"A great host came out of Angmar in 1409, and crossing the river entered Cardolan and surrounded Weathertop. The Dúnedain were defeated and Arveleg was slain. The Tower of Amon Sûl was burned and razed; but the palantír was saved and carried back in retreat to Fornost, Rhudaur was occupied by evil Men subject to Angmar, and the Dúnedain that remained there were slain or fled west."

–J.R.R. Tolkien, "Eriador, Arnor, and the Heirs of Isildur"

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce the upcoming release of The Treachery of Rhudaur, the fourth Adventure Pack in the Angmar Awakened cycle for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game!

Accompanied by the young Dúnedain Ranger Amarthíul, a handful of Middle-earth's greatest heroes make their way out of the deadly troll-fells and into the crumbling ruins of Rhudaur. Their path leads them past piece after piece of evidence of the region's historic collapse; they cross through tattered cities and make their way around towers of stone and rubble, long forgotten and ravaged by years of disrepair.

At length, even as they can still sense the evils that have pursued them since the dungeons of Mount Gram, the heroes come across the remnants of a keep marked by the same symbol that appears on the pendant that Amarthíul inherited from the captured Ranger, Iárion. They are not safe here, and time is pressing. Still, the heroes realize this ruined keep might hold some clue to the threat currently growing in the North. Despite the dangers, they decide to brave its foreboding stairwells and darkened halls in search of whatever secrets it may yield…

The sixty cards in The Treachery of Rhudaur introduce a new scenario, in which your heroes can explore the subterranean levels and forgotten secrets of a haunted keep. Simultaneously, they enrich the player card pool with a new Noldor hero and three copies each of nine different player cards. Many of these lend additional strength and definition to the Noldor trait, though you'll also find a new Valour action, a new Leadership side quest, and a Lore event that can cancel the effects of any encounter card of which you have a copy in the victory display.

Something Evil Haunts It

The new scenario from The Treachery of Rhudaur allows you and your friends to delve the ruins of a haunted keep in a novel fashion that takes great advantage of the new side quest mechanic first introduced in The Lost Realm deluxe expansion. During setup, stage 1A , Secrets of Rhudaur, instructs you to place each of the three Treachery of Rhudaur side quests into the staging area. Then, stage 1B reads, "During the quest phase, Secrets of Rhudaur cannot be chosen as the current quest."

This means that you must chart your own path through the mysterious tower. However, every direction you turn brings its own perils. One of the side quests reduces the Willpower of all allies by two. One adds an extra point of Threat Strength to every location in the staging area. The third forces the player with the highest threat to immediately engage each Undead enemy as it is revealed from the encounter deck, yet these Undead still contribute their Threat Strength to the staging area.

Still, if you can hold back the Undead and find your way successfully down one of the possible paths, you may uncover one of the three clues hidden amid the ruined tower's crumbling foundation. Each of the three Treachery of Rhudaur side quests instructs you to flip it over once you defeat it. Once flipped, each of these three side quests yields a valuable Clue objective that you can exhaust a hero to pick up and use to your advantage as you carry forward along your mission.

You'll have to hurry, though, if you want to uncover these Clues because you have a limited amount of time before the evils that pursue you discover your location. The quest stage Secrets of Rhudaur remains in the staging area even after you've added the side quests, and it serves as a countdown timer for your exploration. When the last of its five Time counters is removed, any remaining Treachery of Rhudaur side quests are removed from the game, meaning you'll never have a chance to uncover their secrets, nor to benefit from the advantages their Clues might have provided you against the dangers of the dungeon and the malevolent force you've felt hunting you for days.

Lords of the Eldar

Even as its scenario allows you to explore an ancient tower full of Undead and powerful secrets, the player cards in The Treachery of Rhudaur are sure to excite any fan of Tolkien's Elves and the Noldor trait. In his introduction to the Angmar Awakened cycle, lead developer Matt Newman hinted that the cycle's cards would allow you to "explore what it really means to be a Noldor Elf, with cards that introduce a new strategy for the High Elves of Middle-earth." Several of the key cards for this new strategy arrive in The Treachery of Rhudaur, and Matt returns to shed more light upon them:

"Today I’d like to talk about the new sub-theme the Angmar Awakened cycle introduces for the Noldor.

"The Noldor are a people in decline, exiled to Middle-earth many thousands of years ago. While their ultimate fate lies in the Blessed Realm across the ocean, some have chosen to stay in Middle-earth, to protect their realms and aid in the long war against Sauron. Though the wars of the Second Age have taken their toll on the Noldor, there are still Elf-lords among them whose power and wisdom rivals the greatest of Sauron’s servants.

"To represent the inner strength and resolve of a fading people, these new Noldor cards grow in power as cards are discarded from your hand. Some of them have powerful effects that require you to discard cards from your hand as a cost. Others can only be played while they are in your discard pile, requiring you to first discard them, and giving you an avenue with which to trigger other discard effects. Many of these effects breathe new life into older cards such as the Trollshaw Scout (Foundations of Stone, 104) and Watcher of the Bruinen (The Watcher in the Water, 56).

"The hero from The Treachery of Rhudaur is an exciting new embodiment and facilitator of this strategy. Erestor (The Treachery of Rhudaur, 84) is the chief advisor to Elrond, which means he's wise beyond measure, and every turn he provides you with a fresh hand of new options. His ability reads: 'Draw 3 additional cards at the beginning of the resource phase. At the end of the round, discard all cards in your hand.' Erestor's presence leads to a 'use it or lose it' strategy. Since you have a fresh hand of cards every turn, you always have cards you can discard in order to trigger the effects on the new Noldor-themed cards, like Elven Spear (The Treachery of Rhudaur, 87), and since you’re going to lose them at the end of your turn anyway, you might as well.

"These cards aren’t limited to a Noldor-themed deck, either. Erestor’s ability is useful in any deck that can take advantage of the options he provides, and he makes a pretty good team with Éowyn (Core Set, 7), as well. I hope you will enjoy these new cards as much as I enjoyed creating them. They’re a lot of fun to play!"

Uncover the Secrets of a Tainted Land

There are evils in the North that have lain hidden for centuries. Some of them lie amid the tattered remnants of ancient towers. Now some of them are rising. How will you respond?

Prepare to brave the mysterious ruins and restless Undead of The Treachery of Rhudaur when this Adventure Pack arrives for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game in the third quarter of 2015!