Handbook of Erotic Fantasy: Fascinating! (Patreon)

They moved as one: a well-oiled machine composed of pallid flesh and chrome. The Host had arrived as a single body, welling up with the dark of Devil's Night. They hungered and they slavered, the desiccated salivary glands of eons kicking back to functional status like dead servos coming online. They were a single carnivorous thing, yet they were not an animal. They were not alive.

"Play Vampyre Wars Online!" whispered the shadows.

Villagers turned to sewer grates and the mouths of alleys. The prey listened, more curious than startled.

"Play what now?" they asked. "Is that some kind of game?"

And the dwindling pools of sunset hissed their answer: "Yes! A game! A massively multiplayer online game where YOU will engage in territorial wars, gaining control over cities while playing as powerful Vampyre leaders forced to navigate the treacherous political landscape of rival Vampyre clans vying for VamPower!"

Some had sensed the wrongness. Some had turned for home and safety, casting furtive glances back over their shoulders. It was already too late. None of them reached their carved pumpkins or mini-Snickers bars.

When the sun sank the Host surged. They were a predator and a pack, running down the unwary in the streets; locking wolf jaws around prey; eating them alive.

"Join the explicitly evil Grand Coven!" they howled.

"No! They're explicitly evil! Join the equally evil but angsty about it Edge Lords!"

It was a slaughter. The people of Plotsville had no defense against the Guilds. No natural resistance or immunity. It was a feeding frenzy of Recruitment, and it cast its clamor up to the cold and indifferent stars.

"Elysian Eclipse! We're the top raiding guild on the server!" shrieked the Host. "Shadow Dominion! Cursed Moonlight! _xXEternal Dusk Free Blood With Sign-UpXx_!"

The screams went on and on.

And somewhere at the edge of the doomed town, looking down from the sentinel tree that was their home, Druid and Arcane Archer listened in growing horror.

"Wanna stay in tonight?" she said.

"Yup," he replied.

"Wanna start boarding up the windows real quick?"

"Yup," he said again. And so they set about surviving.