Treasure Hunt, Bilbo’s Birthday, and CSTM

What a weekend I had! Since it was a change of “normal” pace from deeding away, it didn’t feel like I was as eventful, but looking back at all that happened I had so much fun! The festivals have been rolling in and next up is Fall festival starting now, so exciting!

Today, I will talk about the excitement of the treasure Hunt, Frodo and Bilbo’s Birthday, and visiting the CSTM Live Event.

Treasure Hunt:

Let’s start with the Treasure Hunt. I had written a different post about steeds which I will delay until next weekish. In that post, I mentioned my disillusionment about “random” drop steeds, preferring that they be bartered, even if the cost is outrageous. Then, Treasure Hunt is released, and yay, a bartered goat! Sure, it cost 1000 tokens, but if you really wanted it, the 1000 token mark was very achievable.

The lildanas and I went nuts at the previous treasure hunt in February, 2012. I think it only lasted a day, but we made the most of it. We had gotten everything there was to get, except all the steeds. True, we did take 8 home. I only got one though, the Treasure Laden Goat so I am in it to win it this time. Delion was still silently bragging about having won all three steeds during that February event (Less-math-more-ponies).

Dig, dig, dig. Just keep digging, just keep digging… la la la la la la la la….

Yay for Huge caches! I think we won a steed about 1 out of less than 10 huge caches. I do like that the event restarts almost immediately after the previous one ends. It really keeps things moving!

Wins! Of course, all the steeds show up here on danania.net on the page All the Steeds.

Cave claw masked horse for the win!

Time to take him out flying.

Treasure Laden horse… win! (I still don’t like random winning. However, like most of the “random” wins for me, so much of it is about persistence. You do not even want to know how many hours I treasure hunted between last event and this event. OMG. Thankfully, I really really enjoy the Treasure Hunt.)

Treasure Laden goat! Ok, I had the goat last time, but he was feeling left out of the show. Hey, I think someone is following us… Aegthil is that you?? They’re always after me lucky charms…

The goat is a bit wide for me, so I threaded my leg through the saddle edge. Some might see this as a design flaw, but I am sure that is the way it is intended.

Threanody reports for duty to take over digging. Good luck hobbit! (I ride the Dunedain War-horse in this shot.)

Nimitar doesn’t miss a beat or a festival. If it is there to do, he will be there. He and Danaish wait patiently to be granted more picks to try their luck. (Nimitar rides the Nimble Black Goat).

So many people showed up at the Treasure Hunt! With the lack of things actually going wrong (see Farmer’s Faire and Summer dwarf races), I think this is a success!

Ytanya is excited about her “prospects”. Surely, there is a steed token in there for her?

Danaszar meets a Domesticated Green-back Cave-claw. It is so cute you could just /hug it. If you hug them all, you get a lovely title and complete the deed. Yay deeds!

Of course, the lildanas have their own pet cave-claw at the Angels house. (draigoch-statue-lil-danas-moving-day) We opted not to get another one right now just in case they might fight and leave the yard a mess. Turns out, the neighbors wouldn’t mind so much. We took a walk around and discovered that 76% of our neighbors were deadbeats that were locked out of their own homes, including all of the other kinhouses (one of which has gone into foreclosure and is up for sale). Go on, roam the neighborhood Trained cave-claw!

Finally, the star of the show has arrived. Here is the Harvest Brew Goat, the barter goat of the Treasure Hunt. Ok, this goat only has +62% speed, but it just might be the cutest goat I own (don’t tell the other goats). He is in the top ten goats for sure. Lol! I love the theme, and the stine on a stick out in front of it is a neat touch.

Emotes!

The Treasure Hunt emotes are some of my favorite! There are 6 available during the event, and thankfully they are at least Bound to Account. It would have been great had the Steeds also been Bound to Account, but they are in fact, Bound on Acquire. The 6 are: rich, counterfeit, inspectgem, pan, dowse, coinflip. Thankfully, I got them last time, so I had less things to think about while hunting for my steeds.

