“What in the fuckin' hell is this?” Kellar utters soon after phasing through the intangible wall. No one answers immediately, as they're all equally flabbergasted by the ominous, yet awe-striking view.

“I guess we know where the mist is coming from now.” Veros finally remarks, his gaze tracing the terrifying beam of almost pitch-black fog up and down, between the castle on the side of the mountain and the high apex above.

“I've never seen anything like this.” Zyra whispers, her mouth automatically giving voice to her thoughts. “It's... almost beautiful. Or at least it would be if weren't so... scary.” She's able to pry her eyes off of the erupting darkness ahead to scan the group's surroundings, specifically their sides. The untouchable barrier of thick mist continues in a giant circle as far as the eye can see, arcing around to meet on the other side of Mount Armas, well into the ocean. The diameter of the huge dome must be about eight miles.

“Looks like a clear path to the city.” Atticus comments, examining the grassy plains ahead of them. There isn't a single presence of fauna – or even wandering undead – between them and the walls of Armasstadt.

“Well, there's no point in standing around looking gobsmacked.” Veros shakes his gaze off the dark sky and beckons everyone forward. “Let's go.”

With nowhere else to go but north, the Mistwalkers proceed to close in on their much-anticipated destination. As usual, the only sounds that fill the air are the muffled thumps of their horses' hooves beating the ground underneath them. However, this time their field of view isn't a meager few hundred feet around them. Now, they can clearly see the empty, silent miles of land. It strikes them with an uneasy feeling of sullen loneliness in a different way from what they had felt when their vision was obscured.

As they draw nearer, a faint hum becomes audible. The ray of blackness sprouting from the castle is letting out a constant, low buzz, becoming slightly louder as they approach. It grows into a rough noise, like a perpetual gust sweeping through the area.

The group soon enters the outer limits of the Armasstadt boundary, passing the small clusters of homes, stables, and remnants of various vendors that are scattered along the exterior of the giant wall that protects the city proper, towering at about eighty feet in height. Like the many villages they cut through on the way here, it's a complete ghost town, but with an extra unsettling attribute: unmoving corpses are littered through the road in huge numbers, growing denser as they approach the wall.

“Wait.” Veros commands before they get too close for comfort. He eyes the uncountable collection of heavily withered cadavers, trying to gauge whether or not they're reanimated.

“What do you want to do?” Royd asks, also uncertain of how to approach. “I don't know how we could go around these poor sods, but we sure as hell don't have the means of ascending this wall.”

“I'm starting to get flashbacks to Levinburg, here.” Kellar remarks, trembling at the thought of another massive horde on his tail.

Veros doesn't reply, instead he narrows his eyes to look for any sight of reanimation among the masses. However, he notices something odd: the majority of the bodies are either trampled, decapitated, or – when looking closer to the wall – riddled with arrows.

“I think these corpses are truly dead.” Atticus speaks up, having noticed the same things. “Some of them have crushed heads, and others have been beheaded entirely.”

“So somethin' killed them out here?” Kellar asks. “What was it?”

“I couldn't begin to guess.”

“I agree that it does look safe,” Veros says, “but it doesn't really matter as long as the gate is closed.” He gestures towards the massive portcullis inside the great wall. “Royd was right, we don't have any tools to scale it.”

Kellar unleashes a sigh. “Is there a way around it? Like up against the mountain?” The rogue points towards the very end of the wall, where it meets the mountainside.

“You want to try climbing the mountain?” Royd snidely asks. “That's not much better than climbing the wall.”

“No, you oaf. I wasn't talking about climbin' the fuckin' mountain. I meant there might be sort of smaller entrance inside of it, maybe a cave or somethin'.”

Veros shakes his head, frustrated at the lack of options. “There might not be such an entrance at all. But I don't know either way, because I'm not from here – none of us are.”

“So what the hell do we do, then?” The ex-mercenary grows agitated. “We came all this goddamn way just to be stopped by a wall?”

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“Maybe we can dig underneath the portcullis?” Royd offers a plan.

“Do you have any idea how deep the teeth of a portcullis that huge go into the ground? It would take us hours to not only dig that far down, but to also dig a slope up into the other side. Is that what you want to do? Manual labor? Gods...” Kellar clenches his fists in irritation.

The morale of the group quickly begins to plummet as they realize the futility of their current situation. They don't know if there's any sort of side entrance into the city, and they could end up wasting hours following the wall from one end to the other. They have no means of climbing it, yet digging under the portcullis is likely to take many hours' worth of work, as well.

“Of all the things to be ill-prepared for,” Veros complains in a defeated tone, “it had to be the very last obstacle of our journey: actually entering the city.” He shakes his head, any hope of success draining from him.

