Valar Guild

August 27, 2017 Sunday Meeting

5pm EST (UTC/GMT - 5)
AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace

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Transcript work by
Ar-Pharazon and Varda.

Attending: (4)
    AIM: Arien, Ar-Pharazon, Eonwe, Varda (presiding)
    Discord: Arien, Varda. Gil-galad attempted. Lenwe gave an After-meeting howdy.

Before-meeting
Meeting begins
Membership
Web:
    Tolkien Site / Stories
Gaming:
    General gaming report
Tolkien:
    Topic:  Odd weather in Middle-earth: Mount Caradhras, Weathertop, Moria, Rivendell and Lothlorien
After-meeting:
    Flashgaming Reviews by Ar-Pharazon
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Before-meeting
(times for Ar-Pharazon in the Netherlands)
Chat History for Valar Guild Meetingplace
Sunday, August 27, 2017
Arien V (22:26:10):    Heya :)
Ar-Pharazon-V (22:26:24):    Aiya!
Varda Valar (22:48:27):    Aiya :)
Ar-Pharazon-V (22:48:31):    Aiya!
Eonwe Valar (22:55:35):    Heya all.
Ar-Pharazon-V (22:55:41):    Aiya!
Varda Valar (22:55:43):    Aiya Eonwe :)
Eonwe Valar (22:59:05):    Afk for a moment.
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:07:19):    Half afk for a while, gonna go visit Magni for the 7.3 pre-quest in case it goes away next reset.
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:07:27):    Not sure how long it'll take.
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Varda Valar (23:09:09):    Elen sila lumenn' omentielvo!
Varda Valar (23:10:03):    Membership:
Varda Valar (23:10:25):    Gil-galad hopes to be able to join us while traveling on Discord.
Arien V (23:11:05):    Aiya :)
Varda Valar (23:11:18):    Hurricane Harvey is affecting some of our Texas folk. Part of Meriadoc's roof caved in. Others are mainly unable to do much traveling due to high water and junk on the roads.
Varda Valar (23:11:32):    Any other membership news?
Arien V (23:12:01):    Is everyone okay though from his family? noone hurt?
Varda Valar (23:12:34):    Aye, no worries there.
Arien V (23:12:48):    :)
Varda Valar (23:12:55):    The roof part fell into the tub.
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:13:49):    Splash.
Varda Valar (23:13:52):    I understand that some of the folk here are unable to stay much past an hour, so I'll try to move right along. :)
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Varda Valar (23:13:56):    Web:
Varda Valar (23:14:04):    Tolkien Site:
Varda Valar (23:14:37):    New and completed story from Little Jewel-(T), a one-shot during the time of the character in the longer story.
Varda Valar (23:14:59):    "Learning to Accept"
Varda Valar (23:15:01):    http://valarguild.org/varda/Tolkien/encyc/fiction/authors/LittleJewel/LearningtoAccept.htm

Varda Valar (23:16:24):    Gaming news:

Varda Valar (23:17:09):    LotRO:
Varda Valar (23:17:11):    Release notes for Update 21.1 that went live today.
Varda Valar (23:17:29):    https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?657624-Update-21-1-Release-Notes

Varda Valar (23:18:23):    WoW:
Varda Valar (23:18:26):    This week's bonus event: Pet Battles.
Varda Valar (23:18:44):    Alot of previews for patch 7.3 are out this week, and 7.3 itself is coming out August 29th. Check out all the patch notes and all of these previews:
Varda Valar (23:18:55):    Dungeon Preview: Seat of the Triumvirate
Varda Valar (23:19:04):    Patch 7.3 Preview: Netherlight Crucible
Varda Valar (23:19:14):    Patch 7.3 Preview: Invasion Points
Varda Valar (23:19:24):    Patch 7.3 Preview: The Campaign for Argus
Varda Valar (23:19:32):    (Tries not to think of Firefly)

Varda Valar (23:19:42):    StarCraft 2:
Varda Valar (23:19:51):    Several previews for patch 3.17 are out as well:
Patch 3.17 Preview: New Co-op Commander Dehaka
Patch 3.17 Preview: Dehaka Announcer
Patch 3.17 Preview: New Co-op Mission - Malwarfare
3.17 Preview: New Premium Skins
Patch 3.17 Preview: Ascension

Varda Valar (23:20:21):    Heroes of the Storm:
Varda Valar (23:20:30):    A new balance patch is out.
Varda Valar (23:20:39):    A 5-part series is being released, discussing the process for bringing back the upcoming new hero: Resurrecting Kel’Thuzad.

