Minding the Gap

Highlights: Resolina visits Inn of the Forsaken, Fanrel visits Orthanc

February 20th - March 5th

Yule Festival Encore: Ran through these couple weeks. There wasn't much left for me to do for the festival. I grabbed a couple of sacks and went on my merry way.

Sunday February 25th: Inn of the Forsaken Challenge. This might have taken a couple more hours to complete but it was very informative. Erestandir stated that it was his first time going through the challenge. There were a couple things to note in this run.

A captain counts as an Aware class alongside Burglars and Hunters. This means that Freidiya (warden) and Erestandir (runekeeper) could join for The Perfect Fellowship. It requires every trap, incantation stone, suspicious wall to be used. Every Pile of Bones must be destroyed regardless of where they are in the map.
The Journal of Captain Rabghul requires T2 in order to locate all 5 pages. These pages are not bound and can be traded to complete the deed with no hassle. Just ask one of us and we can sure to spread them around for 5 easy LOTRO points for each character.
The Necklace's Keeper requires you to defeat the final boss. This one had me a little confused and stupid me made the instance run a bit longer since I had no idea what to do. The final boss, Umin, will attack - Interrupt him only if he says "Now stand still so I can stomp you!" but move away when he says "I'll pound you into dust!" His fist will get stuck on the floor allowing you to bring down his shield via the spike trap trigger at the end of the boat. After he tries to run, you have a limited time to use the blade trap on the opposite side of the boat.
Of course the meta deed for these will give you the Excavator of the Forsaken Caverns both deed and title.

Can't you JUST DIE?!

Monday February 26th: Tower of Orthanc T2 Challenge. Fanrel (85) and Vipurr (79) were barely hanging on with the rest of the characters in the raid. The two of us had to sit in the hallway while everyone else attempted Fire & Ice challenge. It didn't go well. We tried taking down Saruman. That didn't go well either. Fanrel was just not strong enough to endure the freezing cold. The quest: A Thorn in the Hand will have to wait. At least waiting in that hallway allowed me to finish some class deeds. I bet Bun Bun, my white bunny, thought I was crazy to be going stealth and searching for tracks outside the gated room.

Friday March 2nd: This was a pivotal point for it was the last day of me working in real life. I had some fun running a lot of big battles for jewelry and trait points. Being level 85, it let me dive into the bottom of the Huntsman (blue) tree and grab Deadly Precision (Critical hits generate 1 focus) in the Bowmaster (red) tree. I'm hoping this will allow me to use Barrage more often than I am now. I also crafted myself some new armor from my tailor.

Saturday March 3rd: Pick-A-Mount. It finally happened. After I got to the point of not caring. I got a Pick-A-Mount inside a lootbox. Even after getting nothing from the 4 lootboxes during the Kin Party. Steed of the Dusk-watch, Lossoth Steed, or the Red Painted Skeleton Pony. I pick the third one.

I also decided to run around for the Forochel Treasure Cache hunt. It took a little over an hour but I finally got them all in the zone. Frankly, I had to take a break after that. It wasn't as rewarding as I originally hoped.

Blondzilla, Osgwehir, and Fanrel ventured into Carn Dum to finish off some deeds. Like many before me, I got a little lost trying to find my way after defeating Helcham. My companions didn't seem to mind the small delay as long as we managed to get through in a reasonable amount of time.

Monday March 5th: After trying and failing Orthanc Fire and Ice challenge, we decided to go into Throne of the Dread Terror. Things were a little dicey fighting the elephants. It was a very complex fight which everyone didn't know. The good news is we won. The bad news is we bugged the gauntlet. So we all decided to quit after that.

Can't you JUST DIE?!

2018-03-12