Fall Festival’s end & a new Beginning

Aahh. It’s nice to feel the cool fall air this time of year. I took a spin out past the moon and back to the Shire just in time for Fall festival to be into full festivities.

I had an interesting dilemma at Fall festival this year. Since there were no new quests or adventures, I spent little time at the festival. The thing is that the lildanas and I hardly left the festival the past two years. We would try for the Painted Skeleton Horse every day, and fail every day.

In celebrating so much last year, we amassed so many tokens that we didn’t even need to show up this year and could have taken home all the goodies. We tried and failed to get the horse for about a week this year, then shut it down and prepared for Rohan instead. In fact, a nice low-key festival was exactly what we needed. We did get to meet a few people at festival though and took home all the things. Here are some of the pictures of our time at festival.

If you are still at festival, here is a list of all the things that can be bartered; pictures are in this post down below. (fall-festival-goodies)

We had lots of pictures from Fall festival 2011 also @ (fun-fall-festival-friends!).

Some people I saw at Fall Festival

We remembered the Haunted Burrow so well from last year, we could run through it with our eyes closed. Danaszar gives a tour of the Haunted Burrow to new friend Shouriel.

Nidia discusses fall activities with Danaszar and schemes to play a trick on me.

Aaahhh! Bucket-headed Nidia gives me a good fright.

Haljesor dresses up for Halloween… or mebbe that is his regular attire. You can guess the inspiration for the outfit, yes?

I change into my Batgirl outfit that I wore last year, and mount my Painted Skeleton Horse (this is one of the very few places I let the store trump more grind since I don’t like random fail... I did buy the Steed last year).

Arkandon practices his “BOO” though I am impervious to it. Nerves of steel…

Cherryful shows that she is indeed the pinkest captain in the land.

The famous Mysterixox (http://mysterixox.wordpress.com/) dresses to match the Green Painted Skeleton Horse.

Asciel is ready to party. Fall festival at the Shire? Galtrev? It doesn’t matter; the party moves with her Hoopty-hoopty-hoop.

Audrelier rides the world-renown Eriador Horse, ready to scare hobbits at the Haunted Burrow.

Images from the Haunted Burrow

One new thing for me at this Fall festival was the addition of an Ale Association quest. Since this past Summer festival was my first time spent with them, this was my first view of the AA interacting with the Haunted Burrow. I spent some time playing tricks on the silly hobbits in the Burrow for the AA; then I went back to console them as part of the normal quest set. Here is one of the “ghosts” I sent after a scared hobbit.

Danaszar wonders who the man in the portrait might be? Do you know who he is? He must be someone famous since he is a picture of a human in a hobbit house.

Danadalyn plays the “potion game”. It is kinda funny; I never bothered to read the clues to tell me which potion to take to keep us safe. I read the clues now and they seem obvious and easy to solve, but in the moment, I just pick up a bottle and swig it… mebbe good, mebbe bad. The order of drinks is… White, Blue, Orange, Blue.

Goodies from the Festival

I mentioned the barter prices for the goodies in a previous post. Here are some pictures of them.

Here is the Beer Stein. Ok, the beer stein is in my right hand, and my other drink is in my left hand. Two fisted FTW.

I explain Newton’s laws of motion as it applies to my Basket of Apples. The centripetal force due to the rotational rate at which I twirl my basket is greater than the force of gravity applied to the apples.

Danaish practices as a hand model, showing off the lovely Fall Gourd she got at festival.

The next item up is a giant Pretzel… because everyone needs one of those.

Danaszar takes some items back to the Home of Angels. Here is the Autumnal Apple Tree she planted out front. For a tree, it is one of my favorites (we also like the Yule-tree). If you watch the tree, you will see the leaves fall from the tree.

We don't favor mounting dead animals on the wall. I am told that the ones from festival are made of faux fur and discarded feathers though. The crabans do look real. Here is a Craban perched on Stein.

And, here is a Craban drinking from Stein.

