s
News:
Sept. 1, 2010
Gaming / LotRO:
Wednesday 8pm EDT instance run:
Urugarth for class quests, deeds, quests. We went alllll the way
through. Congratulations to everyone for having plenty of people
available early so that we started on time!
Participants: Indis (65 lore-master
Alasse), Melkor (60? captain Melkus), Nimrodel (65 hunter Ardisian),
Pippin (65 warden Illiardo), Tulkas (65 hunter Astaldovalar), and Varda
(50-51 minstrel Tinwetari).
Aug. 30, 2010
Gaming / LotRO:
Monday 8pm EDT instance run: Fil Gashan.
Tolkien Site / Art:
Cave of Luthien-(T): new art, revamped area.
Menel Forodhren
section added with art done in watercolor and crayon of subjects mostly
found in the Silmarillion and Histories of Middle-earth. New art there:
"Aule's Dwellings"
"Elbereth, lady of the stars"
"The elves are concerned about Telperion."
"
Pond in a forest under rising full moon"
"
Company walking up a hill outside Alqualondë"
"Nost-na-Lothian in Gondolin"
Aug. 29, 2010
Sunday Meeting:
5pm EDT (GMT-5)
The meeting is held in the AIM room named Valar Guild Meetingplace.
Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (7)
AriehnV, ArPharazonV, Eonwe Valar, fladrifv/alwin0, galdorandwe, Menelvagor Valar, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Membership:
Arien-(V) is back from her holiday.
Ecthelion-(V) is moving, so he'll be out of LotRO for a bit.
Web:
Art: Luthien-(T)
Games Site Mass Update: Eonwe is about to start emailing.
Gaming:
SC2
WoW
LotRO
Tolkien:
Arien-(V)'s report: the Festival in the Shire
Menelvagor-(Valar): LARPing.
RP: discussion tabled due to some RP'ers not present or just leaving.
Varda-(Valar)'s topic: JRRT had certain ideals that
were naturally a part of his creative work. Topic kept to just
LotR for brevity.
After-meeting:
More concerning the Elessar stone worn by Aragorn in the
LotR.
Aug. 25, 2010
Gaming / LotRO:
8pm Wednesday instance gaming: Fil Gashan.
The main purpose was to complete Gorlim's captain's class quest, quite
a hoot! An additional parameter was that Gorlim had a limited time in
which to play. This quest starts right after getting past the potential
pan-searing of the chef and picking up medallions, but in the same
room. The captain started the quest then, and we handled wave after
wave of orcs until we finally killed enough. We had at least one more
wave to complete after that, as it started up during the time that the
number needed was hit. This is a great way to help handle the orc deed
in there! Although our objective was complete, we continued on for the
fun of it (more medallions and deeds didn't hurt either) since it
wasn't quite time for Gorlim to have to leave. When he did have to go,
Tulkas came in as his replacement. We made one try at General Talug,
not quite succeeding, and then we had other members whose time was up
and had to stop.
Participants: Gildor (65 hunter), Gorlim (Athyn 59
captain), Malva (Tulipan 65 minstrel), Nimrodel (Ardisian 65 hunter),
Pippin (Avengelina 65 champion), Tulkas (Astaldovalar 65 hunter), and
Varda (Timbridhil 65 guardian).
Aug. 23, 2010
Gaming / LotRO:
Morning: The three high population servers, including our Landroval server, are down for maintenance this morning.
8pm Monday instance gaming: Forges.
The group went through the first boss before some of the people needed
to leave. Participants were Eomer (Khori 65 champion), Galdor (Andwe 61
hunter), Indis (Mereniel 65 lore-master), Melkor (Passim 65
rune-keeper), Nimrodel (Ardisian 65 hunter), and Ulmo (Wingilot 65
warden).
Aug. 22, 2010
Sunday Meeting:
5pm EDT (GMT-5)
The meeting is held in the AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace. AIM,
Pidgin or Trillian are programs that all work for joining in.
Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (6)
ArPharazonV, AuSteinM-(T)/austeinm, Eonwe Valar
(presiding Tolkien), fladrifv, Galdor-(V)/galdorandwe, Menelvagor
Valar, VardaValar1 (presiding business)
Web:
Art: new art from Luthien-(T) incoming.
Forum (ours) and how to use the skins. The old one is still available.
Gaming:
WoW: Cataclysm Collector's edition can be ordered
LotRO: Free to Play's new content available for
those in it already Sept 8, Free to Play is available Sept 10.
StarCraft 2 Patch 1.0.3; character renaming
AIM: can be used to talk between games like our old
Bnet. Eonwe is making himself available more in AIM for folks looking
for a tester.
Tolkien:
Menevagor's topic: Valar and the Greek pantheon.
Galdor's topics: Loss of Silvan language, Oropher's rash charge, Fangorn and Celeborn on boundaries.
RP
Upcoming articles
Aug. 19, 2010
Elwing-(V), have a happy birthday today!
Indis-(V) is traveling today but taking her newly repaired laptop, so we should still be seeing her in LotRO.
Aug. 18, 2010
Gaming / LotRO:
Free-to-play LotRO is now planned to come out on September 10 next month.
Wednesday 8pm EDT instance time: we ran Dark Delving
to successfully finish Pippin's class quest for the warden in killing
the Mad Captain, incidentally collecting Moria medallions, DD quests,
and deeds. Participants were Finarfin (Gilothalion 65 hunter,
replacing Tulkas after he crashed and could not return), Indis (Alasse
65 lore-master), Pippin (Illiardo 65 warden and, for the part after the
warden quest, Avengelina 65 champion), Tulkas (Astaldovalar 65 hunter),
Ulmo (Niequi 65 minstrel), Varda (Timbridhil 65 guardian).
Aug. 16, 2010
Gaming / LotRO:
Monday 8pm EDT instance get-together time. Not
enough people showed up to run an instance, so some of us worked on the
deed of killing trolls in the Foundations of Stone together.
