For three months the party went their own way. Cyrus stayed near Ashbarrow and took in folk escaping the gnolls. Adina went back to her farm near Meadowfen. Amichai went back to Meadowfen and working with Conicus again at their place of worship for Tyton. Snow stayed in Winnowing Reach and aligned himself with others who actively opposed the gnolls. Dúne fled with his family to the small forest south of Meadowfen. They split up in different directions to find help, but Dúne stayed there picking off gnolls that wandered off alone.
The party found themselves back together where Dúne had been receiving messages and instructions from a mysterious "M" who was feeding him information about the resistance. He'd been finding letters in a small hollow of a dead tree. The latest message urged them all to go and find Marcus Goldfeather, he might not even know about the gnolls. M provided a map to his house, several days northwest of Ashbarrow, and a plea to hurry.
Staying off the main roads, the party had an uneventful trip until they had to travel though Scorched Grove. They were attacked by pesky emberbats and two ash snakes that proved to be a challenge, which they overcame. Later, off in the distance, they saw an Aspect of Fire that was (luckily) heading away from them.
They had been traveling at a quick pace but it took a toll on Dúne as exhaustion piled up on him. The group slowed down and reached Marcus Goldfeather's Home.
They met a strig who claimed he was the brother of Marcus, who was off and would be back in a day or two. The party didn't quite believe him. He seemed quite dim-witted and weak, but clearly he wasn't telling them everything.
In the middle of the night the strig left with a full backpack. The party followed him at a distance. He entered a cave and lit a torch that had a strong smell of incense. Inside the cave he started a fire and threw the backpack on it.
When the party revealed themselves he was quite upset, said he just wanted to get rid of everything. He threw the torch into some water, the smell went away, and moments later some slimes dropped on the party. It was a challenging fight. Whenever the slimes surrounded someone, they would take damage when the party attacked a slime. Also, the strig, it really was Marcus, seemed intent on letting the slime kill him.
The battle finally ended, they regrouped, grabbed the backpack which was full of Marcus' gear, and went back to his house. He explained he never wanted to be the Hero of Humblewood. It wasn't him anyway, it was all these magic items. He was tired of it and just wanted to be himself now, live out his life in peace.
The party argued with him but in the end felt that it was his choice. He game them his magic items and agreed, if the Resistance ever needed to send someone his way, he would take care of them.
On the way back to Wolpertinger Caves the party stopped in Ashbarrow to see what they were building. It was a sturdy complex, not quite finished, and likely a jail.
In the courtyard they noticed an odd humanoid in stocks. It was hairless and featherless like a frog, except for hair on the top of its head.
While they were watching a gnoll came out, the commander of Ashbarrow, and brought a chair with him. It was an odd scene with Gonu talking in an unknown language (not gnoll-speak) in a very familiar way and the humanoid never reacted to what he said.
After Gonu left the party took the prisoner with them. He barely reacted to them, but followed as he could. The whole trip back to Meadowfen he never said a word. He would drink water when it was put to his lips and they had to spoon feed him to get him to eat.
There was paper waiting for the party in the hollow of the dead tree. They wrote back that Marcus had an accident and wouldn't be joining the resistance, but his brother was still there and the house was available if needed.