Sunday, December 1, 2024
5:00pm Eastern Time
Discord: Valar Guild/meeting_place
Attending (5): Arien, Ar-Pharazon, Eonwe, Sandalf, Varda (presiding)
Topic: Fangorn had a way of looking at both sides, even when the person, such as Saruman, had deeply wronged him.
[4:01 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Aiya!
[4:01 PM]Varda: Aiya!
[4:02 PM]Varda: Thanks Phar for guiding me to the right room. Le oopsie. : )
[4:02 PM]Varda: @Bounder @Guild-friend Aiya! Valar Guild meeting time is...now! Yay!
[4:02 PM]Varda: Elen sila lumenn' omentielvo!
[4:03 PM]Varda: Membership:
[4:03 PM]Varda: Ar-Pharazon the Great has aided us in having our meeting in the right room. Yay Phar!
[4:03 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: huzzah!
[4:03 PM]Varda: Elwing and Meriadoc very recently left our house after Thanksgiving holidays; looks like good weather for their trips home.
[4:04 PM]Varda: Many pies, much actual food. Consumed (mostly). Check.
[4:05 PM]Varda: Leod is not feeling well, but left us a LotRO report for later. : )
[4:05 PM]Varda: Eonwe wasn't sure if he would make it for the meeting, but also left the big gaming report.
[4:05 PM]Varda: When we can't be there, we still have our ways to add to the meeting! Yay for them too!
[4:06 PM]Arien Valar: ello
[4:06 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Aiya!
[4:06 PM]Arien Valar: aiya
[4:06 PM]Varda: Aiya Sunshine : )
[4:06 PM]Eönwë Valar: Salutations
[4:06 PM]Varda: Greetings!
[4:07 PM]Arien Valar: one winged sushine dry broke a shoulder bone lase
[4:07 PM]Arien Valar: t week
[4:07 PM]Varda: Clavicle?
[4:07 PM]Eönwë Valar: Ouch.
[4:07 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Aiya!
[4:08 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: And that sounds painful. Does it come with free time?
[4:08 PM]Arien Valar: humus proximus or something like that
[4:08 PM]Varda: Might have to just tell that sun vessel which way to go instead of using your hands.
[4:08 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: It might end up going in circles. More than usual.
[4:09 PM]Varda: Glad you're able to type enough to let us know!
[4:09 PM]Arien Valar: oh well that s using solar power D
[4:09 PM]Varda: hehe
[4:11 PM]Varda: Eonwe, hope you and yours had a great Thanksgiving too. : )
[4:12 PM]Eönwë Valar: Thanks and likewise. We did.
[4:12 PM]Varda: Huzzah!
[4:12 PM]Varda: Our group did make it to RenFaire, good weather, much fun was had. : )
[4:13 PM]Varda: Any other membership news?
[4:14 PM]Varda: We will not expect much typing from Arien today.
[4:14 PM]Varda: on to
[4:14 PM]Varda: Web:
[4:14 PM]Varda: No visible new stuff this past week.
[4:15 PM]Varda: Gaming
[4:16 PM]Varda: I hope everyone had the chance to play some for fun. : )
[4:18 PM]Varda: We are checking on Pallando, then Eonwe has a report, and I have one.
[4:23 PM]Eönwë Valar: It seems not, so on with my report.
[4:23 PM]Eönwë Valar: World of Warcraft:
[4:23 PM]Eönwë Valar: This week's Bonus Events: Pet Battles and Wrath of the Lich King Timewalking. This week's PvP Brawl: Shado-Pan Showdown.
[4:23 PM]Eönwë Valar: The Darkmoon Faire is this week.
[4:23 PM]Eönwë Valar: Check out the December Trading Post.
[4:24 PM]Eönwë Valar: Check out this week's hotfixes.
[4:24 PM]Eönwë Valar: Diablo Immortal:
[A new event will be going from December 6th through December 17th: Eve of Unmaking.
[4:24 PM]Eönwë Valar: Starcraft 2: Patch 5.0.14 is now live.
[4:25 PM]Eönwë Valar: And that's it for me.
[4:26 PM]Varda: Thank you, Eonwe.
[4:26 PM]Varda: Eowyn and Fangorn are currently playing Starcraft 2. Faramir and Floppa have also been playing this past week.