Troll-hunters were Indis, Ulmo, and Varda.
Aug. 15, 2010
Sunday Meeting:
5pm EDT (GMT-5)
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace. AIM, Pidgin or Trillian are programs that all work for joining in.
Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon, Eonwe, and Varda
Attending: (6)
ArPharazonV, Eonwe Valar (presiding), fladrifv,
Galdor-(V)/galdorandwe, Indis-(V)/karakedi25, Menelvagor Valar
Membership:
Ar-Pharazon's grandmother has passed away.
Landroval's wife is now an initiate in LotRO.
Arien is missing this week while traveling.
Fladrif is traveling, probable reason for his connection problems during the meeting.
Web:
Forum revamp for the Valar Guild. Send comments and suggestions to Eonwe.
The RP
section moved from the LotRO area to the Tolkien area of the Forum.
Gaming:
LotRO
WoW
StarCraft 1 & 2
Tolkien:
Indis' topic: RP chat only, no Tolkien discussion. Forum unavailable for posting at the moment.
Aug. 11, 2010
Membership:
A hearty welcome to Landroval's
wife, on her Isawen character, who joined in LotRO as an initiate. She
has read LotR and will be taking her test and picking a name to gain her Full Membership.
Gaming / LotRO:
Wednesday 8pm EDT scheduled instance grouping: book instance 2.6.8. Will the cloak ever drop?
For some reason some scheduled
participants showed an hour late as if we had time zone confusion.
Participants: Isawen (60 minstrel),
Landroval (Rana 65 hunter), Pippin (Avengelina 65 champion), Ulmo
(Wingilot 65 warden), and Varda (Fainan 65 hunter).
Aug. 9, 2010
Gaming / LotRO:
Monday 8pm EDT scheduled instance grouping: book instance 2.6.8.
Aug. 8, 2010
Mail suggestions for changes to the guild's Forum to Eonwe-(Valar). All emails are listed on the Membership page.
Sunday Meeting:
5pm EDT (GMT-5)
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace. AIM, Pidgin or Trillian are programs that all work for joining in.
Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (9)
AriehnV, ArPharazonV,
Ecthelion-(V)/BFIIShotgunner, Eonwe Valar (presided Tolkien),
Galdor-(V)/galdorandwe, Gilraen-(V)/Iryenth, Indis-(V)/karakedi25,
TulkasValar61, VardaValar1 (presided business)
Membership:
Arien-(Valar) is on holiday, will miss the next two meetings.
Fladrif-(V) is traveling.
Tulkas-(Valar) is going on leave in ten days.
Gaming:
SC2
WoW:
Gwaihir-(Valar) requests Real ID
Bnet info from other members who are willing to trade it with him.
LotRO:
The ban against talking about the LotRO beta was lifted August 2nd.
Forums:
Facebook -
some of us are friending each other. Most of those at the meeting were
against us going as far as having a Valar Guild page or putting our
Facebook info on the Membership page of our website.
Forum for our guild:
Complaints were made about the colors and format, which are now being
addressed and will be worked on during the week, hopefully with the
major changes completed by next meeting.
Forum for MyLotRO: Complaints were made about some of the text, fixed during the meeting.
Forum for LotRO Kinships on Landroval:
Since the format was changed for that, we got dropped out of sight. A
new page was made that day, but it was not made exactly according
to the template given and will probably have to be remade.
Tolkien:
Several different discussions.
Tulkas' quote for a Tolkien Moment:
of bliss and glad
Eonwe's topic: Aule and Yavanna's argument over the
woods and their use suggests that everything and everyone has its use.
It also suggests why some relations are not as cordial as they might be
in Middle-earth such as for dwarves and ents. Manwe and Varda are like
the opposite side of the coin, more complementary to each other.
Morgoth - excessive pride, greed; he could not attract the Valie of his
choice.
Galdor's topic: Palantiri size
Arien's quote for a Tolkien Moment: Who
deserves death?
Galdor's topic: Galadriel and Celeborn's different stories in
Unfinished Tales are not resolved in
UT.
Aug. 6, 2010
Gaming video funness: WoW gnome + "Big Iron"
Meriadoc-(V), who just incidentally plays a gnome on WoW, suggested this YouTube link as proof that gnomes rule. Enjoy!
Aug. 4, 2010
Gaming / LotRO:
Wednesday 8pm EDT regular instance
time: we ran the epic book instance 2.6.8 a couple of times. The first
group did very well, the second had horrible Link Deadness and had to
call it a night. We will be doing it again, don't worry. Participants
today were all level 65.
Group 1:
Gildor (Gwennair hunter), Indis (Mirminuiel captain), Nimrodel
(Ardisian hunter, winner of the Singed Cloak), Pippin (Avengelina
champion), Ulmo (Niequi minstrel), and Varda (Timbridhil guardian).
Group 2:
Finarfin (Gilothalion hunter), Gorlim (Aeronwy minstrel), Nimrodel
(Ardisian hunter), Pippin (Illiardo warden), Ulmo (Wingilot warden),
and Varda (Timbridhil guardian).
Aug. 2, 2010
Gaming / LotRO:
Monday 8pm regular instance time: Sixteenth Hall.
Having three hunters meant we shot through fast; we also had a very
large number of Fellowship Maneuvers. Gemsin, a friend of Nimrodel's,
aided as minstrel for the first part before he had to leave, and is
welcome to run with us again. Valar Guild participants: Gildor
(Gwennair 65 hunter), Gorlim (Aeronwy 65 minstrel) replaced Gemsin as
we came to the first boss, Malbeth (Etheron 65 hunter), Nimrodel
(Ardisian 65 hunter), Pippin (Illiardo 65 warden), Varda (Timbridhil 65
guardian).
August 1, 2010
Sunday Meeting:
5pm EDT (GMT-5)
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace. AIM, Pidgin or Trillian are programs that all work for joining in.
