Valar Guild

January 14, 2018 Sunday Meeting

5pm EST (UTC/GMT - 5)
Discord: Valar Guild/meeting_place

Back to News
Transcript work by
Varda.

Attending: (4)
    Discord: Arien, Ar-Pharazon, Gorlim, Varda (presiding)
    LotRO:  Arien, Varda.

Before-meeting
Meeting begins
Membership:
Web:
Gaming:
    General gaming report
Tolkien:
    Topic: Durin VI
    Topic: Later cosmology (from Morgoth's Ring) that didn't make it into the tale as it couldn't mesh, but interesting with more names for us to play with.
After-meeting:
    Flashgaming Reviews by Ar-Pharazon
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Before-meeting
(times are in Central from Varda)

Varda - 01/14/2018
Hello
Ar-Pharazon-V - 01/14/2018
Aiya!
Varda - 01/14/2018
Plenty of time before the meeting yet.
Ar-Pharazon-V - 01/14/2018
just wrapping up Legion archeology :smiley:
Varda - 01/14/2018
I may be suddenly called away to help with moving from one house to another.
Go get 'em. :smiley:
Ar-Pharazon-V - 01/14/2018
And I do mean wrap it up, I just got the last achievement :wink:
Varda - 01/14/2018
Grats! adds a bow on top
Ar-Pharazon-V - 01/14/2018
Yay!
Now currently spending 451 restored artifacts on draenor clan fragments in Dalaran, to maybe get a few pristines done for WoD archeology :smiley:
Varda - 01/14/2018
Pardon, my phone and computer show different times. Do you show it as 5 minutes before time or time for the meeting?
Ar-Pharazon-V - 01/14/2018
before
5 minutes before
ArienV - 01/14/2018
grats :smile:
Varda - 01/14/2018
Thanks!
Ar-Pharazon-V - 01/14/2018
Thanks :smiley:
ArienV - 01/14/2018
Aiya all :smiley:
Ar-Pharazon-V - 01/14/2018
Aiya!
ArienV - 01/14/2018
we have a bit wind round here at the moment .. so if i vanish suddenly wihout warning it might be a power cut
just a headup
Varda - 01/14/2018
Yikes. Thanks.
ArienV - 01/14/2018
we already had two short one
Ar-Pharazon-V - 01/14/2018
Must be a lot of wind indeed.
Varda - 01/14/2018
Is your computer on a battery backup?
They can help save vs spike damage.
ArienV - 01/14/2018
aye quite hefty .. someone said this afternoon sixty miles per hour . no unforunately not .. but . good thinking .. i should get one
Ar-Pharazon-V - 01/14/2018
Just got my third draenor pristine just from turning in restored artifacts. Not bad.
ArienV - 01/14/2018
very good
Varda - 01/14/2018
Trying to check diacritical marks from original sources for some dwarves. Out of time, unfortunately.
Poking
Dropping into LotRO for more pokage and to be available for questions about Discord, etc.
Anyone present for the meeting, please type Namo
Namo
Ar-Pharazon-V - 01/14/2018
Namo
ArienV - 01/14/2018
Namo
uhm .. was  .. one of the water vala? i forgot ..
Varda - 01/14/2018
Also known as Mandos
Ar-Pharazon-V - 01/14/2018
I thought it was another name for Mandos- yes, that.
Varda - 01/14/2018
The Doomsman of the Valar.
ArienV - 01/14/2018
oh right :smiley:
yus
Varda - 01/14/2018
Where fear/spirits go after losing bodies.
Tells prophecies.
When Manwe says it's ok to do so, at least.
ArienV - 01/14/2018
i know .. the  Orpheus of Tolkiens Olymp
Varda - 01/14/2018
Arien and I are in LotRO.
Ar-Pharazon-V - 01/14/2018
The guy who almost  never talks, but when he does, you go "Oh man, here he goes again, this can't be good."
Varda - 01/14/2018
When Mandos talks, listen. :smiley:
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Elen sila lumenn' omentielvo!
Membership:
Discord members: Arien, Ar-Pharazon, Varda
LotRO: Arien, Varda
Eonwe said he might not be able to come today, but put up gaming news and sent a message.
I may be gone suddenly to help with moving, but may have already missed my ride.
Also may be gone most of next week, friend needing help due to surgery.
But Sauron will be here. :smiley:
Ar-Pharazon-V - 01/14/2018
Good luck with the friend!
Varda - 01/14/2018
Not for sure I'll be gone next week, but likely.
Should be back for the meeting, no problem.
Any other Membership news?
Ar-Pharazon-V - 01/14/2018
Ran into Fladrif, we did a bunch of gaming together.. is that membership or gaming?
Varda - 01/14/2018
Yes. :smiley:
Ar-Pharazon-V - 01/14/2018
It doesn't happen very often to this extent, so not sure :stuck_out_tongue:
In any case, first met in Hearthstone, fought each other enough times to get all of our quests done; then teamed up in Heroes of the Storm, getting our quests done, and then continued with the brawl there which he'd never tried before, getting our loot chests there :smile:
Lot of fun was had!
Varda - 01/14/2018
Huzzah!
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Web:
Started up a new page:
Dwarven Kings
http://valarguild.org/varda/Tolkien/encyc/articles/k/kings/DwarvenKings/DwarvenKings.htm
This is intended to work with the general Kings project, which ties into the Timeline.
And of course is still another navigation tool, along with the usual A-Z, and Subjects.
Articles are welcome to aid the new page, of course, and art.
The page is so new that it isn't linked into the rest of the Encyc yet, so you heard it here first!
Needs plenty of work yet. Fun stuff.
That of course is Tolkien Site news.