This one is a Lathbear with Stein. So strange; I don’t recall ever seeing a Lathbear before. I had to google “Lathbear” and one of the answers I saw is that a Lathbear comes from the Rohan region. I foresee Lathbears in my future. It is kinda ugly… nothing like a Pooh bear (my favorite bear).

She managed to get a picture of the Table with Sausage and Pretzels before the hobbit quadruplets tested whether or not the food was wax or edible. I didn’t get the answer… wax or not, there was a reason I sent Danaszar to deliver the item versus letting Chief Move Coordinator DanaOnar handle the table.

The farmers got Black Mushroom Pots from the festival. One of the quests from Summer festival is to “plant seed” there on the Hill; it is a quest only for farmers. This item is the fruit of the effort, gathered in the Fall festival.

Clothes from Festival

In preparation of Rohan, the five lildana crafting team took the opportunity to advance from level 21 to level 25, which allowed them all to get new gear and more importantly… new Crafting Tools. With their new excellence, they got new clothes.

Danaclaus made a rare decision to ask for one of the clothing pieces. Here is the Harvest-Brew Cloak dyed Ered Luin blue. The hooded cloak is identical except… it has a hood.

Danaszar took the Harvest-Brew short-sleeved Tunic & Trousers and dyed it gold. It is matched with the Harvest-Brew Circlet (I really like that one) and a shoulder piece called the Worn Ranger’s Wrap (probably from Isengard, also dyed gold, I can go look it up if someone really needs to know).

Danadelion took the Harvest-Brew Dress and dyed it red. The long lines of the gown really elongate her already long waist. She matched it with an Elegant Festival Cap (which came from the Yule festival, dyed red). The elegance is a stark change to her normal wild-haired self.

Danadalyn liked the Harvest-Brew long-sleeved Tunic & Trousers, dyed Dark Green, which seemed to match the Harvest-Brew Hat quite well.

Danaish, not to be left out of the chance for new clothes, choose a new bold red top. It is a simple drop item, the Westernesse Jacket of Fate (probably from the Dunland area).

Waiting…

And, we wait. Not much longer, and then it will be time to ride to Rohan. Here are a few of my final shots before mounting up.

Here is a picture in which I join the ranks as a Malledhrim soldier. Sorry boys, olive green is not my color. I will just “blend in”. Can you tell which soldier I am?

Nimitar, HalJordan and I join up to win in the Forsaken Inn. The Forsaken Inn is one of those “special” places where you are forced to have three specific-ish types of characters to be able to finish the challenge and certain deeds.

I went back in the Inn again and again and again by myself (etc) to try to solve all 83 riddles for the Riddle Deed. (inn-riddles) I am so close, but it will have to wait until another time. At 78 riddles done, I am sick of seeing the Inn. Umin mocks me with an “Excellent Work!” comment as I yell a challenge at the door after the several hundredth riddle.

With the help of Nimitarion, Sailanarmo, Byrane, Pengladia, and Golechi, the Lost Temple Challenge was finally won. That is a crazy instance for a level 65 and it is tougher to win the challenge than most level 75s. Yay team! Ferndur the Virulent throws more disease my way, but our plan is sound and shall win the day! I was last seen in Lost Temple failing to beat the Challenge @ steeds-deeds-and-aegthil.

Not often do I get “up-close-and-personal” with creeps in the Moors. You may remember the surreal moment when I “met” Baglun and Ijust (ettenmoors-75-rk-armor-audacity). Here was another. This next shot came from Mathilanakh, through the eyes of the stalker. I was minding my own business, thinning the goblin population in Grothum. A lightning bolt just split one wide open. Little do I realize, I am being watched… O.o The “hidden” image in the middle of the screen is my predator. What a surreal creepy image knowing that I am being hunted. lol!

Fortunately for me, Mathilanakh did not want to kill me at this time. I pulled out my dowsing stone and tried to pacify her wargy urges to bite me. Geez, look at those teeth. Nice doggy… No bitey... Please I hope I have a wargy-treat in my bag…

Time to fly. When next I write, I will be flying toward Rohan! Woohoo!