I am /rich! No doubt about that. Rich in friends. A sappier Supergirl would say these gold coins are just representation of blessings falling on me. (Aim your /heave over there…)

I check to make sure that the coins in my steed's pack are not /counterfeit (lilhobbits, don't put things in your mouth without washing them, that is a good way to get germy... that, and visiting the Foundation of Stone, very germy place.. Bring sanitizer).

You are getting sleepy…  /dowse. You are now under my control…

Oh Arkandon, don’t you know that these jedi mind tricks don’t work on Supergirl? I am not the droid you are looking for.

Yes, yes… I spy a diamond in the rough. Let me /inspectgem that for you.

Frodo and Bilbo’s Birthday

After Goldenstar, Frodo and Bilbo are two of the most famous hobbits in Middle Earth. If Frodo ran a site like CSTM (http://cstm.mymiddleearth.com/), he would be better known, but I digress.

Since it was Frodo and Bilbo’s birthday, I flew out to Rivendell to wish them well. Frodo snookered me into assisting him deliver a present to Bilbo, who was only like 100 meters away in Elrond’s house. For fun, I will lay out how the conversation went.

Meltera met me there so that we could celebrate birthdays together. Mebbe the Bagginses will have cake. Or pie. I like pie. And chocolate. Dark chocolate. Fudgey dark chocolate. with pie. Mmm... Where were we? Oh, yes.. let's go wish happy birthdays.

Hello Frodo! Happy Birthday! I would have come yesterday, but I had to dig up Treasure Laden steeds; you know how it is.

Frodo replies with asking me to visit Bilbo.

Mae Govannen, and Happy Birthday to you, Bilbo. Here is a present from Frodo.

Bilbo replies by asking me to deliver a present to Frodo. You know, he is standing in the next room? Oh fine, I will deliver it.

Hello again Frodo. Here is a present from Bilbo.

You want me to go tell him thank you… for you? You know, he is just across the hall? Le sigh…

Hiya Bilbo. Frodo says thanks. You are welcome. You have a present for me on your birthday? Hobbits are interestingly odd people. J You should walk across the hall and see Frodo some time. He has a neat ring that he wears on a chain around his neck.

Bilbo gave me the choice of receiving a toy flute or a toy dulcimer. They play a tune that lasts a couple of seconds and… that is it. It has a 30 minute CD. It is the thought that counts, right? J

CSTM Live Event

I got to enjoy the CSTM Live Event on Saturday! It turns out that CSTM was recording their weekly show but added on a streaming video while they were doing it. I usually fly across the spatial abyss into Landroval once a week or so to check fan mail and visit whoever happens to be around (thank you so much to all you who leave messages there J) and found my friends Tomrica and Goldenstar both in Bywater. It was great timing since CSTM was in the middle of their show.

As I headed to Bywater, there was quite a crowd and I found Tomrica waiting for me at the back. The poor thing won’t be able to see with all these trees standing in the way. I got a chuckle out of just how many hobbits there are around here. Yeah… I don’t make it to the Shire enough. Hobbits, hobbits everywhere.

It was a great gathering. It seems that if you get enough of the Lonely Mountain Band together, it is like a bring-your-own-party. I got to meet several lovely hobbits, including the hobbit-gnome Anthemisi and her dancing friend Carica.

Tomrica and Goldenstar pose for photos and autographs at the Green Dragon. These last two shots were taken by Tomrica, who is a most excellent photographer.

The Lonely Mountain Band hobbits ride a team of goats collected from the Treasure Hunt. Tomrica is out front, followed by (L-R) Galspi, Elyita, Carica, & Anthemisi.

How can you not smile seeing a line of hobbits riding goats?? That is so cute. Lol!

Less math, more ponies!

Alrighty. That last post was a lot of numbers. Let’s change pace. Less math, more ponies! Since it was my birthday recently, I got a new steed or two. Not that I needed a reason to get a steed… just waking up in middle earth is a good reason to go new steed hunting! Here are a few of my recent ones and a few steed pictures I liked.

Here is the Nimble Black Goat. It was the one I got on my birthday. Named Firefoot, this goat is obtained by finishing all deeds in Moria. Those darn kergrims of Skumfil for slayer-deed were the last hold-out.

