Tharbad used to be a great trading city, standing on a major roadway connecting the North kingdom of Arnor and South kingdom of Gondor, and also on a river connecting the dwarven realm of Moria with the Great Ocean. Its population included people of Númenorean descent, as well as local forest dwellers, some dwarves, hobbits and even an elf or two. The city is still there for now, but its days of glory are over. A couple of years ago, a great plague devastated the land; the sickness still lingers, and no one can be sure of surviving it yet. What's perhaps even worse, trade has dwindled to almost nothing, and the city has been torn apart by factions vying for influence: merchants cling to their former glory, farmers and artisans say that they are the only hope for the city to survive, while soldiers emphasize that without their protection, the city would surely have fallen to the orcs months ago. If that wasn't enough, a group of Rangers arrive from faraway capital of Gondor, with news that a Númenorean artefact, with powers beyond imagination, was buried somewhere close to the city...