Vision Fragments

Highlights: Fanrel enters Limlight Gorge while Resolina explores the Wastes

January 29th - February 19th

Monday 29th: Isengard Foundry. Fanrel still needed Foundry for A Thorn in the Hand quest for one of the Isengard deeds. I thought it would have been better to wait for Dagorhir since he was the one who assisted me in the other instances. Yet, Elaelin thought it would be fun if we went in this instant. Cyrenia and Pureheart joined in too. I can't recall the name of who else joined our escapade but they did help lead us through carefully. The instance took much longer than I anticipated, perhaps because it was set as T2. Even with a bunch of 115s, the mechanics were quite challenging. With determination, we were able to complete it.

Things only get fun when you see a troll punt one of your friends into the wall of flowing lava.

Friday 2nd: Lang Rhuven, Skoironk, Towers of the Teeth. Today was the day Resolina took another stab at The Wastes. Lang Rhuven is a difficult place to finish but much more doable with friends. Rinrielth (the beorning), Osgwehir, Yualiel, and Findro all came along to finish quests/deeds in Lang Rhuven. We had to be careful to make sure the couple non-level 115 members didn't get ambushed around the camp. Then came the highly difficult part of scavanging the depths of the resource instances. The fellowship versions have defilers that take around 80% of your health away. Not only can it be cast on multiple targets but can damage anyone around you. We walked the line where this made it both fun and irritating. Somewhere along the way Droc also joined our cause.

What do you mean 'my right or your right'? We are both going in the same direction!

You might have noticed that Elaelin was not with us. She took on the new guy to Helegrod. I don't know all the information behind this person but I overheard Elaelin's speech about learning what every button does on the skill bar. She also introduced him to one of the big battles. She did manage to squeeze one last hoorah for me. Elaelin and Eintaldir (Pred) helped Fanrel with The Culling Pit (not to be confused with Pits of Isengard). There really isn't any grand reward for doing these quests. You might even be level 115 and find out you still could do these quests. Instead, it is just kind of neat meeting up with some of the most interesting encounters you would ever see at that level.

Angle your shields up a little higher for peak marshmallow goodness

Monday 5th: Halls of Night, Inn of the Forsaken. Elaelin and Kandrula took Fanrel through the depths of these two instances. Halls of Night was rather easy. I've had the quest Family History since I was level 40. That quest at least awards you 60 Medallions. T2 adds an additional challenge of matching your specific color to your enemies but that didn't seem to be a problem for the level we were running it as.

Elaelin's minstrel-laughing ways will bring down Panic everytime.

Inn of the Forsaken is much more complicated. There are elements that are divided to whatever class you might be.

Brawn (Guardian, Warden, Champion, Beorning) operate suspicious walls
Lore (Rune-keeper, Minstrel, Lore-master) read strange runes and use incantation stones
Aware (Captain, Burglar, Hunter) use trap mechanisms (suspends traps in the area momentarily, stepping on pressure pads still activates)

In order to complete all the deeds, you will need to carry one of each class through the instance. Not only is that difficult in itself, but dragging your guide around can make your experience in the instance that much harder. It is a nice place to visit but not one to be taken likely.

So am I going to shoot him or you?

However, that isn't all we did. There was a request by one of our kinmates to run all four wings of Fornost. We managed to do three of the wings before people were starting to fall asleep at the keyboard. I know first-hand what sort of mark that leaves on your forehead. I wonder if I still have that picture of my cousin.

Friday 9th: We first decided to grab as many people as possible for the Gatecrasher title. We started rounding up people to kill the two trolls guarding Isengard - Ufdrágh and Barashal. Yes we even summoned the level 32 captain Cambes... for some reason. I foolishly made a campfire a little too close to the gate. Yualiel and a few others started the encounter and tried to hold on as long as possible. We defeated them with ease but tried waiting around for them to respawn. After about 20 minutes, the group got tired and moved onto other things.

Limlight Gorge - Erestandir (115) and Bizinga (97) both decided to help me in Limlight Gorge. I thought my days of killing giant things were behind me. I guess they needed to add giant spiders to the list. You hear about a band of dwarves heading south to the abandoned mill. There you discover that their quick pursuit of logging profits has hit a sort of snag from the vines of the lively trees in the area. One-by-one you rescue them and check on their status at the mill. You also run into a treasure hunter at the Prospector's Shack. You piece together fragments of a treasure map from him and his dead comrades. Then you dig for ore. I didn't get around to doing the instance yet but the Ents sure seemed desperate against the mighty force of those spiders. Maybe another day.

Monday 12th: A lot of things happened on this day. First of the Heirs was requested. The quest is available after completing 25 Quests of Tarlang's Crown. A few people wanted to run Barrow Downs in anticipation of SLOTRO. Most of the group was around level 25 to 35. I felt like I was babysitting with my level 82 hunter at the helm. Afterwards, a couple of people decided to take me through Court of Seregost. Then at the near end of the night, there were still a couple needing some help in Durthang.

Friday 16th: In Their Absence. If you recall long ago, there was a time that Resolina and a few others went through the In Their Absence quest chain. A few forgot to turn in their quests in Sâri-surma while I forgot to turn my quests in Ost Dunhoth. This time we make things right. We ran through Lost Temple, Sâri-surma, and Ost Dunhoth. Oh and if you missed it before, the final boss drops the title of this quest by saying "The five wizards have abandoned you. In their absence, the Dark Powers now triumph and usher in a new age of despair."

I love you Gandalf!

Monday 19th: The Treasure Hunt event lasted from the 15th to the 20th and I already had enough of it. Resolina received 13 Huge Chests and Fanrel 8. In all those chests, Fanrel got two duplicates of the Treasure Goat. I was not a happy camper. Later that night, Finnok helped us grab the last of the treasure caches in Mordor. Periodically we would group up and search for these little boogers. Today, Resolina managed to obtain the last of them in Agarnaith.

All the treasure here stinks! I should have stayed in Moria.

2018-02-24