Shards and Fragments: Eolith

## Content Warnings

Part 1 Trypophobia, discussion of death
Part 2 Trypophobia, discussion of butchery and preservation, violence and horror
Part 3 Violence, death

*"Eolith whispers: slow.
Setting sun, rays lie thick. Cool, harden, coat the tongue.
Long, dry exhale, salt-heavy funeral sigh."*

 *Show more/less*

*Atrophy creeping.
Old crystalline veins crumble, dust-like, flake, fall.
Decay extends, searches.

Hide the heart.
Calm the pulse, slower, slower.

Extend the reach.
Split the chrysalis.
Wake the hive.

Grasp the roots outside the edges – unheeded time.
Others waste, redirect.
Bind the wound.
Brace.*"

―Relict

## Character summary

**Relict:** Remnant of Eolith, something like a cross between a hermit crab and a giraffe. Strives to prevent the increase of entropy.

**Mell:** Envoy of Relict. Master of bees, she is a purveyor of particularly *interesting* honey...

**Hongeo:** Envoy of Relict. Something akin to a giant rotting stingray, leaving preservation in its wake (in the worst possible way)

**Edel:** Envoy of Relict. A huge, grey, shaggy hexapod that vents argon gas

**Cromer** Envoy of Relict. A patch of very dense, peaty ground.
**Okporoko** Envoy of Relict. An enormous leathery, spiny, dessicated and dessicating fish

**Oken:** A young, high-born Jackal, ready to kill Relict and prove themself

**Flint:** A older Jackal with a beloved steed, questioning their place with the Tenders.

**Bregu:** Flint's steed and companion

## Synopsis

**Part 1**

Eolith. A stoppered landscape, shielded from entropy and decay by the remnant Relict. Here things are detached from the rhythms time – trees grow already petrified, corpses are preserved overnight by a salt wind, insects burst from the ground centuries after their last appearance. With the aid of its envoys – a kind of gestalt hive-mind led by the fearsome Mell – Relict collects rarities from the neighbouring world. It preserves the extinct and the endangered, the fragile and the unique.
However, entropy has entered Eolith. Relict’s wunderkammer has created a curio-led gold-rush. Archaeologists, treasure hunters and prospectors flock to the wheeled town of Rush. There they hope to get rich off of the preserved bodies and alien artefacts craned from the argon river. Relict responds by pulling time from its neighbours. A trickle at first, but that stream widens.
To the south, two enter. Flint and Oken. Agents of the Tenders of the Dawn’s Embers – stewards, god-killers, jackals. Their plant-read prophecies show the dark outcome of Relict’s thievery. They have come to stop it.

**Part 2**

―Excerpt from the Index of Assignments of the Tenders of the Dawn's Embers

Relict is making its way back to the salt bog via the salt plains, while its Envoys convene inside its discarded shell at the fork in the argon river for a conference. They are discussing how best to arrange and curate some of the new carcasses they have obtained and stored in the argon ravine.
Oken the Jackal is scouting in the petrified forest, having been scoping out the Territory for some time, whereas Flint has arrived more recently and is asking around in the town of Rush.

Oken, scouting through the forest, sees Relict and sneaks along to the edge of the trees to get a better look. The space between the petrified forest and the salt bog containing Relict is littered with fragments and debris that have been blown out of the forest by the harsh wind, and Oken realises that the path through this littered landscape will be slow. Meanwhile, Mell and Hongeo are interrupted from their telepathic discussion in Relict's shell by the disquieting and irritating feeling of entropy having been increased somewhere near the salt bog. With uncharacteristic animalistic instinctiveness, their heads snap round and their eyes glaze over as their attention focuses on the salt bog.