“I guess we don't have much of a choice.” Atticus speaks up, also clearly discouraged, but not enough to yet give up on their mission. “We'll just have to do a process of elimination, going from the least time-consuming methods to the most, and see which works.”

“What do you propose?” The veteran inquires, interested in the knight's ideas.

“I say we split into three pairs; one follows the wall east and one follows it west to look for some sort of hidden entrance, and the third looks around these buildings for possible siege equipment, or anything that could be made into siege equipment.”

“And if that all fails?”

Atticus shrugs. “Then I guess we'll be digging for a while.”

“Dammit...” Kellar curses under his breath. “I guess it would be faster to dick around and see what we can find than go back to Terrance and get proper gear.”

“Digging for an extra day is something we didn't really account for when collecting our food back in Terrance.” Erik speaks up, bringing to light an important point. “If we really do plan on spending time going out of our way to dig underneath the portcullis with little equipment, then we'd have to ration our food more, which would be at odds with the amount of labor we'd have to perform.”

“Ugh, I don't look forward to that.” Royd remarks with a grimace.

“That's only if we don't find an alternate route inside,” Atticus reassures, “or any way to craft siege equipment that'll get us over.”

“That is a massive wall, though.” Kellar comments, his eyes repeatedly examining the height of the structure, back and forth from base to roof. With the exception of tiny windows that dot the exterior side for archers to use in battle, the outer face of the entire structure is completely flat. “Even if we make somethin' to get over it with, it'll be a hell of a climb, and considerin' all the equipment we're carryin' and the fact we have some people inexperienced with this sort of thing, we'd have to make a ladder. A hook and rope ain't gonna cut it.”

“Are we going to leave our horses out here?” Royd asks.

“We'd have to if we scale over the wall.” Veros answers. “And if we do dig under the portcullis, we'd have to dig an extra several feet to fit them under instead of digging just enough for us to squeeze through, which means more labor. Either way, it seems we'd have to leave our horses behind.”

“Which is unfortunate.” Kellar comments, still suspicious of the corpses that litter the road. “If we get chased by another horde in the city, it might not end in our favor like it did in Levinburg.”

“I guess that makes sense.” The brawny man utters.

“Well, we'd better decide on who's doing what. We're wasting precious daylight just standing around.” Veros urges his companions. “Who do you think should make up the pairs, Atticus?”

“Veros and Erik will be one pair and follow the eastern side of the wall.” The knight begins to lay out plans. “Royd and Kellar will stay at the gate and search the houses for any usable materials to make a ladder with. Zyra and I will follow the western–”

The knight is cut off by an abrupt, loud mechanical rumbling coming from ahead. The massive portcullis shakes and begins to rise at a measured pace. It's long wooden teeth lift from the grooves in the ground. Unsure of what's happening, the Mistwalkers steel themselves for a possibly hostile encounter.

“What the fuck is goin' on?” Kellar urgently inquires.

“I don't know.” Veros answers. “I didn't notice anyone on the other side. Everyone stay on your toes.”

Confused at the unforeseen event, a few of them examine their surroundings for approaching enemies – possibly an ambush, but the homes and vast grassy valley around them remains as empty as it was the last time they glanced around. The towering portcullis continues to lift, but there's still no sign of life on the opposite side, where the cobblestone road begins and leads up a continuous slope to the castle. The huge gate finally stops rising with an audible clunk once it clears about fifteen feet.

“What do we do? Should we go in?” Zyra asks, her face flushed with equal parts bewilderment and fear.

“Let's wait a moment. It could be a trap.” Veros answers without prying his eyes away from the open passage. He tries desperately to scan the tiny windows spaced evenly along the gargantuan wall, hoping to see some presence of someone or something.

A silent, extended moment passes of the six trying to make heads or tails of what could've opened the gate, but no matter where they look, they spot no one. They slowly regain their composure once their sense of alarm begins to die down, and try to weigh their options.

“Well? What now?” Royd asks.

“I... I don't know.” Veros replies with little confidence. “Though it's not like we have much of a choice, as the alternative ways inside aren't nearly as convenient as simply walking through the front door, but...” He wants to say 'it could be a trap' again, but he just isn't certain.

“There!” Kellar points at the open threshold.

A robed figure is seen walking out from behind the wall, approaching the group at a slow, cautious pace, with a non-threatening but stiff posture and lack of any weapons, stepping over the many corpses on the road.

“Who in the world...” Veros utters.

“He's walkin' towards us. What do we do?”

“He doesn't seem to be a threat. Just wait. I think he still has his wits about him, like Lias.” The veteran tries to calm his team as the unknown person continues to advance.