The Spring Festival: A Maze-ing We Will Go

Just north of the city of Bree lies the festival grounds, a sprawling expanse of tents and stages full of merry-makers and feasting. A race track for skilled horseman encircles the tents, testing the unwary with hedges and ditches. But on the southern side, near the grounds, stands the Hedge-maze, and to those blessed with strong internal compasses there is a series of challenges to be completed.


 The simplest challenges of course are timed runs, where you must navigate the maze within a certain time limit. Each successful run opens the challenge to run the maze faster and faster. On the sillier side of things, occasionally chickens wander into the maze and it is up to the player to catch them all before they escape.

There is also a challenge by the Inn-league, assuming you have completed the pub crawl and been initiated, to find the "artefact" and use it. The artefact turns out to be a huge keg. I saw no danger in it, until as I was approaching the keg a hobbit lying on the ground warned me in a slow slur, "No. Go away. S'bad fuh yew." Slightly confused, I poured myself a tankard and downed it in one long draught. Instantly my vision blurred and I was told to make it to the end of the maze within two minutes.... or else. Or else what? I was so drunk I couldn't even walk properly, and began hobbling my slow way toward the exit. I confess, I didn't make it. I collapsed within sight of the exit and passed out. When I awoke, I was hundreds of miles from Bree, in Forochel, stranded on the middle of an ice-berg, and missing my pants. However, I am never one to be turned away by something so simple as that, so I made my way back to Bree and tried it again. And again. And again. I believe I mentioned before that the maze is for people with strong internal compasses. I am not one of those people. Finally I made it and was rewarded with a replica of the artefact for my own home, which produces the same effects - extreme drunkeness, a hangover the next day in some far-off place, and missing pants.

Not all who enter the maze emerge safely though, even if they never take one sip from that horrible keg. Several elves entered the maze at the start of the festival and have yet to emerge, so you are charged with locating all the elves and making sure they are still... alive. Thankfully, they are all fine, and some defiantly refuse any help at all. One of the elves I found to be a bit...strange. He claimed that he was "just so distracted by each and every leaf" that he could not find the time to leave. I kindly suggested he move to a desert where there are no leaves to be distracted by. Heaven help him if it ever rains.


A dwarf standing outside the maze takes great pleasure in the fact that the elves are lost, and he gives what I found to be the most light-hearted of all the challenges - to post confusing signs throughout the maze so that the poor elves remain lost. I posted his signs for him, and he chuckled and clapped his belly in mirth, his deep laugh rolling across the festival grounds as I walked off towards the dance-arena.


The maze challenges are fun, to be sure, and can provide you with about ten leaves or more in the space of thirty minutes, if you manage to complete all the quests without any failures. I also remember the maze as being the first festival activity I participated in back when I started the game over a year ago now. Ah... memories.

Not more horses..... no, please. No more.

So I thought I knew each and every horse in the game. I thought I had a complete list of them, and was happily checking one off each time I got it.

Today, I learned that there is always something in Lotro you do not know. Like, for instance, that there are three mounts hidden in something called "Meta-deeds," or deeds that can only be completed when other deeds have been completed.


The easiest of these hidden mounts to obtain is the Dunedain War-steed, which, to earn, you must complete ALL of the things on this list:
_________________________________________________________________________


 Carn Dûm Deeds

• Champions of Carn Dum –
  
  
  • Urro, Barashal, and Helchgam
  • Salvakh, Azgoth, Avalgaith, and Tarlakh
  • Tarlug, Mormoz, Rodakhan, Guthrul, and Morditih
• Plans of War – Find and use Plans of War, Pages 3, 7, 10, 11, 18,and 27
• Angmarim of Carn Dum —Defeat Angmarim in Carn Dum (300)
• Orcs of Carn Dum – Defeat orcs in Carn Dum (300)
• Trolls of Carn Dum – Defeat trolls in Carn Dum (180)
• Ancient Evil of Carn Dum – Defeat ancient Evil of Carn Dum (180)
• Slugs of Carn Dum – Defeat slugs in Carn Dum (100)