Games Page news from Eonwe
He's been working on a news feed so that news for various games will show up timely after being fed in.
Feel free to email him news for your favorite games to be fed into the timeline

ArienV - 01/14/2018
hmm Durin the sixth .. was he the one who  woke the balrog? Thorins grandfather .. eh better keep that for Tolkien :smiley:
Varda - 01/14/2018
Check it :smiley:
Sauron says hi  :smiley:
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Gaming:

WoW:
From Eonwe:
For those interested in such things, I got my Ret Paladin's artifact Challenge appearance unlock from the mage tower.
That was WoW news, pardon.
WoW:
This week's bonus event: Legion Dungeons.
See this week's hotfixes.

Heroes of the Storm:
A new patch is out, including the new hero, the Firebat named Blaze.

Ar-Pharazon-V - 01/14/2018
grats Eonwe on appearance unlock :smiley: Got my guardian one this week, as well.
Varda - 01/14/2018
Yay!

LotRO:
LotRO Beacon Issue #42 for news of events, etc.
Winterstock has been going this weekend on our Landroval server, a lot of bands that get together near Thorin's Hall at the big frozen lake (not the first small one).
Says it goes to the 15th.
47 bands.
Any other general gaming news?

StarCraft/BroodWar played by Fangorn and Varda
StarCraft II played by Eowyn and others
Any other gaming news, business, etc?
ArienV - 01/14/2018
ihm i tried to look where it is .. but didnt find it
Varda - 01/14/2018
ok
ArienV - 01/14/2018
what time do they start?
i think tonighjt is the last night
Varda - 01/14/2018
If you mean Winterstock on LotRO, I'm trying to pull up the part that is supposed to give the full schedule from the Beacon
It's coming up very slowly
http://lotroartists.com/
Calendar is down below
ArienV - 01/14/2018
thats the stream
Varda - 01/14/2018
for each day
ArienV - 01/14/2018
https://www.twitch.tv/lotrostream
Varda - 01/14/2018
You asked for times, so check that calendar on the link I posted.
ArienV - 01/14/2018
okay
Varda - 01/14/2018
servertime first one at 11am
last at 9pm
Servertime is Eastern, type /servertime
Pardon, brb
back
Arien, any luck looking up that reference for Durin the Sixth?
Tolkien:
Back to Gaming briefly:
LotRO kinmates seen this past week:
Aranuir
Arien
Bregalad
Celebrian
Dis
Elrond
Eonwe
Fangorn
Gorlim
Luthien
Nar
Thranduil
Tulkas
Varda
Three full Valar this past week, unusual. :smiley:
Two Maiar
And the fabulous Free Peoples.
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Back to
Tolkien:
While Arien is looking up Durin 6,
pardon, phone
ArienV - 01/14/2018
Did ^^
Varda - 01/14/2018
Go ahead
ArienV - 01/14/2018
Durin IV was i Thorin's Great Grandfather
er Durin VI
apparently he wanted to keep up good relations with the Elves of Eregion and Lothlorien .. they were trading in Mithril
so the story .. the Elves were brought to Durin .. they came with somewhat unclear motives .. i think they heard rumours that the wealth of Moria faded and wanted to check on it , maybe also get new supply for their work#
they had found new caves with Mithril in it and Durin VI wanted to show it to them .. so they opened  the  new mine .. it was deeper than the others
when they had opened the cave with the ore they found a Balrog .. Durin VI engaged him .. and his son Nain who was supposed to succeed him went foolishly to aveenge his father and was killed not long after he took the throne
