Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Steed of Winter Winds, Yule Festival 2014

Supergirl rides the Steed of Winter Winds


Wow. How about that; 2014 is nearly over. Did you get everything accomplished you intended to do? Was your journey through Middle Earth as satisfying as you hoped?

I have been having a great time! Timewise, I get drawn away by work and family and responsibilities and don't get to play as much, but when I do, it is always satisfying. I made all the festivals. I got all the new horses. I got most of the pets. I did all of the quests. I think I did all the new Deeds. Good times!

I need to update my To-Do list and get the All the Steeds Gallery caught up with all the horses that are written about on this blog. Soon, very soon. Thanks for continuing to come to the site!


Yule Festival 2014
Yule Festival is probably my favorite festival (Yes, I know I say that about most of the festivals!). My favorite things about Yule Festival are...

(1) Sack of Presents. I love running a simple quest and getting the presents. The presents include Marks, Medallions, Seals, Festival tokens, some cosmetic items, and the very rare Hobby Horse. I am still hoping and wishing for my Hobby Horse. Danaish got one a couple of years ago and I'm still envious (check out the Hobby Horse at the link below or in the Steed Gallery.)

(2) Easy and open. The quests are very easy. Like good festival quests, after you have run them several dozen times, you can do them with your eyes closed. I also like the wide open Frostbluff area with the open pretty wintry sky.

(3) Nice rewards. My favorite rewards from Yule Festival 2014 are the (a) Horse of course @ 80 tokens, (b) the Warsteed cosmetic @ 100 tokens, (c) the Pet Grims @ 75 tokens each, and (d) the Yule Sparklers @ 30 tokens each.

There are three Grim available: just "Grim" (it is the Snow Grim), Fire Grim, and Shadow Grim. Here is a shot of the Snow Grim.

Supergirl in a pointing contest with a pet Snow Grim

(4) Long duration. This Yule festival was set with about 4 weeks time to visit, which is great! As I type, there is still about 2 weeks left. Yule Festival ends Jan 13.

(5) History: I still remember Yule Festival before Frostbluff. It is great to go back and visit festival every year. :) Here are a few posts from previous years. There was a building storyline in previous years about my leading the Snowman Army slowly to a takeover of Frostbluff.

2013: snow-beast-steed
2013: steed-of-withywindle-and-hobby-horse
2013: yule-festival-wintertide-steed

2012: yule-festivals-end
2012: youll-yule-celebrate
2012: the-hobby-horse-lotros-100th-steed
2012: wintry-yule-warsteed

2011: youll-yule-festival
2011: fun-of-yule-past

(-) The downside: The only thing I don't care for about Yule Festival is that the Frostbluff storyline is depressing. The people don't want to work it, the mayor is thieving money, etc. We have come to an understanding though that it is another act, like the Frostbluff Theater. They pretend to be gruff and cheerless, and I pretend not to notice and just collect the rewards. It works, I suppose.


Enough about Yule Festival, let's see the Horse!

Steed of Winter Winds:

Here is the Steed of Winter Winds.
He has a grey spotted hide, white hair, and a lovely multi-blue caparison.

Steed of Winter Winds

The pattern has a nice starry look to it. Here is an overhead view, from slightly behind.

Steed of Winter Winds - from above and behind

Warsteed of Winter Winds - Default:

The Default Warsteed look is exactly as one would expect; it is the warsteed default grey. :)
Interestingly, the basic Horse has a nice matching saddle and the Warsteed cosmetic does not come with the saddle. The Caparison is a greyer blue than the shade of Indigo; there is no exact blue match on the color palette.

Warsteed of Winter Winds - default

Warsteed of Winter Winds - attempted Match to Horse:

Ha Ha! Here is my attempt at matching the Warsteed colors and patterns to the basic Horse. For this next picture I chose Spotted Hide - Grey, White Hair, and the Victory Saddle. Ok, the saddle is not an exact match to the basic Steed of Winter Winds, but it worked well. :)

Warsteed of Winter Winds - attempt to match the basic horse

Warsteed of Winter Winds - Evendim Blue and Black:

The Evendim Blue and Black is gorgeous. It is hard to go wrong with the blue shades on this horse. I took the picture from above to show off the fancy starry Caparison. It dyes well.

Warsteed of Winter Winds - Evendim Blue and Black

Warsteed of Winter Winds - Rivendell Green, Dark Chestnut, Blood Bay:

Here is the warsteed in Rivendell Green and browns: Dark Chestnut hide with Blood Bay hair. This is an elegant hunter look.