Urugarth Deeds

• Champions of Urugarth
  
  
  • Burzfil, Sorkrank, Dushkal, Akrur, and Lhugrien
  • Grishakrum, Athpukh, Lamkarn, and Gruglok
  • Thordragh,Brizrip, Morthrang, and Lagmas
• Marching Orders – Find and use the Marching Orders, Pages 1, 5, 7, 9, 16 and 14
• The Foul Idols of Urugarth – Find and burn the South-western Idol, Southern Idol, Central Idol, Northern Idol, North-western Idol
• The Beasts of Urugarth – Defeat beasts in Urugarth (375)
• The Orcs of Urugarth – Defeat orcs in Urugarth (300)
• The Trolls of Urugarth – Defeat trolls in Urugarth (180)

Barad Gúlaran Deeds

• Champions of Barad Gularan
  
  
  • Afraig, Coblaith, Castellan Wisdan, Forvengwath, Mulvuire, Udunion
• Lore of the Enemy – Find and use the Gularan Compendium, Gularan Tome, Gularan Scroll, Gularan Ledger, Gularan Text, Gularan Volume
• The Dead that Live – Defeat wights in Barad Gularan (180)
• Minions of Wisdan – Defeat Angmarim in Barad Gularan (150)
• Allies of the Enemy – Defeat Hillmen in Barad Gularan (90)

Quests

• An Ancient Threat – Defeat Thaurlach (Rift of Nurz-Gashu)
• Thorog Defeated – Defeat Thorog (Helegrod)

____________________________________________________________

Those numbers in parentheses? That's how many of that certain creature in that certain location I have to defeat before the deed is counted as done. I ran down the list, and out of all the bulletpoints on this list, Indrabar has completed a grand total of six of them. Yup, you heard me. Six. I have such a long way to go still.


Oh, and keep in mind that this is the EASIEST of the three hidden mounts to get. Gah.... *head to desk*

On a brighter note, I have NEVER seen any of these three mounts in the game on the Gladden server, so if, and that is a big IF, I manage to get any three of these, I will be something special. Woot.

I guess I should rethink the statement that the Moors horse is the hardest horse in the game to get....

Crop Circles

Tonight I received and filled my first farming order, thanks to a referral from a wonderful kinmate. I was growing Blueberries for one of Gladden's busiest cooks, and noticed something odd about my plants....

I have made crop circles. Literally. Woot for me.

The Spring Festival....day.... something....

Yes, I'm a slacker. So here, to make up for my slackiness, and because I have forgotten to take pictures of any of the other activities I've been meaning to write about - yes, I have a list - here is a short post to appease the clamoring throngs of people out there demanding my return to my blogging duties. There are so many of you I seriously have trouble sleeping at night. Seriously.

Another of the activities available to patrons of the Spring festival is the Pie-eating contest. Here we see Squid doing something to that poor hobbit courageously eating pie. If she manages to eat the appropriate number of pies in the allotted time limit and doesn't get indigestion (which is entirely possible, considering the rash of rancid pies all across the Shire) then she is awarded the "Pie-eating champion" title and gets to revel in her gluttonous greatness, which I find ironically appropriate given the season of lent and whatnot.

This quest can only be done once, unlike many of the other festival activities, and it is available during all four seasonal festivals. The quest-giver is that cheery looking hobbit at the back of the table, who can be found at the festival grounds in Bree.

Yes, I'm a slacker.

So the Spring Festival is still going on, but I think I'm still working off the side effects from my last outing to the festival.

Just kidding. Actually I'm just a bum.

And also I have no pictures or point to this post. I am now even more of a bum.

Just letting whoever is out there know that the festival is still going on, and I am eventually going to post things on the other activities!!

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.

The Spring Festival, day one

Just a few days from now will mark my one year anniversary with lotro, and I find it fitting that my 'birthday' falls in the Spring Festival. I love the festivals in the game. Each one holds different activities to try, and while some are simple, some require a good amount of skill and practice.

One such activity requiring a bit of effort is the horse race. There are two race-tracks in the game, one in the Shire and one in Bree, and since the advent of the new, improved horse races back in the winter festival, I have made it a point to practice riding on the race-course every time I go to my house in Michel Delving (what? It's on the way, and since I am such an avid collector of horses, I figured it wouldn't hurt). When I first tried the race-tracks back December, I failed the races more times than I won them.

