October 30, 2016 Sunday Meeting
5pm
EST (UTC/GMT - 5)
AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Back to News
Transcript work by Ar-Pharazon and Varda.
Attending: (5)
ArPharazonV, EonweValar, ElladanV/Scott92027, Lenwe,
Varda Valar (presiding)
Before-meeting
Meeting begins
Membership:
Web:
Story by Little Jewel-(T)
Gaming
Tolkien:
Topic 1: What are a few
of the kinds of places that various beings lived in? And would we enjoy
living there?
Topic 2:
Morgul-knife: But why, if the Nazgul have such technology, do we not
hear of many other junior wraiths wandering Middle-earth?
Topic 3 (tangent from
Morgul-knife): Rune-magic and other types of magic.
After-meeting:
Google game
Flashgaming Reviews by
Ar-Pharazon
Personal gaming
top
Before-meeting
Eonwe Valar (Eonwe Valar) has entered the room.
Varda Valar (VardaValar1) has entered the room.
Ar-Pharazon-V (ArPharazonV) has entered the room.
Varda Valar: Aiya Eonwe :-)
Ar-Pharazon-V: Aiya!
Varda Valar: Aiya Phar :-)
Ar-Pharazon-V: Oh, right, you've still got DST I suppose.
Varda Valar: brb, please pardon
Eonwe Valar: Hehe, timing, afk for a moment as well.
Ar-Pharazon-V: For me it's an hour early :-)
Varda Valar: back
Varda Valar: o right! Daylight savings time stuff /facepalm
Varda Valar: Your time already changed, but ours hasn't
Ar-Pharazon-V: Right :-)
Varda Valar: Putting that online now, so sorry.
Varda Valar: Arien around to warn?
Ar-Pharazon-V: Last online 4 days ago.
Varda Valar: She mentioned vacation, that's right.
Ar-Pharazon-V: to Germany, yep
Varda Valar: Sounds great. :-)
Eonwe Valar: back
Varda Valar: Aiyata :-)
Eonwe Valar: Hantal :}
Ar-Pharazon-V: Aiyata!
ElladanV (Scott92027) has entered the room.
ElladanV: Aiya
Varda Valar: Aiya Elladan :-)
ElladanV: wow where did the week go?!
Ar-Pharazon-V: Aiya!
Varda Valar: *zip*
Varda Valar: *there it went!*
Varda Valar: and then it bumped into Halloween.
top
Varda Valar: Elen
sila lumenn' omentielvo!
Varda Valar: Membership:
Varda Valar: Arien is vacationing, (well-deserved), in Germany, but
will be back with us.
ElladanV: Oh good
Varda Valar: Meriadoc-V was just at my house, left a few minutes ago
back to his own city, while the weather and lighting are good.
Varda Valar: Gimli, Meriadoc, Sauron, Fangorn, myself, and more friends
and family were at the Texas Rennaissance Festival yesterday. Great
weather and much fun was had. :-)
Varda Valar: https://www.texrenfest.com/
Varda Valar: That was for the Halloween weekend, with the most variety
in costumes.
Varda Valar: Halloween is almost upon us, much candy being collected to
give out.
Varda Valar: Any other membership news?
top
Varda Valar: Web:
Stories:
Varda Valar: We have a new chapter from Little Jewel-T in "Learning to
Smile":
Varda Valar: http://valarguild.org/varda/Tolkien/encyc/fiction/authors/LittleJewel/Life3.htm
Varda Valar: For the Games Site, we have the frest gaming news put up
by Eonwe. :-) Moving us to:
top
Varda Valar: Gaming!
Varda Valar: Eonwe has the report for us. Fire when ready!
Eonwe Valar: Thanks :}
Eonwe Valar: World of Warcraft:
Eonwe Valar: Patch 7.1: Return to Karazhan is live. Check out the patch notes. A new raid
preview has been posted: Raid Preview: Taking on the Trial of Valor.
Check out this week's hotfixes.
Eonwe Valar: Diablo 3:
Eonwe Valar:A new blog is out: Developer Chronicles: Greater Rifts .
ElladanV: Oh man
Eonwe Valar: Starcraft 2:
ElladanV: Karazhan was my favorite dungeon
Eonwe Valar: Patch 3.7.1 is out.