[Lord of the Rings Online:
[4:27 PM]Varda: Leod, since he felt unwell, sent in his LotRO report by email. Here's hoping he feels better soon!
[4:27 PM]Varda: Slightly condensed form:
[4:28 PM]Varda: "Just a reminder, Angmar and Mordor Legendary Servers can first go to Moria on December 4th."
[4:28 PM]Varda: Black Friday and weekly sales in LotRO Going through Dec 2nd:
[4:28 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Mordor does not simply go into Moria.
[4:28 PM]Varda: This includes expansions, travel skills, milestones, black steel keys.
[4:28 PM]Varda: heh
[4:28 PM]Varda: Through Dec 5 includes character slots, stat packages.
[4:29 PM]Varda: Code until Dec 5 for 1 black dye: THEDOORSWUNGOPEN
[4:29 PM]Varda: Addendum from me:
[4:29 PM]Varda: Splendour vendors Filbert Fig and Rowan Raspberry are still available. Bree's boar fountain is one way to locate them.
[4:29 PM]Varda: Valarites showing up in the kin branches this past week:
Landroval branch
Crickhollow branch:
Treebeard branch:
Angmar branch:
Mordor branch:
[4:30 PM]Varda: Also, thanks to Leod for adding to the gold we are collecting for a kin house on Angmar branch. : )
[4:30 PM]Varda: We are very close!
[4:30 PM]Varda: Any other gaming news, requests, suggestions?
[4:31 PM]Varda: On to
[4:31 PM]Varda: Tolkien!
[4:31 PM]Varda: Does anyone have a topic? If not right this minute, I can toss one into the group.
[4:32 PM]Varda: Fangorn had a way of looking at both sides, even when the person, such as Saruman, had deeply wronged him.
[4:32 PM]Varda: An example is in TT, "The Voice of Saruman":
["So Saruman would not leave?"he said. "I did not think he would. His heart is as rotten as a black Huorn's. Still, if I were overcome and all my trees destroyed, I would not come while while I had one dark hole left to hide in."
["No," said Gandalf. "But you have not plotted to cover all the world with your trees and choke all other living things."
[4:33 PM]Varda: End quote
[4:33 PM]Varda: This is what he said before he had a lot of time to be affected by Saruman's waning voice power.
[4:34 PM]Varda: Saruman had something to work with.
[4:34 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Covering the world with trees... there's precedent for that, but I wouldn't say it would choke all other living things. Would change the ecosystem though.
[4:34 PM]Varda: True!
[4:34 PM]Varda: But if Fangorn had a mind like Saruman's, choke they would.
[@Ar-Pharazon-V
[Covering the world with trees... there's precedent for that, but I wouldn't say it would choke all other living things. Would change the ecosystem though.
[4:35 PM]Eönwë Valar: YouTube - [Futurama] Bender Destroys Earth By Lighting Up His Cigar
[4:35 PM]Arien Valar: ye a story has always two sides, which is why i had fun writing the wraith tale and i like playing devil s advocate sometimes :~)
[4:36 PM]Arien Valar: rthanks :)nn
[4:36 PM]Varda: Don't let Gandalf light his pipe!
[4:37 PM]Varda: A story has two side, so one has to weigh the good and bad in scales. And see the result.
[4:37 PM]Varda: The result weighs a great deal.
[4:37 PM]Arien Valar: uhu
[4:38 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: I always liked playing the villain when I was younger. It was freeing, and forced me to look from a different perspective. That still comes back in the RP. Last few years I don't really have that interest anymore, though I do have some characters in WoW with dark sides as well.
[4:39 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Still a time and place for it though, like in certain strategy games.
[4:40 PM]Arien Valar: there is good and bad in (almost~) everone
[4:40 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Covering the map with creep as the Zerg...
[4:41 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: That said, when it comes to conflicts and arguments I do like to keep an eye on both sides. That's why I'm usually a fence-sitter politically.
[4:41 PM]Arien Valar: ebony and ivory-stevie wonder & sir paul mccartney lyrics YouTube - Paul McCartney & Stevie Wonder - Ebony and ivory (Lyrics)
[4:42 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: It just makes sense to try to understand both parties rather than putting one away as not worth listening to.