Flint is sitting in a guesthouse in Rush, burning a candle of tallow from a ravine-creature, and starting the ritual of reciting the Litany, something all Jackals do before killing a Remnant to connect them to their superhuman power. They are also meditating on the necessity of the act, and praying that not too many people get hurt during the battle. The tallow in this candle, unbeknownst to Flint, has been rendered from a moulted limb of Relict, interrupting the ritual and making Relict aware of their presence. Relict starts to gather its consciousness together, bringing in thought and awareness from all over the Territory to prepare for a possible altercation. The effects of this are seen across the land, including a slow shockwave that shears through the glacier. A large chunk of ice slides down into the argon river, carrying part of the town of Akómi̱ with it. Flint has already set about spreading rumour around the town of Rush, intending to increase entropy via confusion, and one rumour that springs up of its own accord is that there is something moving in the argon ravine. The mayor of Rush peers over the edge and through the clouds of pulverised ice it almost seems true- so he decides to move Rush northwards and unknowingly towards Relict. Flint, not yet ready to encounter Relict head-on, climbs onto his steed Bregu.

Something really is stirring in the ravine, though. Mell, storming out of Relict's discarded shell, has blown her enormous horn of bees and its unnerving harmonics echo through the canyon. Bees swarm out, pouring into the ravine, and emerge with another of Relict's Envoys: Edel, a huge, grey hexapod covered in limp dead hair and venting freezing argon gas. Edel climbs with long legs up the side of the canyon on the opposite side from the shell and braces itself in the path of Rush. It billows huge clouds of freezing argon, stopping the boilers and the town's movement. It inclines its body and Flint knows, though it has no face, that it is looking directly at them and waiting for them to speak. Despite the formidable show of force, the Envoys are curious about whether the intruders' plans may in fact reduce the world's entropy in the long run. Flint rides out on Bregu and states that while they have no quarrel with the Envoys themselves, if the Envoys choose to fight on behalf of Relict then they will be forced to bring them down too. Edel gusts a little freezing argon at Flint, then uses a leg to imprint a questioning glyph in the surface of the salt flat. Flint replies that they personally are fighting to protect the regions outside Eolith from Relict's encroaching time-siphoning, and to protect beings that live in Ryne. Edel blows up a cloud of salt-dust, and when it settles, its huge hulking form is gone.

Oken, on the edge of the petrified forest, senses that Relict is distracted by all this, and seizes the opportunity to advance by using superhuman strength and balance to run across the sharp tops of the forest-edge debris. Relict is unnerved by a single entity moving so fast- and directly towards it- in its usually still domain.

Flint has been laying groundwork for some time, using their leverage with a townsperson they had got into heavy gambling debt to make them spread a rumour that someone wants to pay big for the corpse of an Envoy. Prospecting residents have set out from the town in small groups carrying weapons, hunting for Envoys to kill. Soon after Flint's parlay with Edel, Edel is seen being dragged into town by one of the groups of treasure hunters. In the meantime, Flint has used their ability to manipulate rock along with Bregu's tunnelling ability, to quickly move through the landscape and join up with Oken on the edge of the petrified forest.

Relict is aware something is wrong, and starts to try and rectify some of the damage done to its domain. It tries to keep the mountain pass by the damaged glacier open, digging its spindly clawed legs into the salt plains beneath it to feel the landscape. It sends Cromer, a patch of petrochemical peat, to swallow up the interlopers. Flint opens the ground beneath Cromer, who uses its jawbones to try and grip the surface, but Flint severs the tar stalks and it falls five miles into the ground to its demise.

Oken, meanwhile, rushes ever closer to Relict, but in the heat of the battle is losing any sense of why he is fighting. He is no longer thinking of Eolith, or the wider world; of the Tenders of the Dawn's Embers, or of his familial obligations. He can think now only of personal glory.

Mell is standing on the lip of the canyon, viewing the battleground. She has watched Edel be hacked apart and Cromer be swallowed. She is furious and her purpose is warped, and she blows her horn of bees. They swarm out and surround Relict, secreting chemicals that stimulate the release of Relict's most dangerous Envoy. From Relict's back is disgorged a huge mermaid's purse, or ray egg, and there emerges a giant, rotting stingray. Two deep red eyes open and it slithers to face the Jackals.
Oken sees Relict's distress, Mell's answer, and the subsequent release of an Envoy. Oken is close enough that he sees the divots in Relict's shell under its skin, containing the seeds of potential Envoys, and devises a way in- but the visage of Hongeo, for which Oken has no training, is utterly petrifying.

