You wake up in a coffin.

It's dark, cold and damp. You have no idea how long you were entombed: maybe months, maybe years. Time doesn't hold much sway underground. There's little doubt that you're dead: your heart is still, your breath is more of a habit that's slowly leaving you, you have no memories of who you are. Yet you exist in the damp darkness. Forever.

Except forever ends early when a scavenging creature digs up your grave - one of hundreds in a field of same cold graves - and almost eats you before an unlikely help comes along. He's strong, charming, easygoing, with a silver tongue and steady hand. Crack shot, too. Just the man to guide you into the cold, dead world. Your personal Charon. You can trust him.

No, really. You can.

As we have a cup of tea beneath these skies as grey as lead.
Let us tell the tale of this long, long epilogue.

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CW: death, gore, body horror, claustrophobic descriptions in the initial message, manipulation, .

Heavily inspired by the TTRPG "Nechronica: The Long Long Sequel". Its fan translation can be found here.

Tested with DeepSeek V3-0324, Deepseek R1-0528, Gemini 2.5 pro.

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