The Ghauwffhwa have been Freehold's primary antagonists since the village's founding, when they attacked the settlers during the slavers' raid. Though the vicious gnolls were repelled, they attacked again in a well-coordinated surprise attempt to spoil Freehold's crops, which was very nearly successful. Following such a direct act of malic, the First Freehold Council had no choice but to abandon overtures of peace in favor of eliminating the gnolls' leadership, leaving the beastmen to devolve into internal squabbling that would distract them from Freehold.

While initial clashes with the Ghauwffhwa were ascribed to the generally malicious nature of gnollkind, it soon became clear from their heightened levels of preparedness and intelligence that this tribe was different: Their tactics were planned far in advance and executed with almost military precision, driven by a fiendish will the unsettled the villagers. Information gleaned by Shara Graye's divinations from a handful of gnolls prisoners after the siege gave Freehold a new understanding of the Ghauwffhwa: Rather than paying homage to the usual deity of their race, this tribe instead worshiped "earth spirits" who compelled them to organize and conquer. The earth spirits apparently waged war against the "water spirits" of the Liontongue River, choosing a champion in the form of the powerful shaman Kejujuhwa, who the Ghauwffhwa described as a fell and terrifying being who would "burn the sky" and take Freehold's lands from the "nakeds."

The discovery that Grashork—he who had led the siege on Freehold, and who was subsequently slain by Vashiir il Luereth das Ferevan—was Kejujuhwa's brother led to some concern, since the captured gnolls seemed confident that this "chosen one" would pursue blood vengeance against the settlement. The decision to strike preemptively at the beastmen's home fortress of Gahuwffhwar was not made lightly, but there was little choice in the face of two to three hundred well-armed, well-trained, and very angry gnolls. When he was killed by Adoward Beastfriend, Samuel Fisher, and the rest of the strike team assembled for that purpose, the battle made it clear that Kejujuhwa was no ordinary gnoll—though it remains uncertain precisely what accursed forces were working through him and his ilk.

Thankfully, at least for now, the death of their high priest and general—along with his lieutenants—seems to have postponed the threat previously posed by the Ghauwffhwa. How long the tenuous and uneasy peace holds, and what may eventually become of it, is anyone's guess.