Varda Valar: :-)
Ar-Pharazon-V: Note, old Kara is still there!
Eonwe Valar: Downside of that is that Karazhan revamped is a mythic
only dungeon.
ElladanV: oh
Ar-Pharazon-V: And it needs attunement :-D
Eonwe Valar: *Downside of the revamp. Definitely glad the old version
is still there.
ElladanV: the new one needs attunement?
ElladanV: I'm attuned to old lol. But I haven't played in years
Eonwe Valar: Aye, then you have to hope you can find a group that's not
going to object to the myriad of things people object to: you're not
overgeared, this is your first time, you're wearing a blue shirt....
Varda Valar: heh
ElladanV: haha!
Eonwe Valar: Heroes of the Storm:
Eonwe Valar: A new balance update came out this week.
Eonwe Valar: Overwatch:
Eonwe Valar: A new new lore tidbit is out: LumériCo
Revelations: CEO Guillermo Portero Under Fire.
Eonwe Valar: That's it for gaming news.
Ar-Pharazon-V: "Sombra", eh
Ar-Pharazon-V: That always reminds me of a my little pony villain.
Varda Valar: Thank you.
Varda Valar: LotRO:
Varda Valar: The LOTRO Game Servers were brought down on Wednesday,
October 26th from 8:00 AM - 1:00 PM Eastern (-4 GMT) for an update to
the game.
Varda Valar: Patch
notes.
Varda Valar: Those seen this past week in LotRO in the kin:
Varda Valar:
Bregalad/Quickbeam
Celebrian
Dis
Eonwe
Erkenbrand
Fangorn
Gil-galad
Hamson
Lenwe
Nar
Varda
Varda Valar: We have a request from Dis for LotRO that we group up to
handle the quests in the new area, even minor ones.
Varda Valar: She and I did that the other day, very helpful.
Varda Valar: Not only helps with deeds, but warnings like don't go
right of the Crossroads due to instadeath.
Varda Valar: and just fun. :-)
Ar-Pharazon-V: An MMO that rewards partying up for quests? Imagine that
;-)
Varda Valar: What a concept!
Varda Valar: Been tricky to have folks of the right level on for that
at the same time.
Varda Valar: She says she's on mostly after supper and on weekends.
Varda Valar: We have others that come in during the day.
Varda Valar: Some prefer mornings. :-)
Varda Valar: Sort of just before work, during lunch breaks, after
supper, and weekends. Makes sense.
Varda Valar: So look around for a buddy especially at those times.
Varda Valar: Any other gaming news, comments, suggestions?
Varda Valar: Favorite times to play? Some folks need very late night or
early morning too.
Ar-Pharazon-V: I play in the evenings but am still so far behind on
quests, I'm trying to get a few afternoon things done as well now.
Varda Valar: Thanks
Ar-Pharazon-V: but that's WoW :-)
Varda Valar: We have WoW folks in Europe. Who knows, maybe they're
reading this. :-)
Varda Valar: I tend to come in after supper cleanup, but slide in at
various times in the day, sometimes when it should be bedtime. *cough*
Varda Valar: Ok, on to
top
Varda Valar: Tolkien:
Varda Valar: Tolkien gave us a huge Middle-earth and places outside of it. What are a few of the
kinds of places that varioius beings lived in? And would we enjoy
living there?
Varda Valar: Where did trolls live? There were the early types before
Sauron modified them, and then the modified trolls.
Eonwe Valar: Well, I imagine we could get used to ducking and/or
smacking our heads on the ceiling, we could enjoy most Hobbit holes.
Eonwe Valar: *imagine if
Varda Valar: True. Hobbit holes sound cozy, for short people. Maybe we
could ask for their version of the high-ceilinged sort. Harder to
tunnel, but for enough provender for all their kids offered, we might
find willing builders.
Ar-Pharazon-V: So make bigger hobbit holes. Trolls had caves, that's
big enough.
Ar-Pharazon-V: So did goblins :-)
Varda Valar: True. The goblin king and his people apparently made good
use of caverns, for large cities.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Something shared by Elven kings as well.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Well, some.
Varda Valar: Trolls of various sorts might work under bridges to rob
travelers, then carry their loot to their nearby home cave, the way the
three did that met with Thorin's Company.