so the crown of Moria came to Thrain I .. who was father to Dain who was father to Thorin Oakenshield
Ar-Pharazon-V - 01/14/2018
father to Thorin?
ArienV - 01/14/2018
aye
Ar-Pharazon-V - 01/14/2018
Aren't we missing a few steps?
Varda - 01/14/2018
Interesting. That is a session play in LotRO also, the part with the elves, the balrog.
I have to leave in about 5 minutes
Ar-Pharazon-V - 01/14/2018
Aw, good luck!
ArienV - 01/14/2018
yes .. I did that this afternoon ..
good luck :smiley:
Ar-Pharazon-V - 01/14/2018
Aren't Thror and Thrain II somewhere in there?
Varda - 01/14/2018
Where was that in the books that you just looked up?
ArienV - 01/14/2018
Lord of the Rings , Appendix A, Part III Durin's folk

Varda - 01/14/2018
Thanks
A quick bit, folks coming in the door,
Morgoth's Ring:
Arda apparently meant the entire Solar System
Ar-Pharazon-V - 01/14/2018
they'll have to drag you from your pc kicking and screaming
Varda - 01/14/2018
The earth was Ambar or Imbar, name changes
No, I am shutting stuff down already
Ar-Pharazon-V - 01/14/2018
ah :smiley:
Gorlim - 01/14/2018
hiya just checking in
Varda - 01/14/2018
passes the gavel to Arien, watches it gleam as I disappear
Ar-Pharazon-V - 01/14/2018
A lot of changes in Morgoth's Ring, to accomodate new findings on the solar system I believe. He even wrote about changing the nature of sun and moon.
Varda - 01/14/2018
Gorlim! Aiya!
I have to go
Ar-Pharazon-V - 01/14/2018
Aiya!
Namarie!
Varda - 01/14/2018
Aye, and JRRT couldn't make it all mesh and had to drop most of the new mythos.
It was an interesting extra bit
Namarie!
ArienV - 01/14/2018
Namarie :smiley:
Varda - 01/14/2018
Thanks for coming by, Gorlim!
ArienV - 01/14/2018
grabs the gavel
ArienV - 01/14/2018
And no Phari .. it was indeed Thorins Grandfather, Dain Ironfoot
just checked that in that section
Ar-Pharazon-V - 01/14/2018
Dain Ironfoot was Dain II, no? Thorin's successor?
I need to check this section.
Apparently some names and numbers got confused; it went from Durin to Nain to Thrain I to Thorin I (not Oakenshield) to Gloin, Oin, and Nain II. He was the father to Dain I, who was not Ironfoot, but father to Thror.
Then comes Thrain II, Thorin Oakenshield, who was succeeded by his cousin Dain II Ironfoot, who then fathered Thorin III.
ArienV - 01/14/2018
uh thats a  bit unclear in that section ..
so confusing
Ar-Pharazon-V - 01/14/2018
There's a tree at the end :smiley:
ArienV - 01/14/2018
ooks didnt see that .. bleh .. my fault :smiley:
:open_mouth:
thanks for correcting me
Ar-Pharazon-V - 01/14/2018
Just trying to be helpful :wink:
It has been too long since I read these books, but some things still stick.
Good thing too, for these meetings!
Right, feel free to gavel :smiley:
ArienV - 01/14/2018
it is a wonderful gavel .. shines around with sunrays .. oh one of mithril .. silver turns to gold  .. jumps around  .. makes a summersault and pogos back to its hook
Ar-Pharazon-V - 01/14/2018
Lively one.
ArienV - 01/14/2018
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ubu Aftermeeting!
feel free of course if there is anything else on your mind :smiley: bu for some reason this Dwarf story was on my mind . guess comes from gaming this afternoon :smiley:
Ar-Pharazon-V - 01/14/2018
No, it was nice for a tolkien topic :smiley:
ArienV - 01/14/2018
cool :smiley:

