It's Not Exactly a Tree...

Just in case you guys hadn't looked lately - I'm over halfway to my goal of playing through 20 generations of Sims. You can take a look at the family tree here. As I was updating the page with the newest generations, I got to thinking .... it's not exactly a tree. When you see pictures of people's family trees on big genealogical charts (especially those charts that are trying to prove some sort of important something), well, they actually look like trees, because they show both sides evenly, or as evenly as possible.

I was going to include some sort of pictoral reference point here - maybe the family tree of some country's monarchy, but the more I looked at all of them, the more I realised that theirs don't really look like trees either... more like tangled, mish-mashed webs. 

My sims? Well, I mainly just trace the heir's line, and show who they married, and any siblings, but that's about it. A lot of the time I can't show any more for the spouses' own personal lineages, as they are usually random townies generated by the game who don't have any parents at all. If they do have them, it only goes back one generation, and that's not much to add to the tree. Plus it makes it messy-looking. *** Edited to say I went back and added all known relatives, just to make it as accurate as possible. It looks messy, but the completionist in me is happy. The link above should still take you to the updated version. ***

I'm beginning to think they shouldn't look like trees at all.

It's also really rare for me to marry off the siblings as well, but the one or two times it's happened I was sure to show at least their spouse and any of their children - but again, with only an eight person limit to households, and never mind the fact that most of the time I've got at least three, if not four generations in the house at one time, it's hard to include everyone and their siblings. Hence the reason why most of my generations are only children, because I just don't have room for more than one. Let's not talk about Aegon's children. That was a fluke.

Yeah, we'll just call it a family vine.

Almost Halfway There

So, I feel like a slacker. Lots of things have happened in the legacy house. So much so, I'm not quite sure where to start.

Well, let's see. JC turned out to be a much better husband (and father!) than I thought he would. He stuck with his job as a police officer, and eventually was promoted into the detective/spy branch, just like he wanted. For a while, he actually looked kind of dashing in his uniform. He cut his hair, was constantly working out, and kept a pretty good income coming in.

Sybil had two children, Celandine and Warden. Both of them got the hereditary blonde hair with the red tips that's been in the family for a good many generations now in some form or another. Celandine, the eldest, got the genetic marker as well, which made me happy. Warden didn't, getting his father's blue/grey eyes instead, which was also fine by me, since technically he's not really important for the legacy. Not yet, anyways.

Both children grew up in boarding school, which made it easier to manage the house in the elder days of Virgil and Mary, while JC was working so hard to rise in the ranks of the precinct and Sybil was being.... Sybil. Training horses, I think. She was kind of lazy, actually.

But then Celandine and Warden came home from boarding school, all grown up and ready to be productive. Celandine fell in love almost instantly with the family butler, Rian Bates, and they were soon engaged. Probably one of the most romantic engagements I've ever seen in my Sims games. Made me smile.

They had a simple, private ceremony, and she was pregnant soon after. I am so glad Sims never have to deal with fertility issues. She had a son, whom I named Fedaykin (had Dune on the brain, no regrets), who has his dad's black hair and darker skin, but still has those yellow eyes. An interesting mix, and if he gets his dad's cheekbones I'll be happy.

Warden managed to seduce the alien who kept hanging around the house, and after a while they too were married, and Vofura had a daughter with Warden whom I named Tan-loc. Not sure where it came from, but it sounded like something an alien would be named.

I may have tinkered with her skin tone a bit. Just don't like that green skin. Wanted her to come from a warmer planet. The baby doesn't look half bad though.

In the end, Fedaykin and Tan-loc are so far the sole members of Generation 9 - and then it will be 10 coming up before I know it.

It's all downhill from there, they say. Please don't glitch out.

Anti-climactic

  I am going to start out with a warning: This Follows No Logical Order. If you are looking for a coherent post, do not even attempt to read this.

So here it is folks, the 100th post. I've been putting it off for a while, because I couldn't find something worthy enough of what I thought, in my own little head, the 100th post should be. Should I post about LotRO? Sims 3? Prince of Persia? Some other game I've never posted about? What about D&D? That made a promising couple of appearances, right? I even took some screenshots of a few games in preparation of this momentous post in preparation (I was trying to map out my post, but it never panned out. I could throw them all at you, without any context. In fact, I'll do that, to confuse those readers who only scan).