Varda Valar: Mengroth, Doriath, the Halls of Thranduil. Made them as
fortresses, partly, safe places for their people under rough conditions.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Nargothrond.
Varda Valar: Aye
Varda Valar: *Menegroth, pardon sp
Varda Valar: What other kinds of places did elves live in?
Ar-Pharazon-V: Trees!
ElladanV: like Keebler
Varda Valar: Flets, talans in the trees, aye.
Varda Valar: Lembas cookies. :-)
Varda Valar: And cities
Varda Valar: What sorts of places did the dwarves live in
Varda Valar: ?
Ar-Pharazon-V: More caves!
Ar-Pharazon-V: Useful things.
Varda Valar: Humans had a lot of variants. What were some places they
lived in? We mentioned Hobbits already.
Varda Valar: Woses, Rohirrim, Gondorians, Rangers, those of Dol Amroth.
Any difference in where they lived?
Ar-Pharazon-V: Woses? Trees, possibly.
perseid28 has entered the room.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Then we've got wooden houses, stone houses, tents
(probably) and more stone houses!
Varda Valar: Aiye Lenwe :-)
perseid28: Aiya everyone
Ar-Pharazon-V: Aiya!
ElladanV: Aiya :-)
Varda Valar: Talking about where human variants lived, what kind of
places. And would we like living there? :-)
ElladanV: In a van down by the river
Varda Valar: Woses living in the forests.
Varda Valar: Maybe you'd be a raft elf of Thranduil. :-)
Varda Valar: Rohirrim might have keeps and villages, but they almost
lived on their horses, camping out a lot.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Horses gotta live somewhere too!
Eonwe Valar: OK ladies and gents, I must be off.
Varda Valar: mmm, grass and grain!
Ar-Pharazon-V: Which makes living on your horse troublesome.
Eonwe Valar: Take care all, good night, sleep well, and have fun.
Varda Valar: Namarie, Eonwe. Glad you could come!
Ar-Pharazon-V: Namarie :-)
perseid28: Namarie Eonwe!
Eonwe Valar (Eonwe Valar) has left the room.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Little boxes, on the hillside...
Varda Valar: Some call them "houses".
Ar-Pharazon-V: yep :-)
Varda Valar: The Gondorians had several kinds of cites.
Varda Valar: *cities
Varda Valar: What kinds of cities do we know of?
Ar-Pharazon-V: Unless you count the Ithilian camp behind the waterfall,
I can only come up with the big stone ones.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Though one in particular was layered like a cake.
Varda Valar: hehe Minas Tirith, the 7-layer cake.
Varda Valar: Dol Amroth, a port city, lot of elvish influence.
Varda Valar: Osgiliath, with a river running right through the middle.
Varda Valar: What about the Valar? What sorts of places did they live
in?
Ar-Pharazon-V: Great halls of splendor!
Ar-Pharazon-V: Suited to their own aspects.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Also gardens. And mountains.
Varda Valar: True!
Ar-Pharazon-V: And.. caves!
Varda Valar: hehehe
Varda Valar: and before I forget, your old hometown on an island. :-)
Varda Valar: Back to the Valar, where you also have a hole in the
ground,
Ar-Pharazon-V: Also made of stone, with nice palaces :-)
Varda Valar: true
Ar-Pharazon-V: Yep, back to the cave!
Varda Valar: and lots of docks.
Varda Valar: Each of the main Valar had a place suited to their part of
the song.
Varda Valar: It showed in their living areas too.
Varda Valar: So Orome could be found more in areas suited for hunting
on horses with hounds.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Like forests.
Varda Valar: Manwe of the air and Varda of the stars up on a mountain
top.
Varda Valar: Right
Varda Valar: Special gardens, maybe with a couple of giant trees, for
Yavanna.
Varda Valar: A place suitable for smithing, undoubtedly enormous (maybe
with caves?) for Aule
Varda Valar: Namo taking care of the dead and fate in underground halls.
Varda Valar: Irmo in a dreamy, twilit landscape
Varda Valar: Ulmo in the great ocean of Vai, and in all the waters.
Varda Valar: Melkor in the Void and, surprise, more cave fortresses. :-)
Varda Valar: We came up with so many underground dwellings, that one
must wonder if JRRT had spelunking tendencies. I only know of hiking a
lot.