Ar-Pharazon-V - 01/14/2018
Heh, I got a total of 6 new draenor clans Pristine artifacts from those 451 boxes I delivered.
Very good progress, but the rest can wait until I'm done with Legion stuff :smiley:
ArienV - 01/14/2018
nice :smiley:
Ar-Pharazon-V - 01/14/2018
Perrrrsonal gaming!
Plenty of choice for flashgaming this week, let me choose 3.
Tough choice.. but here we go.
https://www.kongregate.com/games/ryzed/xenosquad is the first! A tactical strategy game where you play a team of soldiers dealing with an alien invasion. Move through each level, taking out aliens and spawnpoints, pursuing certain objectives, and looting crates for ammo and health. Use the money and experience you get to upgrade your soldiers with higher stats and new weapons.
Kongregate
XenoSquad
3d turn-based tactical squad game with RPG elements.
Remake of the famous epic game quotIncubationquot.

The sophisticated levels, different enemies, many types of...

https://www.kongregate.com/games/suntemple33/hex-blocks-puzzle
is the second game, a fun randomized puzzle game where you have to place puzzle pieces to fill a platform of hexes. Hint: Start at the edges :wink:
Kongregate
Hex Blocks Puzzle
Drag hex blocks onto the hexagon shaped grid to cover it completely and move on to the next level! Three grid sizes are supported. Classical music remakes are...

http://www.onemorelevel.com/game/cherry_creek is the last one! A classic pipe-connection puzzle game where you have to rotate tiles to connect all the trees to the well. Nice music, nice background, fun puzzling :smiley:
Cherry Creek - OneMoreLevel.com
Once again, edges is where it's at!
Other than that, have fun figuring it out :smiley:
ArienV - 01/14/2018
:smiley:
Ar-Pharazon-V - 01/14/2018
wew, just did one of those at the highest difficulty, took me 16 minutes :wink: alright, moving on to blizzard gaming!