In all fairness, I suppose I'm having a hard time coming up with something to post because, in a way, I've been reconsidering my gaming habits as of late. Most of you mature people, especially my father, will probably rejoice at that statement. Its not that games have lost any of their appeal. Quite the opposite. They still intrigue me, but with work and becoming an 'adult' (blech, as if anyone ever wants to be one of those), my free hours are becoming increasingly precious, and when the choice comes between gaming and taking care of housework (because, newsflash, owning a house takes much more sweat equity than an apartment), unfortunately, housework has been winning as of late. Except today, when the weed-eater wouldn't start, so no yardwork for me today yay!


I'm also finding that my eyesight is getting older at a frustratingly exponential rate, and reading a book is much less stressful than raiding. I am the last member of my immediate blood family who does not have some sort of corrective eye wear, and the stubborn part of me refuses to get my eyes checked out of the fear that I might need something and my bastion of perfect eyesight will crumble away. Not sure if bastion was the right word there. 

 There's also the whole, unspoken but totally felt every day, nagging guilty feeling known as, I-was-an-English-major-so-I'm-obligated-to-read-books thing. I am running out of unread books on my shelf. This is a good thing? That, and it's NaNoWriMo. Not that November's ever helped before. Haven't finished a thing yet. Yes, I am writing a book. Slowly. Every year I promise I will have a book done by the next Christmas. It never happens. I am a liar, I suppose. Not that anyone cares. If anyone's still reading at this point I applaud you for for your persistence, and mourn the thought that if this is entertaining to you, you are more starved than I.

Thunderpig!

Regardless, I am still a gamer, there is no doubt about that (or there might be, and perhaps this post, this very blog, is nothing but my own attempt to self-validate a worthless, time-consuming and destructive habit). It is the nature of life, I suppose, to move away from things, to change and grow and move forward. Am I becoming one of those gasp! casual gamers? Stars above forbid. Heaven knows I'd be healthier if I wasn't convincing myself that sitting before a computer for multiple hours a day was a good thing. My rear end is testament to that, if nothing else gave it away before now. I have gained twenty pounds since my wedding day, and looking back, I know exactly what did it. Heck, I knew what was doing it as it was happening. I was knowingly being self-destructive. While I may not be any heavier than I have ever been (I am at my top weight, but I've been here lots of times), the thought that I can do better, I'm just not, is frustrating.

However, with Sims 3 taking up more of my gaming time as of late than the dungeons of LotRO, and with DnD relegated to a once-a-month-if-that thing, and with console gaming pretty much non-existent out of courtesy to my husband, and Lore-mastering with Squid dropping dramatically due to her college schedule, I find myself with little other than casual games left to fill the tiny gaps in free time that beg for entertainment. Especially since the book I'm struggling through at the moment keeps putting me to sleep. Why is it always the fifth book in a series that is the most boring???

Thoughts of starting a family are beginning to loom on the horizon, and with those thoughts come conflicting reports. Most people with children agree that with babies comes absolutely zero time for video-games, but a few have said that nap-time and nursing make for the perfect time to raid. Erm, who is right? Picturing myself breast-feeding while raiding is awkward.

I have always wanted to picture myself, my future self, as some sort of bohemian earth-mother with a lush garden in a wild, woodsy setting and naked children romping about in the yard, chasing each other with sticks. That dream doesn't leave much room for any type of video games, whether raider or casual. Honestly, how many women could get up in the morning, practice some yoga, indulge in a quiet cup of tea, cook breakfast for the family, spend time each day taking care of them and the house (which includes the never-ending mountain of laundry, which has a daily respawn), and then end each day with 3+ hours of gaming? I don't believe there are enough hours in the day. Something has to give. I just wish it wasn't this.

Perhaps that's why coming to grips with starting a family is beginning to wear on me. I want children, I believe God put me on this earth to be a mother, (now for the inevitable-) but, I also enjoy gaming far too much to simply drop it. Is it an addiction? I know many games are developed and marketed for their addictiveness, usually because continuing to play them also requires that you continue to pay for them.



Maybe this is me learning to deal with my stupid sense of leet-ness. For a long time, I was a casual gamer in full, and the thought of stepping into a raid was some lofty, unattainable thing. Then I was introduced into raiding by a very dear friend, and became aware of how much of the game I was missing. I also, as a by-product, learned my class better. Then, over time, I found myself looking down on people who did not raid. "Look at them, ewww. The soloers. The casuals. The non-raiders." (S'funny, I never said "Eww, the rp-ers.") Now I find myself without time, even without children, and I am being forced back into solo/casual mmo-ing. I am what I once was, and what I, more recently, placed myself above. Is this being put in my place?

I am ending my hundredth post here. No climax, no point, no solid ending. Sorry to disappoint.

Also sorry that you were expecting something in the first place.


 

The first rule of being a Dungeon Master.

wall of text alert. You have been warned.

