Within the hour, everyone prepares to make landfall. As you do so, a huge eagle-like monster comes to the side of the red haired woman with a longbow in the ship she's in, startling the men and women on the ship. Its large beak holds a small rodent-like animal, probably pulled from the land. She pets the beast who grabs her by the arms and she jumps off as you get close, using the eagle-like creature to glide towards the shore ahead of the others to lead the ship away from the others landing. Ewan leaps from the ship with the other crew and ties it down, but doesn't let it fully hit land so the animals won't run away. The crew on the last ship do the same as well, pulling the boat into the shore.
The air is cool from the sea-breeze, and the sun has risen showing midway through morning. The shore is a mixture of sand and small stones and extends about fifteen feet before turning to a 10' steep incline to a thick brush of coniferous trees. The beach curves about fifty feet down to the left facing the wood and thirty feet to the right before both start to turn inland.
Ewan does a headcount and counts 37 people left... Out of 50, if you only count the three ships you came on. Otherwise, the amount of those dead and missing has reached an amount too steep.
The stranger in the cloak finds his hat that he misplaced during the voyage under some junk and puts it on. His hood now thrown back, he is a tall human with a light brown mustache and beard. Putting his cloak back, he looks very well kept despite the voyage.
The huge bird takes flight again and circles the sky.
Ewan looks around and studies the area.
"I don't think this place would be best for us to stay the night, even if we're going to have temporary shelter."
He points to everyone carrying weapons.
"Since you're all armed, could you scout out the area? The forest, the beachside, anywhere. We need somewhere to stay for the night. You have plenty of time, but please be back to give us some time to pack our stuff up and go. Beachside we can use the ships for and get there faster, but that cliff face doesn't bode well. The forest is thick and probably has plenty of ways to find shelter, but we wouldn't have anywhere for the animals to be.
It would be ideal if you found a way up that doesn't involve a climb, but if we can find shelter to just stay for, like a cave or something, that would help."
There are pretty much three areas to go towards. Left beachside, right beachside and up the cliff face. Where do you go?