Rohan: A bad seed in Fangorn

I could have gone with several titles for the topic on my mind…

“Where art thou Leofmar?”

“When phasing goes bad”

“Fangorn, not just the trees that will get you…”

I love Rohan. I enjoy everything about it. I like the stories, the characters, the Warsteed, Hytbold. I love everything except one… Fangorn. That is because my Fangorn is broken.

As a caveat so I don’t get jumped on by the purists… Yes, I am aware that Treebeard is also known as Fangorn, and the forest is the “Eaves of Fangorn”; I of course am talking about having bugged quests in the area and still enjoy the big lug tree.

Fighting in the forest is not my favorite thing. My elf homeys tease me about my distaste for trees, but I have to reiterate that not all trees are equal. Old Forest = creepy. Fangorn = creepy, but I’m older now. The mallorn trees and the Golden Wood of Lorien are not creepy… I like my home of Caras Galadhon, though I think we could use more bridges in the city.

However, Fangorn… where did I go wrong? Right now, Leofmar is involved with two of my Fangorn quest chains. The quest progression is to discuss them with Leofmar at The Entwash Fishing Camp, and Leofmar is nowhere to be found. So, it is his fault. Basically, Leofmar just might be the Root of Evil, at least he is my current roadblock.

I sent in a ticket. The reply was a form response, “The issue you have described is either not a currently known issue that the In-Game Support team can assist you with, or cannot be resolved with the information you have provided. We recommend that you take a moment to submit a formal bug report by typing /bug. Be sure to fully review the information at the top of the bug report form to understand how bug reports are handled.”

I sent in bug reports for the two quests. I have no idea if bug reports actually help or if they get put on the stack of a pile of bug reports labeled /ignore. I would be nice if it were acknowledged as a real bug that was being worked.

I know I am not alone. A quick Google search for … lotro leofmar … indicates that he shows up mostly in topics of people in a similar situation, stopped due to a missing Leofmar.

I traced back my steps. What is the fun in taking thousands of pictures if I cannot use them for sleuthing some times??

Ok, here is the first time I saw The Entwash Fishing Camp. Leofmar is not in the camp the first time I went there. So, he should appear there at some point I suppose.

What could have gone wrong? I am told that other people completed this quest, so is there something I personally did to bugger up the system? I have also read quite a few people have had the same problem that I have so at least I am not alone. 

The most notable thing I can think of is that I definitely had to double back through Fangorn. I initially left Fangorn having unintentionally not done all of the quests because I simply couldn't find any more.

On retrospect, I missed the two quest chains in question:

Empty food-sack: Here is the 1st one I missed. When entering a campsite, I was prompted to investigate a “Bedroll”. I was sooo very close to checking the "Empty food-sack" I saw on the ground... but I got distracted and didn’t. That was the quest that led to “A Plea to Wake”.

Silkenhold and the Huorn: Here is the 2nd one I missed. I never stumbled upon Silkenhorn or “the first ent”. By Finding Silkenhold, it led me to an ent. This chain led to “Awake at Long Last”.

There are more quests past these completions that I cannot access. If I ever met Leofmar I do not recall it at this time. The names all run together some days. Possibly, completion of one of the other quests (possibly a Fangorn, or the Epic) caused Leofmar to go into hiding and not be at his assigned spot to receive me. You can see on the minimap that he should be there at the ring where I am standing… and he is not.

Hopefully, Update 9 presents a fix. Or, some uber GM will wave his magic wand and make Leofmar appear. I do very much want to see the quests that were created for me. I am computer naive but it seems that if Leofmar is to be the enactor of progressing the quest, and the minimap shows where he is supposed to be, if he just appeared there, wouldn’t that help the situation? Dananoob out. J

UPDATE 12/14/12: After Aeronwy's comment below, I wrote a follow-up on where to find Leofmar and unknot these quests. rohan-leofmar-found-part-2-of-fangorn

Danadelion and the GM

Danadelion got the opportunity to meet a Game Master during the Summer festival. It is always a bit intimidating, it is like talking to the police. I know I didn’t do anything wrong, but they have badges, and uniforms, and guns, and jails. What if he is an evil GM??? O.o

Turns out, he was nothing of the sort. Here is how it went down… told from Delion’s perspective.