hearthstone: still slowly pushing on for experience, it's going really really slowly now
Maybe because my quests were done in relatively few matches this week, like playing against Fladrif :smiley:
Fun new brawl: build a deck of any size, fill the rest of the 30 slots with shadow reflections which mimic the previous card you played in a turn. Most success seems to be had with duplicating buff-cards, my own paladin deck had a bunch of cards that buff the cards in your hand. Combined with the right minions, that can go a long way.
Heroes of the Storm: Levels got! Mostly from lower level heroes like getting Sergeant Hammer from 3 to 4. I got one hero I'd never played before leveled up from level 1 to 2 in one brawl, that's how long the game took.
Total level 243 now.
The brawl was a single-lane match with no secondary objectives, so straight head on brawl. Did both matches teamed up with Fladrif, lost the first one, were close to losing the second one where we both played heroes we'd never done before, and turned it around as we got the hang of it and we started unlocking more talents. Very fun match.
I had Malthael in that one; seems like a squishy hero for a melee assassin, but with the right talents you can really wreak some havoc, throwing marks of the reaper all around you and then draining all their health.
Fladrif had Lunara, the dryad, and I think he had some fun bouncing around and poisoning enemies, he ended up with the highest killcount of the match :smiley:
Starcraft II: Played some more training matches, almost done with part 2 of the war chest. 4 matches left to play before I complete it, and then we once again wait about 2 weeks for part 3.
Really enjoying the look of the new primal zerg skins unlocked through the chest. The training matches I play are really early-game, with only a couple of types of military units, and for those I already have the new skins, except overlord, which comes in part 3. Will be nice to unlock that too!
WoW:
Still not having much luck with pets from the old raids, though with the ones we've already got complete we've been able to push the time it takes us down to within one and a half hour. So at least it's fast!
I did get a new pet that a raidgroup friend got from Blingtron during the raid, and didn't need; a mechanical frostboar :smiley:
Completed the guardian druid mage tower challenge after about 3 hours of throwing myself at it, a bit longer than I'd hoped, and was starting to despair a bit... overgeared, bringing the adds down to a minimum, but still failing on knockback mechanics and the like, so I was worried if I'd ever be good enough to get it done. Had boss down to about 2% in one of the early attempts, but nowhere close to that later on.
But just then it all came together, and now I've got the werebear/gorilla/whatever-bearform!
Fun bearform, but it's a completely different model, and is lacking stuff like dancing, roaring, and some other animations, as well as combat sounds. So I went back to my archeology-based rockbear form, which I still love :smiley:
While checking out the new form, though, I did discover I'd unlocked another variation of those by completing 10 different dungeons after completing the feral challenge, and decided to go with the new red firey catform from here on. Looks really nice.
But I did use the new bearform for one raid, and that was the raid wherein we got our latest heroic kill, Imonar! So now our kill-picture has me in the new form, and will probably be the only one to do so :smiley:
Still working on new pet and mount from Wailing Caverns and from fel-spotted eggs, but again nothing but duplicate pets.
Weekly this week is mythic dungeons. Haven't worked on them yet, will probably be tomorrow; we're trying to get a group together for a number of the achievements, including the last one from Violet Hold from a boss that rotates and happens to be up this week.
Still continuing Argus stuff, which is going quite well! Armored up the 6th champion today, completing that quest, and giving me one more class hall mission to do, which will finish that particular quest-section as well as give me the new heirloom necklace. That should be done tomorrow. I'm also getting a lot of the new equipment, which I'm throwing on all my champions to really increase their success chance as well as cutting down on all the mission durations. Might even be able to send them out twice a day soon!
After that mission is done, all that'll be left is a few Antorus-related quests, and then I'm done with Argus story questing, just in time for the upcoming patch I'm sure :smiley: Not world questing though! Still have rep, a couple of reward-appearances, and pet WQs to get. Only a few hundred rep away from exalted with Army of the Light, which allows me to buy a really expensive warframe mount for 500k gold. I'll probably get it anyway, it's a fun mount :smiley:
Argussian Reach is a bit further behind, still needs a few thousand. But there are no notable paragon rewards for that one so I'm okay with slowing pushing forwards there. It will give me 6 new mounts to buy when I hit exalted, and those are a lot cheaper, so that's something to look forward to.
And finally, completed Legion archeology! Got my last 2 pristine artifacts, the hauberk and the cup, and then pushed on to dig up the last remaining 20-30 digsites to hit the achievement for 250 total, giving me a new title.
ArienV - 01/14/2018
Top Digger Calaron :smiley:
Ar-Pharazon-V - 01/14/2018
Groundbreaker, actually :wink:
ArienV - 01/14/2018
uhm .. principally the same just a different word :wink:
Ar-Pharazon-V - 01/14/2018
All that got me to 451 restored artifacts, which I delivered to the npc in Dalaran, using them to buy a ton of draenor clan artifacts for the archeology projects from the previous expansion, netting me 6 pristines out of the 10 I was still missing. Now missing only 7 pristines from all Draenor races, total. But those can wait until I'm done with Legion content, going all the way to the back of my todo list :smiley:
Instead, my next planned projects are going to be really interesting, as I explained last week when I'd done the research into them :smiley: Starting with unlocking Kosumoth, to get the world quests for a new mount and new pet. I hope to get that done in the next few days so I can still kill him this reset.
And that's my report for this week!
ArienV - 01/14/2018
wow so many things :smiley: Such a busy bear !
Congratulations and thank you for your report :)#
Ar-Pharazon-V - 01/14/2018
Yes! It was a good week. Making a lot of progress on my side projects and I hope that keeps up.
ArienV - 01/14/2018
i am sure you will make it :smiley:
I  am going to cros the rainbow bridge my friend yawns
Ar-Pharazon-V - 01/14/2018
Namarie! I'll log the transcript for myself, but I'm sure Varda will have it for the website when she comes back.
ArienV - 01/14/2018
I am sure as well :smiley:  sleep well wehen you get to it :smiley:
Namarie for now :smiley:
Ar-Pharazon-V - 01/14/2018
Namarie!
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