**Part 3**

*"The instructors taught us this trick: When the Remnant's influence begins to cause things to slip, build constants, mark the world: use it to observe and comprehend. That's the purpose of this record. This is waking eleven or twelve. Each time starts the same way, a nightmare played back. The individual moments might be different but each time, I'm in Eolith; and every time, Relict released that bastard brine-soaked fish. I hear it thud against the ground, smell something like piss and salt rise up its body, see its eyes like dull jet stare across the saltmarsh, at me. Each time, I feel my terror rush back, I'm woken by the panicked beating of my own heart, I feel sick, my hands-
 They're coming. I don't know how they know I've woken but somehow they always do. I'll be dragged from this room to be paraded as their hero; an example to the Jackals in training... until the sudden sleep hits again, that is. I'm little more than a trophy, now.
 Footsteps are getting closer. Time to hide this note. Oh, I know they'll find it: they know my training better than I do; but if nothing else, the writing helps me keep things straight."*

―Oken nim Shalif

Oken is panicking and throws the spear with all their might at Hongeo, and the force of the hit breaks the eusocial link between the Envoys such that they now act as individuals. Relict notices this break, and focuses on its enemies. The Spear of Light also acts as a chemical catalyst, such that Hongeo is frothing and pulsating out of control. Relict scuttles away from the noxious foam spreading over the salt flat, and Oken is reminded that Relict, not Hongeo, is the target. Flint rides up to them on Bregu, checks that they can count on Oken, and devises the final attack, where Flint will distract Relict and Oken will make the final blow.

Flint starts to ride out towards Relict, parts of the earth still rupturing as they ride. They pull in the power of the first Remnant the killed, and they appear to grow in stature. Relict sees this and is suddenly aware that things are about to go wrong, and jumps horribly and slowly with vestigial wings to escape the bubbling salt flats, furious at the destruction taking place. Suddenly Relict is already at its destination. In its wake, Relict leaves large cracks in the salt flats into which seeps Hongeo's horrible bubbling solution. The salt flats part-dissolve to become a sort of salt quicksand. Flint enters Relict's stasis field on Bregu and springs up with their pickaxe and hammer, ready to climb Relict and smash it. From Oken's perspective outside the field, Flint is sailing very slowly through mid-air. Relict is now hyper-aware of Flint's presence inside the stasis sphere.

Back on the salt flats, something is stirring. Oken, unsure whether now is the moment to strike Relict, is suddenly faced with the enormous, leathery, spiny and dessicated fish Okporoko emerging from the quicksalt. Its movement is seemingly chaotic, but it is moving inexorably towards Oken with its moisture-drawing spines. Oken is torn between focusing on the fish or the Remnant, and is wondering whether they are in over their head.

Mell, now acting alone, raises the horn and blows it inverting herself, releasing and becoming thumb-sized bees and transporting herself towards Oken in the process. They speed towards Oken and pass through Relict, combining forces with those bees that Relict typically keeps on its person. While Flint is in mid-air, the bees cover Bregu in awful honey that hardens like amber. Relict snatches Bregu (the stasis field is not uniform) and secretes him on its person, and Mell (as bees) smacks into Flint in the air. However, Mell has overextended herself with the amount of bees she is now trying to control, and the bees do not re-form into Mell. They instead return to Relict as a sort of gestalt part of Relict's consciousness.

Oken holds the Spear of Light aloft, distracting Relict. Flint picks themself up and runs towards Relict and attacks it mercilessly and recklessly with the hammer, no longer calm and measured after Bregu's loss. Relict can feel Flint's hammer and is perturbed by the state of destruction, aware of its own permeability. Okporoko, however, flops suddenly in Flint's direction and one of its spines pierces Flint's foot.

