Valar Guild

February 19, 2017 Sunday Meeting

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

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Transcript work by Ar-Pharazon and Varda.

Attending: (8)
    Arien-(Valar)/AriehnV, Ar-Pharazon-(V)/ArPharazonV, Elladan-(V)/Scott92027, Eonwe Valar, Erkenbrand-(V), Gilraen-(V)/Iryenth, Lenwe-(V)/perseid28, Varda Valar1 (presiding)

Before-meeting
Meeting begins
Membership
Web:
Gaming
Tolkien:
    rp forum story
    Topic: The barrow-wights were not all that far from Bree. What effect might they have had on the lives around them, if any?
After-meeting:
    Longhorn cattle.
    Tolkien chat on weapons of the enemy.
    Keeping the chat room open whenever possible.
    Flashgaming Reviews by Ar-Pharazon
    Personal gaming by Ar-Pharazon
    WoW playing and chatting
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Before-meeting
Ar-Pharazon-V (ArPharazonV) has entered the room.
perseid28 has entered the room.
perseid28: Aiya!
Ar-Pharazon-V: Aiya!
perseid28: I know I'm early, I'll afk for a bit :)
Ar-Pharazon-V: I'm still gaming myself :-)
Eonwe Valar (Eonwe Valar) has entered the room.
Iryenth . (Iryenth) has entered the room.
Iryenth .: Aiya folks
Eonwe Valar: Heya :}
Iryenth .: dinner prep time, so will mostly be scrolling :-)
Ar-Pharazon-V: Aiya Eonwe and.. *checks note* Gilraen!
Iryenth .: lol.  Aiya Phar
Eonwe Valar: Happy dinner prepping :}
Varda Valar (VardaValar1) has entered the room.
Varda Valar: Aiya Ar-Pharazon, Eonwe, Gilraen, and Lenwe :-)
Ar-Pharazon-V: Aiya!
Iryenth .: Aiya Varda
Eonwe Valar: Heya :}
Ar-Pharazon-V: Condolences.
Varda Valar: Thank yoiu.
Varda Valar: *you
Elladan (Scott92027) has entered the room.
Varda Valar: Aiya Elladan :-)
Elladan: aiya. Just stopped to say hi. I'm going back to bed. Been in bed 2 days straight with a stomach bug and sweating :-(
Arien V (AriehnV) has entered the room.
Elladan: sorry I can't stay
Arien V: Aiya all
Ar-Pharazon-V: Aiya!
Ar-Pharazon-V: And feel better!
Varda Valar: Glad you could drop by Feel free to lurk.
Arien V: feel better
Varda Valar: Aiya Arien. :-)
Elladan: Thanks you guys. Gonna shower and get back in bed. Thanks though :-)
Elladan: Namarie
Varda Valar: Hope you feel better.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Aiya Arien
Ar-Pharazon-V: Before I got a chance to poke you, even.
Eonwe Valar: Sleep well and get wel soon Elladan.
Elladan: Thanks everyone
Elladan (Scott92027) has left the room.
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Varda Valar: Elen sila lumenn' omentielvo!
Varda Valar: Membership:
Varda Valar: Anyone have membership news?
Arien V: you are here!
Arien V: i didnt expect you today
Varda Valar: Yay! We are!
Varda Valar: Pardon, thought I included you on the surprise I'm back email.
Varda Valar: The funeral is going to be next weekend instead of this one.
Varda Valar: Fangorn's dad died at the age of 93, so a huge mob of us is getting together. He's the oldest of the family. The longer time was to let people extract themselves and come in from many places.
Arien V: yes i heard my condolences
Varda Valar: Thank you. Letting anyone reading the transcript know as well.
Ar-Pharazon-V: It's a long time to wait. I hope steps are being taken to.. well.. conserve him?
Varda Valar: Embalming, aye. It is much longer than expected.
Varda Valar: Any other news?
Ar-Pharazon-V: Friendslist says Fladrif's been online in the last day or so, so yay?
Varda Valar: Yay Skinbark!
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Varda Valar: Web:
Varda Valar: The running story by Little Jewel has chapter 12 up this week:
Varda Valar: http://valarguild.org/varda/Tolkien/encyc/fiction/authors/LittleJewel/Life12.htm
Varda Valar: She had chapter 13, but there was a slight problem and she's reworking it now, but it's coming.

