Longnight

If Hearthenfalme is meant to be a joyous occasion, the longest night of the year is often a source of fear, as undead and evil powers are thought to take advantage of the extended darkness to further their vile plans. The Dunwell Rising, which saw the ghosts of that accursed and abandoned town appear to kill thousands, started on Longnight a little over twenty years ago. The devastating plague known as the Gray Blight took its first victim on a Longnight centuries past before going on to ravage the continent.

In larger communities, the ritual of Longnight is observed as a time of somber remembrance and reflection. In smaller ones, it is believed to be the difference between life and death and ancient traditions are carefully followed, especially the spring planting of bay trees for the occasion. During the few hours of daylight, celebrants carefully work the leaves from a bay tree into armbands of a unique woven design. Doing so is believed to harness the lifeforce of these evergreen plants, whose sweet scent wards off evil spirits.

As night falls, families gather together in their homes and candles are lit to remember those who have passed and to help guide the sun back towards its path of longer days. Stories are shared and memories recounted. Throughout the night the lost are referred to by their relationship to the speaker, but their names are not spoken. It is believed that speaking a spirit’s name disturbs their rest and risks calling them back to trouble the living—or that it disturbs their well-earned rest, depending on the town and deceased in question.

As evildoers and malicious spirits are said to avoid the candles lit on Longnight, those who light only a few candles—or worse, none—are looked on with suspicion and not a little fear.

Game Mechanics

During Longnight dark magics are more powerful, fueled by negative energy and the spirits that stalk the night, but special protections are granted to those that follow the ancient traditions. The effects of these traditions include (but are not necessarily limited to) the following:

• Between dusk and dawn, creatures wearing a bay leaf armband that they personally made gain resistance to necrotic damage.
• Creatures who light a candle and remember the dead without naming them gain darkvision out to 30 feet, or extend their darkvision by that amount.
• If cast after dusk in a home with candles lit to honor the dead, the effects of protection from evil and good last until dawn, but only against undead. The spell functions as normal for the first 10 minutes. When casting the spell in this way, the caster gains an expertise die on checks to maintain concentration .

At the same time, spells from the necromantic, evil, necrotic, or undead schools have the following changes:

• If the spell involves a saving throw , the target makes that throw with disadvantage .
• Spells that create undead creatures create one additional creature of the same type
• The create undead spell can be used to create specters instead of ghouls . In this case, the target becomes up to three items taken from the tombs of the deceased, instead of the usual corpses.