Varda Valar (23:20:46):    Hearthstone:
Varda Valar (23:20:56):    A new animated short is out: "Hearth and Home" is out.

Varda Valar (23:21:04):    Overwatch:
Varda Valar (23:21:14):    A new patch is up on the PTR.
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:21:23):    That animation is also part of an upcoming series, at least that's the plan. With those characters.
Varda Valar (23:21:33):    Interesting.

Varda Valar (23:22:06):    Moving to folks seen in-game this past week:

Varda Valar (23:22:10):    LotRO:
Ancalagon
Arien
Bregalad
Daddy Twofoot
Dis
Elwing
Eonwe
Fangorn
Gil-galad
Gorlim
Hurin
Irmo
Lenwe
Maedhros
Miriel
Nar
Tulkas
Varda
Varda Valar (23:22:21):    WoW:
Eonwe
Bofur
Nob
Varda Valar (23:22:47):    StarCraft 2:
Ar-Pharazon (added)
Eowyn
Fangorn
Faramir (added)
Varda Valar (23:23:02):    (any of you?)
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:23:16):    Yes, but mostly multiplayer training still for the war chest ;)
Varda Valar (23:23:23):    :)
Varda Valar (23:23:33):    StarCraft/BroodWar:
Fangorn
Varda
Varda Valar (23:23:56):    Any others?
Diablo 3: (added)
Bilbo
Ar-Pharazon
Hearthstone: (added)
Ar-Pharazon
Heroes of the Storm: (added)
Ar-Pharazon

