<s>[INST] # Continuity in Shadows and Death Scenes

In an organized tour of a "haunted house", Ron and his friends found themselves standing in front of a eight-sided (octagonal) mural painting on a wall. It depicts six identical standing ghosts and two witches flying through the air. The mural is surrounded by eight veteran visiting characters that come stomping into the house. They naturally get terrified by them. The ghosts and witches are seen from different angles, however they all cast the same length of shadow, $\ell$, on the surface of the mural that they are projected upon, regardless of their sizes.

If two side-by-side fantasy, identically-sized, gradually-terrified.dropout viewers began viewing the mural and saw three standing ghosts and one flying witch casting a preponderous $\ell$ length of shadow, how many characters are standing around and in front of the mural?[/INST]