Warsteed of Winter Winds - Rivendell Green and Browns

Warsteed of Winter Winds - Crimson, White, Light Grey:

Here is the warsteed in Crimson with White hide and light Grey hair. Oooh, I like this one too. :)


Warsteed of Winter Winds - Crimson and White

Here is another shot of the stars on the Caparison. This one is wearing the Victory Saddle again.

Warsteed of Winter Winds - Crimson from above

For more horse views by a great blogger, tune in to The Elven Tailor @ The Elven Tailor/ the-winds-of-winter.

I hope you had a great 2014; I look to see you again next year. Thanks for visiting the Supergirl of Lorien site!  :)

Saturday, October 25, 2014

Steed of the Autumn Sun

Supergirl rides the Steed of the Autumn Sun

Hello again; I hope you are enjoying the Fall Festival!

Fall Festival started a couple of days ago and will last until November 2.
The events are the same as last year and there are a few new rewards, including a horse, a warsteed caparison, some festive outfits, and barter for essence reclamation scrolls, plus most every item offered at previous festivals. For all the details, visit CSTM at CSTM: lotro-fall-festival-2014/

Fall Festival is one of my favorites. The tasks are easy enough and go quickly. It feels the way a festival should, ... almost like quick booths at a fair. 

Here I will look at the new horse and some versions of the warsteed caparison!

Steed of the Autumn Sun:
The steed is aptly named! It is a bright red, orange, yellow themed steed and outfit with a festive fall design. It will be easy to remember this one for years to come.

The horse barter cost is 60 Fall Festival tokens, which is very simple to get by hanging out at the Haunted House area at the Party Tree.


Steed of the Autumn Sun
Steed of the Autumn Sun at the Party Tree


Warsteed of the Autumn Sun - Default:
The Caparison is the only piece barterable for the Autumn Sun. It also costs 60 tokens.

The default grey version of the Warsteed of the Autumn Sun is kind of drab. The outfit is a shade of yellow, which is nice.


Warsteed of the Autumn Sun - default colors

Warsteed of the Autumn Sun - matched similar to the horse:
I tried to match the Warsteed color palette to the horse's colors. Interestingly, the horse has a nice saddle; you will need to find your own saddle to match the caparison. Many of the saddles look just fine. Here is where I ended up trying to match the basic horse.

Chestnut hide
Flaxen Chestnut hair
Light Saddle of the Entwash


Warsteed of the Autumn Sun - matched colors to basic horse

Warsteed of the Autumn Sun - Dark green and light grey:
The various browns, yellows, oranges, reds all look really good with this horse.
However, I wanted to try to few things different first.

Here is a green and light grey. You can clearly see the dyeable part of the Caparison.
This horse is shown with a basic Light Saddle of the Entwash.


Warsteed of Autumn Sun - dark green and light grey

Warsteed of the Autumn Sun - Ered Luin and Black:
Bringing out the dark side... on this one, I went with Black hide, dark grey hair, and Ered Luin outfit, same basic Light Saddle of the Entwash.


Warsteed of Autumn Sun - ered luin and black

Warsteed of the Autumn Sun - Yellow Mix:
The strength of the Autumn Sun set probably has to be how nice it looks in yellows, red, and various shades of brown. This one is one of my favorite mixes.

Autumn Sun caparison - default color,
Yellow hide,
Flaxen Chestnut hair,
Nightwood Saddle,
Leggins of Rivendell,
Victory Accessory.


Warsteed of the Autumn Sun - Yellow mix


Warsteed of the Autumn Sun - Yellow mix2

Warsteed of the Autumn Sun - Mixed set:
The Caparison does work with many of the other pieces out there. This mix shows a few common pieces tossed together. :)

Autumn Sun caparison - default color,
Brown hide,
Minstrel's Halter,
Leggings of Thorin's Hall,
Burglar's Saddle,
Hunter's Gear.


Warsteed of the Autumn Sun - mixed set

Have a Super great Festival! 
I'll see you soon.  ~D






Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Steed of Bounty

Supergirl rides the Steed of Bounty

Hello again! It is time for Farmer's Faire 2014 and a new steed!

Do I like Farmer's Faire? On the one hand, it is a fun festival, one of my favorites, and fairly well laid out with good activities. On the other hand, the "golden egg" (for hidden deed) acquire rate seemed to have not improved since the first Farmer's Faire and the "Fishy, very Fishy" quest is still impossible to complete. I wrote about those quests in my Top 11 things I would change when I rule Middle Earth. Unfortunately, Sauron still has his revenge at the Faire by keeping the Fishy quest unbeatable. I still like the egg hunt also; I just have to move past the extreme odds of never winning a golden egg after hundreds of tries. The mushroom quest run is one of my favorite activities of all festivals.

