The Loot Dropper

Those of you with the constitution to handle it, and especially those of you who need to work on your Angmarim slayer deed in Angmar (no? durr), will find this little tidbit to be particularly tasty.

In north-eastern Angmar, near Gath Forthnir, is the little nasty village of Bail Catharnakh. In the nook of one of the buildings, interspersed between angmarim, duvardain and gorthorog, you can find this charming little fellow - a Cargul.
As a level 50 mob (elite I believe) with 10k health, he's a bit of a hassle for lowbies, but if you're at level cap, you can get some decent loot off of him. He and his buddies all have a relatively quick respawn rate, and his friends go down without too much of a fight, the two archers and the one melee npc. The Cargul can throw out some fears, disarms, and silences, but other than that he's not too bad. Within thirty minutes of farming him, I had gathered, among various old level 50 weapons/armor/pocket pieces/jewelry, these prizes:

And also a "Tome of the Snake" cosmetic pet for my Loremaster - the only one I was missing :) I still have lots of characters who need the angmarim slayer deed, so while I'm working on it I'll be sure to catch this guy a few more times and see what else I come across.

The Cloak of the Cluck: Flying the Coop

For those who have lots of patience, quick reflexes, and perhaps a friend or two to help them along, the Cloak of the Cluck is a pretty interesting little item to get in lotro as a cosmetic piece (it does have some stats, but they are low and rather useless). Also, this post is going to be extremely long, prepare for a wall of text or two.

After doing some pre-requisite quests, which introduce you to the plight of the chickens at Sandson's farm in the Shire, just north of Michel Delving, you are able to start the series of session plays known as "Flying the Coop." These place you in the body of a brown rooster, level 1, with only about 32 morale. Yup. You better watch your step, because it's a big world out there, with lots of things that would love to have chicken for dinner.

You start in the Shire, at Sandson's Farm, where you first must go to some of the different animals scattered across the Shire and ask them for help in defending your coop from the invading wolves. Old Sally, near Tuckborough; a Fox near Woodhall; and Farmer Maggot's three dogs, Wolf, Fang, and Grip all refuse to help you, so you are then sent back to Sandson's farm in dismay. This quest is not too difficult and can be completed solo if you watch out for the brigands and wolves scattered about. Most of the enemies in the Shire will at least warn you before they attack, so this is probably one of the easiest of the sessions to complete.

After you finish Flying the Coop, you are presented with a series of regional session plays that can be completed in any order. All of these start at Sandson's Farm, and some of them can take over an hour and a half, so be prepared for a long run of bobbing and weaving, especially if you don't have anyone to help escort you (in our Kinship runs, I will usually run as an escort on my 65 hunter and turn anything that gets too close to the flock of chickens into a pincushion). I will present my takes on the different regional session plays in the order I have done them, though keep in mind that once you complete the basic Shire Flying the Coop, the regional ones can be completed in any order.

For the Ered Luin version, you must run from Sandson's Farm up to Thrasi's Lodge to speak with the injured Lynx mother. This one is not too difficult, especially if you keep to the road. It's simply a bit long, and for the most part, empty. There aren't many enemies at all to worry about between the Shire gate and Duillond. The most difficult sections are in crossing the Rushock Bog, but most of the creatures there can be pretty passive, just hope your escort, if you have one, doesn't have the Shire bounty open or you don't run into the troll that sometimes wanders around the bog at night. Another area that might give you trouble is just before Thrasi's Lodge, as Dourhands and crebain like to hide in the trees. After speaking with the Lynx mother, you are sent back to the Shire.


For the Bree session, you must speak with several creatures scattered across the entirety of Bree-land. This, to me, is one of the hardest ones to complete, as there are many places where a careless step could get you killed and you will have to start all over. For this one you must speak to the cow on the roof in Buckland, Wink the Cat in Bree (in the cat lady's house on the Scholar's Stair), a Horse at Hengstacer Farm, a Squirrel up on an island in Nen Harn, and Sniken the Neekerbreeker in the Midgewater Marshes. I have not yet found a route that doesn't require much doubling-back or too much dodging. There is a pesky wall of cliffs between the Marshes and the fields by Nen Harn, I have found a path through them once, but have had trouble finding it again and usually end up looping around through Archet and coming down through Combe and then cutting diagonally across the marsh. There is a path for sure on the far right through the Weather Hills, but unless you feel like messing with the chance of stealthed wolves and a camp of level 55 half-orcs, I suggest you avoid that route. One thing I will mention is that those attempting these quests should pay attention to the quest dialogues of the different animals if they can, as some of them are quite humorous. My favorite is definitely the squirrel up on the island, he's psychotic.

For the Lonelands you have the relatively simple task of running to Ost Guruth and speaking with Radagast the Brown, seeking his help. As long as you stick to the road and have a bit of good luck, this one is also easily soloable. Sometimes, especially closer to Ost Guruth, you will run into lynxes, wargs, spiders or half-orc archers close to the road, these can take a bit of effort and adrenaline to avoid, especially the archers. Your evasive skills (ie ALL your skills) can be very useful here, and play dead if you have to. Once you speak to Radagast you are again transported back to the farm.Apparently no one has the time to help a poor chicken out and you are refused again.

