Aria Nefeltari

On a particularly peaceful day in Vezenia you carry on as usual visiting friends and family, working in trumps, and enjoying some of your previous works. While trying to depict a scene from somewhere near chaos, you find yourself having difficulty capturing the real essence of the landscape. Slightly perturbed, you open Dragantir's connection to Palette in order to shift reality near the tip of your bush, and feel something odd coming through the connection.

Concerned, I close the connection and set my painting aside. I then reach for my personal trumps and shuffle out one that depicts what appears to be a great desk in the shape of a giant, multicolored painter's palette in a stone pavilion, surrounded by a sea of flowers. The colors on the desk begin to flow and the flowers sway in the wind as I focus on the Trump, waiting for Palette answer my call.

The trump connection feels sluggish and difficult to maintain. Finally you manage to establish a connection, but you can feel it draining on you very quickly.

Sensing that I won't be able to maintain the connection for long, I quickly send Palette a message telling it to lock up until whatever problem with the trumps gets sorted out and it can get ahold of me. I then drop the connection, and wait a while to recuperate before picking up my deck to try the trumps again, picking one at random to test.

You shuffle out a trump that you haven't seen or thought of in a long time. Jurt's face stares back at you his right eye almost formed stare back through a milky cataract.
" What do you want?"
He seems upset to be bothered.

"Now Jurt," I say,"is that anyway to treat someone you haven't spoken to in ages? At any rate, I'm glad to see your eye is doing better, and if I'm not interrupting anything I've a little problem I would like to speak to you about."

"Eh, there isn't much to keep me busy these days. What seems to be the problem."

"Well, earlier I was fiddling around with a trinket of mine that I made with a bit of Trump magic, and it started going haywire on me. As I was a bit concerned, I tried a few Trumps to see if that was problem, and I could barely maintain the connection, much less consider holding a conversation or travel through one. Yours is the first that I've got working...have you had any such problems of your own recently?"

"There have been some problems here and there things that make my skin crawl or make shifting shadow difficult for me. I haven't been able to find any pattern though. I can tell you that it is happening more frequently though and farther and farther from chaos. So what exactly is this trinket of yours that would be affected by something that would bother me?'

I shrug, "Oh, it's just a painting aid I created to help me capture more...unique subjects. It basically lets me manipulate shadow a bit so I can create visual effects that would otherwise be impossible in my current locale, wherever that may be. The only important thing is that it operates via Trump, since that seems to be the cause of this." I ponder a moment. "More interesting is what you said, that the effect gets worse the further you are from Chaos, and that it is even limiting your control of shadow...that is most interesting indeed. From what I gather, there are few things that limit the Trumps, and fewer still that limit control over shadow..." As I glance at my deck, a thought strikes me, and I turn back to Jurt, "Tell me, have you spoken with anyone from Amber lately? They may be suffering the same problems we are, and may have come across a clue we have not."

"Only the little bit that I hear from Fiona when she visits Mandor. I guess that their problem goes the other direction. The problems increase the farther away they get from Amber. I have been thinking of going to the ruins of the keep of the four worlds to see if there is some clue to what is going on there."

I nod at his idea. "That sounds like a solid plan. Would you mind if I tagged along? I've never been to the Keep before, and even if we can gather no answers from it, it would still make an interesting subject," I say, grinning hopefully at the prospect of visiting such an interesting place.

"I'll be leaving soon. Why don't you gather some supplies and call me back. When I get your call I'll pull you through and open a gate to the keep."

"I'll go and prepare then. I shouldn't be but a few minutes, and I'll ring you when I'm ready." I say as wave my hand over Jurt's Trump to end the contact. I then go and get some supplies ready, namely some food, a few changes of clothes, and my painting case. I fill a pack with these, belt on a rapier (a gift from an admirer, of which I rarely have use for), and put on my coat. Lastly, I fetch my deck of places and tuck it in one of my coats inner pockets, as it is always handy to have a deck full of escape routes should the need arise. With a last look around to be sure I haven't forgotten anything, I once again pull out Jurt's Trump and let him know I'm ready.

After a quick stopover in chaos you find yourself standing before one of the wonders of shadow the keep of the four worlds.

After a quick look around I find a spot with a good view of the Keep to set up my painting case, pulling out my materials and unfolding the case itself into an easel. "Go on ahead," I tell Jurt. "I'll catch up after I do a quick preliminary sketch." I then set about making an outline of the Keep, setting the details in my mind so I can finish later.

After sketching out a rough outline the picture begins to take on a life of its own writhing and twisting on the canvas. The lines contort into a more and more precise representations of the scene before you. Upon reaching the pinnacle of perfection the entire canvas takes on an eerie glow. You take a step back just as the page winks out of existence.

After staring at where the canvas used to be in startled amazement, I decide to see if I can replicate the effect. I roll out another sheet of canvas, and begin laying the groundwork for another portrait.

the same

"Hmmmm," I mumble to myself. "This could prove to be very interesting. Now lets try this..." I lift up Dagantir and focus on my link to Palette.

Palette appears before you in full and very confused.

After spending yet another moment in startled amazement, I shake my head and decide to just go with things as they happen, at least until I figure out what is causing all the trouble with the Trumps. Rolling up my sleeves, I enter the pavilion and stand at the console, quickly checking to make sure nothing is damaged. I then turn to Palette's avatar, a little smock-wearing pixie seated on a floating paintbrush. "Ok Palette, we've got some work to do while we're here. First things first, how are you feeling? Are you still connected to your power sources, and what can you sense from the surrounding area?"

"Everything appears to be fine, but what exactly is this place?"

"This, Palette," I explain,"Is the great and wondrous Keep of Four Worlds. From what I've heard tell of it, it is somewhat of a nexus for the energies of four elementally aligned worlds that are so close in shadow that they practically bleed into one another."As I speak, I point out what we can see of the different shadows, then nod towards the Keep. "The Keep itself was built over what is called the Font of Power, the focal point for those energies, which in turn was created, or simply came to be, on the exact convergence of said worlds. I've come here with Jurt to see if it were possible to acquire some sort of a lead on the current Trump problem, but at the moment, I have a much more frustrating problem on my hands."

"Yes, I need to return home quickly. Things are fine for the time being, but this place is causing some overloads and other small problems."