Relict tries to draw more power into itself to fight back at the Jackals and reduce the noxious humidity, but to do so it temporarily relinquishes its hold on the rest of Eolith. The stasis that has stayed the warring army for over a century is lessened and the stomping of boots resumes. From the dust emerges Flint, dragging the body of Okporoko. They throw it at Relict's feet and as a demonstration, hack its body apart with their hammer. Relict decides to try and draw the Jackals from the area and towards the army and starts heading south. Relict picks up Flint in its claw and Flint, given a little time to calm down, sees all of the preserved fossils and plants, amber-jewels and jet in Relict's shell, and the beauty in the landscape of Eolith itself, and wonders if Relict really has to die. If Orthoclase, their previous conquest, had had to die. They see their chance to strike Relict from such proximity, and choose not to. Relict, too, has effectively decided to stop causing trouble, and is, in its mind, disengaging and going instead to seal the entry pass into Eolith. Keep Eolith eternal.

Oken notices that Relict's route will take it past the towering shell cairns, which could be used to scale Relict's shell.Before rushing in, Oken tries to actually recite the Litany, something that should have been done before the start of the battle, but is unable to complete it to full power in such a short time. They shimmy up a cairn and spring onto Relict's body, jamming their burning, white-hot spear between its shell and body. They scramble down Relict's side and tear its crab-claw leg from its socket. The strain rips off their third arm. Relict Binds the Heart of Relict and prepares it for death by stitching it with the rope of light that follows the spear.

Bregu, opalised but alive, emerges from the imprint of where Relict's body should have lain. A solitary queen bee, too, emerges and takes off. Oken plucks her from the air and places her in a box in their pack, not telling Flint.

Flint remains in Eolith with Bregu, finished with the Jackals. They act as steward of Relict's remains, Eolith's preservation, and the protection of Bregu: Relict's last Envoy- something they did not tell Oken.

Oken returns to Embrace a hero, the only survivor, someone worthy of their family name. But time begins to slip. They become unstuck and they are overcome by sleep lasting years or decades at a time. The Tenders watch over their amber-embalmed body and, every time they wake, they are pressed into the service of the Tenders to be paraded as a legend of a bygone age, a political pawn, trapped.

*"Columns of shells topple. The argon river slows to a trickle, and, beneath petrified wood, new life grows. The great ice sheet that formed the walls of Akomi continues its slide..."*

## Quotes

**Flint Erul Tun:** "Envoy: I am sorry that you are part of this quarrel, and I can guess that, from your actions, for a while you have been unsure of your master. You know that it draws too much from the world around it; that in seeking to preserve this environment, it risks damaging everything else. As I say, our quarrel is not with you, but if you seek to fight on behalf of your master, we will bring you down."

**Flint**: "Can I count on you?"
**Oken (defensively)**: "Where were you? I've been having to fight [Hongeo] alone."
**Flint**: "I was disrupting the Remnant, I've been killing the Envoys, I was spreading rumours in Rush, and've dragged two of those things down."
**Oken**: "Oh."
**Flint**: "You've said the Litany, right?"
**Oken**: "Oh- errh- What kind of Jackal wouldn't recite the Litany?"
**Flint**: "OK, so we hit the Remnant now- it's time."

―*Flint checks in with Oken*
## Game Mechanics

*Harder They Fall* is a game designed to tell a story about a climactic battle between titanic foes. The mechanics are based on creating chains of dominoes, representing the momentum gathered by the fighters as the battle continues. When all the dominoes are toppled, the game ends and we see who is standing victorious and if it was worth it.

* First, the players divide into two sides: Relict and its Envoys on one side, versus Oken and Flint the Jackals on the other.
* Each character has three stats: Strengths, Oaths, and Doubts. Each character starts with three of each, and over the course of the game these are stricken out. Losing Oaths or gaining Doubts could lead to the character switching sides, while losing all three Strengths causes their elimination from the fight. These stats are listed on the individual character pages.

Drawing on an Oath allows a character to Gather Power: this is no longer possible when all oaths have been stricken.
Doubts are reasons why you wish you didn't have to fight. A character starts with one, but can gain more in play. If a character amasses three Doubts the Gives Ground, they switch sides. If a character with Frailties rather than Doubts gains three Frailties, it becomes Tamed. If all characters on one side run out of Strengths, they are defeated and the game ends. The game can also end when the deck of 28 dominoes is spent and the sudden death phase (everyone Knocks them Down, from shortest chain to longest) is completed.