Last week we finally managed to get a Dungeons and Dragons group together (what, you didn't know that was something we have been trying to do for .... a year?) and the first foray was, without a doubt, hilarious. I have no idea how accurate our gameplay was, and I'm sure our newly established houserules would shock more experienced players (hey, I'm a new DM, my answer to almost everything was: "Sure! Of course you can do ___!").

First, for those of you who may be mildly interested (or at least feigning interest), let me introduce the cast of characters.

The DM (me!)
Piers Ravenwood, the human wizard (and my RL husband!!)
Raylana, the elven cleric (one of my coworkers. Ugh, day job)
Kegslow, the dwarven paladin (and Raylana's RL boyfriend)
Amata, the shardmind avenger (Raylana's RL brother)
Also two bystanders, who had never before witenssed D&D, and did nothing but laugh the whole time at our antics :)

Now that I look at it, the cast of characters sort of centers around Raylana. /shrug. Oh well.

Our adventure of choice (or rather, my choice), was to be The Slaying Stone, a prepublished adventure set for characters of the first level. On my first reading, it didn't seem too difficult, and I felt it could be something I, as a totally virgin DM, could handle.

First rule of DMing: the players will always do something unexpected, usually more than once.

We started out, did the first encounter with the wolves without too much hassle ( I say this figuratively, as most of us were still getting a feel for each other and how to actually play the game, as more than one of us was a total newbie and one or two of us were veterans. I'm not saying who), and then was thrown for my first loop when the players started to ask questions about the old woman, Treona, who was giving them their quest to fetch a mysterious stone with dark arcane powers. They were sensing doubt in this woman. Something shifty. Something not along the lines of lawful good. So after questioning her, and me giving her a shiftier side just to satisfy their seemingly insatiable curiosity (she really was fine in the book, THEY MADE HER EVIL), Amata, the avenger, decides he wants to attack her. Why? Who knows. Because he can. While I was frantically looking for random stats to assign this woman since she now had to fight them, Kegslow began to intercede and attempt to calm our randomly aggressive shardmind down. It's a good thing he succeeded with that Diplomacy check too, because I was about ready to throw a level 15 Hag on their level 1 tails.

That should have been my first clue. I have said it before (and if I haven't, I should have) and I will say it again, I do not always catch the obvious the first go-around.


The heroes started out on their journey, and came upon the forlorn ruins of Kiris Dahn, torn apart by goblins. I present them with a map of the city and show them their options for entering. 1, the front gate, but it is heavily guarded and they are attempting stealth as the goblins vastly outnumber them. 2, across the river to the north, but it is very wide. 3, the forest to the south.

Kegslow: "Why can't we go this way?" points to the eastern edge of the map
DM: "Because there is a lake there."
Amata: "How many goblins are at the gate?"
I really didn't want them to go that way, so I sort of railroaded them. "Fifty. Bad idea."
Amata: "How wide is the river?"
Kegslow: "You want to swim?"
Amata: "Well, I don't breathe, I'm made of crystal, so technically I can't suffocate. I say the river."
Kegslow: "Easy for you to say. Fine, how wide is the river?"
DM: "200 feet." It originally was only about fifty feet, but my realization that his class made it easy for him to get across, I decided to spice it up and keep it mildly difficult.

At this point ensued a hilarious round of watching them try to figure out how to get across the river, whether to carry each other across in the manner of that old children's puzzle, or to try and make a raft, or to .... then suddenly Raylana remembered she had 50 feet of rope in her backpack. Surprise, Piers did too. Did Kegslow and Amata? Sure, why not? So I made them roll strength checks for the knots, then athletics checks to see if they could manage to hold on for the entire 200 feet. Kegslow almost drowned, but they all made it in the end.

Then followed a hilarious episode where our heroes managed to sneak up on a lone kobold who was... attending to nature... and convince the kobold leader to create a diversion with the goblins so our heroes would be more free to search for the stone.

They then stole off through the library, where Amata, or Crystalboy as we had come to call him, managed to one shot the miniboss for this particular encounter. As I was still new to DMing, I didn't have the sense to send a horde of goblins down the stairs in retaliation, so I just sat there numbly while the goblin fell to the floor and then the rest of the party finished off the minions.

Next came the shrine of the moon, where they met a lone npc, who at first seemed non-threatening, if at least distant and mostly unresponsive. So when a horde of goblins burst through the doors, surprising our heroes, and the npc retreated to the corner to shake like a leaf, it is small wonder that the heroes ignored him.

