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???

Welcome Friday

Ahhh. Welcome Friday. You are one of my top seven favorite days of the week. I believe most of the other days would like to be you.

I am settling into Update 6. Some of the modified RK skills/traits are buggy, but overall, I do like the changes. I’ll get to it eventually. Right now, I am reflecting on Tuesday’s compendium of Relic information (relics-and-virtues) and looking through some of my pictures, so I will share a few with you.

Jousting. Elf on a steed with a long spear? (Steed of the Guardian shown here)

Haha. Yeah, you guessed it. Just anxious to go fishing.

ABBA has nothing on me...  "...you can jive... having the time of your life, see that girl, watch that scene, diggin the fisher-queen!"

A shot of Asciel meditating in the Galtrev crafting hall. That is still one of my favorite rooms. Got your crafting facilities, your vault, the AH right next door, the forge master right outside. Very nice. Could use better lighting.

Geez, loremasters. Your giant polar bear looks hungry Tarandan. Good thing I went fishing and have extras so I don't become bear food.

Assmunahi at Rivendell. Very fancy dress for visiting Elrond... I saw nothing, I know nothing...

Close-up! Hahaha. The name is missing but that is Berda Free, doing some crafting in Galtrev.

Terrentius, hanging out in Galtrev, looking ferocious in 50 pounds of metal.

This cave is one of my favorite for practicing my skills when outnumbered. RKs are notoriously one of the worst classes for handling groups. One-on-one?... yeah, an RK will end you faster than you can bat your eyelashes, but when outnumbered, the term "glass cannon" couldn't be truer. 6 wargs, Update 5 (prior to some of the effective boosts), I would go there and fight this one over and over until I lost. I could usually hang in there for 3-6 rounds of respawn before they got the better of me. Do or die, for an RK, the fight lasts less than a minute to kill 6 wargs or be eaten alive. This place is where I racked up lots of Large hides and completed the warg-slaying deed. Location is just SW of the tower of orthanc gate.

Tsynn Dyrr hanging out in Galtrev incognito.

Catching up on the words on the wind with my sis Sansanor.

Hiya Engrand. Can one ever know enough good tanks? I think not. 

Have I seen you somewhere before? I love how you do your hair Cherrybaby. Almost like looking in a mirror...

Preparing for a night out on the Moors. I will have to go see if I can figure out which steed this is. So many I lose track. As advised in the comments, this is the Steed of the Runekeeper! You would think I might remember that...

It is going to be a rough night for the creeps in the Moors as Macswife (aka MW) the War-mini prepares to lay waste to the forces of evil and raise the spirits of the free people.

Beware of elves who want to play hide and seek with you. Leanansidhe shows that I am not the only elf that can fly and is a master of the unexpected. But as a dancer, I bet she is very "light on her feet".

Fun Fall Festival, Friends!

(archived from November 8, 2011)

Alas, another Fall festival has come and gone, far too quickly! It probably is a good thing that it does end, one cannot actually party all the time, party all the time, party all the tiiiimme. When festivals start, I rarely ever leave the festival party!

This time for instance, I left the party only to go on two runs of Draigoch (Draigoch, Draigoch spoilers, pictures of Draigoch), spend an evening in Barad Gularan, do some Crafting (Welcome to my Tailor shoppe!), go on a 12-person skirmish a time or three, and visit the Grand Stairs with a group who needed a healer. That really isn't that much for over three weeks worth of login time.

The lil danas and I had a blast though! Here are some of the things we did and people we saw at festival. I'll tell you more about the lil danas some other time!

Of course, visiting the "poorly hidden chest" in the Haunted Burrow is #1 on the list. The idea was to one time, just once, pull a skelehorse out of the chest. We are 0-for-180 on finding a horse over the past 2 years. Better luck next year, right? as a consolation prize, we ended up with 42 haunted trees at one point before we started throwing them away. I'm sure if you want one, we still have a dozen or so sitting around, at least til we cash them in for their 2 silver piece value. Kudos to those who did win skelehorses! Between my bad luck and your good luck, the odds evens out! (Skelehorse and Mounted Rear Up).

I like all the festival quests, especially the ones where I run through the Haunted Burrow. After running through there a thousand times (not really, probably only several hundred), I think I could make it through most of it with my eyes closed. Those tricky Hobbits are fun; I'm glad none of them were actually hurt fooling around in there.

What was more entertaining was trying to watch the lil danas take them out... Danaszar usually had a mug in her hand and no melee weapons. At level 12, Danadalyn looked to be an even match with them when she first met them.

Also, playing with the other hobbits in the Burrow is great entertainment. Danasar enjoyed playing tricks on the other hobbits. "Oh Lobelia.... Boo!"

"Hahahahaha! Calm down Lobelia, it is just Danaszar. Let me take my bear hat off. Aww, you tricker; I'm not just as scary as the bear mask. Fine, fine... let's go mess with some of the other hobbits."

