Smuggler´s Hold

A little known sub-group of merchants in Dunfearan made very high profits. These merchants' forefathers had made fortunes smuggling illegal herbs and other contraband into Tharbad before its eventual depopulation by the plague in 1636. After the plague, they found that the area around Tharbad offered a relatively small market for their goods. Many became brigands and highwaymen,living off merchants and pilgrims. Others began trading legally and eventually became merchants in Dunfearan. Still others tried to find new markets for their illegal goods and services.The most successful of these smugglers grew illegal herbs and then smuggled them into the large cities to the South. These smugglers resided in a Dúnedain Manor house that had been abandoned about TA 1500.After the decline of Tharbadthey moved into the house and began operations. Soon afterward they found a prime market for their goods in Umbar.

When the minions of Castamir the Ursurper in the Kin-strife were defeated and driven out of Gondor, they took over Umbar, and fought the Gondorians ever since, through open war and subversion.As the Corsairs needed a constant supply of illegal, highly addictive, and debilitating herbs such as Gort and Tartella, they smuggled these drugs into Gondor's major cities to subvert its people and armies. The smugglers of Dunfearan were one of the larger suppliers of these herbs.The herbs were grown in later Dunland and sent to the old port by Lond Daer on the lower Gwathló, where they were shipped to Umbar and eventually smuggled into Gondor. Occasionally some herbs were sent through Calenardhon, but this was rare. The operation was considered very important by the Corsairs, and they had sent a liason to live with the growers. The emissary's name was Tigon and he was in charge of all the shipments from Dunland to Lond Daer.Tigon was the only Corsair there, but he did have a Haradron bodyguard with him named Mungrod.