Meeting Transcript by Eonwe, Menelvagor, and Varda
Attending: (10)
AriehnV,
Arwenv, Ecthelion-(V)/BFIIShotgunner, Eonwe Valar, Galdor-(V)/galdorandwe, Gilraen-(V)/Iryenth, Indis-(V)/karakedi25,
Menelvagor Valar, TulkasValar61, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Membership:
Lalwende-(V) is our new member this week.
Eilenel-(V) has made contact again.
Gaming::
StarCraft2 came out Tuesday. Send your review to Eonwe to publish on the Games Site.
Sacred 2
EverQuest 2 is getting a free to play option, but on different servers than for the main population.
World of WarCraft
Lord of the Rings Online
Tolkien:
Ring of Gyges
Politics that might have
been discussed around the dinner table or campfire during the time of
the Lord of the Rings in the Shire, Gondor, and Mordor.
Role-play story discussion and posting.
July 30, 2010
Membership:
Welcome to the Valar Guild, Lalwende-(V)!
Lalwende is a long-time friend of Indis', who scouted her, and tested
with Varda in LotRO. She's from California in the USA, PST. She's 43
with a husband who read LotR and a 10-year old son who's had it read to
him. A favorite character in the LotR for her is Eowyn, the only woman
who did much, including killing the Witch-king.
July 29, 2010
Gaming / LotRO:
Wednesday 8pm EDT scheduled instance time: Skumfil
run. Participants included Indis (Alasse 65 lore-master), Maedhros
(Galadhalion 65 champion), Nimrodel (Ardisian 65 hunter). Pippin
(Illiardo 62 warden), and Ulmo (Niequi 65 minstrel)
Tolkien:
Galdor-(V) commented that there is a possibility that a story called "Ring of Gyges", XII-Glaucon in Plato's Republic, may have influenced Tolkien, a suggestion also given by others online since it predates the Lord of the Rings
and was very likely part of Tolkien's reading. In it is a ring that
turns the wearer invisible (no retaliation for anonymous behavior),
that Glaucon insists to Socrates would corrupt even the just if they
had an opportunity to use it.
Perhaps Tolkien's answer to how
to handle the problem is in Faramir's comment: "Not if I found it on
the highway would I take it", and in Gandalf's refusal to take it.
Playing anonymously online lets us show our true quality.
July 28, 2010
Gaming / LotRO:
Skumfil run both sides, stopping at the spider Hwandrith.
The run went a long time so we had a few people who had to
leave and were replaced. Thanks go to our patient guild-friends Isawen
(60 min) and Vandred (65 ).
Participants included Indis (Mirminuial65 capt), Maedhros (Galadhalion
65 champ), Malva (on both Necta 65 grd and Tulipan 65 min), Nimrodel
(Ardisian 65 hntr), Pippin (Illiardo 62 wrdn), and Varda (Timbridhil 65
grd).
July 26, 2010
Gaming / StarCraft 2:
StarCraft 2 is now out. Please email Eonwe to let him know if you are playing.
Gaming / LotRO:
Monday 8pm EDT scheduled run (as
opposed to whim runs all during the week): We ran 2.5.5 in all three
parts successfully, requiring some substitution as some had to leave
due to work the next day.
For aid in healing, we had the
level 65 rune-keeper, Keshin, known to Indis-(V) who is now a welcome
guild-friend in the friend channel. Valar participants included Gildor,
Indis, Maedhros, Nimrodel, Pippin, and Varda.
The Wednesday run is expected to be for
Moria medallions, with requests so far for Skumfil (class quest
included), Grand Stairs quest mode, and Dark Delving.
July 25, 2010
Sunday Meeting:
5pm EDT (GMT-5)
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace. AIM, Pidgin or Trillian are programs that all work for joining in.
Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon, Eonwe, and Varda
Attending: (10)
AriehnV,
ArPharazonV, Ecthelion-(V)/BFIIShotgunner, Eonwe Valar, fladrifv,
Galdor-(V)/galdorandwe, Gilraen-(V)/Iryenth, Indis-(V)/karakedi25,
Menelvagor Valar, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Membership:
Ecthelion-(V) is our new member this week.
Ar-Pharazon will not be here next meeting.
Gaming:
StarCraft/BroodWar
StarCraft 2 pre-orders
WoW
LotRO
Tolkien:
RP: Forum RP discussion and posting continues
through the rest of the meeting. The Gilraen chat is during a wait. The
Spider digression is sparked by the RP talk.
Gilraen and Aragorn's experience compared to other sons of chieftains.
More RP
Spiders in the books: Ungoliant, Shelob, Mirkwoodians
Yet more RP.
We collapse after a four-hour meeting.
July 23, 2010
Welcome to the Valar Guild, Ecthelion-(V)!
Ecthelion joined us in LotRO today after responding to a call from
Varda. He has bragging rights from testing 5/5! He's been in LotRO
since 2007, and was recently off for three months. Some of the games
he's played or still plays are LotRO, Titan Quest, and Sacred 2. He
used to play StarCraft and looks forward to SC2 and Diablo 3. He's
played a lot of Bioware games including Baldur's Gate 2, NeverWinter
Nights 1 and 2, Mass Effect 1 & 2, Dragon Age, Knights of the Old
Republic, and Jade Empire.
Ecthelion has read H, LotR, Sil, and parts of HoME.
His favorite character is Gandalf, whose sacrificial bravery to save
the group made him feel safe.
July 22, 2010
Membership and Gaming / WoW:
Menelvagor-(Valar)
transferred a level 76 character to our Lothar server branch group in
World of Warcraft.
July 21, 2010
Gaming / LotRO:
Wednesday night 8pm EDT instance run: Grand
Stairs Hard Mode, ran twice, both successfully, and both times the
Insidious Cuff dropped.