Varda Valar: Also on the Tolkien Site, for the Timeline
Varda Valar: Some links were added to the beginning of the timeline and the Second Age.
Varda Valar: Many more events and links now show for the Third Age.
Varda Valar: but it is far from complete. Here's what we have so far:
Varda Valar: http://valarguild.org/varda/Tolkien/encyc/events/timeline/Third_Age.htm
Varda Valar: As long as it is getting, it may have to break across several pages. Suggestions for good break points welcome. :-)
Varda Valar: In the process, I keep finding spots in the Encyc that need more articles.
Varda Valar: We could use one for the Old Took
Varda Valar: a batch of the Kings of Gondor,
Varda Valar: and a batch of the Stewards of Gondor.
Varda Valar: A typing we shall be.
Varda Valar: If any of you would like to help add to those, yay.
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Varda Valar: Gaming:
Varda Valar: Eonwe has the Gaming Report. Fire when ready!
Eonwe Valar: Thanks.

Eonwe Valar: World of Warcraft:
Eonwe Valar: A Developer Q & A is coming February 23rd.
Eonwe Valar: A new blog discussing another requirement for unlocking flying is out: Unlocking Flying: World Quests.
Eonwe Valar: We also get a preview of a feature to track sets in the blog: Patch 7.2: Transmogrification Sets Are Coming!.
Eonwe Valar: Check out the latest hotfixes.

Eonwe Valar: Diablo 3:
Eonwe Valar: The Patch 2.5.0 notes have been updated again this week.
Ar-Pharazon-V: The appearance-gatherer that I am, I'm liking that set-tracker.

Eonwe Valar: Hearthstone:
Eonwe Valar: For those interested in Hearthstone, see what to look forward to this year in the blog A Year of Mammoth Proportions!
Eonwe Valar: There will also be a Developer Insights LiveStream on February 21st.

Eonwe Valar: Heroes of the Storm:
Eonwe Valar: A patch and a hotfix came out this week.
Eonwe Valar: The For Azeroth! event mentioned last week is now going.
Eonwe Valar: Thus ends my gaming report.
Varda Valar: Thank you, Eonwe.

Varda Valar: LotRO:
Varda Valar: The box run this last week is the 3-man Northcotton Farms.
Varda Valar: The Yule Festival encore is running until Feb 22nd. Grab tokens while you can.

Varda Valar: StarCraft/ BroodWar by Fangorn. I missed out this time, but still have hope.