If you want a great guide to Farmer's Faire, visit CSTM: Farmer's Faire Guide 2014.
Goldenstar notes two key points: (1) new stuff = horse, warsteed caparison, 2 cloaks , 1 robe. and (2) festival lasts from September 1 - 16

If you want to see previous Farmer's Faire steeds, look around the All the Steeds stable here at this site.

And for fun, here are my posts from previous Farmer's Faires:
2012 - Faire-hobbits-dont-get-drunk,
2012 - Steed-of-lore-master-farmers-faire-end,
2013 - Farmers-faire-2013-steed-of-plenty.

Steed of Bounty - Default horse:
The basic horse costs 120 Farmer's Faire tokens. If you play the mushroom hunt well, you will have that amount in no time even without doing other quests. On a good run, I get about 62 tokens... for about 36 mushrooms. I see that the first week of the first festival in 2012 I was getting about 38 tokens per run, so I've gotten better over the years. 

The Steed of Bounty is a lovely dapple grey horse with a bright gold/yellow and green patterned caparison.

Steed of Bounty - default

WarSteed of Bounty - Default colors:
The warsteed caparison costs 120 Farmer's Faire tokens. Mentioned above, 120 tokens is really easy to obtain (and I enjoy the mushroom hunt while filling my pockets with tokens).

The warsteed cosmetic is a one piece outfit, just the Caparison. The cosmetic is the same coloring as gold outfit dye.

Warsteed of Bounty - default colors

WarSteed of Bounty - White hide, Red outfit:
Hmm, what to do with an outfit that has strong portions that are undyeable green... I went with Christmas! The white and red would make a lovely Christmas pattern. :)

Warsteed of Bounty - White and Red

WarSteed of Bounty - Black Chestnut hide, Ered Luin outfit, Sooty hair:
Ok, next. In this one, I went with darker colors. The Ered Luin Blue on the outfit is strikingly bold. 

Warsteed of Bounty - Ered Luin and Black Chestnut

WarSteed of Bounty - Dun hide, Forest green outfit, Bay hair:
Here I played to the green's strengths and went with the subtle green outfit and shades of light brown for the horse. That is a pretty good look.

Warsteed of Bounty - Forest green, Dun, Bay

WarSteed of Bounty - Flaxen Chestsnut Spotted hide, Crimson outfit:
Alright. I wanted to mix it up a bit. Here is Flaxen chestnut - Spotted hide and hair, with the Crimson outfit. It is certainly bold and wild looking with all those spotted freckles!

Warsteed of Bounty - Crimson and Flaxen Chestnut Spotted

Warsteed of Bounty - Giddy up!

WarSteed of Bounty - Crimson Mix Set:
For fun, here is a Mixed set based on the previous Flaxen Chestnut outfit.
This picture has 
Caparison of Bounty - Crimson
Light Halter of the Wold (Rohan quest) - Crimson
Captain's Leggings (store) - Crimson
Champion's Saddle - (store) - Crimson

Warsteed of Bounty Mixed Set in Crimson


Sunday, July 27, 2014

Steed of the Wedmath Celebration

Supergirl rides the Steed of Wedmath Celebration

Happy Summer Festival! 

Yes indeed; Summer Festival 2014 is underway this week and will last until August 8. You can get the lowdown on all things festival at CSTM; guide is at this link (CSTM: lotro-summer-festival-guide-2014).

Here are some articles from previous Summer festivals.

2013 Horse = steed-of-midsummer
2012 Horse = summerdays-horse-and-defeat-of-Chieftain-Taun
2012 goodies = fetch-it-fish-it-race-it
and how to screw up at fishing = Danadelion-and-the-GM (I still laugh about this one... :) )


And, as always, you can find all the Steeds at All the Steeds here at Danania.net. Ok, the corral database is a couple of horses behind, look in recent posts if you don't see them transferred to the corral yet.

So, for 2014 Summer Festival, there are no new quests or deeds. The new stuff to obtain include: the festival horse for 40 summer tokens, the warsteed cosmetic for 40 tokens, a robe for 20, and two different cloans for 20 each. 

This year's Summer Festival Horse is called the Steed of the Wedmath CelebrationLet's see the horse! 

Steed of the Wedmath Celebration:
Here is the basic horse. He is a grey dapple horse with a simple yellow and green pattern Caparison. It is a one-piece outfit. Simple enough; let's see what we can do with the Warsteed.

Steed of the Wedmath Celebration

Warsteed of the Wedmath Celebration - Default:
The default Warsteed with Wedmath caparison looks like the basic horse. The defaut outfit is the same color as if it were colored gold.