Participants: Gildor on the first run
(Gwennair 65 hunter), Indis (Mereniel 65 lore-master), Melkor (Passim
65 rune-keeper), Nimrodel on the second run (Ardisian 65 hunter),
Pippin (Illiardo 60-61 warden), Ulmo (Niequi 65 minstrel), Varda
(Timbridhil 65 guardian)
July 19, 2010
Gaming / LotRO:
Monday night 8pm EDT instance run: Grand
Stairs Quest Mode, went through Igash on quest mode and wiped out a lot of quests,
gathered all possible medallions.
Participants: Indis (Mereniel 65 LM),
Maedhros (Maedhroc 65 wrdn), Melkor (Passim 65 rk), Nimrodel (Ardisian
65 hntr), Pippin (Illiardo 59-60 wrdn), Varda (Timbridhil 65 grd)
July 18, 2010
Sunday Meeting:
5pm EST (GMT-5)
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace. AIM, Pidgin or Trillian are programs that all work for joining in.
Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon, Eonwe, and Varda
Attending: (9)
AriehnV,
ArPharazonV, Eonwe Valar (presiding), Fladrif-(V)/fladrifv/alwin0,
Gilraen-(V)/Iryenth, GwaihirValar, Indis-(V)/karakedi25, Menelvagor
Valar
VardaValar1 (After-meeting)
Membership:
Gilraen and Gwaihir are going to Blizzcon this fall.
Arien is going to The Festival in the Shire in Wales this August.
Indis is heading to California late August.
Gaming:
WoW
LotRO
StarCraft 2 pre-ordered by Ar-Pharazon.
Tolkien:
Link to "
The Tolkien Professor"
Role-play on the forum.
July 12, 2010
Gaming / LotRO:
For the Monday 8pm EST
get-together, we ran Fellowship quests in Gathburz of Mirkwood, doing a
few dailies on the side.
Participants were: Indis (65
rune-keeper), Maedhros (65 warden), Malva (65 guardian), Varda (65
guardian).
Melkor and Aratan ran together working
on leveling Aratan's level 60 hunter so that he can run the higher
level areas too.
Other folks were present but had characters too low-level to come.
July 11, 2010
Sunday Meeting:
5pm EST (GMT-5)
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (10)
AriehnV, ArPharazonV, Eonwe Valar, fladrifv,
Galdor-(V)/galdorandwe, GwaihirValar, Indis-(V)/karakedi25, Menelvagor
Valar, TulkasValar61, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Membership:
Voted to keep meetings in AIM even after LotRO goes free to play.
Galdor-(V)'s Few Words.
Web:
Link:
Born of Hope online movie
Gaming:
WoW Realid
Second Life: Fladrif's one year anniversary party.
Master of Orion
Tolkien:
Menelvagor's topic: How did the Doom of the Children of Húrin affect the Doom
of the Noldor? (and possibly vice versa?)
July 6, 2010
Links:
"Born of Hope": LotR-based movie, link suggested by Eomer-(V).
July 5, 2010
Gaming / LotRO:
Epilogue instance run.
July 4, 2010
Happy July 4th!
Sunday Meeting:
5pm EST (GMT-5)
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (8)
AriehnV, ArPharazonV, arwenv1, Eonwe Valar,
fladrifv, Gilraen-(V)/Iryenth, Indis-(V)/karakedi25, VardaValar1
(presiding)
Membership:
July 4th.
Indis' birthday.
Eowyn's engagement.
Gaming:
WoW beta for Cataclysm may now be talked about and Arwen gave us some cool info.
Tolkien:
Arwen-(V)'s topic concerns the Archetype of the Hero's Journey, and how Frodo didn't follow it in the usual way. A related url brought up was on
TV Tropes with the
Hero's Journey.
Forum role-play story discussion and posting.
June 30, 2010
Gaming / LotRO:
Fil Gashan: we successfully completed hard mode, taking down General Talug.
Participants: Indis (lore-master
Mereniel), Maedhroc (warden Maedhroc), Nimrodel (hunter Ardisian),
Tulkas (hunter Astaldovalar), Ulmo (minstrel Niequi), and Varda
(guardian Timbridhil).
June 29, 2010
Gaming / LotRO:
Summer Festival begins! Details.
June 28, 2010 Monday
Gaming / LotRO:
8pm instance time, to be determined
by who shows up. I'm hoping for a Moria instance to grab medallions
and/or slipping into the Warg Pens long enough to complete some of the
quests we started..
June 27, 2010
Sunday Meeting:
5pm EST (GMT-5)
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon, Eonwe and Varda
Attending: (7)
AriehnV, arwenv1, Eonwe Valar (presiding),
Gilraen-(V)/Iryenth, Indis-(V)/karakedi25, Menelvagor Valar, VardaValar1
Pallando-(Valar) in Gmail-chat.
Membership:
Two new Full Members this week:
Frodo-(V) and
Galdor-(V)
Web:
New stories this week:
The Robin's Tale by Branwyn-(T)
Meals on Wheels by Jay of Lasgalen
Gaming:
"LotR: Aragorn's Quest" coming out probably later this year.
"LotR: War in the North" coming out probably early next year.
"Starcraft 2" coming out in about one month from today.
"WoW" Patch 3.5.5 is out including Real ID that might be useful to someone.
"LotRO" free to play is coming out this fall and
several members have said they may be able to join us then who can't
now.
Tolkien:
Eonwe's topic: Legitimacy of Sauron's claim to the Ring, and should he get it back according to other Middle-earth precedents.
Forum role-play discussion and posting together. Check out a lot of new stuff!
After-meeting:
A little more rp talk, Pallando said hi from Gmail-chat and may join us in the free to play LotRO this fall.
June 25, 2010
Membership:
Welcome to the Valar Guild, Galdor-(V)!