Varda Valar: I will try to drop into LotRO during the meeting and pick up our list of kinmates that came in this week. Sorry, was typing away on the Timeline and didn't make it in. Sneaky clock. :-)
Varda Valar: Any other games played this past week? Kinmates seen?
Varda Valar: Phar mentioned Fladrif. :-)
Varda Valar: I know y'all have been gaming some. :-)
Ar-Pharazon-V: *looks up from WoW* Don't be silly.
Eonwe Valar: Nob and Bofur were on WoW this week if memory serves.
Varda Valar: Right, Phar. :-)
Varda Valar: Glad to hear they're still with us, Eonwe.
LotRO continued:
Arien V: i have been trying to do this old roots quest but i dont get to the right place and dont know what to do when i am there .. i just about to give up :-\
Arien V: i havent logged since last week
Eonwe Valar: I didn't cross paths with them but usually see that I missed them by an hour or so.
Varda Valar: Ok here's the LotRO gang for this last week, just ones in the kin:
Varda Valar: (as always)
          (Arien)
Bregalad
Celebrian
Dis
Elladan
Erkenbrand
Fangorn
Gorlim
Lenwe
Marigold
Nar
Varda
Varda Valar: So even if we don't run into each other, you're noticed!
Arien V: :-)
Varda Valar: except somehow cut Arien's name off the top Sorry!
Eonwe Valar (Eonwe Valar) has left the room.
Eonwe Valar (Eonwe Valar) has entered the room.
Varda Valar: Any other comments, suggestions, huzzahs, hisses, etc?
Ar-Pharazon-V: Huzzah?
Ar-Pharazon-V: And Aiyata Eonwe.
Arien V: yeah was shortly on Monday i think
Eonwe Valar: Thanks.
Arien V: tried to find the place again
Arien V: but .. pfft
Varda Valar: Aww, thought Elladan gave pretty good directions.
Varda Valar: That's a tough one to get to, hard for everyone especially the first time
Arien V: i get to the viewpoint with a bit of luck if i dont fall down
Arien V: glide down but dont know what to do then#
Varda Valar: Click on the logs from a distance
Varda Valar: I believe I clicked on them from the left side across the place we can't climb.
Varda Valar: Any Tolkien topics folks would like to bring up? Good moments from the books that you'd like to quote (that aren't tooooo long.)
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Varda Valar: Tolkien:
Varda Valar: First off, sorry for not looking at our forum story in quite a while. Guess we could move on to the farewell to the Fellowship, then leave as soon after as possible as a potential decoy.
Varda Valar: Might even have to go back to the Mirkwood side to intercept a returning sorceror after all this time has passed. Or we learn where his power source is and try to smash it.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Sorcerer's long gone to Angmar.
Ar-Pharazon-V: I think he's waiting there, wondering why we haven't shown.
Varda Valar: Aye, he has. He's probably ready to go use the info he learned to attack Thranduil.
Varda Valar: hah! He's waiting for us!
Varda Valar: Maybe Elrond wanted us to hold back until the sorcerer was on the return, away from a ton of defenses?
Varda Valar: as well as maybe be a decoy?
Varda Valar: Comments welcome.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Waiting until he dies of boredom.
Varda Valar: Our secret plan!