However, as a result of my practice, I ran the Spring race today with Indrabar, and received my Spring Fest Horse Token, which, when combined with other items, will allow me to trade for a spring horse. Yay!

 My only wonder now is if Turbine has added a new horse to the Spring Festival, as they did in the Winter Festival. Just in case, I went ahead and ran the Bree race too and received a token from there, so, provided I can get the other necessary items and the money, I will have at least one (and possibly two!) new horses in the near future. Now I simply need to get my other characters up and ready as well so I can have Spring horses for them all!



Stay tuned for a rundown of the other events in the land of Middle-earth during the Spring Festival!

Giant Turtles!!!!!

So last night I successfully led my first Turtle run. We killed her without wiping completely, which was good. Not that she's particularly difficult or anything. She can be. A few of our people did die. However. I digress. The point of this post is to celebrate my leading! (Yes, you can all look at me). Er, rather, I led in the sense that I was the one who organized the group and held the button. An Aussie champ considered it his duty to call out instructions, and I let him. I guess I was too nervous about being the one "in charge" to actually "take charge." Ah well. My confidence is boosted either way, and hopefully next time I will be able to not only hold the button next time but hold it high over any silly champs' heads!

Hitler in the Moors

Why I Lag

There's way too much going on. That's why.

On a Side Note

I hate the sheep quest in the Shire. That is all I have to say.

Now I know why I am always broke

It's because I can't stop buying horses!!

I like this one alot though. He's possibly my favorite. I bought him from the Wardens of Annunimas after gaining enough reputation with them. I wanted to name him Sequoia, cause it seemed to fit, but apparently Turbine seems to have some issue with that name (why?) so I named him Skeeter, after the paint horse my mom used to have.

Now hopefully I can gather my money in time for the Spring festival  next week- because I heard they have a horse to earn there too!!

A Brief Moment in Angmar

Tonight Squid and I ( yay Squid!!!)  ran around in Angmar a little more, thankfully acquiring the rest of our Fem set of armor, which for our level (still a wonderful 42!) is one of the nicest sets in the game. Getting it, however, was no easy thing,  as the chief of the Trev Somethingorother had us doing all sorts of measly chores for him. More than once we put ourselves in mortal danger, battling orcs and giant hillbeasts. He even had us run up to the top of some giant rock pile to gather some sacred rock. The Stone of Clucath. Why on earth are people in this game always misplacing their sacred rocks and aurochs skulls and whatnot? Seems like every week or so someone asks us to go retrieve their thing they lost or forgot or whatever, that is somehow vitally important to the pride/luck/prosperity/sheep shearing rates of the village. Sis had a little Peter Pan moment on top of the pile of rocks, right before she picked up Crannog's OhSoImportantRock.

But it wasn't all bravery and heroics. We also spent a good portion of the night running in terror from wargs and Angmarim baddies twice our size. Now that we have the set though, the choice ahead of us is whether to continue in Angmar for a bit or go ahead and move south to Eregion in preparation for acquiring our first legendary weapons.

Oh hai. Here is my clawz. Do you likez tehm?


I also take great pleasure in tormenting sis with my horrendous outfit choices.  I think she was checking her wristwatch here to see how long I could manage to dance around and manage to look like an idiot. Although, at that point in the game, her outfit wasn't much better than mine. We both have very, erm, interesting hats.
Ooh! Also take a gander at our shiny new staffs! (staves?)  Sis says they look like giant wooden lollipops, but I think they are cool. Better than the plain wooden sticks we had before.

Finally, we decided to move on, and frankly I was getting a bit tired from all that dancing. Sis also discovered the /mood emotes, which change the character's facial expressions. I love the /moods and use them frequently for no apparent reason.
This pic doesn't really showcase how outlandish and strange the expressions can be sometimes, but I saw this pic and thought it was hilarious.