It was not my plan for Piers to one shot the minions  in one end of the room, leaving all the other players to run to the other side and deal with the other goblins and their evil boss. It was not plan for Piers to get left alone on that side of the room with the cowardly npc.

It was, however, my plan for that npc to be a wererat, so when he changed over into his more menancing form, and when he bit my husband's poor wizard in the rear, and when my husband contracted Filth Fever, and when he couldn't save out of it, I couldn't help but laugh. Until Piers started to make a very pitiful face at me because he thought he was going to die, and then I started to cry inside because I was killing my husband. I had the power to save him, but that would be cheating, so I let him fight that wererat alone, while we both waited desperately for the rest of the party to decide he was worth helping.

Eventually, and only after a very long and what was becoming desperate fight, they managed to kill the wererat and the goblins, and are now, for the sake of the story, sleeping peacefully in the now empty shrine.

Next time I won't go so easy on them. I will be bolder, and they will tremble at the sound of my dice.

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.

A Rifting We Will Go

I'm feeling a bit wordy, and my imagination won't let me sleep, so forgive me if this post is a bit more on the .... grandiloquent side than usual. This may quite possible turn out to be my longest post to date, so I won't blame you if you don't have the time, patience, or interest enough to read it. If you are looking for information on how to beat the Rift, what strategies you need, etc. You won't find it here. This is pure creative release for my own mind, to share my experiences while they are still fresh.

 Last night, the kin got together, all impromptu-like, to do a bit of Bogbereth farming. We killed her about twenty times, at least until everyone who wanted the housing trophy had one. Farming her was pretty easy, and we had the group and were in the general vicinity, so we figured, why not? Let's go to the Rift.

Now the Rift of Nurz Gashu is the old end-game content for lotro, back when the level cap was fifty and the player base still all knew how to play their classes. I had been to the entrance of it, once, but I had never actually been inside. After volunteering myself for Horn duty, I headed up that way from Gath Forthnir. Even though I had been to the entrance of the place before, I had never really realized how desolate the place was. I felt like I was riding through some surreal movie sequence or something. My imagination began to run away with me as I rode slowly up to the summoning horn. I could almost see little puffs of ash swirl up around Bainrhi's hooves as he worked his way across the ledge. The wind was utterly still, and there were no signs of life to be seen, except for the distant glows of campfires.

After what seemed like ages and ages, I found a camp, but it was not the one I was looking for. These were no Dunadan. These were orcs. Angmarim. Trolls. I threaded my careful way between them and continued towards where I hoped the friendly camp would be.

I finally made it. I summoned my kinmates to the camp, and we marched down from the cliffside to the abandoned arena. The one thought that kept flitting through my head, like some annoying insect, was the size of the place. What sort of place was this? Why had it been built? And where was the entrance to this supposedly horrible place?

The answer to that last question was soon answered, as the leader of our party rode his horse down into a gaping crack in the stonework. A small voice inside me laughed with the thought, at least now you know why it's called The Rift. A great crack in the earth. Then, another thought soon replaced it. What happened to open up this crack and reveal whatever horrors lie beneath it? I had heard horrible things about this place, about how difficult it could be. Even now, at fifteen levels above the intended level, I knew I was up for a challenge. This used to be end-game. The old Sammath Gul. Of course the creators of the game were going to make it as tricky as possible.

I watched my fellow kinmates enter the cave, one by one, and then, I rode down last, into the Rift. Murmuring to myself that I was about to die, I turned, just before entering, and bid farewell to the sunshine. As pitiful as the sky in Angmar is, I had a feeling it was going to be a while before I saw it again.

Inside was a gaping cavern, far larger than what I had been expecting. Truth be told, I had been expecting a tunnel, but no. This was something else.  Far away, I could see orcs and angmarim wielding picks. Were they mining? What was going on down here? What was this place?

We worked our way down ramps that looked none too steady and stopped before a small group of orcs and a massive troll. They were speaking, in their own harsh way, and arguing. I have come to learn that orcs argue a lot. Those with swords and shields rushed forward, and I hung back with the other archers, as was my place. We dispatched with the lot of them quickly, and relatively unscathed.

And that was the way of things for a long while. We would press onward, ever deeper into the earth, and the orcs and evil men fell before our blades. Eventually we came to an interesting scene - some extremely large giants, fighting a band of orcs. For a while we stood back, waiting to see how it would turn out, but then, with one mind, we rushed forward and assisted the giants in defeating the orcs. They thanked us and told us of some horrible creatures ruling over the orcs, and asked if we would help defeat them.  Of course we would. That's why we were down there, wasn't it? To kill bad guys?