Galdor joined us today in LotRO after locating us on his own and
emailing Varda. He's played Diablo, Baldur's Gate, NWN, and Icewind
Dale. He's read the H, LotR, Sil and UT and tested 5/5. He's 41, from
New York State in the USA, EST, and married to a fellow Tolkien fan. A
stand-out character from the LotR for him is Gandalf, the counselor who
could also fight.
June 24, 2010
Tolkien / Stories:
"Meals on Wheels" by Jay of Lasgalen. A dwarf is spotted by orcs that have never seen one before. Drabble.
Gaming / LotRO:
Wednesday instance running: Warg Pens.
We tried two three-man groups and got a good start on the quests. One
team was of Nimrodel (Ardisian hunter), Ulmo (Niequi minstrel), and
Varda (Timbridhil guardian). The other team was of Gildor (Gwennair
hunter), Landroval (Rana hunter), and Maedhros (Maedhroc warden).
June 23, 2010
Membership:
Welcome to the Valar Guild, Frodo-(V)!
Frodo joined us today in LotRO. He's 16, from the USA, in the Central
Time Zone. He's read the H, LotR, Sil, UT, and Children of Hurin. He
likes to game daily. One of the most stand-out characters in the LotR
for him was Elrond. A difference between the book and movie versions
was that he reforged the sword for Aragorn right away, and certainly
didn't go to Rohan while wearing his Ring and leaving Imladris
undefended by it.
June 22, 2010
Tolkien / Stories:
"The Robin's Tale"
by Branwyn-(T): "How the least of Lord Denethor's servants came to his
defense." This short story includes Denethor, Faramir, and Gandalf.
June 21, 2010
Gaming / LotRO:
8pm EST: instance time. A group of
us ran in Mirkwood in the Gathburz area that needs fellowships to
complete.
June 20, 2010 Sunday
Happy Father's Day!
Elrond and Estel (young Aragorn), art by
Cassia-(T)
Sunday Meeting:
5pm EST (GMT-5)
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting Transcript by Eonwe and Varda
Attending: (4)
AriehnV, Eonwe Valar, fladrifv, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Gaming:
Chess:
Fladrif has moved into the chess finals in Second Life.
Star Trek Online:
STO is now out of beta and some members are trying it out.
WoW:
A new upcoming Cataclysm area was unveiled:
Grim Batol.
LotRO:
LotRO Beta started and some of our
members are in it. Don't forget to use our usual friend channel to find
each other!
We learned that the ctrl \ command to
move items in the interface is different on the European keyboard where
the command is ctrl # although this part of the meeting is not in the
transcript. Differences like this make it difficult for Europeans doing
programming in the US.
Tolkien:
In Middle-earth, who
are some of the fathers we can think of?
June 16, 2010
Gaming / LotRO:
Wednesday 8pm EST Dark Delving. This is in the Foundation of Stone, nearest stable is at the Shadowed Refuge.
We completed two class quests: guardian
and warden, which was the main intention. We also learned for sure that
we couldn't swap and run another guardian or warden back in the same
run for a class quest. Today Ulmo's Wingilot warden and Varda's
Timbridhil guardian completed their class quests, and our group made it
up to Gurvand to take a look at the last boss fight. We also completed
or made progress on quests and deeds.
Participants were all level 65: Gildor
(Gwennair hunter), Indis (Alasse lore-master), Nimrodel (Ardisian
hunter), Pippin (Illiardo warden and Shamat guardian), Ulmo (Niequi
minstrel and Wingilot warden), and Varda (Timbridhil guardian and
Fainan hunter). Shamat, Wingilot, and Fainan were present only for
short sections. Other folks showed up as well, but did not get to make
it into tonight's run.
Pippin will be working during the upcoming.Monday instance.
lotro-wiki walkthrough of the Dark Delving, a little dated as it refers to the old style coins.
A successful Gurvand boss fight.
Shouts might
cause attacks such as "Shut Your Mouth" and "Bleeding Ears".
June 14, 2010
Gaming / LotRO:
Monday instance day!
First we successfully ran as two groups of three people through the Library
in Eregion, near Echad Mirobel: Ulmo (Wingilot warden), Nimrodel
(Ardisian hunter), and Gildor (Gwennair hunter); Maedhros (Maedhroc
warden), Finarfin (Gilothalion hunter), and Varda (Timbridhil
guardian). For some members, this was the first time through.
Then we ran the Sixteenth Hall
Moria instance (in the Foundations of Stone, with a stable at the
Shadowed Refuge) all the way through with Indis (Tengwarien
rune-keeper), Finarfin (Gilothalion hunter), Nimrodel (Ardisian
hunter), Pippin (Avengelina champion), Ulmo (Niequi minstrel), and
Varda (Timbridhil guardian). The main purpose was to complete Indis'
rune-keeper class quest, but we continued on and cleared all the way
through the Lost One. This was the first time into this instance for a
couple of the participants.
Wednesday we hope to do the Dark Delvings Moria instance and pick up class quests for wardens and guardians.
June 13, 2010
Sunday Meeting:
5pm EST (GMT-5)
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (8)
Ancalagon-(V)/Sarujil, AriehnV,
ArPharazonV, fladrifv/alwin0, Eonwe Valar, Gilraen-(V)/Iryenth,
Indis-(V)/karakedi25, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Membership:
Indis-(V) is back from Egypt with her repaired computer.
Ar-Pharazon-(V) is back from Spain temporarily before heading to England for a WoW gathering.
Dreamlord-(T) recently had a birthday.
Web:
Art: Ryan Lovett repaired the Rolozo site which is
now working again, and also happens to be the main source of
illustrations for our Tolkien Encyclopedia.
Games Site: now hugely revamped by Eonwe-(Valar).
Gaming
Tolkien:
Does it seem to you folks that J.R.R. Tolkien used
blond hair as something special in Middle-earth or perhaps as a plot
device? Did any villain have blond hair?