In the end, we completed all of Crannog's silly chores, and got our final piece of Fem armor. I was greatly dissapointed to find that the Light set (which we as Lore-masters are forced to wear) doesn't look quite as impressive as the Medium or Heavy sets - of which, sadly, I do not have pictures. I do have pictures of the Light Fem set, which Squid was ecstatic to learn made a wonderful glowy whoosh whenever she put it on. I guess the robe isn't that bad. I'm just tired of robes. I miss having at least a nice thick leather breastplate and some leather greaves. Instead, I get coats and dresses. Why? Cause I'm a Lore-master, and we are too.... something, I'm not sure.... for medium armor. Boo.

 Also, in completely unrelatedness, I realized today that lotro sometimes does mirror real life. Squid is taller than me.  Only barely, but still.

FFXIII - First Impressions

Granted, I know I'm not very far in the game, and technically I've never finished a final fantasy game ever so I don't have much... expertise. But, in the first couple of hours of this game, the only thing I've done is

1. Watch a cutscene.
2. Be given the option to save my game. Why? All I did was watch a movie. Oh well, I learned a long time ago never to turn an opportunity to save down, so I save.
3. Watch another cutscene.
4. Be told to save again. .... okaaaay? 
5. Take two steps forward and be told how to kill things. Sort of. I was kind of confused at this point.
6. Kill the monster. Yay.
7. Oh. Joy. Another cut scene.
8. Save.
9. Rinse, and repeat. About TWENTY DOZEN TIMES.

Gah I hope the whole game isn't like this. I mean, it's gorgeous and all. Fast paced action and loads of fun, but I'm still not really getting the stop and go action. Whatever.

Life, the Universe, and Everything.

Last night, while Squid and I were questing, we hit 42. That is a grand number.

Anyways.

We did lots of questing in Angmar last night - and got several quests finished. We each got a nice 3-piece set of jewelry, our first two pieces of Fem armor, and we, as I mentioned before, reached 42. I would like to slow down and enjoy this level a bit, but we quested so much that we're both about half way through it and almost to 43 now. Oh well. Squid managed somehow to level up before I did, and she took lots of pleasure in holding it over my head. I don't know when but at some point she managed to get about two or three ticks (ticks being the unofficial measuring device in the leveling meter by which players can give an estimate of how close they are to finishing X level) ahead of me. She claims it is due to her habit of killing everything in sight, which is different from my habit of killing only those things which I need for quests or monsters that are in the way of what I need for a quest. She's probably right.

Angmar is a pretty dreary place - Squid called it emo - but I like it. The greyness can be calming. Even when you are running for your life from elite rare nemesis with ten times your hp, the whole place has a  sort of surreal atmosphere. Like this tree, in the middle of a pond. Everything is grey and ashy, and while I wouldn't drink the water, something about this picture relaxes me a bit.

Angmar also holds some rather strange characters. Take this guy for example: his name is Tasgall and he can be found standing under the aforementioned tree. Turning in a quest to him is what finally kicked me over the bar to 42, but after I had leveled I noticed something odd about his beard. Eww. Is that a growth? Not sure. You can't really tell from this picture, but he also is sporting a rather, erm, interesting color combination in the wardrobe department. While the Trev Gallorg of Angmar may live in skin teepes and speak with Scottish accents, they have all the color sense of a jaybird. Hooray. We also ran a quest with him and the very first thing he told us was not to let the rain break our concentration. Odd. Squid hammed it up though and kept responding to everything he or I said with "Huh?"

Apparently these people aren't happy with just wearing the outlandish colors themselves - they want everyone else to wear them too. Take a look at the spiffy knickers they gave us for killing some wargs or somesuch:

Oh my. Aren't we lovely.

Squid also saw her first three boxer last night. A three boxer is someone who plays the game on three different characters at the same time - which consequently requires three computers and three accounts. Someone must really love the game. This one in particular was easy to spot because when else do you see three Hobbit minstrels, all exactly the same level, wearing exactly the same clothing, and doing exactly the same thing? I'm pretty sure this is the same guy who three boxes on the moors alot - he has a set of spiders that spell certain doom for lone adventurers.

All in all, it was a grand night of adventuring, and once again, I cannot help but state how much I love running with Squid. ^.^ The loremasters are fun - and we are moving on up in the game, sure to become a formiddable force and glorious asset to the KotFP.