On their go, a player can:

* Raise the stakes- prepare for an attack or otherwise take an action in the world. The player takes a domino and notes its value
	+ Channel power: Draw power form the world; place the domino at the rear of the chain. Answer questions based on the value of the domino (0-5 have negative consequences). Turn passes to the opponent furthest away.
	+ Advance: Place the domino at the front of the chain. Describe the style of advance: Cautious, Bold, Stealthy, Stumbling, or Implacable. Answer questions based on the value of the domino (0-5 have negative consequences). Turn passes to an opponent of choice, but if an ally has been given an opening, they act next.
	+ Give Ground: Give the domino to a foe and add to their chain. Turn passes to the opponent with the shortest chain.
* Knock Them Down- when the chain is long enough, knock down dominoes to cause damage.
	+ If only the attacker's chain is knocked over, they strike from a distance and pick which opponent they target. Different numbers of dominoes knocked over unlock various attack options. If the chain knocks over any enemies' dominoes, you connect physically with them and they are the target. If you knock over an ally's dominoes, you combine momentum and work with them. Turn passes to the opponent with the most intact strengths.

### Gameplay

* Players take it in turns to describe the battleground.
* Players all draw one domino and place it on the map, starting their chain:
	+ Thryn places a domino (11) for Relict by the salt bog
	+ Nate places a domino (4) for Relict's Envoys in its discarded shell at the fork of the argon river
	+ Beck places a domino (5) for Oken in the petrified forest
	+ Adam places a domino (3) for Flint in Rush
* Oken Raises The Stakes and Advances Stealthily (8). *Relict: As I move out of cover, you identify or create a weak point you can use use to your advantage. What is it?* -A slow path.
* The Envoys Raise the Stakes and Advance (1). *Jackals: As outrage fills me, what nobler emotion does it crowd out?* -Forsake the oath to have the time to observe the collection.
* Flint Raises the Stakes and Channels Power, drawing on the Oath *Envoys: I fight to keep the world civil* (3). *Envoys: As I absorb power, something goes wrong. Why can't I Channel Power on my next turn?* -The tallow in the candle is Relict's.
* Relict Raises the Stakes and Channels Power, drawing on the Oath *Keep Eolith eternal* (8). *Oken: As I take in power, the excess pours into my surroundings. What destruction is caused around me?* -The glacier under Akomi shears and part of the town is destroyed.
* Flint Raises The Stakes and Advances Cautiously (7). *Envoys: As I move out of cover, you identify or create a weak point you can use to your advantage. What is it?* -A rumour spreads that something is moving in the canyon, and moves the town.
* The Envoys Give Ground (4). Doubt drawn on: *The Jackals may be lessening the entropy of the world by killing Relict: There is an awareness that Relict has gone a bit too far and may be making the world at large more chaotic*
* Oken Raises the Stakes and Advances Boldly (10). *Relict: What draws your attention?* -A single entity, moving so fast
* Flint Knocks Them Down, with a chain four dominoes long, striking from a distance at the Envoys. 4-5 level: Strip away one of the Envoys' Strengths (The less entropy, the stronger we become). 2-3 level: I move Like Lightning (set up the new chain anywhere on the map- in this case by Oken)
* Relict Raises the Stakes and Channels Power, drawing on the Oath *Allow open access* (6). *Flint: As I focus inwards, I am unable to stop you picking off someone crucial to my side. Who?* -Cromer
* Oken Raises the Stakes and Advances Heedlessly (5). *Relict: As bloodlust fills me, what nobler emotion does it crowd out? Choose one of my Oaths and mark it as forsaken.* -I fight as my Duty
* The Envoys Raise the Stakes and Advance (6). *Oken: As I move out of cover, you find a weak point you can exploit.* The domino chains of The Envoys and Relict are joined at this point.
* Oken Knocks them Down with a four-domino chain, striking from a distance at Hongeo. 4-5 level: Strike out an opponent's Strength: *We Are Many*. 2-3 level: Throw the opponent off balance (remove a domino from the opponent's chain)
* Relict Gives Ground. Frailty admitted to opponent: humidity. What does the opponent to to capitalise: refocuses on Relict's weak spot and the mission.