Varda Valar: Ok, for a topic, the barrow-wights were not all that far from Bree. What effect might they have had on the lives around them, if any?
Varda Valar: Tom, Goldberry, the Old Forest, Bree, travelers. Any others?
Varda Valar: Why would they even be there, the barrow-wights?
Varda Valar: How does it help Sauron's plans?
Varda Valar: We know he scattered all sorts of stumbling blocks or encouraged them to be such. Shelob, Smaug for two. Even the Balrog was useful that way. Was it something like that, or something more active?
Varda Valar: Or he just needed to stash those minor Maiar somewhere out of his hair?
Eonwe Valar (Eonwe Valar) has left the room.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Not all evil needs to be Sauron's, though they probably do result from some Witch-king antics back in the war.
Eonwe Valar (Eonwe Valar) has entered the room.
Ar-Pharazon-V: I wonder what the Wights would've done with the Ring had they succeeded with Frodo.
Varda Valar: Interesting. Would it be part of their hoard, not understanding? Would they call on others to take it to Sauron? Would the Ring influence them to help take it to Sauron somehow?
Eonwe Valar: Not everything like that necessarily helps Sauron's plans purposefully. Sometimes bad things there to just be a pain in the neck, like Saruman wrecking the Shire. Doesn't get an ultimate victory for the bad guys, but it tries to take the wind out of the good guy's sails after their win at Mount Doom.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Maybe they would've waited until the Nine had arrived, if they traced Frodo there?
Ar-Pharazon-V: Here, ol' chums, we believe this is yours. Care for a cup of tea?
Varda Valar: Distractions as well as a pain, too.
Varda Valar: Tom may have been preventing the barrow-wights from doing their purpose also?
Varda Valar: True, Phar. The Nine were in the area. The Ring would have called them to that convenient location.
Ar-Pharazon-V: He did have some power over them, and felt quite comfortable there when rescuing the hobbits. But I don't think he actively went after them.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Perhaps kept their influence out of the forest.
Varda Valar: Tom may have simply been containing them?
Varda Valar: Stay in the grave area, no wandering about.
Varda Valar: He seems to have included them in his territory.
Ar-Pharazon-V: 'ndeed
Varda Valar: So Tom was handling the Old Forest and the Barrow-wights, keeping them from being as bad as they might?
Eonwe Valar: He seemed to be happy to let them mope about so long as they weren't causing any real trouble.
Varda Valar: Aye
Varda Valar: Those lesser Maiar inhabited those particular bodies, but don't seem to have gone to other graveyards in the area. They were there a long time with piles of burial treasure.
Ar-Pharazon-V: When he did act against one, though, he didn't exactly contain it... if I recall, he pretty much made an example, dispelling it and clearing out the treasure from the mound.
Varda Valar: Maybe the gold and gems were a part of the attraction for them.
Varda Valar: True. The ttreasure had a taint that had to be removed by being exposed to nature above ground.
Eonwe Valar: Consider also, that if the Wights are busy moping about in the Barrow Downs, they're not off stirring up trouble elsewhere.
Varda Valar: Aye. Contained, playing with their hoards, forgetting their jobs.
Varda Valar: Kind of like Saruman thinking about Rings instead of his job. They're thinking about their goodies instead of terrorizing travelers and Bree-folk.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Not something to disturb unless necessary.
Eonwe Valar: Are we sure that these "Evil Spirits" inhabiting these barrows are lesser Maiar? Seems to me the Barrow Wights might just as easily be Houseless Elves.
Eonwe Valar: They get their body and they just sit around ruminating on the past.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Are we sure they are not simply the original inhabitants, so to speak, temporarily kept from moving on by some Angmar magic?
Varda Valar: Remember when...
Varda Valar: *this book is falling apart, heading to get another in another room*
Varda Valar: *pages trying to fall out of this one too*. Feel free to help look it up. :-)
Eonwe Valar: Aye, that's possible, Cardolan had pretty well fallen to Sauron at that point as memory serves, but also as memory serves, it says "evil spirits came into the barrows" implying not the original occupants of the land.
Eonwe Valar: Time to get out a book, hehe.
Ar-Pharazon-V: I wouldn't know where to begin to look :-)
Eonwe Valar: Appendix A
Eonwe Valar: History of Arnor.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Good choice.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Brb while I fetch it.
Eonwe Valar: Remnant of Faithful of Cardolan holding out in the Barrow Downs after the land was ravaged...
Eonwe Valar: Ther we go, next paragraph "evil spirits out of Angmar and Rhudaur entered into the deserted mounds and dwelt there.