Steed of the Lore-master, Farmer’s Faire End

Someone asked me recently if I got the Steed of the Lore-Master. Well, of course. I actually think it is pretty. J  He has a blue outfit that suits me well.

He is a bit magical and has good balance to be able to hold those books and scrolls in place the way he does while riding through traffic in the Moors. With those scrolls just haphazardly tossed around, it looks a bit like my desk. Note to self… buy scroll-cases to pack that stuff down.

Here we are taking our large festival haul back to the home of Angels. I ended up buying one of everything from the Faire, 6 steeds, an extra Chicken coop because I NEEDED it, and a dozen gifts for others. The Angel house is “busy” with animated things like the windmill, the Cave-claw, and the chickens. I should bring the Elf Female Property guard over. JThe only complaint I have is that I want more "hooks"... if I want my yard to look like festival threw up on it, that should be my prerogative.

  

Farmer’s Faire Grade = C minus

Here was my assessment during the Faire. (faire-hobbits-dont-get-drunk)

Things that worked:

•  Fat Mayor
• Restocking Bywater
• Manning the market
• Fishing: except Fishy, very fishy
• Mushroom hunt
• Easy access – There were conveniently located horses In MD and others to make travel to Bywater very friendly.
• Easy token gathering – Token gathering was very easy, but probably about right to attract casual attendees. 

Things that were fail:

1. Bounder rounds – Eventually this was fixed to where hobbits actually got drunk. It was completely broken on server the first 10 days. Likewise, Revenge of the Drunk was tied to Bounder rounds (otherwise it was fine). The change came very late for some who couldn’t get to Lorien to get help from the elves.
2. Fishing: Fishy, very fishy – As far as I am aware, there was no one in Arkenstone that completed this quest. The fish that had to be caught were 10 Easy Fish, 10 Simple fish, 10 Possible fish, x Tricky fish, x Unlikely fish… without catching a Bad fish. I don’t know what the odds were, but the closest I ever came was to the Possible fish stage and caught two. With a 24 hour CD and odds that far to the extreme, this quest was a FAIL. If it were my world, I would (i) change the odds dramatically, (ii) change the CD to a much shorter time like 30 minutes, (iii) give a slight advantage to fishing skill to encourage people to actually fish more and have a goal, and (iv) reduce the number of fish to only need half as many.
3. Egg Scramble – Mixed thoughts. It was possible to find the white eggs with many tickets; and with persistence, it was possible to obtain festival eggs in-game or trade. However, the final count of Golden eggs on Arkenstone was about 5 total for the Faire. That is stupidly bad odds, FAIL. If it were my world, I would (i) lock people out from getting more than 5 white eggs in a round so that others have the chance to win, (ii) change the odds dramatically here also, (iii) lock down how many festival eggs one player could get per round to improve win tally for all, (iv) drastically improve the Golden eggs odds and lock it to once per player, (v) fix the timer since the length of the rounds were oddly random, and (vi) remove the TicketGate.
4. Ticket BOA – The Faire started with tickets unbound. Apparently, Store sales of tickets were not good (or it was unintentional to begin with), so they went to BOA. I don’t like the idea of the tickets at all, and going BOA was like a flip of the finger toward players. 

Farmer’s Faire Festival Finale

Though I ended with mixed feelings about the Faire, I still enjoyed playing with the people around me and enjoyed the quests that were working.

Reader and new friend Aeronwy visits the Egg hunts and shows how to rock the Purple Steed outfit.

Sis Sansanor rides in the dark hours toward the Faire on the Steed of Night, ready to see what festivities await.

Danadelion, like all of the lildanas, got her Farmers Faire Steed. She hung around to have a nice chat with Will Peartree.

Danadalyn really hit it off with Carl Proudfoot. It isn’t surprising as most hobbit boys like the wide-eyed minstrel Dalyn.

For such little activity it actually has, Hengstacer is a popular place during festival. Dalyn met up with Cherrypop, riding the Fleet-footed goat, as both were preparing to get their festival steed.

Lagoona sports her newly acquired Circlet of Fresh-Picked Flowers. As so few Golden eggs existed, she set her target on some white eggs and a few festival eggs.