Varda Valar: Maybe he saw caves and found them fascinatingly mysterious
while on his hikes.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Well, they are intuitively good shelters and homes.
Ar-Pharazon-V: If they don't crash down on top of you.
Varda Valar: A lot of rock tends to be pretty stable, and true. :-)
Varda Valar: And there's the Glittering Caves of Aglarond, that Gimli
became lord of.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Yep, shiny too.
Varda Valar: And the woods of Ithilien for the wood elves that Legolas
led there, repairing the damage from nearby Mordor.
Varda Valar: *shiny!*
Varda Valar: Any other places we'd like to mention? Maybe some we
spotted in LotRO? Or the movies? Or even books?
Ar-Pharazon-V: Spiders? Caves :-)
Varda Valar: hehe
Varda Valar: Shelob certainly seemed to like her cave home.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Eagles?
Varda Valar: Orcs also were into caves, underground places like stolen
Moria, fortresses.
Varda Valar: Eagles liked mountains, especially near forests and
meadows with plenty of food for their large bodies (for a bird).
Ar-Pharazon-V: Beorn had a wooden house, I think. Saruman lived in a
tower. Radagast...
Ar-Pharazon-V: presumably a cabin in the woods?
Varda Valar: True.
Varda Valar: Beorn had lots of places for his critters too. Beehives,
stables.
Varda Valar: and a big rock. :-)
Ar-Pharazon-V: Always good to have a rock.
Varda Valar: I wonder if a wizard like Radagast would have moved around
a lot. Maybe having a sort of gypsy wagon to live in, like a current
day trailer house.
Varda Valar: Towers were around, true. Saruman's Orthance. Minas Ithil.
ElladanV: I am going to bid you all an early adieu. My dog needs
walking, dinner needs, eating, and applications aren't going to build
themselves! Namarie, everyone. Great to see you, as always!
Varda Valar: Namarie!
Varda Valar: Glad you could come. :-)
Ar-Pharazon-V: Namarie!
ElladanV: I gotta go breathe some Middle Earth air son
ElladanV: soon*
ElladanV: been a long time
Varda Valar: Great! And need to keep your names from getting -1's on
them!
ElladanV: -1s?
Ar-Pharazon-V: Meantime I'm digging up old relics deep within a
demon-infested base on the stairs of a titanic palace.
Varda Valar: What a place!
ElladanV: ?
ElladanV: warcraft?
Ar-Pharazon-V: yep
ElladanV: I just got my password back, thinking of resubbing. I have 10
lvl 90s... so the gear would be SO low
Varda Valar: Aye, names that come in from other servers in LotRO can
cause current server names that are unused to have a -1 after it, and a
rename token.
ElladanV: oh jeez
ElladanV: okay
ElladanV: good to know
Varda Valar: Pop in now and then, is all it takes. :-)
ElladanV: and also, regarding WoW, I'd have to buy Legion. Would have
to find an extra 50 bucks somewhere
ElladanV: okay :-)
Ar-Pharazon-V: We had a name-purge a while ago, if you popped in too
late to claim yours you'd get -xyz to your name.
ElladanV: yikes!
ElladanV: I'll check. Gotta run. ttyl!
Varda Valar: Namarie!
ElladanV: *bows*
ElladanV (Scott92027) has left the room.
Varda Valar: Lenwe has a head-scratcher
for us, from the FotR.
Varda Valar: Go ahead, Lenwe!
Varda Valar: I think he's away
Varda Valar: LenweV
When Gandalf is explaining things to Frodo at the
Last Homely House, he says that the Nazgul had tried to stab Frodo's
heart with the morgul blade, which would have turned him into a junior
wraith.
But why, if the Nazgul have such technology, do we
not hear of many other junior wraiths wandering Middle Earth?
Varda Valar: Seems that they would have made a
good addition to Sauron's army, so we should have seen them if they
existed
Ar-Pharazon-V: Perhaps it only works because Frodo was already under
influence of the Ring. Perhaps the daggers are pretty expensive and it
does require cutting off the point (or even losing the rest of the
blade).
