<div class="floatleft">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/2/27/LODOSS_KarteAbenteuer01_Header.jpg)</div>With the eagle out of sight you wait until about half an hour has passed, before deciding to march ahead and follow the stream to where you suspect the bandits went.<br/><br/>The way through the mountains is narrow and sometimes the mountainsides overhead draw so close together that you feel you are walking down a tunnel. Many times the narrowness of the path forces you to step into the ice-cold water of the mountain stream you are following, everyone's shoes, boots, trouserlegs soaked with water before long, but eventually you are greeted with the sound of water rushing down rocks and the sight of daylight up ahead.<br/><br/>The stream flows across the end of a rocky ledge, before it tumbles down into a small valley, pooling at the bottom of the rock face, maybe ten meters below, and rushing northward, splitting the valley in two.<br/><br/>The eastern half of the valley is covered with bushed, grass, even some trees, while the western half sits a little higher, the ground there not getting all that much water. Instead this left half of the valley is a mix of sand and rock, with half-crumbled masonry and stonework here and there, where houses once stood. In a few places at least the outer walls are still intact enough to make out the old outer walls of buildings.<br/><br/>Some of those old buildings stand roughly in the center of the valley, while a few more can be seen at the northern end, opposite the ledge the party finds itself on. Over there there is also a black hole in the mountainside, perhaps a natural cave, perhaps an old mine entrance.<br/><br/>Canvas covers have been erected over some of the ruined walls, to provide some shelter. Two fires are burning near the ruined buildings. A steep, rubble strewn path leads down into the valley to your left. An eagle circles overhead while a few people can be seen moving around down in the valley, some tending to the fires, some moving towards the cave mouth.<br/><br/>(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/7/75/Lodoss01BanditCamp.jpg)<br/><hr/>Ruins #1, 2, 3, and 7 have some tarpaulins stretched over them to turn them into shelters. One fire burns in front of #2, another close to #6.<br/>The ledge you are on is about 10m above the valley floor and perhaps 2m wide. The path that meanders down to the valley should be easy enough to walk in daylight (of which you have about an hour or so left), but during the day anyone there will be in full view from the valley. During the night, things will get tricky.<br/><br/>What's next?