"This wouldn't cause any trouble if it wasn't for the fact that the little circle of candlelight loosely called "the universe of time and space" is adrift in something much more unpleasant and unpredictable. Strange Things circle and grunt outside the flimsy stockades of normality; there are weird shootings and howlings in the deep crevices of the edge of Time. There are things so horrible that even the dark is afraid of them." Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites, 1987.