Eonwe Valar: "
Ar-Pharazon-V: Evil spirits.. there goes my theory then.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Which makes it a bigger question why Bombadil removed the treasure if the original owner was still in there. In a way. Did he put it back after?
Eonwe Valar: It's still speculation on what the evil spirits are, but they to me seem to fit well with the Houseless.
Varda Valar: Another neat bit, the wight chants: "let them lie, til the dark lord lifts his hand over dead sea and withered land"
Varda Valar: It's saying this over the unconscious Sam, Pippin, and Merry.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Which dark lord, I wonder? :-)
Varda Valar: Good question. Since it's the LotR, it appears to be Sauron, but that's open to interpretation. I assume Sauron.
Eonwe Valar: Hmmm...
Varda Valar: Tom's song is interesting, as if he's referring to the Doors of Night.
Varda Valar: "Lost and forgotten be, darker than the darkness, where gates stand for ever shut, til the world is mended."
Eonwe Valar: Servants of Sauron might ackowledge him as "the Dark Lord," event if they acknowledge even Sauron serves a master, so I suppose that works.
Ar-Pharazon-V: But if you see what the wight chants as an end-times description, the graphic nature of it could very well refer to the more powerful Morgoth.
Eonwe Valar: You know, it's funny how often I have my Fellowship of the Ring and my Return of the King, but my Two Towers is left sitting on the shelf, heh.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Shows we need more TT topics ;-)
Varda Valar: Good idea. :-)
Varda Valar: Tom left the treasure in a mound free to be scattered to all finders, kindly creatures, birds, Elves, Men.
Ar-Pharazon-V: magpies?
Varda Valar: Likely. :-)
Eonwe Valar: So reading Tom's poem... did he just cast a barrow wight into the Void? :}
Varda Valar: This is where they got their daggers in the books.
Varda Valar: Sounds suspiciosly like that, aye, Eonwe.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Sounds like he cast it somewhere darker than the Void?
Arien V: *is that a dagger that i see before me.." pardon that was something else i bvelieve
Arien V: :-)
Ar-Pharazon-V: If we're going to quote Shakespeare this could take a while ;-)
Eonwe Valar: "darker than the darkness" sounds like the Void, "where gates stand forever shut" like Varda said sounds like the Doors of Night.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Open to interpretation. It could be "darker than [the darkness, where gates stand forever shut]"
Eonwe Valar: Makes you wonder how much Tolkien was thinking of that when he wrote that little poem, hehe.
Varda Valar: "Tom is no master of Riders from the Black Land..."
Varda Valar: He escorts them past the Barrows and says his country ends here and he will not pass the borders.
Eonwe Valar: Well, to give the exact quote and the complete thought: "Lost and forgotten be, darker than the darkness,/Where gates stand forever shut, till the world is mended."
Arien V: the ring has no power over Tom Bombadil .. he can see Frodo and the Ring itself clearly has no effect on Tom that is visible instantly as on the others confronted with the Ring
Varda Valar: They ride on down from there to Bree, apparently not far.
Varda Valar: Aye, Tom sees the other side apparently as easily as the material side.
Varda Valar: Makes sense if he's a Maia. They are spirits that put on a body for clothing and interaction.
Eonwe Valar: So, "darker than the darkness" could be poetic description of how lost and forgotten the barrow wight should be. The second part cold be a location of where to be lost and forgotten. the comma seems to indicate a separate part of the thought.
Varda Valar: I quoted from "Fog on the Barrow-downs", FotR.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Hmm, fair enough.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Tom does appear to see some difference between Frodo wearing ring and not wearing ring.
Varda Valar: Your hand's more fair without it
Ar-Pharazon-V: *checks* apparently he's creeping away, that would do it
Eonwe Valar: Well when you have swirly shadows flying around you, someone's bound to see them too, heh.
Arien V: I*Tom isnt that blind yet" or something like that he sais
Arien V: as far as magic of the enemy is concerned we also have the aura of fear and terror they wights and the Nine seem to spread
Eonwe Valar: They look *and* feel foul, hehe.
Varda Valar: They have it all covered. :-)
Eonwe Valar: :}
Arien V: they chant and seem to be able to turn sam, pippin in and mary into a deeper state of unconciousness .. the laid the knives into a ritual gesture across them and if Tom hadnt turned up just then as the wight lifted his hand again .. then i dont know what would have happened not sure if i want to find out either
Arien V: Merry even
Eonwe Valar: Good think Tom was strolling through the Barrow Downs.
Eonwe Valar: *thing
Ar-Pharazon-V: Yes, there appeared to be some sort of ritual going on. I wonder what the purpose of it was. Turn them into more wights?
