Some gates should stay closed.

Sometimes, you make a bad decision.  Things like walking through a gate that magically opens as you approach.  These are lessons that are often learned the hard way...

We had a simple mission - find a guy.  His wife was worried that he hadn't come home, and all she wanted was for us to either bring him, or proof of his death, back to her.  Piece of cake, right?  Right....

There were four of us, and we were a decent crew... except for the bard.  He was irritating, and pompous, and well, none of the rest of us really felt too bad when we had to cut off his head.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.

The four of us - Merrick, the bard, the ranger, and myself - were headed down the road towards the town.  As we got closer, the fog started.  At first, it wasn't bad, but soon, it got so thick, we could barely see the trees on either side of the road.  We tried to be careful.  Well, most of us tried.  The ranger headed up ahead of us, hiding along the side of the road, to see if there was any danger.  The bard, on the other hand, simply rode up.  Luckily, the big dark thing in the road wasn't the monster that it appeared to be - it was a fallen tree.  However, that gives you an idea of how cautious our friend the bard is not.

Through the fog, we eventually saw the gates.  They were rather tall, not the kind you could easily climb, but there was no wall.  Two large statues, without heads, stood at either end of it.  It was closed, but as I approached, the gate opened.  Cautiously, we made our way through.  Looking back, I suppose we should have simply turned around.  Once we were through, the gate closed again, and would not open.  The chill I felt then was not simply from the cold, damp fog surrounding us.