I started that Moria deed journey at level 60 on February 3, 2011 when I joined a group to enter the Dark Delvings. Derffel, Behni, Tineytim, Augustuss, & Nimitar were there. I think I was supposed to be healing as I was the only healer of the six. Having never healed a group before nor understood the healer traits, skills, or LIs, I can only imagine that I was dead weight in that group. 

April 6, 2012 saw the end of that deed journey as Macrez, Pengladir, Assmunahi and I overpowered and prevailed in Skumfil.

Malledhrim steed. The next day, I went back to Mirkwood and soloed enough repeatables to finally get my Malledhrim steed. It takes 20 Malledhrim gold stars. (I think the repeatables out of Thangulhad and Taur Morvith give 3 gold stars, 25 silver tokens daily... and 25 silver can be traded for 1 gold star). The Malledhrim also have the Smokey Black steed at the same barter price.

There are two steeds available from Stangard. I bartered for the Limlight one, shown here. I will need to go back for the other Stangard one soon. Each barters for 20 gold Anduin tokens. Repeatable quests for gaining gold tokens are... 4 solo quests: 2 in Brownlands, 1 in Rushgore, 1 in the bog east of Rushgore (the queen bug), and 3 fellowship quests in Limlight: 2 at Wailing Hills (spiders and trolls), and 1 to the far west from the ents (tree chopping).

Treasure hunting Goat! I totally need to do a post on the treasure hunt. The lil danas and I had a ball of fun! Of the three steeds obtainable during the treasure hunt, I got only one, this goat. Danadelion got all three; if you let her, she will tell you all about how she is the "hunt-master".

Threanody, who I believe may have hunted at least as much as I did, appears to have fainted from the non-stop digging.

Skeleton Painted steed. After two fall festivals of visiting the haunted burrow, and with all danas searching for nearly 200 visits to the "secret chest" to look for the special skelehorse, I bought this one. Sometimes, when other options run out, you make your own luck. (This link was the first time I had seen it in 2011.... skelehorse post).

Cremello and Green Painted. Here is a shot of MW and I on the Cremello and the green painted steeds. I like the picture. :) (This link was the day I got my Cremello steed... Cremello post).

Hunter steed. I don't usually pass up a steed if i can help it. Here is the hunter steed. I dressed for the occasion to go riding in Dunland. The outfit is the green Rohirrim outfit.

It is hard for my to say that I have a favorite steed. However, my "go-to" steed is the Steed of Minas Ithil. 

Here is MI and me going into a random scary forest. No idea where that is, but it looked pretty and creepy.

And a closeup of us riding around north Dunland somewhere.

Charge! Storming the gates of Isengard!

The next steeds on my to-do list are 

• (1) that other steed from stangard needs a home, for the low low price of 20 Anduin gold tokens, 
• (2) Anniversary steed (Yay! the anniversary party started last night!) requires 40 anniversary tokens, 
• (3) Isengard war steed requires 99 orthanc sigils (looks like I'm 60/99th of the way there),
• (4) Dunedain war steed is obtained by completing all of the deeds in Eriador (I have only Thorog, the Helegrod dragon to beat... "that dragon has my steed!"),
• (5) Wild Mountain goat is obtained by completing all of the deeds of the Savior of Lothlorien: Lumul-nar, Nala-dum, Halls of Crafting, Dar Nadbugud. (I am no where near complete with this one; it is a long-term project.)
• My aware-they-exist-and-currently-so-far-unlikely-as-to-not-make-the-list: Galadhrim war steed (Dol Guldur deeds), Ost Dunhoth war steed (Ost Dunhoth deeds), Horse of many colors (Isengard deeds), Treasure laden steed and Cave-claw masked steed (treasure hunt), Perlino PAX steed (2012 PAX), Red Painted Steed (random loot box), Mahogany Bay and The People's Courser (Rank 9 and Rank 12 Moors steeds), Ale Association goat (AA isn't very nice, and I went with the Inn League).

I think that is it? hahahaha 

...until Asma tells me last night that while opening envelopes, she got a Steed from the Anniversary quest that isn't the anniversary steed. Oy vey! It begins anew...