The party found Erky Timbers a prisoner of the goblins in Turn 8 during their cleansing of the Sunless Citadel. The gnome's additional healing and fighting capabilities proved to be an asset as the party faced the goblins and eventually the druid Belak the Outcast.
Erky accompanied the party to Hommlet and it was long assumed he continued on to his own village from there, but more recently the party visited the
gnome’s village, hoping to recruit him once again, only to find he had never
arrived there.