cannot go back. Time ticks by agonizingly slowly, and finally one day the door opens ...

Antheunis crumples to the ground, exhausted, but manages to gasp out a few words explaining the situation. "Go, you are dismissed!" Willem calls, and the sandy figure immediately begins to lose its shape. With a last blast of desert wind, the sand spirals backwards into a plain brass lamp sitting on the ground, and the djinn is gone.

[GM: The wand is, I think Not Useful in this situation at this point, and it's not obvious what Reflexy thing Aernoud could do with it, so here is an alternate Reflexy action for him to have taken instead]

[Even though the wand wasn't relevant to dismissing the djinn, can Willem's roll last turn still be applied to figuring out how it works or what it does?]

Meanwhile, water continues to pour down from the ceiling. It is only Aernoud's quick work at snatching things out of the way that keeps the majority of papers here from being ruined before Lazer can get the water turned off again.

"Good work!" says Willem. "Those documents could be the most important thing in here."

[GM: I think this concludes this action sequence and the lab is now free for searching. What do people want to look for/at?]

Willem sorts through what remains of the lab, trying to separate out anything that looks relevant to Lady Bellaire's main research project.

Aernoud looks through the papers for any maps of the area that Lady Bellaire may have marked down sites of magical importance on.

With help, Antheunis managed to stumble back to his bed at the orphanage, and immediately falls asleep. 18 hours later, he wakes up, feeling surprisingly refreshed. He opens his hand, still clenched around the gem he caught, and examines it closely, wondering how much it's worth. Then he goes to find the others, and asks about the lamp.

[Also, he thinks back over the 'conversation' he had: was there any sense of *why* the djinn agreed to the bargain? Was there any sense of regret now? Can we even communicate about emotions?]

Recuperating

Things settled, the next week or so is fairly uneventful, and people take time to rest and relax.

[Is there any good reason not to spend the rest of our Fate Points unlocking techniques before the refresh?]

[[LowEstate] inky says, "yeah, I don't see why not"]

[Given that, Willem unlocks Quick Learner and Simulacrum.]

[GM: Now seems like a good time to refresh fate points! Tell us how you relax -- sleeping, reading, playing chess, drinking, bar brawling, what?]

Willem spends the next week actually attending lectures, to the slight surprise of some of his instructors. Since he theoretically only needs 6-8 hours per day to recover his energy, he spends his evenings reading the paperwork from the laboratory and storeroom more closely.

Aernoud spends most of the week going on walks outdoors, getting outside the city walls and returning to familiar paths out in the fields and forests. If he does discover any relevant maps in the old lab, he may try to see if any of these magical ley line things extend out of the city to any areas he's familiar with ... but he stays well away from anything resembling trouble for now.

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