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???

Draigoch Statue, lil Danas moving day

As of right now, my 7^th most popular post is the story about when I visited Draigoch (Danania does Draigoch), and some of my most searched items include Draigoch (along with danania, lotr humor, riders of rohan, relics, runekeepers, and steeds). My Draigoch story was lots of fun but I wanted a better picture of the statue. Thorin’s Hall neighborhood ceilings are just too low for a statue that large. Now, with the help of the lil danas, I have a better picture! J As usual, do note that the pictures are larger than they appear if you want to zoom in on something.

The lil danas have been talking about moving for ages. (Lil Danas)

The hobbit quads were pushing for the Shire, but I think all the lil danas were mesmerized by the views of Falathlorn, the elven housing community near Duillond. We elves can draw people in. J Danadelion set out to go for a visit.

From talking to the housing vendor, the Angels had narrowed it down to the houses at 8 Haven Way or 5 Waterbank Road. The irony was not lost on the team that the Angels were considering moving to "Heaven" Way. In the end, it comes down to location, location, location. Here is the view from the front deck of Waterbank Road, looking out toward Celondim.

As Delion looked down the hill, seeing the house in the foreground, and Duillond and the bridge between Ered Luin and the Shire in the background, the choice was all but made.

5 Waterbank Road, Cair-e-faras, Falathlorn Homesteads, Arkenstone is now known as the “Home of Angels”.

DanaOnar, Chief Move Coordinator, was in charge of getting the pet cave-claw to the house and making sure it didn’t dig up any neighbors’ flowers. Thankfully, he is a Trained Cave-Claw. It looks like she had her hands full and will be moving items for weeks. I'm not sure whether she intends to use those fireworks in her pack for fun or remodeling (or both).

I gave the Angels a house warming present. Yep, you guessed it… it is a Draigoch statue. Nooo… I am not lucky enough to win one in raid. What I lack in luck, I make up for in patience and tenacity (and coin… as fate would have it, this statue showed up on the AH… and was the most expensive thing I’ve ever purchased… you don’t want to know).

To really appreciate how impressive he is, you have to back away from it. Here is a shot of me standing in the middle of the Falathlorn neighborhood (near the vault person), looking down on it. The house is partially obscured by the pink tree, but clearly, the statue is taller and perhaps bigger than the entire Angels’ kinhouse!

Another really neat thing about the move was learning that I have friends in the neighborhood, which works out well if the Cave-claw gets loose. Beorhir lives next door on one side (Beorhir was the captain in the first picture in the Draigoch story), and Rruin lives on the other side! Just down the street are more friends Belile, Eryngwae, and Rasphant.

Walking around the neighborhood, we saw more people’s houses… people who are new-friends-in-the-making: Lyndrielle, Honeybuns, Lythari, Nymphsong, Faladir, Eliahnna, Gaspard, Zephorlas, Alderwolf, Zemirah, Jesa, Henduluin, Rimmardar, Feani, Fiionna, Anathelle, Dulond, Destriel, Irideth, Latharuth, and Selendir. The other kin houses are owned by the Descendents of the Noldor, the Regiment of Gondor, and Bel’s Club. Good to see the Angels are in good company!

Gratuitous Steed shot:  At day break, I got a new horse called the “Steed of the Horse-lords”, which came with the Mithril edition download from Gamestop. (http://www.gamestop.com/). It is neither fast nor robust with high morale, but it is pretty! I got the download for the steed and the turbine points.

Another enormous housing item is the “Memorial of the Gaunt-Lords” that my friends Carradine and Audred were kind enough to show me. It is obtained as a reward from beating Ost Dunhoth T2 deed (which I am nowhere near completing). The statue is best viewed at night to give it a more ominous look. Mebbe someday I will have such a statue, but for now, I am happy to have a nice home for the statue of Draigoch.