In the Halls of Our Fathers

Dwarven RP in Lotro is not something I've had much exposure to. For a while, even, I was not sure I would even want to play a dwarf at all. They are a bit clunky looking in-game, to be honest, and I can't quite get over how similar they are in movement to some stubby ape. Tolkien's dwarves, in the text, were represented as sturdy folk, to be sure, but I'm not quite sure if that meant their arms had to be longer than  their legs.

/ahem
Moving on.

My curiosity over dwarven RP, regardless of the appearance of the dwarves, has always been there, and when I saw an advertisement on the Lotro forums for the calling of an Althing - a gathering of dwarves, much like the Nordic tradition for which it's named, my interest was thoroughly piqued. So I cornered my RP buddy and convinced him to roll a baby dwarf, and together we went to the Althing.



The Althing was to be hosted by three of Lotro's largest dwarven kinships, but due to some last minute issues with attendance, the turnout was rather small, so the gathering moved from the main court to the interior of the Frosthammer Clan's stoic hall. Snorrir, their resident skald, treated us to a naming of all the statues lining the entry-way, and the Frosthammers joined together in saluting the memory of their ancestry.

Once inside and comfortable before a warm fire, the Althing began in proper, with a court of sorts held to bring for grievances and settle disputes. Braldr, Lord of the Frosthammers, was sound in his judgement and wise in his words, as befits a dwarf of his years and standing. Snorrir, the skald, also told an amusing tale behind his moniker Shiningbrow.

My only disappointment is that the announcement on the forums promised a recitation of an original epic, in the Germanic edda style, and that never happened. I'm sure they are saving it for a larger crowd, as they are for the sparring matches and competitions, I'm sure. A handful of 75s against a handful of lowbies wouldn't be much of a contest.

 My young Thyrca, who is a very young dwarf, comparatively, was quite overcome by the nobility of the Frosthammers, and vowed to find a way to bring honor to his young name and come to the next Althing with a grand tale to tell.

Side Note: I toyed with the idea of rping Thyrca as a female dwarf, as all my other characters are and always will be female, but I settled against it due to lore issues that I found unavoidable. Also, the fact that you cannot have a beardless dwarf, and Tolkien is not clear on whether or not the female dwarves were bearded gave me pause. I can be quite the lore-monkey when appropriate. So I made the decision he was male, and whaddya know, two of the dwarves in attendance were female. /lesigh.
 

In the end, the Althing was smaller than intended, but I took comfort in that because of my unfamiliarity with dwarven RP (which is vastly different, it seems, from the rohirric/general RP I've been enjoying the past few months). The Frosthammers hope to host an Althing monthly, citing ancient traditions and whatnot, and hopefully, as time goes by and exposure grows, the Althing will become a keystone event in the realm of Landroval's RP community.


We could all use more RP.

Tulsi Sweetbasil, the unintentional porter

For almost as long as I've been gaming, whenever I'm given a choice of class in fantasy rpgs, I've gravitated towards high dps classes - usually ranged and usually elfish. Just to make sure I wasn't playing my myriad hunters/rangers/snipers out of ignorance, I tried a couple years ago to make a healer on LotRO, a minstrel named Sioned. She was dragged, kicking and screaming, into Moria (it only took two years) and then, she was abandoned because I simply couldn't take it anymore. I am not a good healer. I don't enjoy healing.

I assumed that because I hated healing, that I would hate tanking as well. As a joke, and more to say I had a guard than to really put any effort into it, I created my first tank - a hobbit guard in LotRO named Tulsi Sweetbasil. I leveled her to 15 and then forgot about her. I had somewhere else to store stuff, I had an extra crafter if I wanted to take the time, but really, who wants a hobbit tank?

Then, a very good friend of mine (who happens to play a guard very well) decided it would be fun if we leveled our baby guards (he had created a new one) together. Tank lessons. This should be fun.

  At first, I will admit, I was confused. I had a vague knowledge of the class (and when I say vague I mean vague in the sense that I might as well tell you the plot of a book I've never read and only heard about from a friend of a friend who's sister's boyfriend's cousin read three years ago). Also, at first, it was very boring because it seemed that all anyone ever wanted Tulsi to do was carry things. Case in point, consider the next few screenies:

Carrying a chicken

The hobbits of Oatbarton and Northcotton were particularly bad about needing things carried, and after a while I stopped taking pictures of the random things I was asked to tote from one end of their village to the other. Some of their requests started to sound like Aiel punishments.

Now for a pie!

No carrying this time!

Holly Hornblower, can, for all I care, choke on her spoiled pies. I carried so many of those things to her. If she has the nerve to cook a bunch of spoiled pies, she should at least have the gumption to go collect them all herself.










Finally, in Dwaling, things started to look up. No carrying for Tulsi! I get to blow glass! The head glassblower said I had made a 'thing' they would 'have to find a use for. Maybe an ash-tray for pipes.' Hooray! At least my future as a carrier isn't in jeopardy with any budding talent in glass-blowing.

Que the Sousa tunes

To celebrate my lack of carrying things for a while, I went down to the Shire and set off some fireworks for the fourth of July. No one else was there, except a fox, and even he ran away. They were some noisy fireworks.

She takes all this work with a smile

My celebrations were short-lived though, for as I moved up towards Tinnudir, I was quickly being forced to carry things again. What, does toting a shield around make one's arms especially suited for porter work?

Venison for dinner.

I really was learning about tanking though, in between all the courier work. Here we have me picking on a herd of deer, while my friend and teacher stands by and cheers.

I killed them all.

Not my friend, but the deer.

My first real solo challenge

 We both started to feel after a while that I was beginning to get a handle on this whole being a tank thing, so I set off on my own to see how much I had learned. By now I was in the wastes of Angmar, and not long after leaving Aughaire I saw my first challenge - a shard-dropper with three times my morale. This should be fun.

 I steadied myself, ate a quick couple bites (vitality and wound resist never hurt) and Let Fly! He came after me right away, rather indignantly, and the battle was joined.

I quickly realized that besides having three times my health, he was also four times my height. Was Tulsi mad? Had she gone suicidal in her solitude?



The fight was over sooner than I thought it would be, and yes, I used all my cooldowns, but it was worth it. I felt accomplished, watching that hill-beast fall to the ground in front of me. His adamant shard is something I will treasure forever (or at least until I get to a vault-keeper).

Tulsi, the victorious.

 

I won't be a real tank until I can __________.

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.

Video Games and the Movies

I've been seeing trailers for this movie called "Scott Pilgrim vs the World" floating around, and while I know I don't normally talk about movies here, I felt since the film seems to have an awful lot to do with video games I would mention it. Especially since their website has this fun little character creator.

See? I made me ^_^

If I was better at drawing comic-style art, and had a reason to draw myself (wow I suddenly sound very narcissistic) I suppose this is how I would make myself look. Except maybe taller. That chick up there looks a bit on the petite side, and I'm not that, for certain.