The roads between the towns are not empty. Now and then the wild deals your party a hand.
How it comes
Out in the wilds, at no fixed time, something may happen to your party. First you hear it: a whistle in the brush, a howl, a man shouting for help. A few seconds later it arrives, from somewhere you cannot see.
After one ends nothing more comes for at least four minutes. Walk away and an encounter winds down. Others nearby can join in, and loot.
What it deals
Ambushes: brigands who toll the road ("Pay or bleed"), a wolf pack, the dead walking after dark.
Trouble: a cart broken by orcs, a wounded scout with a buried pay chest, a taken daughter.
Games: campfire dice at twenty gold a throw (say "throw"), a duel to first blood for fifty a side (say "aye").
Omens: a fallen star at night, a procession at midnight.
And people you have met before: a rival band from the Deeps coming back for you, or a father come to thank you.
After
What happened travels: the towns hear of it as rumour.