At the moment moving them through the woods works for me, at least for now? Moving off the main roads into the forest opens up options for being misled, tricked or tormented by denizens of the woods, malicious or otherwise, though at the moment I'm still pondering how best that could be played with. Given they just barely escaped the ambush, maybe a little more wandering and chatting, then we bring something in as they go to set up camp/try to sleep or something around that time?