The Dead Rises

March 9th - March 10th

Highlights: Second Tier of Minas Ithil

Barad Orhant, the Tower of the Treegart: I always found this tower's name misleading since the garden area is actually on the third tier and the first mention of "the tree" isn't until later on. You don't encounter the fighting roots until the fourth tier. Oh well. You know the drill. Clear the tower, kill the keeper, set up a camp. This will be the first time you encounter a wall that will block your progress. Make sure you kill every enemy, even the ones that are hiding in the corner that you swear you already checked. The wall will come down. You should learn of Dolenthol's history and try to help out the rangers that have been wounded. The leader of the camp will ask you to pick up the medicine and heal those on their beds. Yet Dolenthol will discover a better method using the powder and dust from things in the area. Make sure to look for a door to leave the area. If you haven't done it by then, make sure you have all 4 "seal" quests from Minas Vale. You will turn them in here.

Circle of Sorrow: If you haven't realized it, the Eye of Sauron is etched everywhere in the foundation of Minas Ithil. There are quite a few surprises within this wing and you'll be encountering quite a bit of it running back and forth with a chicken's head cut off. You'll gain quests to kill armored sentries on the wall, which you can then easily shortcut your way through back to the camp. You will gain a quest to gain six cargul pendents when there are only three that appear within the gated sections. You'll get a quest to go rescue bound spirits at Song-house of Lindalire. But then you'll also get some quests visiting two inside structures: Burzangh, The Shrouded Forge and Dar Grazadh, The Hall of Rot. These places are glorious to visit and mixes up the monotony of killing your 100th wight. There is a side-questline where you discover that the Merrevail (if you refer to only one as a singular enemy it is Morroval) are exchanging the corpses of their fallen opponents from the plague for weapons and access to The Black Lore. At one point you discover quite a bit of them flying overhead too as "Shadows cast from above darken the Morgul stone". If you look up at that instant, you will see a swarm of bats near the tower (barely see it in the screenshot). Sometimes you'll gain a debuff where "dead are watching you" with +20% miss chance. First time visiting the Hall of Rot, the text "The hall is teeming with the Dead" popped up as if they started a party without me. I figured it was a good time to rattle some bones! Do know that there are stairs going up in both sides of the instance.

 

2020-03-21