Weathertop with a New Lineup

Saturday night found the regular Middle-earth group back in the game.

I had missed out the previous Saturday because… well… I was too damn tired to stay up late.  Getting older ceased to be fun about 20 years ago.

Anyway, while I was away… well, while I was asleep… Earl, Enaldie, and Garfinkel ran around the Lone Lands a bit and killed spiders.  If you know the Lone Lands, you know what I’m talking about.

This past week though, it was time for a change up.

I should learn my lesson.  As with the the original set of instance group characters, I chose a rogue-like class, a Burglar in this case, and found it not really in line with my play style.  And, as with the original set of characters, I ended up substituting in a heavy metal melee class character instead.

Back with the original group, Blintz was my rogue, but he was replaced by Vikund my paladin around level 40.  And while we occasionally missed not having somebody along with the lockpick skill, Vikund went on to greater glory, hitting level 80 with the group, while Blintz still languishes around level 40.

Now it was time for Roderigo to go.

Replacing him was my champion, Sigwerd.  Another nordic name, another heavy armor wearing melee class.

 

Sigwerd - Man Champion

 

The champion seems to be the closest match to the retribution pally when it comes to LOTRO classes, being melee dps focused with some good area attacks and able to take a punch.

Plus, we all know how much I love the champion’s skill icons!

So the lineup for the night was:

• Earlthecat – level 26 dwarf Guardian
• Garfinkel – level 27 elf Minstrel
• Sigwerd – level 28 human Champion
• Enaldie – level 28 elf Rune Keeper

And we thought it was about time we headed back to Weathertop.

The last time we tried to help Candaith sort out things on Amon Sul, it did not go so well.  Heck, it didn’t go so well in the skirmish version either.

Now though, we had a few more levels.  So it was off to Candaith’s camp, which is a happening place on a Saturday night lately.

 

Candaith's Watering Hole

 

We took the quest, Retaking Weathertop, to help move us along in the epic quest line.  We were sadly behind in that regard.  It was a bit of luck that Sigwerd happened to be at just that point in the quest line as well.  So we met up with Candaith at the base of Weathertop.

 

Questing in the Rain

 

It is a good thing that Sigwerd had something akin to a real cloak, as it was suddenly raining in the Weather Hills and you hate for your armor to get rusty.

We followed the usual path up, let Candaith run off and do his thing, met up with him at the summit where he claimed he sprained his ankle or had rabies or some such.  Anyway, he couldn’t join us for the final battle.

And a battle it was.  While we were now above level, this is still an instance for a full fellowship of six players, and there was only four of us.

We ended up getting a little too spread out, which makes it tough on the tank to keep aggro when something gets past.  With the final troll, things started coming apart.  Sigwerd and Garfinkel felt the sting of defeat.

But Earl and Enaldie held on and managed to defeat the troll and pull off a victory.

 

Defeat and Victory

 

Candaith gave us a golf clap and sent us on our way with a one-way ticket to the Forsaken Inn.  He was so eager to get rid of us that he let us use his extra fast horse.  No doubt he was embarrassed by his part in the final battle.

There we were directed back up to Ost Guruth.  It was a good thing that we all now have the fast mount from the LOTRO Store.

 

Cross country in the Lone Lands

 

There we had to meet the possibly mad Radagast the Brown.  He has possibly one of the most expressive faces in the game… but it seems to express something to do with mental unbalance.

 

The White Hand stole the strawberry ice cream!

 

Radagast, along with half of Ost Guruth, had a little mission for us.  It was off to the north in the midst of the undead.  That area has a set of quests, most of which are flagged as solo, but which are much better done in a group.  So we tore into the undead, slew them with abandon, surmounted their highest point, and got our wight supremacy merit badges.

 

Soon not a corpse had a nose to call its own!

 

And of course, the bagpipes came out.  We had to go the extra mile to taunt the undead it seems.

That done, we were left with what Potshot calls the Bear/Boar/Wolf problem, wherein we have to go decimate the local fauna to satisfy the whim or larder stocking needs of some random yokel.  This time it was various bear parts, various warg parts, and gore crow eyes.  Those last are considered a delicacy in Evendim I hear.

We even headed over to smite some spiders, since it was found that Sigwerd was deficient in his spider slaying.  Enaldie called it a night before we got stuck into the spiders, and it wasn’t too long before Sigwerd was caught up and we were loitering around Ost Guruth playing Riders on the Storm and Istanbul (Not Constantinople) on a corner hoping to collect some spare change from the locals.  Bunch of tightwads, really.

 

Busking in Ost Guruth

 

And that was about all of Middle-earth we had in us for the night.  Next week we’ll see what else Radagast has in store for us.