After-meeting:
Afterwards, Fladrif showed Varda around his
beautiful homes and garden in Second Life, and showed some of the
costumes he's made including a tree, tree-man, and tiger-man.
June 11, 2010
Tolkien Site:
Ryan Lovett, who does the Rolozo
Tolkien art site that is our main source of Tolkien Encyclopedia
illustrations, has repaired the coding. We have art again!
June 9, 2010
Gaming / LotRO:
For Wednesday instance night,
Varda and Dis, with Dis' husband Alrid, joined Lhee group for a quick
Watcher run. (Lhee is Amroth-V, Lhee group includes a good number
of guild-friends and is a mixed kin group that raids and whom we've run
with at times since LotRO went live.)
Afterwards, we had enough
Valarites to make a full fellowship and did Drowned Treasury, the epic
book quest in which we find where the Watcher went after it blocked the
doors to Moria. Some members used the pool to enter the instance, and
aided Nimrodel's Ardisian and Varda's Timbridhil to complete the quest.
Thank you! Participants were Dis (Freyah), Gildor (Gwennair), Nimrodel
(Ardisian), Pippin (Avengelina), Varda (Timbridhil) and guild-friend
Alrid (Dis' husband).
June 6, 2010
Tolkien / Stories:
"Refuge" by Branwyn-(T). "The White City lies becalmed in the summer heat. Set after the Ring War."
Sunday Meeting:
5pm EST (GMT-5)
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
June 4, 2010
Gaming / LotRO:
This fall, LotRO begins a
Free-to-Play set-up going to level 50. Paid and Lifetime subscribers
have a lot more privileges. http://www.lotro.com/betasignup/
includes how to sign up for those who haven't played and info on paid,
plus the new perks added to the game. That info and more is also on the
regular LotRO forum.
June 2, 2010, Wednesday:
Gaming / LotRO:
8pm EST: Forgotten Treasury. Come finish deeds and help Ulmo's warden with this 6-man instance.
Humor YouTube:
Bruce Lee vs Iron Man, suggested by Meriadoc-(V) for the cameo at the end.
Hobbit movies:
May 30: Guillermo del Toro is no
longer directing the movies, although willing to continue helping with
some duties, due to MGM Studios foot-dragging. He was signed for a
three-year contract, after which he had a lot of other projects lined
up, but MGM wanted to drag it out to six years. Already done: script,
choreography for battle scenes, costumes, sets, at least partial
casting.
His statement is on the OneRing.net.
Peter Jackson is already
committed to directing other movies, but there's a chance he might do
it if no one else can be found. See The Dominion Post.
May 31, 2010
Gaming / LotRO:
Monday 8pm EST: Forgotten Treasury
run planned, to aid Ulmo's young Warden and to complete deeds. Not enough people could make it at that time.
Tolkien / Art:
New model photos from DeepGroover-(T): Evil Wolf; Grand Master of the Teutonic Order.
May 30, 2010:
Happy Memorial Day!
Sunday Meeting:
5pm EST (GMT-5) May 30, 2010
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting Transcript by Indis and Varda
Membership:
Fangorn's birthday was May 25.
Indis will be out of the country on a business trip between the 2nd and the 12th of June.
Arien has her vacation days set and is trying to get
tickets to be our reporter for the Festival of the Shire Convention.
Gaming:
World of WarCraft (WoW)
Lord of the Rings Online (LotRO): Monday Forgotten Treasury is the planned instance.
Tolkien:
In honor of Memorial Day, name one battle from any
Tolkien book, with at least one participant and what that person did.
May 27, 2010
Varda, Fangorn, and Sauron will not be available
as they are going overnight camping and leaving this morning.
May 26, 2010
Gaming / LotRO:
8pm regular Moria run: Fil Gashan
We ran Fil Gashan and completed it,
then went back to clear trash mobs for deeds. At least two people
finished up enough medallions for radiance items. We want to hit it
again to complete the deeds and improve our smoothness.
Participants: Gildor (Gwennair 65
hunter), Indis (Tengwarien 61 rune-keeper), Nimrodel (Ardisian 64
hunter), Pippin (Avengelina 65 champion), Ulmo (Niequi 65 minstrel),
and Varda (Timbridhil 64 guardian)
May 25, 2010
Happy Birthday, Fangorn-(Valar)!
Gaming / WoW Lothar:
Eowyn, Fangorn, Sauron,
Schlep, and Varda got together in WoW Lothar server and did a couple of
old world instances for Fangorn's birthday: Stockades and Gnomeregan.
Gnomeregan will probably be gone with the Cataclysm expansion, so we
went completely through it.
Gaming / LotRO Landroval:
Free weekend starts today, for the
Memorial weekend holidays, May 25-31. Free stable rides and extra
experience. Details.
May 24, 2010
Gaming / LotRO:
8pm Fil Gashan run. We worked more on clearing some questing and deeds this time and still picked up a few Medallions of Moria.
Participants were: Gildor
(Gwennair hunter, had to leave for work near the end), Indis
(Tengwarien 65 rune-keeper), Melkor (Passim 65 rune-keeper, connection
problems and had to bow out early), Nimrodel (Aridisian hunter), Pippin
(Avengelina 65 champion, took Gildor's place), Tulkas (Astaldovalar 65
hunter, took Melkor's place), Ulmo (Niequi 65 minstrel), Varda
(Timbridhil 64 guardian).
May 23, 2010:
Sunday Meeting:
5pm EST (GMT-5) May 23, 2010
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting Transcript by Eonwe and Varda
Attending: (8)
AriehnV, arwenv1, Eonwe Valar
(presiding), fladrifv, Gilraen-(V)/Iryenth, Indis-(V)/karakedi25,
Menelvagor Valar, VardaValar1
Gaming:
World of WarCraft (WoW)
Across games: Eonwe intends to be more available to
both WoW and LotRO and to general chat by being in AIM more often, sort
of like our old Battlenet days.