For the North Downs you also have a single creature to talk to: the Aurochs Yearling south of Gatson's Farm. For those without an escort, this one can be a bit of trouble, but if you have an escort or two, feel free to cut across country and head in an almost straight line towards the yearling. However, take care when crossing the river that flows down the center of the North Downs - there are high cliffs on the right bank that can make crossing difficult if you don't hit it at just the right spot. When I ran it I thought I could just cross the river at any point, but picked a bad place and spent several minutes swimming up the river looking for an accessible exit point. After speaking to the Aurochs Yearling, who of course also cannot help you, you are transported back to the Shire.

For the Evendim session, this is perhaps the easiest, but also the most boring of the sessions you can play. For the most trouble free route, something easily soloable, simply run along the roadways through the Shire till you get to Brockenborings, then head east and jump into the Brandywine. Then swim up the Brandywine, avoiding getting too close to the banks on either side (especially up near the big curve to the left near the brigand's camp. There are archers that can peg you if you are too close to the right side. If you have an escort, as in the above screenshot, then feel free to run along the left bank, with your guardian angel pegging away at any nearby nasties. Then continue up the river and across the Evendim lake until you get to the Eavespires, where you must speak with the Ent Longbough. Keep in mind that if you jump in the water while pressing w (or whatever your movement is set to) you will swim faster than simply moving forward. Don't ask me why, I don't know and it makes no sense. After successfully completing this session you are, naturally, transported back to the Shire.

The final session to be completed is a trek to Rivendell. This one is without a doubt the longest and the most difficult. It can be soloed up until you reach the Bruinen Forges, but after that I have not yet found a way to reach Rivendell without some sort of help (or a great deal of luck and skill). The bears and lynx, the lurkers, badgers, boars and sickle-flies are a bit too scary for me, so I called in some help from a Rune-keeper friend of mine for the last bit, but if you are confident in your Fowl Fleetness and Bobbing and Weaving, then by all means attempt it. Just remember, if you die, you have to start back at the Shire and run all that way again.

For all that effort, you are rewarded with the Cloak of the Cluck, a fantastic looking cloak that shows off your patience and mad skills to the rest of the lotro community.

As an escort for chicken runs, I have to say the hardest part is seeing the chickens if they happen to get in tall grass or too far away. They are kind of tiny. Also, I developed a funny paranoia and kept looking behind me and doing a headcount to make sure I still had all my chickens and hadn't lost any.

Finally! Sword Halls pulls through for me!

 WARNING: Wall of Text ahead. If you don't actually play the game this could be pretty boring.

 I got the cloak from Sword Halls in Mirkwood that I've been dying to get!!

Sword Halls is a three-person instance in Dol Guldur in Mirkwood. You run in, activate the instance by moving close enough to the nazgul and his fell beast to get him to start talking to you, and then you wait for the first boss to come out at you. Well, the first boss doesn't come immediately. Instead, you have to fight two waves each consisting of three cronies similar in makeup to the boss you're going to soon face. The first boss, the fire boss Urchon or some such name, is actually the hardest one to beat. He has a fire attack that snakes across the floor every once in a while, and in all the times we've run it we've only managed to interrrupt it once to prevent him from getting it off. If you have a good healer or plenty of wound pots you don't have to worry about it and can just stand there and get burned, but if you're like me, most of the time you don't have many pots or a healer worth their salt, so you're reduced to running about and firing off a quickshot when you can. Once he hits 20k you can as a hunter go Burn Hot/ Strength stance (assuming your tank has a good hold on him) and really burn him down the rest of the way in a hurry. Regaining power afterwards shouldn't be an issue if you burn him down fast enough, there should be a nice gap before the next set of people come in.

The next two waves are going to be varying types of morrovail, relatively simple and brain-free to beat. Then comes the boss, a morrovail named Carcheron or something. I'm not good with names. For some reason, no matter what group I run with, she always runs straight for me as soon as she comes in the room, whether I shoot her or not. Ah well. I just try and take her as a lesson in letting the tank gather aggro a bit before laying into her. The only thing to really watch out for with her is she has a selfheal every once in a while you need to try and interrupt, but usually a guard can handle this no problem, even if they aren't traited for quick interrupts.

The last set are a bunch of orcs. These will go down alot faster if you can fear/mezz/stun the one that will be standing in the back, esp. when the other two orcs start looking at him and chanting something in their orcish way. If he is feared out, they will keep going with their induction anyways, essentially giving you three orcs just standing there for you to wail on without them even touching you. The boss attached to them is a big Gerthyrg troll. He is also fairly simple, if a bit hard on the AoE damage, so tanks keep him turned around if you can. Also, every ten or fifteen k or so, he will turn green and run to the center of the room. Once that happens, there is a bloodspot on the floor to the left of the instance entrance. You need to be standing on this spot. If you aren't , his huge AoE attack will punt you and cause a huge amount of damage. If you are running without a healer, this could kill you in a hurry.

