Forced Labor

So Squid and I finally managed to push a little bit farther in the epic line, and wouldn't you know it, those stupid Dunlendings, who we'd helped and helped and helped, they sold us out to Saruman. Now we're prisoners, forced to work in his dungeons. Squid had the worst of it, as I think I was too busy being a photographer to actually help her with her tasks. She manages to carry a barrel full of weapons magnificently though. Sashays like a boss. Her taskmaster is staring like a creeper over the top of the barrel. Try as we might, we couldn't get rid of him. Kept stalking her. Course, she is gorgeous. I only wish it wasn't so dark underneath Orthanc, because it makes for dim, hard to see pictures.

And she has some awesome moves. Like this one, to the left, where she douses a rat in holy light. We actually had a quest called "Kill Ten Rats." I don't know if that was just lazy story-writing on the part of the devs, or pure genius. Also, my eagle, can't remember his name, looks fantastic in this picture. All swoopy. Ahem. Even though we were prisoners, our wardens were kind enough to let us keep our weaponry. And our nanimals. What kind of prison is slavery in Orthanc, anyways? Other than the hard labor and disgusting living conditions, it wasn't that bad.

So a short post, because I am out of sudafed.

Happy Autumn!

Squid and I have been slowly enjoying bits of the new Lotro expansion, Rise of Isengard. To celebrate Autumn and it's none-too-early arrival, Squid came up with a rather festive outfit and attempted to share her happiness with a new-found, errr, friend at the Dunlending city of Galtrev. It didn't go so well.

Squid and her new half-orc friend-thing.

More posts on the loremaster's adventures through Isengard to come!

 .... not that any of you out there in the great big Interwebs actually reads this.

Squid and her Loblolly

Squid the Loremaster and her Lurker, Loblolly. Both of them are being especially awesome.

Squid, the awesome

Squid taking on the orcs of Dol Guldur.

A Day with the Loremasters: Horse Envy and Menial Labor

So Squid and I began work on Volume III the other day, and it didn't exactly begin as epicly as the other volumes had. It was all menial labor - as in the screenie to the right, where I am toting pumpkins for Butterbur. Silly innkeeper can tote his own pumpkins for all I care. We were also required to tote various other produce, but I didn't feel the need to record each and every step of the way, as soon after I finished playing carry-all, I met up with sis in the common room of the Pony for a pint before we headed out.
Silly elf was finding Barliman's benches way too comfortable and refused to move for a while. I felt the need to scold her while she took an inordinately long afk. I took this time to notice, as if for the first time, the messy state of the Pony. You'd think that all that time I spent carrying vegetables that the proprietor could at least wipe down a table or right a stool or something. Anything. But no, it's all a mess, and it's been a mess, and it will always be a mess, and all Butterbur will do is stand there saying "So much to do!". You're telling me. Go do some of it, you lazy innkeeper bum.



After Squid finally decided to move, we set off for the northern edge of Bree, where we had to fight off a ruffian who had been insulting Squid's sabercat, Ronon. Ronon took great joy in beating the tar out of this ruffian, as did Squid. Except she called down fire and lightning, like Taborlin the Great (sorry, had to put that in there) and he ran off squealing, much like a little piglet. Excuse my big head in this screenie, but I was awestruck by how awesome Lightning Storm looks when seen from the third person. I usually don't get that sort of view.

Then, Squid decided she needed to show off her newest horse, the Steed of Night. She managed to acquire it the day before it left the Lotro Store (forever?) and made no attempt at hiding the fact that she had a horse I did not. I have to admit, it's a nice looking horse, moreso when I don't have one myself. Le sigh.

One day I will have the most amazing horse in the game. I just need to decide which horse that is first.

The Yule Fest

I know this is late, the Yule Fest is over. But I found these in my screenie file, and didn't want to just delete them. Instead of your normal Yulefestery, this year Turbine gave us a whole new area with Frostbluff. It had several activites, like an eating contest, a very fun little theater instance, and a snowball fight. There were others, I just can't remember them at this point in time. Oh, and one of the cool things about this festival is it was the first time in the game you are asked to make a moral decision based on what you have learned through the story. Once you have made your choice, that's it. No going back. Also, this is the last time I will mention that moral dilemma. It was a bit traumatic to make. Not that anyone cares, and several people thought that the new Frostbluff area this year wasn't that great, but I thought it was pretty cool, so I will share a few screenies I took with you, the theoretical reader (because we all know you don't exist. I'm writing to the vast emptiness of the internet here, and there is no one out there).

 Here we have a view of the snowball fight, and me and Squid's lovely blue outfits. Also a view of some poor sucker who bought that $25 horse.

As a Loremaster, Thyrra has lots of animal friends, but not all of them are .... 'pets.' Edinburgh the fox, for instance, never listens to anything Thyrra says and will get up on the table and eat pie, regardless of her protests. Or, lack of protests, in this shot. I guess she's resigned herself to fate.