"  I had patiently waited for my turn to go to festival. Danania had gone, then Danaszar, then Danaish, and now I was up 4th. The path was clear. I had gone to Summer festival last year, and had already been watching what was happening this year for two days, just waiting. I went to the Party Tree and got my one token from Opal Goodbody to start the festival, did the food fetch-it quest there around the Hill, and the other Hill fetch-it quest, and then over to Bywater to do the fishing gear fetch-it quest around the pond.

Next, I completed “To the Fishing Hole” there in Bywater by talking to Neddie Grubb and pick up the quest to Stock the Pond… wait… where is the next quest, for Stocking the Pond???

Hey! I am old enough to fish! I am higher than both that goodie child Danaish and that laid back elf Danaszar! Why am I not allowed to Restock the Pond? It’s because I’m a Champion, isn’t it? No respect! /fervour builds../ I know the quest must be here. I did get the “To the Fishing Hole”, it is done. Mebbe both Neddie and I know that he wants me to go to Thorin’s Hall and catch Amberjacks. Ride there... Nada. The Quartermaster just stares at me like he has no idea that Amberjacks might be in Thorin’s Hall. Sigh. Mebbe it is an error in festival communication; something involving the phase of the moon and keg-dwarves on strike. It is time to call on a higher power, he-who-shall-not-be-named.

I nervously wait, practicing my ability to dodge if the higher power shows up and decides to smite me for angering the wrath of the great and powerful Oz. A few minutes later, +Jalwis+ contacts me with a very pleasant, Howdy! How very hospitable; Danania, raised in the suthun’ flets, would have been impressed.

After I explained the situation, he asks me to pause, blink out, click my heels three times and see if everything was back to normal. While hopeful, I found that just closing my eyes didn’t help. He explained that the most likely cause is often missing a pre-requisite. I explained that I had done everything the other danas did, exactly as they had done them, the next quest was supposed to be here but it just isn’t. I don’t know what else it could be since I did exactly the same thing.

I fidgeted anxiously some more and rode my steed in circles. Jalwis asked me to stop fidgeting and come stand next to Neddie. Mebbe putting me next to the “accused” would help. So, I stood there, fishing pole in hand, eager to go. Jalwis started off again with “obviously you have the fishing prerequisite”.

I stand there. Stunned. I have a pole. Danaszar crafted it for me. OMG. Fishing Prerequisite. The entire fishing prerequisite is talking to that Hobby Master right next to me and telling him “Yes, I would like to fish”.

Somehow I had been to this many festivals, carrying a pole for years and had never fished. It turns out that last Summer, I bet on hobbit races and earned enough to barter for my festival horse. The next best option for fishing was Farmer’s Faire, but I was picking mushrooms out of a field and earned enough tokens for a horse and never fished. So, in fact, I had NEVER learned to fish.

I sheepishly apologized to Jalwis and thanked him for being so polite and helpful with thinking through the troubleshooting (not mentioning being thankful that he didn’t smite me). He asked if there was anything else I needed? Which there wasn’t (except for the dwarves to get off strike and get back to keg racing, but realized that wasn’t his jurisdiction).

I thanked him one final time and told him he was welcome to drop in at danania.net anytime! Bold. Yeah… I’m smooth like that. Lol. The next message I got from him was the form message “session closed, go and sin no more, live long and prosper, end of line” ...whatever that text was to tell me to stop writing him.

So, from all of the Danas, Jalwis thank you for making Middle Earth a better place! Readers, If you know Jalwis, feel free to pass this link along as I feel confident that someone might know him. J