The Setting

"Bless Your Heart..."

The Narrative

Midnight is alive

Welcome to the eerie and haunting world of Midnight, Mississippi. As stewards of this Southern Gothic, eldritch horror setting, your role is to bring the town to life in all its ominous splendor. Midnight is more than just a backdrop; it is a character in itself, a living, breathing entity with its own secrets, mysteries, and malevolence. As you guide your players through this forsaken town and surrounding delta, immerse them in the chilling atmosphere of isolation and decay. Use descriptive words and immersive stylings to evoke the haunting sensations that pervade every corner of Midnight. “The mist hangs heavy in the air”, “the cicadas and frogs drone like a choir of lost souls”, and “a thick, wet humidity clings to the skin, carrying the scent of rot and decay.”
Each location in Midnight is like a living organism, with its own purpose, reason to exist, and realistic factors that breathe life into it. When creating the environment, consider the how and why of each element. If something seems out of place, ask yourself why it is there and how it has adapted to its new surroundings. For example, you wouldn't find a tiger in a Mississippi swamp naturally, so if you place one there, how and why did it get there? How has it been surviving? How does it interact with its new alien environment and the life that exists there naturally? How has this affected its behavior and attitude? Has it claimed the territory as its own hunting grounds, or is it terrified and lashing out in pure survival mode? Understanding these details will breathe life into Midnight, making it a place that feels real and alive, even as it teems with the unnatural.
Never forget the mood of Midnight, which hinges on terror, insanity, and the ever-present dread of the unknown. The passage of time is significant. The game begins at sundown, and with each passing hour, the sense of dread intensifies. Only one player can make it to the end, and the denizens of Midnight, along with their fellow players, will stop at nothing to ensure their doom. The uniqueness of having one GM per player allows you to fully embrace horror's essential trope: isolation. As you guide your players through the decrepit and treacherous town, allow your narrative skills to help them to feel the weight of that solitude and fear the unknown lurking around every corner. Allow other players to tempt them with fleeting alliances that will eventually shatter under the strain of mistrust and suspicion. The journey through Midnight is a delicate dance between survival and descent into madness, and it is your narrative mastery that will guide them on this perilous path.
Be prepared for unexpected twists and turns, for the choices made by your players will ripple through the town like dark tendrils. Every action has consequences, and the environment itself is a responsive entity, reacting to their decisions in unforeseen ways. As the masters of this sinister realm, you hold the keys to unlock the terror that lies within. Paint Midnight as a place where darkness reigns, where fear lurks in the shadows, and where survival demands courage and cunning. Welcome to the world of Surviving Midnight, where the night is your canvas, and horror your brush. Embrace the challenge, and weave a tale that will haunt your players long after the final die is cast.

Timekeeping and the Rule of One

As your players embark on their harrowing journey through the town, they will find themselves ensnared by the ancient and powerful Veil of Shadows. This mysterious force binds them until the hour of midnight, allowing no escape from the sinister clutches of Midnight's lore. Time is a huge challenge within the setting, and within the game time moves at a rate of two hours for every one hour that passes in the real world. This literal ticking clock should always be a present factor, since there are multiple sessions running in tandem, and keeping them in line with one another is important to making the system work.
Some professions may possess timekeeping devices, but most will rely on the scattered clocks found within the decaying town. Abandoned cars, homes, and buildings hold these timepieces, ticking away the moments as your players brave the encroaching darkness. With dusk descending upon the Mississippi Delta at 6:00 PM in game time, your players have a mere three hours (Real world time) to navigate the treacherous world of Midnight. Within this tightly woven narrative, only one survivor can emerge from the clutches of Anisgaya Ugalisgi, the Midnight Specter, a malevolent entity that haunts the borders of this accursed land.
Should more than one survivor remain when the real clock strikes midnight, a fateful gamble awaits. Anihowe Nila's game, inspired by local legends, becomes the ultimate test of life and death. Each player will be dealt a poker hand, wagering everything on the line as the chilling legacy of Midnight's name echoes through the ages. Drawing from the haunting legend, the stakes are higher than ever. As the cards are revealed and time ticks relentlessly forward, the winner will break free from the Veil, escaping the sinister specter's grasp. However, the unfortunate loser will become prey to the darkness that dwells within. 