In WoW, Eonwe got with some of the members in-game
on the Lothar server and discussed how to use the guild bank best.
WoW Guild bank summary by Eonwe:
In June I intend to do some "spring
cleaning" of the Lothar Guild Bank. Today, I posed to the Lothar
membership present in World of Warcraft a series of questions
concerning the layout and organization of the Guild Bank. Of the
discussion that ensued, we generally agreed on a few things:
1.) That the guild bank should focus on collecting rare or generally
harder to obtain items, with a preference for items from the current
expansion. For example, armor, weapons, and crafting recipes should be
of rare (blue) quality or higher, glyphs should focus on the more
useful ones, and consumables should be from the current expansion.
2.) That a single bank tab should be allocated for items encompassing
the experience from levels 1-60. Whatever falls between this level
range is to be put here, but once it's full, it's full until something
out of it is used. There is to be no spillover into other bank tabs.
Anything falling beyond this level range can be stored normally, with
respect to the above.
3.) That items used to gain reputation with a faction were generally given a pass.
4.) Profession-specific items (i.e blacksmith keys, leatherworking
drums) should not be stored in the Guild Bank, as they are not
universally usable. It's better to store these in one's personal
inventory.
More detailed (though not necessarily
comprehensive) notes will be put into the info tab for each bank tab
once the cleaning is done. For anything that will not be found in the
guild bank after the cleaning, members are welcome to seek these items
from other members either in person, or through the WoW Trading section
on the Forum.
Lord of the Rings Online (LotRO)
Monday and Wednesday night 8pm EST
group instance running has had very good attendance, possibly needing a
second group running soon.
Chess
Fladrif is moving into the last section of the chess matches.
Tolkien:
Festival in the Shire conference,
first one. Anyone who can attend in Wales should have a great time.
Arien (from the Netherlands) hopes to go with her husband and bring
back a report. Music demos are on the site under J.R.R. Tolkien
Inspired
Music, and small, rolling demos of art under
Artists.
May 21-23
Varda was out of town only until Saturday night. Work called us back to town earlier than expected.
May 19, 2010
Gaming / LotRO:
Wednesday instance night: Fil Gashan completed.
All Valar run. Champion on Talug the
whole run. Guardian on the Fang-caster for the whole run, during the
first part bringing it to the middle since it drops fire traps. First
part: The champion drags Talug into the fire traps making him
vulnerable, and then the dps goes after Talug. Second part: Then drag
the Fire-fist next to Talug and when it dies, the splatter damages
Talug.
Participants: Gildor (Gwennair hunter),
Indis (Alasse 65 lore-master), Nimrodel (Ardisian hunter), Pippin
(Avengelina 65 champion), Ulmo (Niequi 65 minstrel), Varda (Timbridhil
63 guardian).
May 18, 2010
Gaming / LotRO:
Monday instance night: Fil Gashan
as planned. Varda was late due to being unable to get home in time, so
we got a late start. Most had to leave because the time needed would
run over sleep time ahead of work, and some were at work and could not
pay close enough attention for an instance. We did run Fil Gashan 5-man
up to General Talug, when we added one more person, but did not bring
down Talug. We did pick up some Medallions of Moria and had a mithril
flake drop.
We partnered with friends from Keepers of Ayrshire for this run and enjoyed their company.
Participants: Dis-V (Lilyblossom 65 minstrel,
Keepers of Ayrshire co-leader), Pippin-V (Avengelina 65 champion),
Varda-Valar (Timbridhil 63 guardian); Alrid (65 hunter Keepers leader
and Dis's husband), Connaver (63 burglar Keepers, now in our friend
channel), Litesha (65 hunter Keepers, Connaver's wife, came in to help
with Talug).
Suggested: take wound potions vs fire (waterfall
helps too), be sure hunters have fire oil vs Talug, lore-masters are
good for fire damage spells. A minstrel is required to Distract
sentries for hard mode. A champion is good to Clobber interrupt Talug's
helper, the Fangcaster, who otherwise hits the party with powerful fire
arrows. The Fangcaster is immune to being Riddled by a burglar.
May 17, 2010
Letter from Faramir-(V)-ex
I
decided to move my characters to a kin that some of my old friends
recently started that's going to focus a lot on raiding. I hope
there are no hard feelings. I enjoyed my time with Valar Guild,
but have lately felt that perhaps I don't quite fit in the way I would
like. I would still like to keep in touch with you guys if
possible, so feel free to ask me for help if you need it. Your
friend, hopefully, always ...
Faramir
May 16, 2010
Sunday Meeting:
5pm EST (GMT-5) May 16, 2010
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (9)
AriehnV, ArPharazonV, arwenv1, Eonwe Valar, fladrifv, Gilraen-(V)/Iryenth, Indis-(V)/karakedi25, Menelvagor
Valar, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Membership:
Ar-Pharazon-(V): one month field trip starting tomorrow
Fladrif-(V): birthday
Web:
Links
News page
Gaming:
Guild Wars: Ar-Pharazon
Second Life: Fladrif
Chess: Fladrif
Armadillo Run: Arien, Fladrif
World of WarCraft (WoW)
Lord of the Rings Online (LotRO)
Tolkien:
RP discussion. The plot is hung on getting a message from Calaron.
How much information would the Avari pick up from the Silvans?
May 14, 2010
Links:
"The Tolkien Professor".
Recorded lectures from Dr. Corey Olsen, a tenured English professor at
Washington College, whose PhD is in medieval literature and a long-time
Tolkien fan. Link recommended by Daddy Twofoot-(V).
"Festival in the Shire Journal". An online magazine discussing Tolkien and Tolkien-related works.
May 12, 2010
Gaming/LotRO:
Wednesday 8pm was for our scheduled
instance run. Some who had come earlier were running the Dannenglor
book skirmish instance together. The group running the scheduled
instance completed Forgotten Treasury
in the Flaming Deeps, one that several of us had quests for and that we
had tried previously but run out of time. For Monday's 8pm EST
run, we will probably do Fil Gashan, its neighbor, which has
medallions.
