Winter, After the Harvest

This story has the feel of a classic fantasy story or D&D adventure, with evil cranked up all the way, except it quickly escalates beyond that.

The characterization and worldbuilding is one of the strengths of this story. There's clearly a lot of background that you don't even get to read through. Events are mentioned, sometimes multiple times, but you, the reader, don't know what those are. The characters themselves feel real, and while there is one that felt lacking, the rest feel like well fleshed-out individuals with their own strengths.

The writing itself sets a very good tone. The analogies are great, and a grimdark feeling is created just by the writing. The combat scenes feel brutal, and some of the settings and creatures are nightmarish.

Most of the choices are pretty obvious, it's not hard to avoid death, so the story is more about, well, the story. (Spoiler - click to show)The Lich ending is the true ending, and it's really damn good, it feels like a separate story within the story.