Swords in the Mist (Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, #3)

by Fritz Leiber

So it came about, as it so often does, that the Mouser’s efforts to avert the evil nightfall only made it darker and stormier when it finally came down.

The moment had come, he knew, as it always did, when outward circumstances and inner urges commanded an act, when curiosity and fascination tipped the scale of caution, when the lure of a vision and an adventure became so great and deep-hooking that he must respond to it or have his inmost self-respect eaten away.

“Don’t follow it, I say. It leads only to squidgy death.

Every D&D player knows that feeling.

It was as though he walked with all the ships of the world on his back.

the Sea, our cruel mother and loving mistress, repays all debts.