Ravenloft Archive 11: The Twilight Zone

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The Twilight Zone

By Stormonu

Website: Alanik Ray's Library


The Land:

The Twilight Zone is an isle/realm within the Demiplane of Dread, on par with the Nightmare Lands. It can only be reached by entering the mists. Unlike the other realms of Ravenloft, the Twilight Zone doesn't focus on an entrenched Dark Lord. It instead focuses its dangerous attention on those who are drawn to it, whether they are good or evil.

The Sterling Man, a mysterious, well-dressed man, is the Dark Lord of this realm. He can sometimes be seen at the periphery of vision, watching events unfold around the visitors to his realm. None is sure what the Sterling Man's abilities or curse exactly is, though it seems he is forced to bear witness to the horrors of others.

The Twilight Zone, in its natural form, appears as a bleak landscape, lit by the dying fires of the setting sun and the glimmer of stars in the heavens. However, this landscape is rarely ever seen, for it is often cloaked. In its cloaked form, the Twilight Zone can appear as any place on this world - or even take on an alien semblance. The realm always conforms itself to the personal horror of those who are visiting. It may take on the form of a town well known to the visitor, or may appear as a land most inhospitable to the victims.

What goes on in the Twilight Zone? Well, the land takes a slow, cruel bend to shatter the mind of its victims. When first visited, it may seem mundane or plain to ward away suspicions, or force the victim into a defensive state of mind by starting very hostile. As time passes, the Twilight Zone eats away at the sanity of its victim, attempting to force them towards madness and self- destruction. Irony tends to be the rule of the day in the Twilight Zone.

The Twilight Zone captures and holds its victims until either the victim(s) conquer their own horror, or succumb to it.



DM Notes:

Putting this into play can be difficult. Since the Twilight Zone is so mutable, the DM needs to think ahead to what kind of personal horror he can inflict on those who travel there. Here are a couple of examples.

In this first example, the group has just completed an adventure where they slew an infected werewolf that was rampaging through town. As they depart the town, the group happens to be forced into the mists, and emerges in what appears to be the group's hometown. A day after the group settles down and rests, they soon are confronted by a werebeast, which intends to slay the group. Over the course of several more days, the group keeps encountering a lone werebeast, intent on killing the group. The characters are forced to hunt down friends, relatives and well-known members of the community.

Whomever they focus their attention on protecting turns out to be an infected werebeast. The party doesn't know what is going on, and the events will likely drive them to a crusade to find the truth. In the end, the party discovers THEY are the carriers of the infection and have spreading it to their friends and destroying them. Now that they know who caused it all, how are they going to handle it? And what is the rest of the town going do about the PCs?

In the second example, the Twilight Zone focuses on a single individual's faults. One member of a group, a wizard, has been collecting tomes of dark lore for some time now. Hearing of a rumor of a vast library of such books, the wizard convinces his group to travel into the mists looking for it.

Tumbling out of the mists and into the Twilight Zone, the group does indeed find the library - seemingly forgotten and abandoned in a quiet little town.

The group investigates the library and the wizard finds the books he was looking for - and their guardian as well. The group fights and defeats the guardian. After doing so though, creatures of doom begin to plague the town causing all kind of mayhem. The cause turns out to be that the "guardian" the characters slew was holding the dark creatures back from the quiet town.

Until a new guardian is found - a man of wizardry and knowledge of the dark fiends themselves - the town and lands beyond will be plagued creatures of darkness. Will the wizard be willing to giving up his life to quell the evil? Will it be in time?

As stated before, the Twilight Zone captures and holds its victims until either the victim(s) conquer their own horror, or succumb to it. In the cases above, the lycanthropic victims have several choices, none too pretty. They can submit themselves to the same punishment they dealt their companions, they can flee into the wilderness or they may destroy the village. If the characters make the hard choice and submit themselves to the same punishment they inflicted on their companions, they should be able to escape (appearing in a nearby realm unscathed after they submit to the punishment) from the Twilight Zone. If they took the easy way out (fleeing into the woods or destroying the town), a madness check is required, and the victim(s) are released to the outer world, still infected.

In the case of the wizard, if the wizard accepts his post as guardian and manages to quell the creatures of darkness, he may be released (maybe the old guardian comes back). If an "easy way out" is taken, such as pressing someone else into the role of guardian or fleeing the town altogether, a madness check is required, and the consequences of the PCs actions stick, meaning creatures may spread to formerly safe havens, relentlessly tracking the PCs.


The Sterling Man

(Darklord of the Twilight Zone)

0 level human

Str 12
Int 15
Wis 13
Dex 12
Con 12
Cha 15
AC: 9
Hp: 5
THAC0: n/a
Align: N
# Att: nil


Description:

The Sterling Man appears as a lightly tanned man in his thirties. He is dressed in somber, formal suits of midnight blue or blacks.

He appears impeccably immaculate, with not a hair out of place, and his steel gray eyes have a way of penetrating into the heart of those he gazes at. The Sterling Man has a quiet voice, though he rarely speaks to anyone. He has been noted at times smoking white cigarettes.


Current Sketch:

Though the ruler of the lands known as the Twilight Zone, the Sterling Man seems detached from his surroundings. He is rarely spotted in his own realm, and when seen, may appear to be part of the surrounding crowd, though his clothing certainly always makes him stand out. If confronted, he seems to be amiable, answering questions somewhat elusively, if at all. His humor is dry, and he has a startling sense of being able to point out the ironies of life, to his own amusement. The Sterling Man never fights, and fades out of existence if attacked. In some cases, attacking the Sterling Man has been known to break the spell of the Twilight Zone, erasing the landscape and allowing its victims to escape into the mist.

How the Sterling Man came to be is unknown. There is very little information about him, and he rarely gives insight to his true identity or purpose. It is known that the Sterling Man once had a family and lost a child to a tragic accident, but little more is known. Some have speculated that the Sterling Man came from Lamordia, and may have been a doctor or playwright in that place.