Varda Valar (23:25:51):    Any other business, suggestions, mentions, Tolkien topics?
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:26:52):    Just that this Magni pre-patch quest is very impressive, so go do it if you haven't already :)
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Tolkien:
Varda Valar (23:26:54):    How about a quick mention of weather in Middle-earth? :)
Varda Valar (23:27:27):    Some of it was very odd. Take Mount Caradhras for instance (try to go with the book version)
Varda Valar (23:28:32):    What weather was it and why was it odd?
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:29:08):    Mountain seemed to have a mind of its own, and did not like trespassers.
Eonwe Valar (23:29:19):    It was harsh winter weather that only started when they were going up and ended when they gave up and were leaving.
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:29:20):    So it started throwing some winter weather around.
Arien V (23:30:09):    they thought it was Saruman corrupting the mountain or his influence or rather even the Balrolg that might have been always under the mountain in Moria
Varda Valar (23:31:25):    Movie version had Saruman, aye. Book version though?
Arien V (23:31:49):    Sauron
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:31:52):    Book version was simply the mountain itself, I think?
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:32:00):    Though perhaps under Sauron's influence?
Arien V (23:32:43):    "the enemy's arm must have grown long if it can throw a little snow on a mountain to stop some travellers"
Varda Valar (23:32:52):    Another oddity was the location. Just past them, it was not bad.
Arien V (23:33:00):    Gandalf:@ "The enemys arm indeed has grown long*
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:33:06):    Oh yes. Surgical precision.
Arien V (23:33:10):    something like that i can remember
Varda Valar (23:33:23):    That was the big tip-off, aye.
Varda Valar (23:34:09):    They knew they could not go that way, because of not just the weather but the awareness of their presence letting the attack, and it was an attack, be so exact.
Varda Valar (23:36:16):    Aragorn and the Hobbits saw strange weather on Weathertop. What was it and what was the cause?
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:37:08):    Gandalf-related, wasn't it?
Varda Valar (23:37:17):    Aye
Varda Valar (23:38:04):    What did they see?
Arien V (23:40:06):    lightning
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:40:10):    Can't really remember. I suspect fire and lightning.
Varda Valar (23:40:54):    Right. They saw strange lightning, going the wrong way, as in from the mountain instead of to it.
Varda Valar (23:44:33):    What did they find on top of the mountain that made it clear Gandalf had been the cause?
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:44:56):    Ah, that I remember. A 3 day old fire and a rune for his initial :)
Eonwe Valar (23:45:09):    Sorry, ladies and gentlemen, but I must head out early today.
Varda Valar (23:45:16):    Namarie, Eonwe!
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:45:18):    Namarie!
Varda Valar (23:45:19):    Stay dry!
Eonwe Valar (23:45:22):    Take care all, good night, sleep well, and have fun :}
Eonwe Valar (23:45:26):    I'll do my best :}
Arien V (23:45:26):    Namarie Eonwe :)
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:46:18):    I don't envy your weather over there. I"m just glad we don't get hurricanes.
Varda Valar (23:46:45):    Every place has its problems. I'm glad we don't get California mudslides. :)
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:46:53):    hehe
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:47:12):    Strangely enough, for being below sea-level, we've got quite a stable climate.
Varda Valar (23:47:20):    Maybe that's why?
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:47:30):    Maybe!
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:47:39):    Also, we've got protection against floodings.
Varda Valar (23:47:55):    Actually having to plan, no excuses!
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:48:35):    All organized before my time, luckily.
Varda Valar (23:48:44):    The climate was pretty decent inside Moria, despite the insults to the place. :)
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:49:08):    I can imagine it was a bit stuffy down there. Not sure if warm or cold.