Warsteed of the Wedmath Celebration - Default

Warsteed of the Wedmath Celebration - Default outfit color, Light Grey Spotted:
I don't have the same dapple hide, but I do have Spotted hide for warsteed. Here is the same shot as before with the spotted hide in light grey. It is close to the original; looks like the basic horse has a slightly darker hair.

Warsteed of the Wedmath Celebration - Default with Light Grey spotted hide

Warsteed of the Wedmath Celebration - Ered Luin and Black Chestnut
The green doesn't dye, but the gold portion does. Here is what it looks like in Ered Luin. The vibrant colors accentuate the flower pattern of the outfit. This shot has Black Chestnut hide and Black hair. I found that the two-tone look of the outfit looked better with two shades of hide/hair.


Warsteed of the Wedmath Celebration - Ered Luin and Black Chestnut

Here is a closeup look at the flower pattern. I think that might be orange mums, green leaves, and yellow butterflies?

Warsteed of the Wedmath Celebration - flower pattern

Warsteed of the Wedmath Celebration - Ered Luin and Brown Mix set
I wanted to try something different and looked for ways to "tone down" and de-accentuate the flower pattern. This next shot mixes things up a bit by utilizing some non-Wedmath pieces. Pieces used here are:
Wedmath Caparision - Ered Luin
Light Halter of the Entwash - Ered Luin
Saddle of West Rohan
Dagorlad Accessory
Brown Hide

Warsteed of the Wedmath Celebration - Ered Luin and Brown Mix Set

Warsteed of the Wedmath Celebration - Forest Green and Blond Mix set
Lets try another Mix set. The Forest Green color blends with the undyeable portion very well.
Pieces used here are:
Wedmath Caparision - Forest Green
Hunter's Saddle
King's Banner Accessory
Blond Hide, Black Chestnut Hair

Warsteed of the Wedmath Celebration - Forest Green and Blond Mix Set

Warsteed of the Wedmath Celebration - Crimson and Spotted Flaxen Mix Set
One final mixed set. Ok, ok... the Wedmath is not the most appealing Caparison ever. It did give me some fun laying mix and match though. :)
Pieces in this last shot are:
Wedmath Caparision - Crimson
Withywindle Halter and Legs - Crimson
Spotted Hide - Flaxen Chestnut

Warsteed of the Wedmath Celebration - Crimson and Spotted Flaxen Chestnut Mix Set
Have a great Summer Festival and I'll see you soon!


Sunday, July 13, 2014

Steed of Rivendell

Supergirl rides the Steed of Rivendell
Happy Summer! Next steed up for the summer is the Steed of Rivendell. This steed can be purchased in the store in two versions: (1) one character use only for 1995 TP, or (2) account wide use for 2995 TP. While it is one of my favorite steeds, I don't spend TP on the lildanas, hehe. To each her own.

Let's see some pictures! Friend and fellow adventurer TheElvenTailor also showed off this steed at TheElvenTailor/the-vale-of-imladris.

Steed of Rivendell:
Here is the standard horse. That is an interesting pale green outfit on a charcoal black horse. The pale green isn't a reproducible warsteed color but it shows up just fine in the warsteed default. One of my favorite things about this horse is the "tail light". That accessory on the back end is a lantern! I believe we have seen a couple of horses and goats with lights but this one is set in very stylish classy elven. 

Steed of Rivendell - standard horse
WarSteed of Rivendell - Default colors:
Here is the warsteed in Steed of Rivendell outfit. The outfit is still pretty awesome even on a grey horse. Let's see some more colors.

Warsteed of Rivendell - default colors
WarSteed of Rivendell - Black and default outfit:
Here is black hide with the default outfit. Yeah, that is very close to the basic horse except it is noticeable how grey the basic horse's tail is.

Warsteed of Rivendell - black and default outfit

WarSteed of Rivendell - Liver Chestnut and Dark Green:
I am kicking myself that I didn't choose the "Rivendell Green" to show off on the Steed of Rivendell. :)

Warsteed of Rivendell - LiverChestnut and DarkGreen

WarSteed of Rivendell - White and Crimson:
Wow. I really like the scrolled metal of this outfit. A potential drawback that has to be overlooked is that the lantern accessory is Green only. For comparison, I pulled it off this White hide and Crimson steed... 

Warsteed of Rivendell - White and Crimson

WarSteed of Rivendell - Sorrel and Evendim:
...and put the lantern accessory back onto this Sorrel hide and Evendim colored steed. You could probably come up with some two-tone coloring to blend the lantern accessory with the outfit a bit better than I did. 

