C/W: trypophobia, discussion of butchery and preservation, violence and horror
“Scur, 1502. Relict: leaching of time from surrounding territories
Lead agents: Oken nim Shalif, expunged”
– Index of Assignments, Tenders of the Dawn’s Embers
This is part two of our three-part special focusing on the Jackal’s attempts to bring down Relict. We’re playing The Harder They Fall, a game of final battles for the fate of the world, by Jay Iles and UFO Press. The game has just released, it’s available here.
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.
Featuring special guests Beck Michalak (@R_Michalak) and Nate Crowley (@FrogCroakley), alongside Thryn Henderson (@thairyn). Hosted by Adam Dixon (@adtidixon).
Episode produced by Thryn Henderson (@thairyn).
Cover art by Allissa Chan (@formyths).
Sound clips from kangaroovindaloo, Benboncan and Yuval on freesound.org