Making her way up through the tunnel system made Piccolo weary. They had travelled this route several times already, but upon setting fire to the stronghold the party had realised that ideally their army should arrive sometime after the armies from the two gnoll villages, or at least they should choose to approach under cover of night. The Dwarves, as intelligent as they were, weren't used to overland travel, and were unlikely to realise just how visible their army was for everyone else.
Upon reaching the surface the party once again headed towards the barn they had gotten the equipment from. The peasants were now using the pulley system to conceal thier members below the gnoll compound. Marigold climbed up onto the roof in order to set up the heliograph they had acquired from the dwarven scouts, and proceeded to set it up, when she heard voices from within the barn.
It turned out that the gnolls had captured a few of the local humans who they accused of being the adventurers who were going around causing trouble. In actual fact, these proved to be fairly competent swordsmen who were members of the "thieves guild" and had set up several schemes to spark revolution. The heroes of hollow at this point had become used to gnoll tactics, and dispatched their enemies with ease, although only Terato's quick heroics prevented one from escaping to alert the city. With their new friends in tow, the heroes then proceeded to rendezvous with the dwarven army.