It is an age of darkness.
War, famine, suspicion, corruption and mourning plague the land and her inhabitants. The mists fail to obscure from our eyes the great city of Kothas ahead, its stone walls rising high above the dense forests surrounding them, the bright stone only vaguely reflected in the murky bay it borders. The nearby cliffs drop down sharply onto a rocky coastline as the sea makes it way hastily toward the capitol itself.
Kothas was once a busy port city, managing trade between provinces...but, since the bloodshed began, the harbor has been all but abandoned. Ghostly fragments of cargo still haunt the dark, churning waters here. Debris litters the edges of the water, catching on the sharp crags of rock jutting out from the coast.
"Keep still now!" Grumbles the gaunt man rowing the small weathered vessel you find yourselves sitting in. The boat is filled with a handful of strangers, a rather diverse group, and the man's seafrayed whiskers do nothing to hide the smirk upon his lips as he lays eyes on you, each in turn lingering disdainfully on the more exotic beings present.
The ferryman continues with a hacking cough, "If we head overboard you won't ever see what's makin' a meal of you."
The ferry lurches from side to side on your way toward Kothas, the air is chill and moist as the mists threaten to close in around you,
You are the only passengers aboard the vessel, save for the ferryman himself and an armed escort.
(I think some initial descriptions are called for. This shuttling may take a little while.)