"Oh Noes! A scared hobbit! Aww, the poor dear. You make me so sad... boo-hoo-hoo. Let's have a cry together."

Now this is more like it... Protected by a shield is the best way to go through the Haunted Burrow... kinda like being surrounded by a fellowship of tanks.  The cape will light the way!

We saw lots of people out and about celebrating festival. Here are a few...


Rendien prepares to do venture into the Haunted Burrow.

You never know who you might run into in the Haunted Burrow; here are Leanansidhe and Kilwog in the Basement.

Liriodendron of the Asma family arrives in Hobbiton! Now, the party can start!

Hello Stevia of the family of Stevia! Fancy meeting you under the Party Tree, sir!

Bossman. You have to go in the Burrow! So many good things to see!

Hey... haven't I seen you here before Kilwog? You look much taller through a hobbit's eyes!

Wergil of the house of Werg talks with Danaszar at the Party Tree... I would share, but my mug appears to be empty. Perhaps I shouldn't carry it at my side.

Dirathiel of the house of Dirhallith arrives at festival. She might be Easily Lost, but the Party Tree is just to our north... can't miss it! Good times just up the Hill!

Stryd! Yep, it is a small world when you bump into a renown Guardian metalsmith in the Mystery Wing! Enjoy the festival!

Cymtyr, the Champion extraordinare! Fancy that, fancy hat! Perfect festival attire! I feel festive.  

Nice horse Ilras! The Hunter's Steed! Unfortunately, the hobbits won't let you take him inside. I'm not sure he would go anyway. If a horse won't go into Moria, the Haunted Burrow might be too scary as well.

So many friends who I've seen before. Occasionally, there comes a new one. Here is Takara, dressed in her fine pinks. She either kept the same hours as I did at festival, or she camped on the Hill for a good bit of it!

Always good to see my sis Sansanor! She welcomes me on to join in the fun!

Aloevera of the house of Kalamari channels a "1970's Travolta". It's ok Aloevera; I get excited about festival also!

Kipton of the Asma family and Danadelion prepare to test their riding skills in the Shire.

Brokenstrings of the Doduss family rides out to Henstacker farm to claim his festival pony the same day I went to get my steed.

Danaish waited til the next morning's daybreak, wanting to check the hooves, do a sit test, and pick out her favorite steed.

Bilbo's wine? Ah... the good stuff. Just a sip... I shall soon be muddled... You would think hanging out with the Inn League, I would gain some tolerance...

It has been far too long since I did a round of Shire Inn hopping. Let's go add some calories! "Which do you recommend Bluebell? All of them? Works for me!" 

Ah, Penelas of the house of Elethrandir, you wild hunter. I might be a lil inebre-inebra- pickled. I will provide the drinks; you provide the port-ey knowhow and let's go deliver some drinks to other Inn League members in the far-off reaches and bring some happy festival smiles to them!

Oh my! All this good festival fun and I get party tricks in the shape of consumables too??! AND, if i do enough of them, I learn how to do them permanently? Game on! What better way to spend the time than tricking a bunch of your friends in a group! There were a number of consumable parties. I made 3 or 4 of them.

Hanging out with Macswife, Macmerkin, Wergil, Menelchol, and Taradanag! How can it not be fun to go slap Menelchol around and get paid deeds for it?! Quick, wave the flag! I probably shouldn't be in between Mac and MW when the black gloves come out...

Consumable fun during the day? Consumable fun during the night? It's always a good time. Macmerkin, Nimitar, Byrane, Assmunahi, Daweirdo, and I get ready for some serious trickery. We will even throw in some Summer magic to mix it up. 

Can't get enough? Nope. Nimitar, Assmunahi, Mongoly and I go after it again. Watch out Asma is about to slap someone! Nimitar and I duck, while Mongoly hides behind MotherMongoly (I don't know that she is going to protect you here...)

After a bit too much festival partying, better to just take a quick nap. (Yeah, it was Bilbo's Wine. I "might" have had a bit more than a sip. Or mebbe it was the 40-something drinks in the Inn hopping. Or mebbe there was a "few" spare inn league drinks after all the deliveries were made. Or mebbe dunking my head in the bobbing for apples bucket the 40th time. Or getting black glove slapped several hundred times.) Good thing the Party Tree has nice long benches. My cape looks like it got a bit torn... Wow, what a party! I can't wait til next festival!

Festival comes to an end... Curious about what Supergirl would wear to a costume party??


Yep, you guessed it. I dressed up as Batgirl.


Here is Batgirl riding the Green Painted Skeleton steed as it tries to eat the moon. I earned it. After failing to win a White Skelehorse after trying 180 times, I earned being able to purchase it. The same? No. A consolation? Yep, it'll do.

(lots of happy festival comments from the original post @ final-comments)

(Update 06/01/12: I like this picture of Batgirl on the Green Painted Skeleton steed and apparently it gets attention judging by Google views to this site. I posted another shot of him in the sunlight here @ steed-of-jester-and-others. He is still imposing but shows off his sleekness. :)