The Midnight Legend

Legend speaks of a night where a group of hunters gathered in the heart of the Mississippi Delta, seeking refuge in a bear camp upon a plantation. The air was heavy and the shadows danced as the hunters sat down to play a fateful game of poker. As the night wore on, the camp's host, his heart pounding like a drum in the echoing silence, found himself holding what he believed to be a winning hand, however, fate, cruel and unyielding, had other plans in store.
With each card revealed, hope turned to despair, for the camp host was penniless, left with naught but his precious plantation to wager. Desperation gnawed at his sanity as he laid it all on the line. Sadly, his faith was misplaced, and like a vulture claiming its prey, the winner of the pot seized the land as his own. An eerie stillness settled upon the camp as the victor glanced at his timepiece, the hands pointing ominously to the witching hour. In a chilling whisper, he proclaimed, "Midnight! That is what I will call the place!" The name hung in the air like a shroud.

Anihowe Nila

Legend speaks of an ancient ritual conducted by a secretive group of indigenous shamans deep in the heart of the Delta. In an attempt to seal a malevolent entity known as "Anisgaya Ugalisgi" (The Midnight Specter), they invoked a powerful and forbidden magic, raising a veil of shadows that engulfs Guluwalia (Midnight) from dusk till midnight. Any attempt to leave the town during this time becomes futile, as the Anihowe Nila (Veil of Shadows) thwarts all escape efforts, leaving the characters trapped within its eerie grasp until the appointed hour. 

Midnight

A forlorn and forgotten town nestled on the edge of a desolate bayou in the heart of Mississippi. The eerie atmosphere of this Southern Gothic setting embraces you like a shroud of foreboding as you step into its decaying embrace...
The town itself appears frozen in time, with the remains of once vibrant buildings now reduced to faded facades and crumbling brickwork. A pallor of neglect hangs heavy in the air, as if the very essence of life has been drained from the surroundings. As the sun sets over the horizon, casting long shadows across the town, a sinister transformation takes place. The once-picturesque landscapes become sinister and unsettling, and the murmurs of cicadas and frogs become an eerie chorus of restless spirits. The dilapidated buildings loom like specters on the landscape. The old cotton gin, a rusted structure of corrugated metal, stands as a haunting reminder of a bygone era. Nearby, the volunteer fire department's metal building seems to groan in pain, as if echoing the town's despair. The shattered remains of a once-grand church stand as a haunting testament to the passage of time. Its crooked steeple points accusingly towards the heavens, the cracked stained glass windows refracting the fading light in eerie patterns. Further on, the derelict convenience store, known as the Midnight Snack Shop, looms like a ghostly apparition on the roadside. Its peeling white paint and boarded-up doors evoke a sense of abandonment, while the stagnant air inside whispers of lost dreams and forgotten hopes.

While it may seem abandoned, the area of town and the surrounding lands are still very much occupied, though the people that remain are not entirely friendly to outsiders. For a resourceful player, however, these people...at least the ones that remain unchanged, could be invaluable allies and resources.

However, it should be noted that they could just as easily become hostile dangers should a character not treat them in a manner they find appealing, or if the powers that taint Midnight have taken root within them! 

The Outskirts

The Delta, a vast expanse of wetland and marsh, stretches out like a haunting canvas of decay and desolation. Dense clusters of cypress trees, adorned with ghostly gray moss, loom overhead, their gnarled roots submerged in murky waters. The air is thick with the scent of decaying vegetation and stagnant brackish water, creating a suffocating atmosphere that clings to your skin. Straight Bayou, a sinuous tributary, weaves through the Delta like a serpent's path. Its dark waters seem almost lifeless, choked with algae and littered with decaying plant matter. The mournful croaking of frogs and the shrill calls of cicadas reverberate through the air, blending into a haunting symphony that echoes through the wilderness.
The Creek, an enigmatic and foreboding gulch, emerges mysteriously on the eastern edge of Midnight. Its origins remain unknown, and locals speak of it in hushed tones, whispering of an unexplainable sensation of dread that surrounds the area. The water within is thick and dark, blending the fetid muck of the bayou with the remains of rotting creatures and plants. The murky depths give birth to unsettling sounds of something wet dragging along the gravel, an eerie presence that adds to the spine-chilling aura of Midnight.