Wednesday, March 24

So, it's a drinking game? (The Spring Festival, day two)

Yes, Legolas.

 It is.


















Today's post on the Spring festival will highlight one of my favorite things to do in the game - participate in the activities of the Inn League. The Inn League is one of the many reputation factions within the game, but what sets it apart from the others is that reputation with them can only be gained during the seasonal festivals, making it one of the more difficult things to work on. The hobbits of the Shire love their beers and ales, and take great delight in celebrating them.

The basic and most common way to gain reputation with the Inn League is by performing the Shire Pub Crawl (not the official name, ^.^). Today I was lucky enough to run the crawl with Squid, who performed excellently and made it through the entire run. The quest starts at the party tree in Hobbiton, where you are required to drink six tankards in about a minute. Sis managed to pass this portion of the quest, while I was too busy taking pictures and failed.

Next participants have to run all the way from the party tree to Brockenborings, north and east of Hobbiton, to the Plough and Stars inn. There, the formula is repeated and you must drink six tankards of ale before the time limit expires. This time the Inn League is a bit generous and gives you about five and a half minutes to get from the Party Tree to the Plough and Stars and drink your drinks.  This time sis opted to perform an impressive balancing act and stand on the edge of the table while she downed her frothy mugs of beer. The Inn League officiant, that hobbit lady sitting beneath Squid, apparently didn't mind that sis was standing practically in her lap.

Next it was off to the Golden Perch in Stock, right on the banks of the Brandywine River and at the far eastern reaches of the Shire. Thankfully Squid avoided any shennanigans this time and stood firmly on the ground while the hobbit patrons did their best to ignore the fact that an elf-lady was rapidly downing all their best beer. Like a trooper, sis finished this round as well, and with a swift call to our mounts we rode off to the next destination, the Floating Log in Frogmorton.

To me, getting to Frogmorton and downing the beer in time was always the hardest step in the quest, because for this leg they only give you about three minutes to finish. By now any participants should be beginning to feel the effects of the ale, and things in game will start to appear a bit fuzzy. The first time I attempted the quest I was having such trouble seeing (I stupidly ran the quest at night in the rain, which makes it doubly hard to see) and stood outside the entrance to the Inn until my time ran out because I couldn't see through my drunken haze enough to actually find the door. Squid ran inside though and completed her grim task while I waited outside to lead the way to the next stop. Why? I suppose I was acting as a sort of designated driver, so that sis not only found her way but avoided running any poor hobbits over on her horse.

Next, it was a quick trip west to the Green Dragon in Bywater, probably the most famous of inns in the Shire. This is by far the largest and most prosperous of the Shire inns, built on the edge of the Water, just down the road from Hobbiton. It is also the site of one of  Merry and Pippin's memorable songs from the Lord of the Rings films:





After leaving the Green Dragon, we headed off to the Ivy Bush Inn, where sis bravely ploughed on, although her screen probably looked something like this by this point:


I applaud her tremendously for continuing on. By now if you stand still the screen will slowly sway back and forth and everything is at least in doubles, if not triples. It's hard to click on the beers to 'drink' them, so finishing this last stage is always a challenge. Her last stop was the Bird and Baby Inn in Michel Delving, the capitol of sorts for the Shire. After downing her last six beers, she completed the quest with a horrifically silly grin on her face, and collapsed, where I'm pretty sure she is lying still, soundly sleeping off the effects of all those beers in the basement of the Bird and Baby. Here's hoping she doesn't have too much of a hangover.

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