After minor recurring skirmishes with the resident gnolls following their raid on Freehold, the settlers came into major conflict with the beastmen once again on 1 Nightal, 1373DR. The village's first harvest was scheduled to be brought in that tenday, but it was discovered in the days prior that a strange blight had afflicted the crops. Sudden in appearance and fungal in nature, the blight was notable in that local farmers, druids, and alchemists all agreed they had never seen anything like it before; typical fungal blights which affect corn almost universally ignore wheat, and vice-versa, but the disease which struck Freehold took to all edible plants indiscriminately, appearing in strange patches throughout the fields.

As the Freeholders struggled to identify the source of the blight, normal activity was disrupted when a coordinated attack was led on the village by Grashork, a powerful shaman. Along with his personal bodyguard and several lieutenants, the gnoll divided Freehold's forces with a four-pronged attack, requiring the defenders to thin their own ranks by responding to fires in all sections of their fields. Councilor Raxam Kelastro quickly organized the Freehold Guard to protect noncombatants in the town center while others already outside the walls took the fight to the gnoll attackers.

Dozens of Freeholders bravely stood their ground against Grashork's forces (too many to recount all instances here), but notable were Samuel Fisher and Lord Aram Lazard, who captured one of the enemy lieutenants, as did other groups in the western and southern fields. Lysander Arkaine was confirmed to have slain the most of the attackers, but Nitis Nochan inarguably held the most ground, keeping Grashork and his entourage at bay to the northwest until reinforcements arrived. The sorcerer used his powers to turn the earth against the gnolls, trapping many of them repeatedly in deadly spiked pits until they could no longer fight, after which survivors among the hyena-men dubbed him "Earth-Shaker." Karou also personally engaged Grashork, foiling the shaman's attempts to escape in the form of a large bird, and the gnoll leader met his end when Vashiir il Luereth das Ferevan arrived on the scene, trapping him in an aqueous orb used to extinguish the burning fields.

Thanks to quick and decisive action by the many defenders, only two lives were lost in the battle: Guardsmen Ulrik Grimnar, a dwarf from Luiren who gave his life to buy time for Nitis Nochan, and Daji Meander, a courier killed carrying messages from Raxam Kelastro to forces outside the walls. Enough of the crops were saved that Freehold was able to successfully store food for the fallow season, and it was determined that the blight was the result of the Ghauwffhwa gnolls' magic, after which Ash Nahcomence was able to reverse most of its effects.