After the commotion with the orcs had died down and we had stopped for a bit to catch our breath around the giants' fire, something caught my attention. What was that off to the side? I ran over the the ruined archway and proceeded to view one of the few sites in lotro that have caught me quite by surprise.

What sort of place was this? Who were these fire-giants, the Eldgang? Had Tolkien invented this place, or was this one of the more fanciful (and frankly, strangely beautiful) places the game's creators had though up? But there is no rest for the would-be heroes, so I was soon called away from my sight-seeing to press onward with the rest of the group, ever deeper into the earth.

It soon became apparent that we were headed towards that great coliseum I had viewed earlier. Part of me was excited about the prospect of going there, but part of me still held a lingering fear. Deep places of Middle-earth usually hold ancient, evil terrors, and I had heard rumors that one dwelt here. A balrog. But he has no place in this story yet, for we were still a long way off from that coliseum.

We did battle with many more evil things, not the least of which was an orc named Zogtark and his many drakes. The drakes fell to the ground after we filled them full of arrows, and Zogtark was dispatched by the sword-carriers. We pushed through, and emerged through what appeared to be a promising door only to be met with frustration: We had come out too low, and now had to work our way back up toward the coliseum.

 
Letting my imagination take hold again, I wondered what the heat of this room would feel like, and how taxing it would be on our little band of heroes, both mentally and physically. The armor of the stronger ones would surely grow hot from the heat, and the air would dry out my bow and weaken it. In a place like this, how long could one expect to hold out and continue fighting? Some of my companions' clothes had even caught alight from stray sparks.

It seemed as though we had been underground for ages. The vast caverns had given way to small, tight corridors, and I longed for the sight of the stars. A clear night in the Shire. I wondered how much further we had to go. Even Moria, with all its twists and turns and tight places, gives way to the beauty of Lorien in the end. What golden wood was waiting on the other side of this darkness?

I began to think we had gone too far, surely we've gone too deep. Strange creatures, that looked at first as though they were trolls - but no. These were not trolls. I do no know what they were, even after leaving the Rift and finding the sky again. I have a feeling I do not want to know, with names like Shadow-eater and Stone-biter. Later, we found one that was named World-eater, but that is for later.

Eventually, we fought our way past the strange creatures and into the coliseum. I braced myself for the Balrog. But he was not there. Instead there was another of the Eldgang giants, and a strange creature called the Ever-seer. I was not looking at them though. I was looking at the place I was in. How many thousands of people could this place hold? I wondered, looking at the rows and rows of seats. A pity a volcano had decided to come up in the floor.

I looked below me, over the edge of the platform, and saw beautiful statues. Again I wondered who had built this place, and why. What were those stone kings put there to watch over, with their fire-bladed spear and their towering shields? What was inscribed on their shields? My elvish is a bit rusty. It was in this room that our group was put for the first time to a real test, and we failed miserably, I admit. But we got back on our feet, dusted ourselves off, and tried again.
This time we succeeded, and pressed onward, to what I still didn't know, but thoughts of the Balrog still held heavy in the back of my mind. We ran onward across a long stone bridge towards what appeared to be a fall of lava, cascading downwards from some great height. High above us the roof of the cavern stood, and for a moment I was thankful to be back out in the 'open' and away from those tiny tunnels. I laughed mirthlessly to myself and continued across the bridge with my kinmates. Far away I could see that ruined archway at the giants' fire, and I realized how far we had come. How much farther did we have to go?

At the end of the bridge we came to a great door, and going through it, I met with surprise an elf maiden. But this was no mere maiden. This was a warrior, so strong that it put my feats thus far in the game to shame. This was one of the Eldar. She pointed to a great door beyond us, at the other end of the hall, held shut by many great locks and seals, and told us the tale of how Thaurlach had been imprisoned here many ages ago by the Istari instead of being killed for what he had done to her people, and she had set guard over him for thousands of years, waiting for him to try and escape so that she could finally give him the justice he deserved. After assuring her that we would help her defeat Thaurlach, the Balrog (!!) she opened the great door with its many seals for us.

Not long after entering his prison chamber, something went horribly wrong and he broke loose from his chains. We fought valiantly, but in the end death takes us all, I suppose. It was only a matter of time. And so ends my story of the Rift. Maybe next time, when we've had a chance to catch our breath and re-summon our courage, we'll try again.

If you know me at all and the way I play lotro, I am a complete shutter-bug, and am constantly taking screenshots, sometimes of completely pointless things. This post, if nothing else, should be evidence of that - that I managed to take all these pictures and more in the middle of a twelve-man raid. Maybe that has something to do with my dying so many times. Who knows?

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.