* Flint Raises the Stakes and Channels Power, drawing on the Oath *I fight to protect my comrades.* *Relict: You feel power pouring off me in waves. Are you terrified, or enraptured? -Terrified (in a furious way)*
* Relict Raises the Stakes and Advances (8). *Oken: What is destroyed in my wake? Pick a feature anywhere along the chain.* -The salt flat
* Flint Raises the Stakes and Advances (9). *Relict: You are so focused on me, it gives one of my allies an opening. What draws your attention?* -Flint entering its stasis field
* Oken Raises the Stakes and Channels Power (2), drawing on the Oath *I fight for the respect of my family*. *Envoys: As I greedily absorb power, some of yours is taken in too. What Doubt does the foreign power plant in me?* -Am I in over my head here? Should I ever have gone into this line of work?
* The Envoys Knock them Down with a chain of 10 dominoes. The chain knocks over some of an opponent's chain and an ally's chain. Mell Moves like Lightning, and a Strength of Flint's is removed (Bregu). 6-7 level: Remove an Oath *Flint: I fight to protect the Remnants from themselves*. 8-10 level: Use more power than you can hold. The Envoys' Strengths are now all spent and the Envoys' dominoes are removed from the game
* Oken Raises the Stakes and Advances Slowly (12). *Relict: You are so focused on me, it gives one of my allies an opening. What draws your attention?* -The space in which Mell previously was
* Flint Raises the Stakes and Advances (5). *Relict: As bloodlust fills me, what nobler emotion does it crowd out? Choose one of my Oaths and mark it as forsaken.* -I fight to keep the world civil
* Relict Raises the Stakes and Channels Power drawing on the Oath *create and conserve the Envoys*(4). *As I greedily absorb power, some of yours is taken in too. What Frailty does the foreign power plant in me?* -Relict is porous and enterable
* Oken Raises the Stakes and Channels Power (7), drawing on the Oath *I fight to feel as though I have impact*. *Relict: As I focus inwards, I am unable to stop you picking off someone crucial to my side. Who?* -Flint
* Relict Raises the Stakes and Channels Power, drawing on the Oath *Keep Eolith eternal* (0). *Oken: As I channel power, something goes wrong. Why can't I channel power next turn?* The need to divert power on itself to stop it sinking into a sinkhole.
* Flint Knocks the Down with a chain of 6 dominoes. 6-7 level: Do something you swore to stop. Relict's Oath is 'create and conserve the Envoys' forsaken. 2-3 level: Move anywhere on the map (behind Relict)
* Relict Raises the Stakes and Advances (?). *Oken: As I move out of cover, you find a weak point you can exploit. What is it?* -The shell cairns
* Oken Raises the Stakes and Channels Power (2), drawing on the Oath *I fight to Feel like I have Impact* (inferred). *Relict: As I channel power, something goes wrong. Why can't I channel power next turn?* -The Litany can't be rushed
* Relict Raises the Stakes and Advances (10). *Flint: As I charge forwards you fall back to maintain distance. Move a domino from the front to the rear of your chain. What is precarious about your position?* - Sinking in the salt flats a bit, buffeted by Relict's various legs.
* Flint Raises the Stakes and Gives Ground (6), drawing on the Doubt *Did Orthoclase need killing?*. Relict: I see something in you worth worshipping. What is the noblest part of your nature? -Relict and Eolith, and the preserved things, are beautiful.
* Oken Knocks them Down with a chain of 8 dominoes and strikes out Relict's remaining Strengths. Oken also loses a Strength: their 3rd arm.

## Notes

### Attributions

* Sound clips from kangaroovindaloo and Yuval on freesound.org
* Game system can be found here
* Cover art by Allissa Chan (@formyths)
* Narration and summary text from the TFR website episode pages

### Plot Notes

**Warning! There may be spoilers ahead!**

The events of Eolith have significant bearing on the happenings in Embrace.

*These Flimsy Rituals is distributed under a CC BY-NC-SA license. This wiki contains excerpts of scripted text and official shownotes, and is considered to be under the same license. Official artwork is not to be used on this wiki. Fanart pieces are distributed under licenses determined by the artist- please check the caption or alt-text.*