A note shows up in the hollow of the tree saying a couple "jobs" need to get done:
Something is going down in Meadowfen on the night of the 21st. Don't ask for details, just create a distraction in the central part of town. Whatever you do, don't get caught, don't even be seen.
Buy weapons from a group of Vulpins. Rumor is the Thieves Guild has re-tooled itself a bit. It sounds like they're willing to help, but still want some gold for their effort. And make sure it's not twenty year old rusted crap, it needs to hold up. There is a meeting set for midnight on the 23rd with someone who calls himself Mésis. Be careful, he's not to be trusted. See if you can tell whose side he's on.
Raid a supply caravan. Have some fun! Just make sure there are no survivors. Or is that too much for you? Take the wagons to Evy Ashwood's home. We suggest you take a look at Beggar's Canyon, supply caravans often travel through it.
We're watching. Do your best. Something important may come our way soon.
-M
The party studied the note from M carefully, making sure to remember all the important parts, and headed to Meadowfen on the night of the 21st to create a distraction. At first they considered a plan that would have created a distraction and kept them hidden, but instead they went with plan B. Where Snow and Adina ran into the center of town claiming a patrol of gnolls was attacked by some Owlbears. (Side note: despite being called owlbears there are no bears in Humblewood.) Even interpreted loosely, this probably went against M's wishes of don't get caught, don't even be seen.
The gnolls brought out Tam to translate and he appeared quite nervous when he recognized Snow and Adina. The gnolls gathered more troops and the commander, Tare-gat, went with them too, forcing Snow and Adina to show them where the attack happened.
Snow faked a broken ankle and the gnolls left him behind. Adina took the gnolls a little further and the gnolls became suspicious. Tare-gat left to do some tracking himself and the rest stayed behind. Amichai had followed them and when he saw them stop he cast darkness around everyone standing around. Adina had seen him and gave Tam a heads up, but when the darkness appeared Tam didn't run. Adina got away and went back to town with Amichai.
Meanwhile, Dúne had been keeping lookout in a tree in town. He noticed a wanted poster and took one with him. When Snow got back in town they decided to go to Tare-gat's house to see what they could find. They stepped inside and found it torn apart, someone had beaten them to it. They spent some time trying to put the house back in order so it wouldn't be quite so obvious someone had been there.
Returning to town to meet up with Dúne and Snow, Amichai saw a stack of papers moving along the side of the street. He watched it for a little bit until they went into a house at the end of the lane.
Back at their campsite, southwest of Meadowfen, Dúne showed Amichai the reward poster. Amichai explained he hadn't killed Conicus, he'd watched Conicus be taken away by the gnolls, and he certainly was alive, somewhere.
Several nights later the party made their way to meet Mésis and buy weapons from the Thieves Guild. M had warned them not to trust Mésis and make sure the weapons were of usable quality. Although it was tense, the weapons were in good shape, for being of gnoll make. All went well until there was a flare of light, like someone threw down a lantern, and then a fireball erupted.
The party was caught in it, along with several of Mésis' people who were the only ones to die. Snow immediately took off to chase down who had done it. Dúne turned his attention to Mésis who was searching the sky with his bow out.
Snow, some of Mésis' folk, and a blind fire bolt from Adina that hit its target captured the suspected traitor alive. Mésis explained to Dúne that there must be a spellcaster flying a mount, the broken lantern was a signal for where to cast a fireball. While they waited for the traitor (a vulpin) to come around, the party talked with Mésis. He offered to buy the Gnoll Ring Snow was wearing, only gnoll commander's wore that ring. Snow declined.
Mésis also offered his opinion that the gnolls were afraid of something. He didn't know what, but he was sure of it. In return for saving the lives of his folk caught in the fireball, he broke a brittle coin and gave them half. If the party breaks it again he will meet them at this location in two days, or a representative of his will.
With that, the vulpin that had been caught came around and everyone turned their attention to him. The were many questions to ask, but first, how did he know something was happening here on this very night?
As the party questioned the vulpin it became obvious he felt pressured to work for the gnolls out of a fear they would kill his family if he didn't. They offered him the choice, what would he do if they could spirit his family out of Glenhaven? He jumped at the offer and the party began planning how this could happen, perhaps using Wolpertinger Caves, or perhaps getting everyone in town out from under the gnolls too. Dúne mentioned that his grandfather and brother were hideing out in Glenhaven, and the whole town had helped protect them by pretending they'd always lived there.
There was also Marcus Goldfeather's Home as a place to take the people of Glenhaven, but keeping a village of 75 people fed would be a challenge. For now, they set the idea aside and focused on the current mission.
Mésis wondered how the gnolls even new to be watching this particular area and blamed the resistance for having an informant. The party wasn't as convinced, noting the theives guild was built on being duplicitous.
They took the weapons to Evy Ashwood and she had them hide it behind her house. She look quite disheveled and more than a little distracted, they attributed it to the whole "Humblewood has been invaded" thing.
There was one more mission for the party to finish, raiding the caravan that went through Beggar's Canyon. They dropped off Max with Cyrus and their unnamed guest and headed to scout the canyon.
The party found the perfect place to ambush the gnoll caravan. They dropped a boulder at one of the narrowest parts so the wagons couldn't pass and took positions up above. The wagons came around the corner, with humblefolk and birdfolk on them, not a single gnoll was in sight. There was no questions about disregarding their instructions from M, the party was not going to kill their own kind.
Still, they had quite a few questions. Approaching cautiously, they asked the folk what exactly they were doing working for the gnolls. They all admitted to being employed by the gnolls, saying it was the only way they could make money to feed their families and it paid well too. The pick up sight was the Western Encampment the party had been to. From there they would take the goods to Winnowing Reach. Mostly it was food from the gnolls home world and went high ranking gnolls.
The party glanced at each other, several of them thinking the same thing; if they could find a poison, they could do some damage to the gnolls. Before they could ask anything else two of the hedge and corvin accused the vulpin of being an actual collaborator with the gnolls. After some interrogating and an extremely suggestive dance by Adina that charmed the vulpin, he admitted he had just wanted to make some easy money like anyone would have done in his position. But, luckily, he promised to repent and never do it again.
One Zone of Truth spell later, they knew he would never keep his word. Not wanting to be cruel, they cast sleep on him, Amichai said a quick prayer to Tyton, and Snow performed the actual execution. As for the rest of the folk, they all agreed to help the party any way they could. The boulder that had originally blocked the path would be their drop point to leave messages for each other.
With that, the party headed back to Cyrus who'd been waiting in the small forest they'd come to think of as their home. Passing by Meadowfen (but not too close) they looked up a saw someone had used the spell skywrite and written a message, "Kuato Lives."