Here is Squid on her Hobbit Pan, who is sitting on her pony.... and isn't she just the cutest hobbit you will ever see? Squee! I want to hold it!

 I found out how to get onto the roof of one of the houses, and Indy had some fun dancing around on the chimney for a few minutes until someone shot fireworks at her.

And finally, a shot of Indy and Squid at sunset in Frostbluff, on our new Glittering Yule Steeds, this year's addition to the festival horses.

Now just to wait and see what they do new for Springfest this year.

Leaving Moria

So, the other night, Squid and I finally left Moria (I know, I have been slacking severely in my Lore-master chronicles and I can't recall if I even mentioned us going IN to Moria in the first place, but whatever, we left it). She had been refusing to leave Moria until the epic line prompted us to, because, in her words, "Once I leave Moria, I'm not going back." After running all the way east to First Hall, we stood for what seemed like ages at the doorway, just staring out into the last bit of darkness. Squid claimed she was afk, but our burglar buddy, Licentious, suggested that maybe she had Stockholm Syndrome and that perhaps Moria had been so bad to her that she couldn't tear herself away from it. She huffed and puffed at this and claimed that she could leave anytime she wanted to, thankyouverymuch.

So we left. The sunlight outside was bright and stark after the long dark of Moria. The elves of Lorien, of course, were snobby and wouldn't let us in. So we had to run back and forth, carrying arrows and clearing the orc muck out of the Nimrodel before they would let us pass. They are very protective of their realm, and even shot Squid for trying to enter Lorien before they said she could. Heck, they even stuck a couple arrows in me for getting too close to their borders while trying to clear out orc muck.

Finally, we had done enough menial demeaning work to satisfy the elves, and they let us into Lorien. As we rode our horses down the pathway, with twilight just coming on and the last bit of sunlight fading away into blue duskiness, Squid couldn't help but exclaim how beautiful everything was. I had to agree with her. Lorien has always been one of my favorite places. We ran around performing more tasks for the elves, helping them keep the forest alive and well, like in this screenshot, where we are singing to the sick trees. Apparently, in Lorien, that helps.

Eventually we had done most of the quests that didn't involve a lot of killing and resorted to outlandish acts, simply to see how far we could push the boundaries. One of the defining marks of Lorien architechture is the construction of Talan, or great platforms high up in the boughs of the Mallorn trees of Lorien. There is a deed to discover all of them, and in the process of climbing up all of them, we discovered that the huge branches can be walked out onto.

This of course led to all sorts of shenanigans, which, inevitably, led to misadventure. The problem with jumping around in branches high up in trees is that you will most likely fall out, and it is a lonnnnnggggg way down. And when you fall a long way, you will die. Which we did, more than once. It was loads of fun though, and in the end, as the sun came back up over Lorien, we called it a night and went our
separate ways, leaving the rest of Middle-earth for another day.

Perhaps eventually we will make our way further east towards Mirkwood, or even south into the wilds of Enedwaith, but for now I am content to sit and relax in the eaves of the Golden Wood.

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.

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.

A Night with the Loremasters

So tonight sis and I finally went questing (yay for questings!) and this is a brief summary of what happened:

We started off in the Misty Mountains, where I gave sis the scroll that would let her summon her very own fox! It is a rare item, and I was glad I found it on the AH, so I grabbed it for her, cause I'm nice like that.
Isn't he adorable? Then we did ONE quest to get just that much farther in the epic line, but then we were stuck at a full fellowship quest, and when we asked for help, we were met with the news that Turbine is nerfing ALL of Volume I, to my great dismay (and tiny joy. Now I might be able to finally get my white horse). In other words, if we wait till Monday, when they make the changes, we might not need the help and should be able to do it on our own.

Here we are in the Misty Mountains while I tried to get my mic working again. Thankfully my headphones didn't die on me this time. Just in-game problems. Sis, of course, is looking radiant as always, all shiny in the moonlight, while I look like a dork and don't even have my eyes open. Typical.

Then we went down to Rivendell, where we contemplated fishing in a lovely little water hole we found, until we noticed this strange bubbly bit of water. It intrigued us greatly.

Then we were bored, and started swimming about in the water. It was a lovely swimming hole, after all, and a welcome break from the cold mountains we had just left.

 Then we were joined by a couple Kinmates, and ran up to Forochel, where we killed many mooses (meeses?) and wolverines and wargs. Sis also discovered that she cannot play the Lute well. So she smashed it and I threw the bits in the nearby campfire.


All in all it was a lovely night, and except for us wandering too far ahead of our level and getting ourselves killed (repeatedly) by mobs much stronger than we were, it was loads of fun. I love running with my sis ^.^