Warsteed of Rivendell - Sorrel and Evendim

WarSteed of Rivendell - Red Roan and Ered Luin:
I think this last version might be my favorite (at least for today). These next pictures are with the Red Roan hide and Ered Luin outfit. The lantern trails light behind the horse; it is a very cool effect.

Warsteed of Rivendell - Red Roan and Ered Luin

I love this scene at home in Falathlorn! I didn't even bother to crop it. :D
Supergirl on Warsteed of Rivendell - Red Roan and Ered Luin
Y'all have a great summer. I'll be around!

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Steed of Spring Gardens and pet Shrews!

Supergirl rides the Steed of Spring Gardens (dyed Rose)

Oh-ho! 2014 and another Spring Festival cometh! Spring Festival holds a dear place for me because it was the first event that was in progress when I arrived in Celondim those many years ago. At the time, I was such a noob; I had amassed 7 Spring Leaves for barter and had no idea how one could earn so many. I didn't realize that the quests were so repeatable and I could come back the next day and do them again! Live and learn.

This year's festival has many of the things that were available at previous spring festivals.
Here are a few links to previous Spring Festivals:
2013 spring-festival-goodies,
2013 spring-lussuin-warsteed & spring-festival,
2012 spring-shrews-shrews-shrews,
2012 steed-of-jester-and-others.

The new things for this year's festival include 3 new cosmetic outfits, the new horse and warsteed cosmetic, and pet Shrews! Oh yes, pets are in vogue apparently now, lol! There is one huorn from Fangorn (which I haven't gotten yet because I have been festivalling since Fangorn was released), 6 chicken from Hobnanigan's (hobnanigans-fun), and now 4 shrews from this Spring Festival. 

Shrew Pets: I'm still working on getting all of the shrews. They are random rewards. (1) The Spotted Shrew is a random drop from Flower Patch nodes while doing the Flower Quest, (2) The Plain Shrew is a random reward from the Shrew Quest, (3) The Dusty Shrew is a random reward from the Maze tweens Quest, and (4) The Large Shrew is a random reward from the Enormous Shrew Quest. As you may have read from me before, I am not a fan of random rewards. On the bright side, the rewards are "Tomes" that can be traded, so you can trade/sell/buy Shrew Tomes you want/don't want. 

I would guess that the Spotted Shrew is the easiest to obtain since you have several hundred chances at picking up Flower Patch nodes within the hour long quest, and the other quests are once/9 minutes, once/day, and once/9-min-if-you-win-enormous-quest. I neglected to take a picture of the two shrews I've gotten so far, so Danaish shows off her Spotted Shrew here. He looks very happy that Danaish always carries food on-hand.

Note that the pet can be renamed with the command /cpet rename <name>


Danaish with pet shrew Shrewish
Steed of Spring Gardens: Horse time! The horse costs 40 Spring Leaves. It is very easy to barter with a little time at the Shrew stomping area.
The horse for the 2014 Spring Festival is called the Steed of Spring Gardens. Good name. Here he is. He is a pretty dapple grey pattern.


Steed of the Spring Gardens
Warsteed of Spring Gardens (aka Trellis-weave) - Default: Breaking with tradition of naming the warsteed cosmetic similar to the actual horse, this spring's warsteed cosmetic is called "Trellis-weave". Yes, this is the one that looks like the horse. The one-piece Trellis-weave Caparison is very very easy to barter at only 20 Spring Leaves. Here it is in Default colors.


Trellis-weave warsteed (spring) - Default

Trellis-weave - Crimson, dark chestnut hide, black chestnut hair:
The Trellis-weave dyes very well so take your pick on which color you like. Here is Crimson with a few browns for the horse.


Trellis-weave warsteed - crimson, dark chestnut, black chestnut

Trellis-weave - Sea Blue, dun hide, liver chestnut hair:
Here is another look with lighter colors.


Trellis-weave warsteed - Sea Blue, dun, liver chestnut

Trellis-weave - Rose, light grey hide, steel grey hair:
Ok, I just realized that I didn't exactly go diverse between light and dark colors and kept gravitating to lighter colors, but they do look snazzy. :)


Trellis-weave warsteed - Rose, light grey, steel grey


Trellis-weave - Gold, sorrel hide, seal brown hair:
Oooh. Ok, yes, the Draigoch statue offset the picture nicely, but I do like the gold and sorrel and the seal brown hair which looks very golden! 


Trellis-weave warsteed - Gold, sorrel, seal brown
Spring Festival lasts until June 3rd so there is plenty of time to get any horses you desire and possibly rack up some shrew pets, cosmetics, and other goodies. Have a great time and I'll see you soon! :)