Varda Valar (23:49:12):    heh - maybe by now, lots of great new ideas can be implemented. Digital sensors and fast communication.
Varda Valar (23:49:48):    Cave breath, probably. And usually a steady, somewhat cool temperature in most caves.
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:50:17):    Even with a balrog at the center?
Varda Valar (23:50:22):    Since it had been a major Dwarven home, it was likely well-handled for ventilation etc.
Varda Valar (23:50:26):    That was way below. :)
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:50:40):    Ah yes. Ventilation. Very useful in a cave kingdom.
Varda Valar (23:51:38):    I've been inside some caves, the biggest one being Carlsbad Caverns, and they had natural ventilation called cave breath. Amazing phenomenon.
Varda Valar (23:52:06):    Dwarves would probably use such features and improve on them.
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:52:27):    I imagine the top levels were a bit colder, with perhaps a bit of snow drifting into the endless staircase.
Varda Valar (23:54:26):    If the entrances allowed that, the dwarves might put in stone baffles?
Varda Valar (23:54:47):    Maybe use snow to add to their fresh water supply?
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:55:00):    Sounds likely.
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:55:15):    Maybe extracting water from the rivers flowing down outside.
Arien V (23:55:31):    I thought they did have wells#
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:55:46):    Yes, but that might be a bit more stale :)
Arien V (23:55:53):    a certain Hobbit i believe wanted to find out if there was still water in it .. dry
Varda Valar (23:56:13):    Diverting some as needed for in and out flow. And using aquifers (underground rivers and pools). Plus the wells. Well said, Arien. :)
Arien V (23:57:14):    .*Fool of a Took! Why dont you jump in it yourself the next time?"
Varda Valar (23:57:23):    Gandalf could get testy. :)
Varda Valar (23:57:44):    Rivendell and Lorien's weather? Anything that might have been odd there?
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:58:24):    Particularly good, I recall.
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:58:28):    Elvish weather.
Arien V (23:58:36):    i found it funny that Sir Ian said that was the most difficult phrase to bring out during the making of The Fellowship :)
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:59:47):    I can see where you might get tangled in the words, yes.
Monday, August 28, 2017
Varda Valar (00:02:21):    He just didn't want to say it?
Arien V (00:02:25):    yes the air in both Rivendell and Lorien was described as mild and sweet smelling
Arien V (00:02:51):    no Varda .. he found it difficult to bring out in the right tone
Varda Valar (00:02:56):    The weather was strangely good. One might suspect magic.
Arien V (00:03:17):    the "Fool of a Took!"
Ar-Pharazon-V (00:03:43):    Hmm, I figured it'd be the second line.
Arien V (00:04:41):    well Varda we know that both Elrond and Galadriel had a ring .. so probably
Varda Valar (00:05:33):    (trying to locate it. Sure a lot of comments on the phrase)
Ar-Pharazon-V (00:06:21):    Ah, the tone, yes... that makes a bit of sense I guess?
Ar-Pharazon-V (00:07:02):    And yeah, if you can pretty much halt time in your city, might as well preserve the weather too. Reminds me of the time monks in Discworld, who kept their valley always on the perfect day.
Varda Valar (00:08:09):    We've been here an hour, so...
Varda Valar (00:08:24):    *a hammer comes racing out when beckoned, so eager*
Varda Valar (00:08:30):    *thommmmp!*
Varda Valar (00:08:52):    *the hammer jumps up and down. Is that a laugh?*
Varda Valar (00:09:25):    *it pogosticks back to the shelf and through a strangely rounded door, to... Hobbiton?*
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Varda Valar (00:09:29):    After-meeting!
Varda Valar (00:09:35):    Free chat. :)
Arien V (00:10:10):    :)
Ar-Pharazon-V (00:10:11):    Ask it how the weather is over there.
Arien V (00:12:22):    i believe i should go to bed .. sigh .. this week i really have the early early shift at work tomorrow .. last week was a misfire ^^
Varda Valar (00:12:34):    yikes
Ar-Pharazon-V (00:12:40):    Ouch.
Varda Valar (00:12:45):    Rest well!
Arien V (00:13:09):    thanks :) i ll see you when i see you .. probably next time :)
Arien V (00:13:24):    Namarie :)
Ar-Pharazon-V (00:21:10):    namarie!
Ar-Pharazon-V (00:37:04):    Personal gaming report!