[4:42 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Maybe I'd be easily swayed by Saruman
[4:42 PM]Arien Valar: aye agreeed
[4:45 PM]Eönwë Valar: I prefer the Fangorn school of thought: "I'm not altogether on anyone's side, because no one is altogether on my side." Don't have to agree with someone just because you've agreed with them in the past. Understanding where someone is coming from doesn't mean you agree with them.
[4:45 PM]Varda: Being gentle as a dove and understanding the villain's problems and point of view is good. However, one must be wise as a serpent and not turn the villain loose on other folks who may be injured or killed by that one act of kindness to the villain.
[4:46 PM]Varda: Aiya Sandalf : )
[4:46 PM]Arien Valar: aiya sandalf
[4:46 PM]Sandalf13: Aiya all! I just checked into my motel for the night...enroute to The Big Apple, aka New York. Have to cross the Appalachian Mtns tomorrow, and it is snowing tonight. Hope it clears out by morning! Only about 9 hours to go, but although not nearly as high as the Rockies, the Pennsylvania Appalachians are still treacherous to drive...especially in the snow.
[4:46 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Aiya!
[4:47 PM]Varda: Wow! Glad you're inside for the moment at least. Sounds like an adventure!
[4:47 PM]Arien Valar: oh and to walk on ...
[4:47 PM]Sandalf13: Crossing Pennsylvania is always an adventure...and very surprisingly, quite beautiful.
[4:48 PM]Varda: Ebony and Ivory are not good and evil, but just cosmetic differences?
[4:48 PM]Varda: Referring to the song mentioned.
[4:54 PM]Varda: Ok, we are given a glimpse into Treebeard's character there. He's a good guy. : )
[4:54 PM]Varda: Any other topics we want to bring up?
[4:56 PM]Varda: bang!
[4:56 PM]Varda: gavel jumps
[4:56 PM]Varda: After-meeting!
[4:56 PM]Varda: Be free! Chat and game!
[4:58 PM]Varda: annnnd
[4:58 PM]Varda: I need to correct a mistake.
[4:58 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Just camping out a rare, so that's fine
[4:58 PM]Varda: I put up the Crickhollow group for Landroval.
[4:59 PM]Varda: heh. Remembers fletching arrows waiting for mammoth re-pop in EverQuest
[5:02 PM]Varda:
[Note: corrected in the earlier report during coding this transcript.]
Landroval branch:
[5:02 PM]Varda: We had a nice crowd. : )
[5:03 PM]Arien Valar: nice )
[5:04 PM]Arien Valar: namarie for now
[5:04 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: namarie! get well soon!
[5:04 PM]Sandalf13: Namarie!
[5:04 PM]Arien Valar: thankies
[5:05 PM]Sandalf13: Hope you feel better and better!
[5:08 PM]Varda: Namarie!
[5:39 PM]Sandalf13: Hello!
[5:39 PM]Sandalf13: I guess I missed the best parts, heh?
[5:39 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: You can always add your own views later
[5:40 PM]Sandalf13: alright! Will you still give your report later?
[5:40 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Yep.
[5:40 PM]Varda: I wonder what would have happened if they stayed? Did Grima have to stay? If he did, would he have become a robotic serf?
[5:40 PM]Varda: After-meeting is also a place where the chat can continue if we like. : )
[5:42 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: I don't think he felt like he had anywhere else to go. Frodo was the first to suggest to him that he need not stay with Saruman.
[5:42 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Without such insights, he'd probably stay on indefinitely.
[5:48 PM]Sandalf13: I was rereading the notes from earlier, before I joined the meeting. I mentioned in my Chapter One that Tolkien had mixes feelings about his countryman, Shakespeare, but he sure borrowed heavily from the Master in terms of some of this thematic material i the LoTR...e.g., the Ents marching on Orthanc bears a strong resemblence to the march of the trees of Birnam Wood against Macbeth's castle at the end of Macbeth...
[5:49 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Not agreeing with him, but still respecting/valuing his work enough for inspiration. That does fit the idea of being open to both sides
[7:05 PM]Varda: JRRT was disappointed that the trees weren't actually marching, just soldiers with camouflage. He "fixed" it.
[8:28 PM]Varda: Namarie for now
[8:28 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: namarie!
[10:18 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Personal gaming report: After the construction of his new majestic castle, the evil Overlord orders a pizza, as usual. Little did he know of all the the hassle he has to go through.