Ar-Pharazon-V: Perhaps there are junior wraiths around, but they don't
last very long or can't get out in sunlight or get stuck doing menial
labor back in Minas Morgul etc.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Or.. we just don't see them >.>
Varda Valar: heh
perseid28: Sorry, here's the question:
Varda Valar: Good points. Maybe those Cargul in LotRO that keep getting
killed by adventurers.
perseid28: Oh, already posted :)
perseid28: Thanks
Varda Valar: and the Morgul blade disappearing in sunlight.
Varda Valar: Pardon, your symbol went yellow as if you had been afk a
good while. Enjoying your question.
Varda Valar: They do seem to be lesser beings than the Nazgul, even
Frodo holding the One Ring
Varda Valar: The blades must have been tough to make, since they were
made with sorcery.
Varda Valar: How many could make them? Were the components hard to
collect?
perseid28: Right, so maybe there just aren't very many Morgul-knives
perseid28: Saved for special occasions
Varda Valar: We know the Witch-king had one, but he was a sorceror
himself.
Varda Valar: Good thought.
Varda Valar: So maybe for those that carried rings, including lesser
ones.
Ar-Pharazon-V: And Frodo was a bit of a prime target.
Varda Valar: Yet even the dwarf king held for his ring that Gandalf
found in the dungeoen was not made into one. But then, dwarves could
not be turned.
Varda Valar: True, about Frodo.
Varda Valar: And Gandalf said his arm? hand? was changing, could see
through a wee bit, and he could eventually look like clear glass.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Dwarves were resistant (-tent?) to that sort of stuff,
so the wraiths probably caught on after a few centuries.
Ar-Pharazon-V: There you go, invisible :-)
Varda Valar: Or were told by Sauron not to waste time?
Varda Valar: heh
Varda Valar: Sauron could probably have made morgul-knives.
Interesting. They were apparently around enough to be recognized.
Varda Valar: by some people at least.
Ar-Pharazon-V: The scholared.
Varda Valar: Aragorn was from Rivendell, and raised by Elrond, and hung
out a lot with Gandalf.
Varda Valar: Aye, maybe Faramir would have recognized from reading?
Ar-Pharazon-V: The scholared, and those who'd been around for a while.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Perhaps.
Varda Valar: And the combo. :-)
Ar-Pharazon-V: Yep.
Varda Valar: Chances are, they did make some of these folk and they
were put down as soon as the good guys could manage it.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Yep. Otherwise, how would they know what would happen?
perseid28: That's a good point
Varda Valar: That was an interesting question, one worth looking into
more.
perseid28: The question of the maker of the knives certainly warrants
further attention
Varda Valar: Had to be able to do sorcery.
Varda Valar: We know two candidates; the Witch-king and Sauron.
perseid28: There are references some to orc weapons being tainted with
dark magic as well, yes?
Varda Valar: There may have been some humans, maybe some Black
Numenoreans bck in the day.
Varda Valar: Ahh, good point.
Varda Valar: Runes could do it, put on the weapons?
Ar-Pharazon-V: Was it referred to as a Morgul-blade in the book as well?
perseid28: But that would be mass-production I'd think, so maybe more
people can perform the lesser spells
Varda Valar: Morgul-knife with a Morgul-blade on it that snapped off.
Varda Valar: Rune magic was around, but it wasn't an easy thing.
Varda Valar: Still, runes could be a likely source for the dark magic
items, as we saw on the good ones.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Still, that gives away something of its origin.
Varda Valar: Agreed
Ar-Pharazon-V: Unless it refers to the brand of sorcery, one might say
it comes from a certain tower.
Varda Valar: The Morgul-knife didn't seem to be rune magic.
Varda Valar: Minas Ithil?
perseid28: How does one identify rune magic?
Varda Valar: Saruman was studying ring magic, rather than really being
into runes.
Varda Valar: Runes are visible "letters" on the object.
perseid28: I ask because when Glorfindel studies the knife hilt, he
observes there are "evil things written on [it]"
Ar-Pharazon-V: *gasp* graffiti
Varda Valar: lol
Varda Valar: ahh, on the morgul-knife's hilt?
Varda Valar: That would be a reference to runes! Very good spotting.
perseid28: Well thanks for humoring my question :)
Varda Valar: The "written blade of Westernesse", Narsil/Anduril of
Aragorn's, has runes.
Varda Valar: Humoring? It was a good one. Hadn't thought about that. Be
a good one to look into more.