Varda Valar: It seemed to be a kind of stasis?
Eonwe Valar: Just ritual sacrifice?
Arien V: I was thinking that yes
Ar-Pharazon-V: In honor of Sauron/Morgoth, that sort of thing?
Varda Valar: never more to wake...until the dark lord lifts his hand
Varda Valar: And it was an incantation, so it might have been more than a simple killing. The hobbits were all dressed specially.
Varda Valar: Aye, Phar.
Eonwe Valar: Aye. I don't believe they could've "forced" them into wighthood. Even the wraithhood Frodo faced wouldn't have really killed him, because they wraiths aren't technically dead. Once you cut that last tie, not a whole lot to be done if the person wasn't a servant of Sauron/Morgoth, it seems to me.
Varda Valar: I mean, the wights might not even have been killing them, but putting them to sleep.
Varda Valar: Agreed
Ar-Pharazon-V: Ah, sort of coma or trance.
Varda Valar: That's what it kind of looks like, yes.
Ar-Pharazon-V: But then what's with the sword? :-)
Varda Valar: Part of the ritual?
Ar-Pharazon-V: Perhaps.
Varda Valar: Like an athame, never used to kill, but for the ritual?
Arien V: a symbol .. a link between the three bodies maybe/
Varda Valar: Economical spell, three at once. :-)
Varda Valar: Instead of three separate spells.
Varda Valar: Or they were going through a fancy bit before killing, but seems highly unnecessary.
Varda Valar: Thus, it seemed as if it were a trance spell of some sort.
Varda Valar: Ok, for some future topics, we need to do like Phar suggested and open up the Two Towers!
Varda Valar: Two sets of Two Towers, maybe. ;-)
Ar-Pharazon-V: At the rate your books are falling apart, probably!
Varda Valar: *gathers a group of butterflies from the shelf*
Eonwe Valar: Seasoning a steak is hardly necessary for the cooking and eating of it, but it makes the steak taste better :}
Varda Valar: *they form into a hammer shape*
Varda Valar: heh, true!
Ar-Pharazon-V: Swords are good conductors, maybe for magic rituals too.
Varda Valar: *the butterfly hammer sets gently down on the hammerpad, and it makes a cooing noise instead of a proper thunk*
Varda Valar: *the butterflies fly away*
Ar-Pharazon-V: a cooing noise? Like a pigeon?
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Varda Valar: After-meeting!
Varda Valar: Yes.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Interesting butterflies.
Varda Valar: Strange things come from the shelf.
Varda Valar: That hammerpad made the coo. *eyes the hammerpad*
Varda Valar: *it coos happily again and quiets down*
Arien V: the coo jumped over the flutterby?
Varda Valar: Must be so!
Arien V: you know that *coo* is Scots for "cow* right :)?
Varda Valar: Nope, had no idea.
Arien V: especially usually Highland cattle is meant with that
Arien V: you know those shaggy ones
Arien V: with the big horns
Varda Valar: In Texas, we have a lot of words for cattle, but that's not been one I'm familiar with. :-)
Varda Valar: Sound like Longhorns
Arien V: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highland_cattle
Ar-Pharazon-V: That explains why the Nac Mac Feegles in Discworld used "coo"...
Ar-Pharazon-V: They're rather Scottish in dialect.
Varda Valar: Several pics here:
Varda Valar: http://longhornfacts.weebly.com/characteristics.html
Varda Valar: The shaggy makes the Highland ones look quite interesting.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Gotta keep warm at those heights.
Varda Valar: Looks like several varieties there.
Varda Valar: Wiki for Texas Longhorn:
Varda Valar: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Longhorn
Varda Valar: although Longhorn includes both:
Varda Valar: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longhorn
Varda Valar: Funny how widely we sometimes range in our subjects. :-)
Arien V: *giggles* i just thought the same
Varda Valar: Yay us :-)
Varda Valar: Hey, it's After-meeting. Very free chat
Varda Valar: Erkenbrand just came online
Erkenbrand  has entered the room.
Varda Valar: Aiya Erkenbrand!
Varda Valar: Welcome to After-meeting. :-)
Erkenbrand: Aiya everyone!
Arien V: interesting btw to think a bit of what makes the enemy tic or how he works .. I guess a rune on a sword that makes people feel like they are captain or give them else collywobbles would be along that line ^^
Varda Valar: We somehow wandered into talking about Scottish Longhorn cattle. :-)
Ar-Pharazon-V: Aiya!
Ar-Pharazon-V: As spoken by pigeons.
Arien V: Aiya Erkenbrand :-)
Erkenbrand: Interesting?
Arien V: *coo*
Varda Valar: True. A major weapon of the enemy was dread, fear.
Ar-Pharazon-V: And surprise.. or was that someone else?
Varda Valar: Surprise? I guess they all used it at some point, trying to catch the other flat-footed.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Don't mind me, making a reference.
Varda Valar: Taunts were another weapon of the enemy, to draw the other out into a vulnerable position. Elves, Gondorian kings.
perseid28: Aiya Erkenbrand!
perseid28 has left the room.
   