[10:18 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: For (non)flashgaming, a game I'd never seen before was one of the badges of this week,
[10:19 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: A platformer about an evil overlord who's just ordered a pizza, but has to go through his own deathtraps to reach the front door and actually pick it up.
[10:21 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Not too difficult, with unlimited lives and starting at the beginning of each level when you die. But if you want to collect all the coins to actually be able to tip the pizza guy, you'll need to practice a bit
[10:27 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Blizzard gaming:
[10:28 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Hearthstone: Level 54 on the reward track now. For level 50 I got a random legendary from the new set, which turned out to be a memorable dungeon boss from WoW: Burning Crusade, Murmur!
[10:29 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: I also completed the quest event for the anniversary, getting a reward card back for the 20th anniversary, and a new warrior skin: Hogger!
[10:29 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Gonna be fun to play as our favorite gnoll
[10:30 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Brawl is an old one, Fury of Kael'thas, where every third spell you cast per turn is free.
[10:32 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: I won my matches with a rather brutal mage spell deck, with lots of cheap 1 and 0-mana spells, as well as some powerful 8 to 10-mana stuff to play for free A bit of luck required, but I definitely won most of the matches I played!
[10:33 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Warcraft Rumble: Yet another new collection level, up to 48! A lot of it was due to the new minis and upgrading their quality, but I was also lucky with upgrading a bunch of older ones.
[10:34 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Next to the nearly finished Pilgrim's Bounty event, the Darkmoon Faire event is also back, but with a lot more rewards for daily challenges. Between the two, I've been getting a lot of gold and experience tomes, and got all the stars for the new minis available in the track.
[10:35 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Also been doing a lot more of the challenges around the new ones, as well as the pilgrim's bounty quests, which in this week has G'oble the turkey boss as end boss to fight, rather than patrolling the board and antagonizing both sides.
[10:35 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: It's been good fun
[10:37 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: In the dungeon, I spent a lot of time completing the dungeon challenge for the new minis, which can be done with any leader at low dungeon level, and if you win 1 or 2 and then quit the run, you can keep doing that for the challenge without increasing the difficulty.
[10:39 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: But I've also made some more progress, completing dungeon level 21 with my second undead leader Thalnos, and level 17 (rising to 20) with my second Cenarion leader, Onu. I'm not quite sure yet of the deck I've built around him, since he's having a lot of trouble with level 20. But in the worst case scenario he just needs a few more levels
[10:41 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: And in the heroic sigil campaign, I completed the zone of Lordaeron, by defeating the Inquisitor Whitemane fight with all families, putting me at 125 sigils. Tricky one, since it's 2 bosses in 2 different lanes that can heal or resurrect each other, so you need to split your forces and time it right. Had a lot of trouble with Blackrock family personally, but the rest seemed to go ok, and I one-shot it with undead and beast.
[10:42 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: And now I've started the Hinterlands zone, defeating Vilebranch Hexx with my alliance team. I wonder what horrors await me in this zone
[10:46 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: For quality upgrades, I got the new Eclipse spell to uncommon, and the Warsong Grunts, Ancient of War and Fire Elemental to rare quality. And I got new talents for the dire batlings, ancient of war, treants, and warsong grunts. Eclipse and Fire Elemental are still waiting for theirs, but that'll come
[10:46 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: So, lots of upgrades!
[10:47 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: WoW: In raiding we've started taking the shortcut in the heroic raid, to get some more tries on Queen Ansurek. After we got some phase 1 progress on that, we killed a few optional bosses as well. This is probably what our raiding looks like for the near future
[10:49 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: I eased back a bit on the anniversary stuff, since I was still feeling rather ill this week, and instead focused on the two weekly quests more, for pet battles and timewalking. That's going well so far.
[10:50 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: And my new mount-farming efforts in the Uldum invasions have paid off already, as I got the Malevolent Drone from the Aqir invasion Two mounts to go!
[10:51 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Oh, for anniversary, I have been logging an alt every day for the 20th anniversary feat of strength, and am currently at the allied races unlocked in Battle for Azeroth
[10:53 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Finally, I did a few delves again at tier 8. No new Brann level, but I've almost got enough coins for the first of 3 unique hats, and I upgraded all of Brann's idols to epic quality, completing all the season-specific delve achievements. Among general delve achievements, though, still a few to go
[10:53 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: And that's my report for the week!
[10:55 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Namarie
Thus ends this week's meeting. Come back and see us next week!