Erica moved from shadow to shadow, her shoes making little sound as she had learned how to move quietly in even heavy boots. She was able to spot five bandits on either side of the road. They weren't as good at stealth as her, but their numbers meant she couldn't get close enough to take any out with her dagger. She marked their positions and moved on, looking for the bandit's camp, where the bandit's reinforcements would undoubtedly be. He found it a little later. Four or five more bandits were cooking some slain animals over a fire. What was worse were the prisoners. In a cage too small for the number of people inside it were five prisoners. Three adults, one in armour, and two children, each shackled to each other. Circling around to the other side of the bandit group, Erica made her way back, continuing to look for bandit groups so she could report their position when she got back.
She did notice one more group further away on the opposite side of the road to the camp. That made it a total of twenty bandits, all within range that they could make it to the road quickly if anyone came through the ambush point. Once she returned to Mika, she explained what she found.
"I suggest we skirt the edge of the forest, and attack the five in the camp. We should have time to rescue the prisoners and escape before the rest of the bandits get there," Erica suggested "We'd have to leave the cart here to avoid it attracting the bandits to our position early, I'm afraid, but if we can save the captives and make it to Prince's Hamlet, we can return with help to take down the bandits, and then the orcs afterwards."