You camp near the few inns or clearances that are available, but aside from some rumours about mountain lions or bears, no tragedy befalls the army, most likely because you are with so many and you didn't send out anyone to forage. But it is the end of the month of Calormons (VII) when you reach the summit of the mountain highway, and the sight is something to behold.
One may still see the sea from so high, yet now it's more of a puddle than a true sea, for it now is so far down that you could mistake it for something lesser. Aside from that, there are the cliffs, beaches, little hamlets, ravines, woods, and fields, which you can now see with a near bird's eye.
But for all that nature's beauty covers, there is something manmade that truly captures the eye. An archway, old, ancient, but not crumbling; the paint over the marble might have faded and discoloured, but the construction itself still stands. As does the great eagle and laurel leave that perch above it. A legacy of a bygone imperial era. It is covered in scars from time and in reliefs. Most prominent is an inscription that reads:
''PER QVEM MONTEM TITVS ISIDORICVS IMPERATOR AB SVBIGENDAS EDOXONIAE POPVLOS MITHRADATIS EXPEDITIONE TRANSIIT. HIC ARCVS AEDIFICATVS EST VT VICTORIAM DE PASTORIBVS NOTARET.''
Or as you translate while approaching it ''Through this mountain pass, the Emperor Titus Isidoricus passed to subdue the Mithradian people of Edoxonia. This arch memorialises the victory over the shepherds.''
A true monument to imperial conquest then, this mountain pass was used by an Emperor of old, Titus Isidoricus, to subdue the people beyond in the valley. So you're really marching in the footsteps of the past, you think to yourself as you pass under the arch, after which come a series of pillars interchanged with pale marble statues, after which you marched over a bridge that was built over a small creek, most likely to ease travel, and you caught glimpses of more monuments to the glory of the past: a brick aqueduct, an old, abandoned villa, a grand column with a gilded statue atop. The creek also followed you though it became wider and slower, and by the time you had reached the low point of this particular valley, it had become wide enough to warrant a bridge with five arches.
There are no signs of the other crusaders here, and you might be the first one here. Thus, it is up to you to decide how to proceed. This is an unspoiled country, well aside from whatever bandits, warlords, or other unsavoury figures might say, but in terms of first dibs among the crusader, it is your oyster.
