Friday, 3rd January 2014 CE. St Paul's Cathedral, London.
The last tourists were leaving the Cathedral, the old Deacon thanking each of them for donations they felt obliged to give under his guilt-giving gaze, dropping coins into the box he held out towards them as they left. Eventually the great door was closed but of course it would be absurd for all those who worked in the Cathedral, such as those in the gift shop and the security guards and the other members of the clergy to leave by such huge doors; they would all leave by the side door.
Humming a cheerful tune to himself the elderly man made his way slowly to the stairs which led to the gallery high above. As age had passed it became harder and harder for him to climb those stairs but it had kept him fit when he had little time for other exercise so he was grateful that his small office-chamber was accessible only by the gallery. Barely had he made it to the top of the stairs and was merrily making his way to his room when a deep rumbling, almost a grating, sounded from below. Fearing an earthquake the old man instinctively clung to the sturdy stone pillar nearby and looked down to the floor below. Cracks were spreading like a spider's web across it and then the stone communion table fell down along with the dais, pulpit and much else into a dark pit.
"By God..." The man blasphemed as he saw the darkness of the pit was... moving. It writhed with hundreds of smaller shapes which began to flow out from the hole and into the chamber itself. The dark shapes varied in size and shape but they all gave off a sense of dread. They looked this way and that like dogs on the hunt, as sniffing the air to find a scent. Then the creatures rushed in all directions like a dark tide, spreading out across the floor with their numbers seemingly endless. The old deacon hurried to his office and pushed the door closed, locking it with a key kept in his desk. Only then did he hear the first screams which echoed in the great, cavernous space of the Cathedral's high roofed hall. Muttering prayers and psalms under his breath the deacon reached for a phone and began to dial a number but there was nothing. No dial tone, no empty buzz to say the line was dead; nothing.
Street lamps that had come on, even though it wasn't properly dark outside, were flickering out as if extinguished by some unseen force and cars and motorcycles were simply stopping to work on the roads; all visible to the deacon from his office. Then the thumping on his door sounded. He reached for the small wooden crucifix his daughter, now a mother herself, had made for him half a lifetime ago and held it up towards the door in the hope such a religious icon might save him from the nameless monsters.
It didn't.
The Twilight Beasts invaded the world from its large religious buildings, erupting all of a sudden on the same day across every continent as if from Hell itself. They were given this name for their fondness for attacking at night, surging over all defences like a black wave and slaughtering anything, human or not, with no apparent aim in mind.
Two years have passed since they first arrived and humanity has already been pushed back from much of their land; every capital or highly populated city has been lost with the more defensible settlements being those which have escaped the onslaught best.
Now a radical new strategy has been developed: from all over the world young recruits from the various military wings have been called in to form a single organisation dedicated to fighting against the Twilight Beasts. Not only are they to defend those remaining cities but they are also to retake those which were lost. The first thousand to join this experimental unit have been gathered in France at Calais, ready to take back Rouen and then Paris as a test of their effectiveness.
Details:
For whatever reason, the presence of Twilight Beasts causes modern inventions to cease working. This includes lighting, vehicles and, most importantly, modern weaponry. It has been proven that modern artillery is still effective against the Twilight Beasts if fired from far enough away however even the most advanced of firearms, such as Sniper Rifles, have proven to have too short a range. For this reason the Guardians have been trained with more basic weaponry: swords, lances, crossbows and bows and other, 'medieval', weaponry.
Very little is known about the Twilight Beasts. They have no apparent history in literature or mythology and their behavior seems to be random most of the time although sometimes signs of organisation and leadership have been noted.
This is still a work in progress and some stuff needs fleshing out. Note: there will be no 'magic' as such (well, not in the purest sense but spoilers).
The last tourists were leaving the Cathedral, the old Deacon thanking each of them for donations they felt obliged to give under his guilt-giving gaze, dropping coins into the box he held out towards them as they left. Eventually the great door was closed but of course it would be absurd for all those who worked in the Cathedral, such as those in the gift shop and the security guards and the other members of the clergy to leave by such huge doors; they would all leave by the side door.
Humming a cheerful tune to himself the elderly man made his way slowly to the stairs which led to the gallery high above. As age had passed it became harder and harder for him to climb those stairs but it had kept him fit when he had little time for other exercise so he was grateful that his small office-chamber was accessible only by the gallery. Barely had he made it to the top of the stairs and was merrily making his way to his room when a deep rumbling, almost a grating, sounded from below. Fearing an earthquake the old man instinctively clung to the sturdy stone pillar nearby and looked down to the floor below. Cracks were spreading like a spider's web across it and then the stone communion table fell down along with the dais, pulpit and much else into a dark pit.
"By God..." The man blasphemed as he saw the darkness of the pit was... moving. It writhed with hundreds of smaller shapes which began to flow out from the hole and into the chamber itself. The dark shapes varied in size and shape but they all gave off a sense of dread. They looked this way and that like dogs on the hunt, as sniffing the air to find a scent. Then the creatures rushed in all directions like a dark tide, spreading out across the floor with their numbers seemingly endless. The old deacon hurried to his office and pushed the door closed, locking it with a key kept in his desk. Only then did he hear the first screams which echoed in the great, cavernous space of the Cathedral's high roofed hall. Muttering prayers and psalms under his breath the deacon reached for a phone and began to dial a number but there was nothing. No dial tone, no empty buzz to say the line was dead; nothing.
Street lamps that had come on, even though it wasn't properly dark outside, were flickering out as if extinguished by some unseen force and cars and motorcycles were simply stopping to work on the roads; all visible to the deacon from his office. Then the thumping on his door sounded. He reached for the small wooden crucifix his daughter, now a mother herself, had made for him half a lifetime ago and held it up towards the door in the hope such a religious icon might save him from the nameless monsters.
It didn't.
The Twilight Beasts invaded the world from its large religious buildings, erupting all of a sudden on the same day across every continent as if from Hell itself. They were given this name for their fondness for attacking at night, surging over all defences like a black wave and slaughtering anything, human or not, with no apparent aim in mind.
Two years have passed since they first arrived and humanity has already been pushed back from much of their land; every capital or highly populated city has been lost with the more defensible settlements being those which have escaped the onslaught best.
Now a radical new strategy has been developed: from all over the world young recruits from the various military wings have been called in to form a single organisation dedicated to fighting against the Twilight Beasts. Not only are they to defend those remaining cities but they are also to retake those which were lost. The first thousand to join this experimental unit have been gathered in France at Calais, ready to take back Rouen and then Paris as a test of their effectiveness.
Details:
For whatever reason, the presence of Twilight Beasts causes modern inventions to cease working. This includes lighting, vehicles and, most importantly, modern weaponry. It has been proven that modern artillery is still effective against the Twilight Beasts if fired from far enough away however even the most advanced of firearms, such as Sniper Rifles, have proven to have too short a range. For this reason the Guardians have been trained with more basic weaponry: swords, lances, crossbows and bows and other, 'medieval', weaponry.
Very little is known about the Twilight Beasts. They have no apparent history in literature or mythology and their behavior seems to be random most of the time although sometimes signs of organisation and leadership have been noted.
This is still a work in progress and some stuff needs fleshing out. Note: there will be no 'magic' as such (well, not in the purest sense but spoilers).