Ar-Pharazon-V (00:37:36):    Let me find some flashgames from this week.
Ar-Pharazon-V (00:47:43):    http://www.onemorelevel.com/game/fragile is the first! Platformer where you play an egg, trying not too land too hard on specific surfaces to not break, see how far you get.. but after you break you continue as a chick. Interesting twist at the end if you manage to get through as an egg, which may require replaying :)
Ar-Pharazon-V (00:55:02):    http://www.kongregate.com/games/linhvo1611/super-sticky-stacker is the second game. Stack sticky objects to each other, avoid spikes, take note that stickiness doesn't hold when there's too much weight attached.
Ar-Pharazon-V (00:57:15):    http://www.kongregate.com/games/adventale/monster-clearer is the last! Tactical rpg game, face a grid of monsters, try to kill as many as you can with strategic attacks and magic. Get loot to upgrade yourself. Simpler and more intuitive than it sounds :)
Varda Valar (01:00:05):    (The weather in the cupboard is suspiciously like Narnia's.)

Ar-Pharazon-V (01:04:09):    Blizzard gaming!
Ar-Pharazon-V (01:05:01):    Which I'll adds bit to as I game because I need to check on certain things to mention ;)
Varda Valar (01:05:11):    :)
Ar-Pharazon-V (01:06:05):    Heroes of the Storm: Few more bits of loot, some rare skins. This week's brawl was interesting, 5 Chromies vs 5 Chromies, attacking each other with sandblasts in a dodgeball fashion.
Ar-Pharazon-V (01:06:28):    Since I just had gotten used to Chromie the week before, it was great timing :)
Ar-Pharazon-V (01:44:41):    Diablo 3: More progress on the seasonal, up to level 67 out of 70 now. Should get to 70 and finish chapter 2 during next week.
Ar-Pharazon-V (01:47:38):    Hearthstone: Interesting brawl this week, make a custom deck, cards in your hand become 1 mana cheaper every turn. Didn't have much success until I plucked a cheap shaman deck from the internet with a bunch of cheap spells and spellpower minions. Collect the right cards in your hand, and one-turn-kill your opponent at around turn 5 or 6 :)
Ar-Pharazon-V (01:49:21):    First class to level 50, the rogue! Rest will soon follow. Last basic class card gold, will be fun to have for all 9 :)
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:33:27):    Starcraft 2: More war chest working. First 3 stages of the second phase complete. Should finish that phase next week.
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:33:35):    WoW:
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:34:11):    Maiden of Vigilance down on heroic, with some effort. Requires tight execution, easy to mess up and blow up your teammates.
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:34:51):    Next up we've been trying Fallen Avatar, but it has a high dps requirement, just losing 1 or 2 people might get us blown up by the add in that fight.
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:35:07):    Maybe we need to gear a bit more?
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:35:54):    Got Concordance on the restoration artifact, so now all 4 have it. From here on I'm just throwing AP at whatever weapon I happen to have equipped.
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:37:28):    For pet masters, I fought Varenne for the last 2 times with the last 2 families. Only Aulier left, if he ever wants to show up again. Almost done!
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:38:37):    3 more new recipes from Nomi, leaving only 3 ranks 3 remaining. I'll just keep feeding him my large stockpile of fish and hopefully it'll be done soon.
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:39:46):    This week's weekly quest was the pet battle quest, short and easy, with a reward battle stone which I gave to my owl kitten because, really, I couldn't think of anything else. It doesn't really matter at this point, I think, until I need to level more specific pets again.
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:41:18):    Decided to suspend old appearance hunting for now, with patch 7.3 around the corner; I want to get as much story questing done as possible because I'm expected to work my way through 7.3 story quests before the raid comes; it is necessary to unlock the Netherlight Crucible if I want to continue to contribute, and that needs the entire storyline done. Not to my liking, but can't be helped.
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:41:49):    For story questing, I'm making good progress though!
Varda Valar (02:42:01):    :)
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:42:26):    Got all 3 Harbinger tomes as a warm-up, unlocking the 3 cinematics visible in-game. Quite fun even though I'd already seen them as youtube videos leading up to the Legion expansion :)
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:42:38):    Then I embarked on the major questlines.
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:43:47):    Continued Balance of Power into the Emerald Nightmare raid where I already got 25 out of the 30 essences in one raid. Will easily finish it in the next reset. Also continued the Illidan questline to the point where I now need to collect 40 soul prism pieces from 5-man instances.
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:44:37):    In order to do so I set up a schedule for me to do one mythic 5-man every day, focusing on places where I still miss leatherworking patterns first, and will do so until I have all 40 pieces, even if it takes me more than a month.
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:45:04):    I could get more if I went for keystone difficulties, but I'd rather go for base mythic instances for those recipes and possible Curious Coins.
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:47:05):    And finally I started the Insurrection storyline in Suramar! I was not really looking forward to making my way through all those quests, but they're fun, and a lot faster than I thought. I've already got 3 of the 9 story arcs done within 2 days, and after I complete a few more Suramar world quests I can unlock the rest.
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:47:54):    At this rate I hope to make my way to the Broken Shore in about a month or so, and from what I'm told, that doesn't take too long either.
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:48:37):    I know I've really fallen behind on stuff, but I have good hopes of getting a really good catching up streak going.
Varda Valar (02:48:56):    If anybody can...
Varda Valar (02:49:00):    you can.
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:49:58):    Oh, and finally, because 7.3 is coming, I did the Magni Bronzebeard pre-quest tonight, which left quite an impression for being so short. I don't know if it'll still be around after patch arrives, but it's really worth doing if you're in any way interested in titan lore.
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:50:07):    Otherwise there's always youtube ;)
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:50:30):    And that's my report for the week!
Varda Valar (03:48:10):    Thank you, Phar :)

Varda Valar (04:02:03):    Namarie for now. :)
Ar-Pharazon-V (04:02:09):    namarie!
Varda Valar (04:02:19):    Lot of water
Ar-Pharazon-V (04:02:23):    ouch
Ar-Pharazon-V (04:02:26):    good luck!
Varda Valar (04:02:42):    Thanks! Think we'll be fine :)
Ar-Pharazon-V (04:03:02):    good :)
Ar-Pharazon-V (04:10:13):    namarie, sending transcript tomorrow
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