Sunday, July 27, 2025
5:00pm Eastern Time
Discord: Valar Guild/meeting_place
Attending: Arien, Ar-Pharazon, Eonwe, Pallando, Sandalf, Varda (presiding)
Topic 1: YouTube made by Shelob-(Valar): Episode 15: "Moving into Moria and Finding Balin"
Topic 2: Why did Bilbo not tell the Dwarves and Gandalf about the Ring after the escape from the goblins?
Topic 3: When did the dwarves of Thorin's Company learn that Bilbo had a ring that could make him invisible?
Non-flashgaming NABOKI.
[4:00 PM]Varda: @Bounder @Guild-friend Valar Guild meeting time! Come on in to Discord, Valar Guild, meeting_place and say hi!
[4:00 PM]Varda: Elen sila lumenn' omentielvo!
[4:00 PM]Varda: Membership News:
[4:01 PM]Varda: Hello to Elwing, who is visiting at our house and currently gaming in LotRO. : )
[4:01 PM]Varda: Hello to any of you lurking out there!
[4:01 PM]Eönwë Valar: Heya
[4:01 PM]Varda: Aiya Eonwe : )
[4:03 PM]Varda: Currently we have Fangorn, Elwing, and myself in LotRO. I'm about to pull out.
[4:03 PM]Varda: Any other membership news?
[4:03 PM]Varda: Web News:
[4:04 PM]Varda: On the Tolkien Site, Stories section, we have a new story by Eonwe!
[4:04 PM]Varda: "Narn I Auros: To Thine Own Self" by Eonwe-(Valar). "Life happens, ready or not."
[4:05 PM]Varda: Thank you, Eonwe. : )
[4:05 PM]Eönwë Valar: bow Hope you all enjoy it :}
[4:06 PM]Varda: Aye to that : )
[4:06 PM]Varda: We are having intermittent storms here, so if I disappear abruptly, it's not your cologne.
[4:06 PM]Varda: On to
[4:06 PM]Varda: Gaming News
[4:07 PM]Varda: I'll poke Pallando...
[4:07 PM]Eönwë Valar: Image of cat poking another cat.
[4:07 PM]Varda: heh
[4:08 PM]Varda: Pallando answered:
[4:07 PM]Debes: Nothing exciting. Quiet summer.
[4:08 PM]Varda: Eonwe, your gavel for Gaming. : )
[4:09 PM]Eönwë Valar: Image of He-Man
[4:09 PM]Varda: Yay : )
[4:09 PM]Eönwë Valar: World of Warcraft
[This week's bonus events: Delves and Classic Timewalking (Turbulent Timeways III).
[This week's PvP Brawl: Comp Stomp.
[4:09 PM]Eönwë Valar: Mists of Pandaria Classic is live.
[4:10 PM]Eönwë Valar: Check out WoW Weekly for anything not mentioned above.
[4:10 PM]Eönwë Valar: Check out this week's hotfixes.
[4:11 PM]Eönwë Valar: Also don't forget the boost to collecting things, and the Treasure Goblin event, both end Tuesday, so get your final runs in.
[4:11 PM]Eönwë Valar: Hearthstone Battlegrounds Season 1: Echoes of Un'Goro goes live August 5th.
[4:11 PM]Eönwë Valar: Diablo 4 Check out the upcoming patch notes.
[4:11 PM]Eönwë Valar: Diablo Immortal
[4:11 PM]Eönwë Valar: A new event will be going starting July 30th.
[4:11 PM]Eönwë Valar: Check out the recent bug fixes.
[4:12 PM]Eönwë Valar: Overwatch 2
[4:12 PM]Eönwë Valar: New Weekly Recall: Overwatch Comms Says Hi!.
[4:12 PM]Eönwë Valar: Check out info on the Season 17's midseason surge.
[4:12 PM]Eönwë Valar: Lord of the Rings Online
[4:12 PM]Eönwë Valar: Update 45: Allies and Adversaries came out this week, released on Wednesday, July 23rd, 2025.
[4:12 PM]Arien Valar: ""By the power of Greyskull" comet is landing in Valinor
[4:12 PM]Eönwë Valar: New Ringwraiths are available on the two Veil of the Nine servers Angmar and Mordor. A level cap increase to 75 is also coming August 13th.
["New Ringwraiths are now available to battle on Angmar and Mordor!"The Grim Southron and The Black Blade of Lebennin have arrived to Angmar and Mordor.
["Also, Angmar and Mordor will see a level cap increase on August 13th to 75 and the addition of Isengard and the Great River"
[4:13 PM]Varda: hammock for the comet to rest in before I send it back out
[4:13 PM]Eönwë Valar: Character Creation is ending for 32-bit servers on July 30th. If you haven't transferred off the 32-bit worlds already, you have until August 31st to do it for free.