The group started as a five-man,
adding the sixth when Indis was able to come online, despite a case of
the flu and a bad internet connection. Those running were Gildor (63
hunter), Indis (Mirminuial 65 captain), Nimrodel (Ardisian 62 hunter),
Pippin (65 champion), Ulmo (Niequi 65 minstrel), and Varda (Timbridhil
63 guardian).
May 11, 2010
Gaming/LotRO:
The gang tried out Skumfil, a Moria radiance
instance. (Varda was out of town.) According to Gildor's report in chat
(which he didn't expect to be on the News):
"did Skum for the first time last
night with fellow Valar. Unfortunately it was bugged and and we to
leave. Kept resetting.
"the main baddies in the Hive
Nest kept respawning. You would kill one boss, then another, but 30
seconds later they would appear again and again and we kept dying. No
medallions."
Some of the participants were Dis, Gildor, Melkor, and Pippin. I'm guessing Nimrodel was there.
May 10, 2010
Happy Birthday Fladrif!
Gaming / LotRO:
Planning to do an instance 8pm EST. We'll see which one when we see who comes. :)
Next planned instance Wednesday 8pm EST.
Other instances will be done spur of the moment as usual.
We are trying out Mondays and
Wednesdays as planned instance times, and by in-game discussion found
that 8pm was best due to work schedules. This will not replace
spur-of-the-moment runs, but add to them.
First scheduled run since Turtle days:
8pm EST may be too early.
Most showed up around 9pm. For that hour, Nimrodel, Gildor, and Varda
(as Timbridhil) knocked out a few Moria quests to clear quest room for
instances and to level Nim's and Gildor's mains. Faramir's Celebrandt
was already on pugging in Sammath Gaul, a successful run.
When enough of us came online at
around 9, we joined up for Forges, a Moria radiance instance in the
Flaming Deeps. Fil Gashan is right next to it allowing a few of us to
complete the exploration deed. The instance seemed bugged according to
several members who had done the instance many times before, but we
still picked up Moria medallions, a first for some of our characters
and some folks leveled. The problem was that despite any varieties of aggro, the two trolls kept getting back together.
Participants were Faramir (Timbenzedrine
minstrel alt), Gildor (Gwennair 63 hunter main), Gorlim (Sprain 62
guardian alt), Indis (Mirminuial captain alt), Nimrodel (Ardisian 63
hunter main), Pippin (Avengelina 65 champion main, subbed in when
Gildor had to go to bed), and Varda (Timbridhil 63 guardian alt). The
company was great! Fun was had by all.
One suggestion generally agreed on was that we all need to get our mics working.
Dis brought in a new alt
to the kin during the same time: Disvandl (vandl means staff).
Eonwe was also on but his
main was not quite up to the Forges yet. Give him just a little more
time and he'll be in the thick of it.
Next planned instance is on Wednesday at 8pm.
May 9, 2010
Happy Mother's Day!
Sunday Meeting:
5pm EST (GMT-5) May 9, 2010
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (5)
AriehnV, ArPharazonV, Eonwe Valar (presiding), fladrifv, VardaValar1
Tolkien topic: mothers in Tolkien's works, their children, and their husbands.
May 6, 2010
Happy Birthday Ar-Pharazon!
May 2, 2010
Welcome to the Valar Guild, Nob-(V)! Nob, aka
Elenrandir, joined as a Full Member in LotRO today, then in WoW
transferred his level 80 Peralt from another server and joined our
guild branch on Lothar. He's been gaming with us in LotRO for months,
finding us through Indis. Varda tested 5/5. He's 24, from Texas, USA in
CST. He has training in web design. His favorite character from LotR is Sam the awesome, brave and clever, who was able to resist the One Ring.
Welcome to the Valar Guild, Bofur-(V)!
Bofur, aka Eldwin and Dagr, joined as a Full Member in LotRO, then had
a playful contest with Nob to see which of them could transfer their
WoW character faster. He, too joined our WoW Lothar branch and the two
gamed with Bilbo and Eonwe there. As Dagr in LotRO, he is the leader of
the kin Goldtaggers Anonymous, with his friend, Nob-(V) above and a
couple of other people rarely seen, and they will be keeping their
kinhouse. He too has been gaming with us in LotRO for months with
Elenrandir, finding us through Indis. Varda tested 5/5. He's 24. One of
the characters he finds most interesting in the LotR is Sauron. "Conquering the whole world via jewelry? Genius."
Welcome to the Valar Guild, Bard-(V)!
Bard, aka Anglaf, joined as a Full Member in LotRO where he's been
gaming with Varda (5/5), and is fairly new to LotRO. He's played many
MMO's before this but now plays exclusively LotRO. He's 19, from Ohio,
USA in EST. Bard is going for his degree in Information Systems
Management with a minor in Computer Science. He works in IT at college,
where he's in R.O.T.C., and will be going into the military for eight
years. Bard has read the Hobbit (favorite book), the Lord of the Rings, and the about the first one-hundred pags of the Silmarillion. His favorite LotR
character is Aragorn for plot development and archetype, and is the one
he can relate to the most for himself and for his struggle. Bard is
also a softy for love stories.
Sunday Meeting:
5pm EST (GMT-5) May 2, 2010
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon the Golden and Varda
Attending: (5)
ArPharazonV, Eonwe Valar (presiding), Gilraen-(V)/
Iryenth,
Indis-(V)/
karakedi25, VardaValar1
Tolkien:
Peter Jackson knighted.
In-game trivia with prizes.
Badguys in Tolkien: Redeemable or not?
What the free people would do if they had the Ring.
Eonwe's illustration: Different moralities for mankind shown in
LotR and
Wheel of Time.
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