After he's down there's nothing left to do but to divy up the loot, usually a bunch of ixp runes/relics, and occasionally some third ages and off-hands. Make sure everyone loots each chest so that you get all three of your DG tokens. Also sometimes you can get some really nice jewelry and cloaks from the chests. I finally got the cloak I've been going after for a while.



And it only took a month and a half of trying and countless chests to get it. Granted, it didn't even drop from my chest (thanks Rashaldir for letting me roll on it! And on the one time I decided to switch chests, lol!!!) but I have it! Yay! Hopefully this puts me closer to a day without power problems. That +44 Fate certainly will help with the icpr, that's for sure. And nothing wrong at all with those other stats, that's for sure. It looks pretty sweet too. Sort of heraldic or something.

 Now to just get the +70 agi jewelry from SG.

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.

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.

Freeping: a Noob's Guide

So I've been playing lotro for almost a year now. For me, for an mmo, for something that requires paying for on a regular basis - that's a very impressive number. All this time, I had never once (except for one tiny quest to introduce the system to me) set foot in the area of pixelated Middle-earth Turbine has christened The Ettenmoors. Why? Because I would die if I did. And quickly.

The real horror of dying in the Moors lies not from signature elite mobs, or even from random arch-nemesis (in my whole year of playing, I have only run across maybe five of these. They are not fun. I usually run when I see them and don't even stop to see how strong they are). No, the real danger in the Moors lies in other players . That's right. The Moors is lotro's PvP area, or in this case, PvMP (the M stands for Monster). In the Moors, players entering the area from the rest of Middle-earth will fight (and quite likely die) as an elf or hobbit or whatever race their character happens to be. Or, players have the option of entering the Moors from the login screen as a monster. Players can choose between all sorts of nasties - orcs, wargs, spiders - lots of dangerous creepy things.

Why is this so different than every other place in lotro, you might ask? Because, when you have people vs an AI system, it's pretty predictable what the thing you are shooting at is going to do next. However, when you are pew-pewing away at another person, a certain level of... well... uncertainty comes into play. There's no telling what the person behind that Uruk-hai is going to do next.

Anyways, back to my not being on the Moors.

My avoiding the Moors ended about a week ago when I decided, since I had finally hit lvl 60 (which is almost at the level cap for lotro) to see if I could step past that barrier without being instantly ganked by some warg hiding in the bushes. Plus, with Turbine's recent change to the mount system, horses, instead of being a pickandchoosecauseyouonlygetone sort of thing, are like Pokemon. You gotta catch em all. And one of those horses lies in the Moors. It is not available for purchase until you reach something called "Glory Rank 9." I figured Glory can't be that hard to get, so I headed out to Glan Vraig, the safe point for Freeps (that's the good guys, it's short for Free Peoples) and set about asking if there were any groups out.

Within seconds I was sent an invite into a group of about twenty people. Twenty very loud, very rude, very scathing people. One of them sounded as though he was seven years old. After I died a few times (which didn't take very long, even with the group - they assumed it was my fault for dying and not the healer's for not keeping me alive....) they began to talk about me in chat, as if I wasn't still there and couldn't hear what they were saying. The seven year old proceeded to tell the leader of the group that "he had inspected my traits and I wasn't even traited to be out here, what the **** did I think I was doing out here?" (I am bleeping his words for courtesy - I was shocked that a kid would use that sort of language.

I stuck with it for about thirty more minutes before I finally dropped the group and mapped back to the safety of my hobbit-hole. Then, I sat there for a full five minutes and tried very hard not to cry.

I was in shock. In all these months, in all my hours of playing, I had never once been reduced to tears by the community of lotro. I have found the players to be mature, respectful, and on the whole very friendly. This was something completely different. This was like playing WoW or something. I logged off and went and made supper.

A few days later (I suppose I have a short memory or something) I decided to go back to the Moors. As luck would have it, I got into a much better group - no one yelled, no one cursed, and we rained fire and brimstone down onto those Creeps. I was enraptured. I lost track of time. I played for six hours straight into the night. Finally, when the group disbanded, I realized that it was four o'clock in the morning. I was surprised at the time, but then again I wasn't. I was also hooked on the Moors.

Since then I have been back out there several more times, and I have worked my way up to Glory Rank 4, or the "Man-at-Arms" rank. I have managed to get into almost the exact same group every time (apparently this is a regular, scheduled thing for them) and not once have I seen that horrible seven year old.

I still have a long way to go for that horse (which, I've been informed, is considered the "ultimate" status symbol for lotro - you have that horse, you are immediately looked upon with respect. The fact that each rank increases in size and difficulty, but hey, I am in no rush. Right now I'm enjoying the Moors, and by the time I do get that horse, I will probably keep Freeping.