[4:14 PM]Eönwë Valar: That's it for gaming news from me.
[4:14 PM]Varda: Thank you, Eonwe : )
[4:14 PM]Pallando-Valar: Oh sorry, I do have a tiny bit of news for Eve
[4:14 PM]Varda: Ahh, good deal! Fire away!
[4:15 PM]Pallando-Valar: Nothing super interesting, they're changing store pricing to reduce the number of sales but give people better value on average (maybe).
[4:16 PM]Varda: Um, is that good?
[4:16 PM]Eönwë Valar: Sounds like it depends.
[4:17 PM]Varda: Aye : )
[4:18 PM]Pallando-Valar: Basically, if you had spreadsheets for when the absolute best deals were and did a lot fo waiting for it, you are a little worse off now. If you didn't make multi-year subscriptions via double-stacking discounts then you are better off.
[4:19 PM]Varda: Ok, thanks. : )
[4:20 PM]Eönwë Valar: So if you're the kind of person who clips coupons, takes them to the stores that do double-and-triple-coupons, with sales stacked on top, and walk out spending only .27, then yeah, it's a worse deal. For the normal person, they come out ahead. Sound about right? heh.
[4:21 PM]Varda: Careful planning and effort gets in trouble again. : )
[4:21 PM]Varda: More LotRO news:
[4:21 PM]Varda: Lord of the Rings Online kinmates playing in kin this past week: (Kin servers are in order of number that showed up this past week, or alphabetically if the same.)
Peregrin branch (US RP-encouraged. Main):
Glamdring branch (US normal):
Angmar branch (temp US VIP "Veil of the Nine"):
Meriadoc branch (EU-RP)
Mordor branch (temp EU VIP "Veil of the Nine"):
[Note: LotRO news that didn't make it into the meeting:
[The player event "Weatherstock" was Friday and Saturday, where bands join together on Peregrin server, the main event being Saturday on the summit of Weathertop. Bands and audience come from all servers, as normal for this type of event that has moved from 32-bit Landroval to 64-bit Peregrin
[Rivendell Green dye thru July 31 code: GREENVALLEY
[End Note. ♪
[Note: StarCraft 2 news that didn't make it into the meeting:
[Gaming credit goes to these players this past week: Eowyn, Fangorn, Faramir, Varda
[End Note ♪
[4:22 PM]Varda: Any other Membership or Gaming news? Househunting news, etc?
[4:23 PM]Arien Valar: Well , we have applied for the Mortgage now
[4:23 PM]Varda: O wow!
[4:23 PM]Arien Valar: for a house we are aiming to buy
[4:23 PM]Sandalf13: Aiya all! Just got back from a weekend trip to Dallas...business...a long couple of days!
[4:24 PM]Sandalf13: Congrats on applying for a mortgage.
[4:24 PM]Varda: Welcome back! Have a cup and a seat and enjoy. : )
[4:24 PM]Sandalf13: You betcha
[4:24 PM]Arien Valar: cheers i am a wee bit nervous to wait for the answer now but i am mostly hopeful ^^
[4:24 PM]Sandalf13: What are the current mortgage rates looking like?
[4:25 PM]Varda: I'm hoping it's "affordable".
[4:26 PM]Eönwë Valar: Where's that "buy 800 Sq ft, get 800 Sq feet free" coupon when you need it, heh.
[4:26 PM]Varda: hehe
[4:27 PM]Varda: Are we ready for Tolkien?
[4:27 PM]Sandalf13: What about "get one mortgage at 6% and we'll offer you a second mortgage for twice that rate...
[4:27 PM]Arien Valar: dunno for sure . .. was for over 13 years , ten percent or so i think .. it was okay i think and should be affordable
[4:28 PM]Varda: Good luck, Arien!
[4:28 PM]Arien Valar: thankies
[4:28 PM]Varda: Tolkien:
[4:28 PM]Varda: First item is from Shelob:
[4:29 PM]Varda: Shelob's YouTube video for a deep dive into Tolkien lore in the Lord of the Rings Online now has Episode 15: "Moving into Moria and Finding Balin".
[4:29 PM]Varda: Does anyone have a topic they wish to use before I give one?
[4:30 PM]Varda: Topic: Why did Bilbo not tell the Dwarves and Gandalf about the Ring after the escape from the goblins?
[4:33 PM]Sandalf13: The Ring was influencing him in its evil way to not reveal anything about his precious ring...
[4:34 PM]Arien Valar: hmm he didn't want to give a way his secret and rouse greed or suspicion in either Gandalf or the dwarwes?
[4:35 PM]Varda: Both good reasons.