Varda Valar: Gandalf is into runes. One he puts on Bilbo's door,
letting the dwarves know a burglar is within and for hire.
Varda Valar: A G rune for Gandalf on his fireworks, and on the token he
leaves behind on Weathertop.
Ar-Pharazon-V: And then rubs it out at the end, hmm. I wonder what it
was made of.
Varda Valar: Those are straight out writing, but runes could have magic
with them too.
Varda Valar: Right. :-)
Ar-Pharazon-V: Bit of ink on the end of his staff?
Ar-Pharazon-V: Or did he actually make an indentation and then destroy
the entire layer?
Ar-Pharazon-V: Seems a bit of vandalism.
Varda Valar: Belive it was physical. and the latter. Let's look
Varda Valar: That rascally Gandalf!
Varda Valar: Found it
Varda Valar: He scratches the mark on the door
Varda Valar: "with the spike on his staff"
Ar-Pharazon-V: Ouch.
Varda Valar: That's just before the song you can see in italics as a
poem
Varda Valar: Gloin says there's a mark on the door, "the usual one in
the trade, or used to be.
Varda Valar: Rune meant: "Burglar wants a good job, plenty of
Excitement and reasonable Reward" that's how it's usually read."
Varda Valar: "You can say Expert Treasure-hunter instead of Burglar if
you like. Some of them do."
Varda Valar: ah, here, just before the song of Misty Mountains cold,
Varda Valar: "And there was Gandalf behind, leaning on his staff and
laughing. He had made quite a dent on the beautiful door,; he had also,
by the way, knocked out the secret mark that he had put there the
morning before."
Varda Valar: About runes, there are rune markings on the map they use,
some that can only be read in moonlight of the same time as it was
written, that Elrond reads for them later.
Varda Valar: We see runes invented very early on, Feanor having been
first. Several varieties.
Ar-Pharazon-V: It also tells us that Bilbo has not been out of the
house since his morning smoke.
Varda Valar: True! He didn't see it.
Varda Valar: Maybe he just didn't look back at his door. Might not have
been obvious to him.
Ar-Pharazon-V: It had to have been visible enough that the dwarves
could find it without having to scrutinize every front door in the
neighbourhood up close.
Varda Valar: True.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Well he'd still need to open it again on his return.
Varda Valar: Aye. He may be as oblivious as a lot of us, just not
looking right at the door, maybe just the steps and handle he's using.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Could be. When's the last time you looked at your front
door, and not just the lock etc? :-)
Varda Valar: Mainly when visitors are coming, to see if it's smudged.
:-) He had forgotten about the tea time appointment, since
he didn't want it and it wasn't on his calendar.
Ar-Pharazon-V: hehe
Varda Valar: Runes are used for writing, messages, maps, and magic.
Even if Galadriel doesn't like to call a lot of things magic, as she
thinks of that as the black sorcery stuff Sauron uses.
Varda Valar: She is trying to do the right things, mostly, so she can
return home to Valinor someday.
Varda Valar: She was glad she passed the test, given to her by surprise
by Frodo.
Varda Valar: Frodo doing the Valar's job with the Ring they dumped on
him. :-)
Ar-Pharazon-V: Really need to differentiate between magic and sorcery.
Ar-Pharazon-V: What's a good kind of magic to use as term?
Varda Valar: She is doing that, aye. She didn't give us a good one to
use in place of "magic".
Varda Valar: That was a bit annoying.
Varda Valar: Think she picking nits there.
Varda Valar: Can't say she's using music magic. She does use Ring magic
but doesn't say that, since it's secret.
Ar-Pharazon-V: From what we know of Annatar, Ring magic could be a type
of sorcery...
Varda Valar: Lot of use of white and black to describe the two sides.
Still seems like white magic and black magic, but they don't exactly
say that.
Varda Valar: mor is evil sorcery.
Varda Valar: morgul is evil sorcery
Varda Valar: When Annatar put in the commands to override others and
their free will, it became wrong. Otherwise it seemed good to the elves
who wanted to mend and preserve and make with it.
Ar-Pharazon-V: But still, fundamentally, Sauron magic, even if used for
good ends.
Varda Valar: Sauron has sneaky controlling ends.
Varda Valar: True.
