Midnight: the SHADOW KILLERS Campaign SPOILER PAGE

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the Shadow's Hour & the Twilight Hours

The world used to only have 25 hours. The 26th hour was added the end of the Third Age, when Highwall fell.


They will also discover that Aryth used to have 24...before the Veil. On an Earth-like world, twilight is the half hour before sunrise and after sunset. Also called the Fading Time, my Aryth has both twilight times extended to a full hour each -- extra half hour towards daylight and an extra half hour towards darkness. Under this preternaturally long twilight, things get confusing. Solutions are unclear, trails are lost, and memories grow faint. The stars, too, are dimmer and more difficult to make out. Like viewing stars today in the modern world: unless you're far from cities, you will never see the evening or morning stars as crisp pinpoints of fire. They should be at least partially visible, but even the brightest are barely seen until the sun's light is mostly gone. In the morning they nearly vanish as soon as the horizon begins to light.


During the 26th hour, the Shadow's Hour, Legates pray. The stars slow their movements across the sky and grow faint, but they do still move, and they are still visible. Even the beasts of the wild are still for fear of drawing attention. If the moon is visible, it is small and distant, providing little light. This is also when the Lost are most likely to stir. It is said that should the stars ever completely stop, they will fall. And if the sky loses all of its stars, Izrador has won. Some say it is the prayers of Legates that empower the Shadow in slowing the heavens, each nigh trying to rip them apart with his hatred. For PCs travelling at night, I make this time creepy as hell.


All invoked for dramatic impact, not frivolously or all the time. More like superstitions that sometimes come true.


I have allocated the time in a single equinox day -- when the times of darkness and daylight should be half and half -- to have an extra hour of twilight (30m evening, 30m morning) and an extra hour of darkness due to the 26th. The sun struggles to be free of the darkness as it rises, and as a child avoids bedtime and fears what may be under their bed, the sun fears and fights and cries against descending into darkness. When the sun is farthest from the waking world, the Shadow rules. The heavens grow distant, and all are consumed...even light itself.


So, on a day that should have been 12 hours of light, 11 of hours darkness and 1 hour of twilight with 2400=0000:

  • 0530-0600: Morning twilight
  • 0600: Sunrise
  • 1200: Midday
  • 1800: Sunset
  • 1800-1830: Evening twilight


We now have 12 hours of light, 12 hours of darkness and 2 hours of twilight, with 2600=0000:

  • 0500-0600: Morning twilight
  • 0600: Sunrise
  • 1200: Midday
  • 1800: Sunset
  • 1800-1900: Evening twilight
  • 2500-0000: Shadow's Hour


Daylight remains constant, the in between times are extended, and the darkness grows in strength.

Magic

Different spells were more powerful/weaker depending on the time of day. Different arcs are associated with different schools. Or, if it's hours... necromancy for midnight, illusions or enchantments for the Fading Time (perhaps one for dawn, one for dusk), transmutation for midday, lesser conjuration for early morning (healing light of the new day)...




Midnight: the SHADOW KILLERS