Danaboffin voices her opinion about the special request to catch an “Unlikely fish” from a pond that apparently has no Unlikely Fish in it.

Before Danaonar left to go back to her role as Thorin’s Hall greeter, Nick Cotton expressed his feelings asking her to stay. Unsure if “carnival life” is for her, she got flustered by his forward gesture. Should she accept this thick footed fellow’s request, or head back to her hammock alone???

Ettenmoors: Dana's scrapbook

What a summer! I have been spending more time the past 2 weeks watching Olympics than actually questing. It is one of the few sporting events I watch and in typical fashion, I do it to excess.

Since Ettenmoors is about to get a facelift and remodel, I looked back through my Moors photo file and pulled some of the better ones. I don’t have much witty commentary today; so as followup to the previous <ettenmoors-75-rk-armor-audacity>, here I bring you… my Moors scrapbook. The picture above is where I am standing on a hill in the north, looking down the Hoardale River toward Tol Ascarnen and STAB (south TA bridge).

This next shot is an older one, where I am in Moria armor, before I got the original level 65 Moors armor. I am riding Minas Ithil and meeting Malendar, Arkenstone’s #1 Moors RK who is riding the black PVP steed, Mahogany Bay. Stout Mini Firawing welcomes me; she knows what is in store and has her lightning blue track shoes laced up.

It did not take long to meet up with and make friends with Tharros, the #2 Arkenstone Moors Hunter. He explains what the Moors flags are for and why he is carrying it on his back.

I am well flanked between Tharros and Malendar as we ride toward TA. The fact that I ride out front is more young exuberance, and definitely not because I was “leading” anything.

Friend an fellow RK Nidrad and I are dressed as twinsies.

Going out as a pocket healer to two excellent hunters is a safe place to be sometimes, as I follow Tharros and Woodstalker into battle. This shot was taken before the Commendation armors, back when all high end armor wasn't dyed Rust color.

Heading to Grothum, hunter Woodstalker senses the horde coming our way. Burg Audrelier throws his stealthy protection over us to help us hide or turn the tide.

Sometimes, full Raid versus Raid is the only way to go when the Creeps dominate the land. The Creep raid had taken TR and The Freep Raid presses the door to try to win it back.

And, sometimes, the Freeps win the day and route all there is to see. (Blue dots on the map are Freep controlled; Red dots are Creep controlled.)

Midnightgirl and I are out to save the day!... or at least rescue the hobbit Alf Earthenway from an untimely demise at the hands of goblins in Grothum.

Guardian Corinthianz and I watch from a higher vantage point near the Lugazug entrance waiting to see if the horde is coming to flank us. Dressed in bright gold, one would think he might attract more attention. That should be a requirement that Guards dress as flashy as possible, lol!

A bonnie Bonie burg might be small and favor riding a goat, but she packs a punch!

Tyrant Barashish cannot hold Tirith Rhaw against an assault of a coordinated small team of Auderelier, Corviss, Ioteleth, Midnightgirl, Lillyn, and myself. Like all the keep bosses, at this pre-Rohan update, a small strike force will take them out unless they have more than minimal Creep support.

Amidst a break in the swarming warg pack, Commander Cherrypop and I both go to rez fallen comrade Azarath.

Deep within the heart of the Creeps at Dar Gazag, I stop for a photo op with the Creep trainers, Dolith and Gavran. It is a bad day for the Creeps when the Freeps are standing in their stronghold.

If you ever wondered what happened to Mordirith’s Crown, the Creeps salvaged it and use it to bolster the horde. Claiming and bringing it back to Ost Ringdyr is celebrated throughout Middle Earth (until they reclaim it).

Like the Crown, the Free People have a symbolic object of victory that they will try to keep protected. Here is a picture of story text associated with each.

In case you think that the Devs don’t have a sense of humor, stop by and visit the “Dummies” in the Moors. You can take out your frustration there versus cursing in open forums. J Kudos Kelsen, Jalessa, and Orion.