Varda Valar: Lenwe suggests keeping this guild chat open a lot, kind of like Battlenet days. :-)
Varda Valar: He has a low power computer he was considering running at night (his night) for helping with that.
perseid28 has entered the room.
   
Varda Valar: So we can check in and say howdy or join in various games. Like old times.
Varda Valar: Welcome back
perseid28: Thanks :)
Ar-Pharazon-V: I wonder how popular that would be in the times Europeans are on.
Varda Valar: We have folks come in in the morning, lunch breaks, around supper, or with insomnia, in LotRO.
Varda Valar: So we could have Phar, Arien, Helm, Aragorn maybe? Others from Europe?
Varda Valar: Fladrif?
Varda Valar: A way to get together in our games.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Well I can't promise anything but the attempt to remember, though Fladrif seems averse to being in AIM without necessity.
Varda Valar: And you're all welcome to LotRO, Landroval server. :-)
Varda Valar: That's quite ok.
Varda Valar: He can pop in to try to find you, maybe.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Also, my gaming schedule is usually rather tight :-P
Ar-Pharazon-V: But it's worth a shot.
Varda Valar: Okie dokie. Just in general for anyone that wants to pop in, like we used to do.
Varda Valar: If I"m really working hard, I may be unresponsive, or in an instance gaming, but will scroll back.
Varda Valar: I need to go work on supper, but will keep lurking. :-)
Varda Valar: Namarie for now.
perseid28: Namarie
Ar-Pharazon-V: Namarie!
Varda Valar: *hope to be on LotRO again later*
Varda Valar: and lets Lenwe find Erk for a game. Maybe Marigold too!
Varda Valar: *slips away into the stars*
Arien V: Namarie!
Ar-Pharazon-V: namarie!
Arien V: Namarie!
Ar-Pharazon-V: Ah, I thought you were leaving too :-)

