ONCE SELDOM SEEN, but now permitted to grow unchecked by the absenteeism of their natural enemy, wolves, which not long ago thrived in this area, but were recently brutally hunted to near complete extinction, although many of the ferocious beasts still roamed the surrounding forests, due to their threat to the general populace of the Duchy, by the order of the Duke of Dargon, who was gravely injured and mutilated aboard his warship in a major sea battle, off the coast of Sharks' Cove, in the Beinison-Baranur War, from which he just returned, an overpopulation of large grey-brown rats, which are extremely dirty and spread deadly disease to many otherwise healthy people, rapidly overran the once remote, although powerful and prosperous, but now economically hurt, seaside frontier town of Dargon in northern Baranur, destroying many wood buildings and structures and getting into the already overtaxed grain supplies, bringing a new disaster to the city, to top off the not yet forgotten early summer surprise invasion, by a sizable portion of the mighty Beinison fleet, which had cut short the annual Melrin festival, and the agonizing struggle for power, marked by much back-stabbing and cheating,

inside the local underground organization, both of which cost hundreds of otherwise innocent people their lives, and destroyed great portions of the once beautiful city, so that reconstruction both of the damaged buildings and collapsed portions of the once powerful town wall would go on for years to come, leaving the city mostly unprotected from bandits and brigands and wild animals which may help control the rapidly expanding rat population, if allowed to enter the town, unless the already stretched to the limit town guard dedicates a greater number of people to patrolling the lands beyond the town of Dargon and watching the damaged portion of the wall for unwelcome intruders, human and beast alike.

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