Varda Valar: They didn't know it. But Saruman did. He started out
meaning well, it seems, but
Varda Valar: despair was part of what corrupted him.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Perhaps he was too eager to use the tools of the enemy,
or, like the palantir, tools that could be used by the enemy.
Varda Valar: True
Varda Valar: The enemy knew that kind of magic and could come back at
him through it.
Ar-Pharazon-V: A bit like what Boromir did, but with less ignorance of
what danger the tool posed.
Varda Valar: The Enemy could not understand selflessness, what Frodo
was using. He could not guard against it well.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Heh, that reminds me of an early storyline where Boromir
remained active on the evil side and worked with/for Saruman.
Varda Valar: Yikes
Ar-Pharazon-V: It's somewhere in the History.
Varda Valar: Glad that didn't stay in, but interesting.
Varda Valar: And the gavel floats by, bobbing in the air.
Varda Valar: *grasping it makes it click, like a cooling car engine*
Varda Valar: *ka-bonnnnnnnng!*
Varda Valar: *drops the gavel involuntarily*
Varda Valar: *is it using a Cheshire cat grin?*
Varda Valar: *it bobs away back into the Crafters' area*
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Varda Valar: After-meeting!
Varda Valar: Here's a game for you. :-)
Varda Valar: https://www.google.com/
[Note: An archive link]
Varda Valar: The google words have an arrow to click.
Varda Valar: It takes you to a game, where you are a cat with a wand,
defending. :-)
Varda Valar: I got to level 3, Sauron completed it. That means must try
again!
Varda Valar: throough level 3 I mean
Ar-Pharazon-V: Oh, that's fun!
Ar-Pharazon-V: Just got through level 1.
Varda Valar: ^^
Ar-Pharazon-V: and that's 2;)
Ar-Pharazon-V: level 3 gone, getting tougher!
Ar-Pharazon-V: level 4 done with 1 health left, I'm not going to last
much longer.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Yep, and I'm dead.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Still, fun :-)
Varda Valar: Grats :-)
Varda Valar: Aye, fun. :-)
Ar-Pharazon-V: Now, personal gaming report :-)
Varda Valar: okies
Ar-Pharazon-V: Got 3 other flashgames! This time from 3
different websites.
Ar-Pharazon-V: http://www.onemorelevel.com/game/pumpkin_archer
is a halloween game (of course!) where you have to fire arrows to pop
as many pumpkins as you can that fly past you. Interesting aiming and
timing game, or you can just get lucky :-) See how many you can get!
Ar-Pharazon-V: Most I've gotten with 1 arrow is 10 pumpkins!
Ar-Pharazon-V: http://www.physicsgames.net/game/2D_World.html
is a physics puzzle game where you control green circles with which you
need to move stuff around carefully and complete goals.
Varda Valar: (got 5, hehe)
Varda Valar: /duck
Ar-Pharazon-V: Heh, I can't stop playing 2d world, sorry. I guess
there's no better recommendation possible than that.
Varda Valar: That is a really good recommendation. :-)
Varda Valar: Fortunately there's no time passing in the transcript
between our talking. :-)
Ar-Pharazon-V: http://www.kongregate.com/games/Codename_Enter/crusaders-of-the-lost-idols
is the third game, an idle game that received some recent attention
with a halloween event and kongregate challenge, which I decided to
work on.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Luckily this particular challenge can be solved by me
just logging in 1 or 2 times a day, spending the collected gold on any
new crusader I can get, and logging out again ;-)
Ar-Pharazon-V: But it can also easily be played actively, with gear to
collect and upgrades to purchase for each hero.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Blizzard games!
Ar-Pharazon-V: Busy weekend, still no Diablo
3 done :-( It's so easy to not play, when you know you only want
half the season chapters.. still, gotta get the ones I want at some
point.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Wow, that is a sad bear.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Moving on. Hearthstone:
Ar-Pharazon-V: Gotten a few of the new quests now. 20 taunt cards to be
played, 50 warlock class cards. Easy to make custom decks for them, and
you don't even need a decent winning rate as long as you can push as
many cards in as possible per game.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Costs a few ranks, of course, but hey, if that's what it
takes?