[4:35 PM]Varda: There is one more, if you'd care to guess.
[4:36 PM]Varda: Both were right. Just have a bit more we can mention.
[4:37 PM]Arien Valar: hmm .. Bilbo might have been worried that the dwarves would not believe him , at least the bit about the invisibility?
[4:37 PM]Sandalf13: Bilbo felt that he obtained the Ring in a somewhat dishonest fashion, and did not want to reveal his complicity in such an act...sort of an extension of my comment above.
[4:37 PM]Varda: He could put it on, then, but that's a thought.
[4:38 PM]Varda: And yes, Sandalf. True.
[4:38 PM]Varda: The reason I brought it up was the comment in the book surprised me a tad:
[4:38 PM]Varda: The Hobbit, "Out of the Frying Pan into the Fire".
[Quote:
[Indeed Bilbo was so pleased with their praise that he just chuckled inside and said nothing whatever about the ring...
[End quote.
[4:38 PM]Varda: A tangential question:
[4:38 PM]Varda: When did the dwarves of Thorin's Company learn that Bilbo had a ring that could make him invisible?
[4:39 PM]Sandalf13: Wasn't it after Bilbo saved them from the spiders?
[4:39 PM]Arien Valar: Bilbo told them in Mirkwood after they d been captured by the spiders and he had freed them
[4:39 PM]Varda: Right, both of you. : )
[4:40 PM]Varda: In Mirkwood, Bilbo took off his ring before rescuing Fili from the spider cocoon. The group was tiring as they fought off the spiders, until the only way Bilbo could see to save them all was to use the ring.
[4:40 PM]Varda: The Hobbit, "Flies and Spider".
[...Again and again the spiders were beaten off, and many of them were killed. But it could not go on for long. Bilbo was nearly tired out; only four of the dwarves were able to stand firmly, and soon they would all bed overpowered like weary flies. Already the spiders were beginning to weave their webs all around them again from tree to tree.
[In the end Bilbo could think of no plan except to let the dwarves into the secret of his ring. He was rather sorry about it, but it could not be helped.
["I am going to disappear," he said. "I shall draw the spiders off, if I can; and you must keep together and make in the opposite direction. To the left there, that is more or less the way towards the place where we last saw the elf-fires."
[It was difficult to get them to understand, what with their dizzy heads, and the shouts, and the whacking of sticks and the throwing of stones; but at last Bilbo felt he could delay no longer--the spiders were drawing their circle ever closer. He suddenly slipped on his ring, and to the great astonishment of the dwarves he vanished.
[4:41 PM]Varda: End Quote
[4:41 PM]Varda: What got me to thinking about it was this bit:
[4:42 PM]Varda: The Hobbit, "On the Doorstep"
[They already knew about the ring at the Mountain and were discussing having him go in the front door wearing it.
[Quote:
[Dwalin: "What is our burglar doing for us? Since he has got an invisible ring, and ought to be a specially excellent performer now, I am beginning to think he might go through the Front Gate and spy things out a bit!"
[4:42 PM]Varda: End Quote.
[4:42 PM]Varda: Ok, that's all I have for you tonight. : )
[4:43 PM]Varda: Where do I come up with this stuff? I grab one of the books at more or less random and let the pages flop open, then if nothing jumps out at me, try it again. : )
[4:43 PM]Varda: JRRT never fails to disappoint.
[4:43 PM]Sandalf13: Never
[4:43 PM]Varda: :)
[4:44 PM]Varda: If no one has anything to add, we can call it here.
[4:45 PM]Varda: hammer pogo-sticks to the hammerpad
[4:45 PM]Varda: toinky toinky!
[4:45 PM]Varda: After-meeting!
[4:45 PM]Varda: Free chat. : )
[4:47 PM]Arien Valar: well me thinks in that case i feel free to retire into the west for the night .. last one was a bit short .. was working untill ten last night and started at nine this morning
[4:48 PM]Arien Valar: which meant getting up at seven
[4:48 PM]Arien Valar: so . Namarie from me !
[4:53 PM]Varda: Namarie, Sunshine!
[4:53 PM]Sandalf13: I found a really good video describing the history of Aragorn that is very true to the canon, and adds only minor elements to flesh out the few facts that Tolkien provides us about Estel's early life in Imladris. There are many such videos on Youtube, but I found this particular effort to be the best of the lot, although there are some other good histories as well. Cerfindol (the narrator) is an elf living in Imladris...reminds me of an Erestor makeover. Here is the link: YouTube - by The Sindarin Lorekeeper - "The Life of Aragorn: An elf's account of the lost heir of Isildur".
