Shard of the Autark

A god-slaying material — fragments of shimmering green crystal so potent that stabbing a god with one can kill it. Per the lore surfaced in Session 19, an elven woman used one to slay the Autarch (the human God-Emperor of the 3E Era of Kings who killed all the other gods and declared himself the only god), making him explode and collapsing his ~360,000-year empire — i.e. Godfall itself. Just 40–70 years ago a group in Varia used a couple of these to kill a god. Their aura is immense beyond reckoning; even a failed sample fills a mage's magic-sight entirely.

Crucially, shards are meant to fall from the sky / space and merely be found — they are not supposed to be manufacturable. Dr. Provostinalkov is, against all expectation, artificially fabricating one in the Gwyndinas Sewers. In a world where only one god survives (the All-Flame Queen, recently returned), a working shard could end the last god — making this the "chess piece that changes the game" Eldrich the Elder is buying.

Session 19

• Identified via history/lore checks when Dr. Provostinalkov showed his product. Magra (advantaged by her sister Daewynn's letters) and Silithane (as a Varian) and Thalia (well-studied) supplied the lore.
• Eldrich the Elder purchased the first real sample (unfinished, ~1–2 months out) for everything he owns; Thalia holds the receipt and a failed shard-flake in a glass box.
• The doctor's failed samples are the green runoff poisoning the sewer water.

Session 21

• The deal formally closes: Eldrich the Elder takes the receipt and the failed flake at lunch, overjoyed — "it will be the greatest decision I have ever made when that is in my hands."
• Eldrich extracts Dr. Provostinalkov from the sewers to a safe new base beyond the wall so he can finish the real shard, and resolves to keep its existence secret from the Reclamation's suspected traitor until it's ready — fearing he'd "sign the death warrant of the man in the sewers" otherwise.
• The threat sharpens: a dead Varian at the lab proves Varia knows about the project — a rival faction now circling a god-killing weapon.

Session 50

• A natural source — and a rival refinery. Infiltrating the Middle Tor mine, the party finds Laewendas mining a natural vein of glowing green crystal; Lash identifies it as a crystal growth, not metal, and the GM confirms it is the same substance Dr. Provostinalkov makes — i.e. a naturally-occurring form of this material. The kidnapped alchemist Snuffles is being forced to refine it (ore-dust ground with herbs into a glowing bowl that keeps failing into black sludge), trying to reproduce the doctor's success. This recasts the whole Menagoles occupation as a god-weapon operation, and puts a mountain's worth of raw material in Laewendas's hands — while Eldrich holds the only finished product. (Whether the mined crystal is literally Shard material or a related ore is flagged in Canon Questions.)