Ar-Pharazon-V: Personal gaming report!

Ar-Pharazon-V: Let me find 3 flashgames to put here ;-)
Ar-Pharazon-V: http://www.kongregate.com/games/PeopleFun/race-time is the first! A racing game with a few tracks, the point is simply to improve your time on a race as much as you can to get in different leagues. You're always matched up with a player who is just ahead of you in time so you can watch and learn how to handle the track. Gets a new track every day, it seems.
Ar-Pharazon-V: And the other player is not actually live, btw, just his fastest race so you can steal some tips.
Ar-Pharazon-V: http://www.kongregate.com/games/TeamSemiColon/string-theory is a physics puzzle game, manipulate strings to get the circle to the goal. Not that long either, and wrapped in a strange science fiction story about being stuck in a 2-dimensional world. But it's fun gameplay!
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Ar-Pharazon-V: http://www.kongregate.com/games/UknownXL/specter-knight is the third one, rather longer, an upgrade and action game where you play an undead knight working your way through rooms and levels to face an evil wizard. Lots of different skills and spells to get!

Ar-Pharazon-V: Blizzard gaming!
Ar-Pharazon-V: Hearthstone: All classes getting quite close to next level now, I expect some will get there in the next week.
Ar-Pharazon-V: This week's brawl was Blood Magic: make your own deck, all spells cost health now instead of mana.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Easy trick seems to be playing mage with spell-buffing minions and simply going for the face with overbalanced damage spells.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Heroes of the Storm: Started the quest to play with Warcraft heroes, and after doing a bit of a marathon run with 3 friends from WoW last night I'm at 10 games now. Should have no trouble getting the mount in the next week :-)
Arien V: cool ... we managed to do three or at least i did ^^
Ar-Pharazon-V: This week's brawl was the Nova brawl on Towers of Doom, an oldy for which I already had the portrait, so I didn't really bother. Fun game of cat and mouse sniping, but the marathon got in the way ;-)
Ar-Pharazon-V: But it's still going, so who knows?
Arien V: :-) true
Ar-Pharazon-V: WoW:
Ar-Pharazon-V: Busy, so busy. Haven't even done the archeology quest for this week yet, giving the mount, but then there's 2 weeks to get it. And I might work on it tomorrow too.
Ar-Pharazon-V: This week's weekly quest is/was timewalks, Cataclysm. I did it with 3 characters, and on my druid the quest to do it 5 times. He's still on schedule to get the pandaria mount on the next timewalk event, while the 2 alts should have plenty of badges to get the 2k badge items. So yay!
Ar-Pharazon-V: Not much Nighthold news, though we did poke the Botanist for a bit. Quite tough on heroic difficulty.
Ar-Pharazon-V: We also ran a normal Emerald Nightmare on saturday, with me finally getting my fourth normal-difficulty essence of clarity from Cenarius. So that's a quest completed, though I've not been able to deliver it and probably won't until we go there again.
Ar-Pharazon-V: World quests: Still chugging along. Fewer and fewer new quests to do on a daily basis, but I am making more progress with the pet tamers, and even got one or two new fishing quests done.
Ar-Pharazon-V: As well as a new leatherworking quest for a rank 3 pattern.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Artifact knowledge is done, at level 25, so that's a new achievement and appearance! Also progressing with champions and missions, another one upgraded to epic.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Have not had much time for Suramar, though I did get the withered training scenario done twice, with some good upgrades for my Withered, including specialized gear for some of them.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Required some luck, though, almost ran out of minions with no rewards to show for it!
Ar-Pharazon-V: Love is in the Air event is almost over now, and I've still been doing the boss-fight and a bunch of daily quests. I got the big new toy, the Love Boat, with my druid main, and the 100-token toy should be gettable by my Demon Hunter, who's now at 98 tokens with one more day to go.
Ar-Pharazon-V: And finally, for appearances, I've completed normal Underbog, and have started heroic Underbog. One of the first things I got there was a new fist weapon, looking really nice, which I transmogged on my guardian artifact claws. So yay, looking fancy!
Ar-Pharazon-V: And that's my report for this week! With the world event almost over now, I'm hoping to be able to get some other stuff done. But there always seems to be less time than I need :-)
Arien V: nice one :-) congrats to all
Arien V: and time for bed now for me :-)
Arien V: Namarie!
Ar-Pharazon-V: Namarie!
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Eonwe Valar: Just got a couple of LFR runs in with Bofur, Nob, and Nob's fiance
Ar-Pharazon-V: Ah, nice :-)
Eonwe Valar: I think we all walked away with *some* loot, just not necessarily good loot, hehe.
Ar-Pharazon-V: heh
Eonwe Valar: Oh, since I was here I didn't mention it last week, but I managed to get my third legendary the previous week. Aggramar's Stride.
Eonwe Valar: *wan't here last week
Eonwe Valar: *wasn't even
Ar-Pharazon-V: Grats!
Ar-Pharazon-V: Still sitting on 2, but the second wasn't that long ago :-)
Eonwe Valar: Thanks :} Too bad we're limited to 2, but that particular one is more interesting for the stats than the extra effect. Run speed isn't so exciting to me.
Eonwe Valar: :}
Ar-Pharazon-V: hehe
Eonwe Valar: My third came crazily enough, about a week after my second, so gogo RNG, lol :}
Ar-Pharazon-V: Nice!
Eonwe Valar: It'll probably be a while before my fourth now. Can't be getting another so soon or the interwebs will go crazy :}
Ar-Pharazon-V: Wasn't there something about the chance of a third being the same as the chance of an 8th? Diminishing returns going flat after 2 or something?
Eonwe Valar: I don't remember what the latest on that was off the top of my head, to be honest.
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Ar-Pharazon-V: Odd disconnect there.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Anyway,  Right now, in Patch 7.1.5, your first Legendary has the highest drop chance, the second still has a significant bonus, and then you’ll have the same chances to earn your third Legendary as you will your fourth, fifth, sixth, and so on.
Ar-Pharazon-V: We think it’s important to get this across clearly: it currently takes the same amount of luck/effort to get your third Legendary as it takes to get your eighth.
Eonwe Valar: Fair enough. Got a source so I have it for future reference?
Ar-Pharazon-V: That's from a blue post quoted on MMO champion.
Ar-Pharazon-V: https://us.battle.net/forums/en/wow/topic/20753149009
Ar-Pharazon-V: And now, saving and sending transcript.
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Eonwe Valar: Wow, how'd I miss this. It was 2 days ago.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Heh.
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How did they show appreciation in Middle-earth and beyond?