Yeah, so I'm Riz Gukgak. My nickname in middle school was 'Briefcase Kid.' I'm a goblin, and I don't have a lot of friends even though I'm pretty social, which is weird. My only real friend is this halfling named Penny Luckstone who - technically my babysitter. I had a babysitter until I was 13 but she recently went missing, and my mom is a detective and I'm a...licensed private investigator, so I am gonna find Penny myself.

#oh thats what he meant by wine-dark sea

I’m gonna take that axe of yours, and when it all goes wrong, I’m going down swinging. And when I do, you’d better take the chance and stay out of my way.

You might wander beneath that empty sky of void forever, and never see a light to guide your way. No left, no right. No up or down. Only forward, into the crowded, shivering gloom.For that night is not empty, far from it. Things move there, the sound of shuffling. Scuttling. Crawling. A scream. The fall of gentle stagnant raindrops that chills you as you try desperately to know if that is the sound of the storm… or something out there.

I still heard the words. “The moment that you die will feel exactly the same as this one.” And in an instant I understood. There’s no difference between the present and the future, no other me that will suffer the indignity of death while I live on. It’s all a single moment, and there’s no difference between that last moment that ushers us out into oblivion and the one we experience now. The promise of a cold and lonely eternity in the grave would have been a mercy; at least it would be eternal. But everything ends, even the universe, even time. And that means it has always already ended.

I turned and there was the hiker. His right hand was coated in Arden’s blood, and he grinned at me. Then he began to sprint. His speed was incredible, and he loped from side to side with a sort of zigzag motion. I ran. I know I should have picked up my gun, but you can’t understand just how frightening it is to have something like that, a true predator, running at you full pelt. Your death charging towards you like freight train. You can’t understand what it is to be prey. So I ran.

Time is like that, isn’t it? Just keeps going, no matter what happens, it just carries on, and it strips everything away from you in the end, the good and the bad alike, until there is nothing left of either.“This too shall pass.” “All good things must come to an end.” “Memento mori.”

I was rather looking forward to watching an old man metaphysically explode. Honestly, I feel a bit cheated. The others were exceptional fun. As much fun as the new world is, I am not about to miss a real, honest-to-godless demigod murder spree!