Ar-Pharazon-V: This week's brawl, once again Captain Blackheart's
treasure, I think that's third or fourth time since brawls started.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Get a deck full of basic pirates, and each turn instead
of drawing one, discover one of 3 random cards to play. The pirates are
filler, really, to give you a starting hand and make use of any cards
that utilize card-drawing from the deck.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Heroes of the Storm:
Halloween event started, with bonus xp and a quest for 15 games played
during the event. Easy enough with 2 or more games every night.
Ar-Pharazon-V: I think I've gotten 1 or 2 new level 8 heroes, but I've
kinda lost track, there's just so many hovering around the edge :-)
Ar-Pharazon-V: A new heroes brawl has started as well, on the Towers of
Doom maps with 5 perma-mounted Sergeant Hammer heroes (the siege
tanks!) vs 5 perma-mounted Sergeant Hammer heroes. With 10 tanks
zooming about and blasting each other from a distance, it's actually
rather fun, and I'm enjoying it more than the last brawl, even thought
I'd never played Sergeant Hammer before.
Ar-Pharazon-V: *though
Ar-Pharazon-V: WoW: continued
with lots of stuff. Few more Highmountain quests, to the point where I
cleared a lot of random lonesome quests around the capital of that
zone, and gotten 3 or 4 new questline starters pushing me all over the
zone. Rather disorganized, and I need to be selective with my quests
because the log's getting full :-)
Ar-Pharazon-V: Done my second archeology quest, which appears to be the
second chapter about a titan disc, though I'd missed the first chapter
in the first 2 weeks of the expansion because I wasn't level 110 yet.
But they all rotate, so I'm sure I'll get that done in 6 months or so
;-)
Ar-Pharazon-V: In any case, that's 2 archeology rare quests done out of
the 8 I need for my favored appearance. Go go go!
Ar-Pharazon-V: Hallow's End's still going for a few days, and I've been
doing the daily quest and the Headless Horseman fight with my main.
Today I finally got the Horseman's mount to drop, after all these years!
Varda Valar: Huzzah!
Ar-Pharazon-V: And we finished Heroic Emerald Nightmare! Cleared the
sixth boss on tuesday, with a few wipes on the 7th, and in the next
reset we cleared the first 5 bosses on thursday, and the sixth and
seventh today! Seventh and last boss, Xavius, is kinda tough, but once
you get past the hurdle of phase 1 and the transition to phase 2,
apparently it gets rather simpler.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Because the first time we got past that transition with
minimal losses and no big adds up, we went straight through phases 2
and 3 to kill him :-)
Ar-Pharazon-V: And as an extra reward, when you kill Xavius on any
difficulty, you open up a new area of the raid to wonder around in,
with unique battle pets to catch... and today, after our first heroic
clear, I also found a rare version of said battle pet.
Ar-Pharazon-V: So now I've got a rare dream whelp!
Ar-Pharazon-V: *wander, not wonder, though you're free to wonder at all
the pretty sights!
Ar-Pharazon-V: The weekly event this reset was doing 4 mythics, and
that one was painful because I'm not very highly geared yet. But I did
manage to get it done, after spending 5 hours doing the last 3. Very,
very painful.
Ar-Pharazon-V: mythic 5-man dungeons, that is
Ar-Pharazon-V: But I got it done, and a new cloak for my troubles. So
that's some of the more time-limited stuff done for this reset.
Varda Valar: :-)
Ar-Pharazon-V: Appearance-unlocking's also going well! Finished Lower
Blackrock Spire, the last 5-man dungeon from Classic WoW, and have
moved on to the raids. Cleared Molten Core and Blackwing Lair once each
now, because you can only do them once per reset. Tomorrow I'll try
Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Blackwing Lair gave me some trouble with the first boss,
but I found out after googling a bit that there's a new mechanic which
makes it rather easier. You can instantly unchannel and rechannel the
controlling orb from across the room, to clear aggro off of the mob
you're controlling, and at 110 things can punch your character all you
want without any trouble. So
Ar-Pharazon-V: that's a lot easier now.
Ar-Pharazon-V: The rest of the raid gave me no trouble, and I won't
mind going back there every week until I have all the stuff I want.
Ar-Pharazon-V: And that's it for my report this week!
Varda Valar: Thanks Phar
Varda Valar: Namarie!
Varda Valar (VardaValar1) has left the room.
Ar-Pharazon-V: And that's Raynor to level 8!
Ar-Pharazon-V: Saving and sending transcript.
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