[4:53 PM]Sandalf13: Namarie, Arien! 5:28 PM]Spidey (Ungwetari/Shelob) BRIO : Mae Govannen!
[5:28 PM]Varda: Aiya, Shelob. : ) Welcome to After-meeting.
[5:28 PM]Sandalf13: Aiya Shelob!!
[5:28 PM]Spidey (Ungwetari/Shelob) BRIO : What was our topic for today>
[5:29 PM]Varda: Topic: Why did Bilbo not tell the Dwarves and Gandalf about the Ring after the escape from the goblins?
[5:29 PM]Varda: Feel free to scroll up.
[5:32 PM]Spidey (Ungwetari/Shelob) BRIO : Because the Ring did not want its presence to be known?
[It only miscalculated the durability of Hobbits (tm).
[5:32 PM]Varda: heh
[5:33 PM]Varda: and feel free to scroll up to the conversation. I will be afk a bit
[5:35 PM]Spidey (Ungwetari/Shelob) BRIO : Ah. It was vanity. Could have known.
[9:09 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Aiya! Done reading up. And yes, the reason that came to my mind was that Bilbo was eager to impress the dwarves, trying to not feel as useless in their eyes, and explaining that his burglary powers came from a ring would have reduced that.
[July 28, 2025
[4:30 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Personal gaming report:
[4:31 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: (I feel a bit weird that I'm basically only in the meeting to give the report, but until I get the health stuff under control... meh)
[4:31 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: For (non)flashgaming, is one I've linked before, but it's a favorite of mine, so when it comes up and it's the best option of the week, why not?
[4:33 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: NABOKI on Kongregate" is a 3d puzzle disassembler, very relaxed, nice music. You've got a bunch of blocks in a shape with arrows on them, and you can only move them away in the direction of those arrows. So you need to unblock the way by figuring out which blocks to play!
[Full version: https://www.rainbowtrain.eu/naboki
[4:34 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: So have fun puzzling
[4:35 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Oh, and there's other mechanics coming up later as well, such as rotation buttons.
[4:45 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Blizzard gaming:
[4:46 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Hearthstone: Level 49 on the reward track now. Bit higher than I'd expected after being on vacation this week, but I did do a lot of catch up before and after. (edited)
[4:47 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Even managed to complete the weekly quest, for 350 spells, and the quest event for the Un'goro launch, getting me a new hunter skin, Dino Wrangler Brann.
[4:50 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Brawl is the UnidentifiaBrawl: Choose a class, get a deck full of random "unidentified" stuff, which is minions and spells and weapons with a random buff as they come into your hand.
[4:51 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Randomness abound, but it's not too bad.
[4:54 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Warcraft Rumble: No new levels, but did get some stars with another rare-o-matic.
[4:54 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Continuing to make gold through dungeons, and had some arcane surges to catch up on as well. And I went through the first 4 bosses from Siege of Stormwind again, getting enough valor to get diamond slots for 2 new leaders.
[4:55 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Login event has ended, but new one's already showing up to open up in a few weeks. Very useful! I wonder, though, if we'll get returning holiday events now that the game is in maintenance mode, or if the login events is where most of the action is.
[4:55 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: WoW:
[4:56 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: No new raiding yet. Did get one of the best raid trinkets from the Vault, though, so I'm pretty much done gearwise.
[4:57 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Weekly quests are delves and timewalks. Haven't done any for this week's timewalk quest yet, but I did finish the last one on tuesday and got the 5-week achievement, also giving me a new mount: the Chrono Corsair, being a piratey dragon
[4:58 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: I'm also working on the delves quest, focusing on Overcharged ones, and I need about 5-6 more to max out the console abilities. Soon!
[4:59 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: I spent all the blood shards I'd gotten from the treasure goblin event to buy all 13 class sets, so that's done as well.
[4:59 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: No new mounts from the mount collection buff event, though, but didn't have much time for that this week.
[5:00 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: And that's my report for the week!
[5:00 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Namarie
[@Ar-Pharazon-V
[(I feel a bit weird that I'm basically only in the meeting to give the report, but until I get the health stuff under control... meh)
[3:54 PM]Eönwë Valar: Hey, if people read it and enjoy it, why not, heh.
[3:59 PM]Eönwë Valar: Don't forget tonight's the last night to try and get all those Diablo transmogs, the boost on mounts and transmogs from old raids, and the shaohao's serpent for playing the pandaren starting zone in MoP Classic.
[July 29, 2025
[3:36 AM]Eönwë Valar: Well, last jaunt through Dragon Soul and Antorus for the event, and neither dropped mounts for me.
[3:37 AM]Eönwë Valar: Picked up a decent bit of gold though.
[3:38 AM]Eönwë Valar: Nerdy Pally's almost single-handedly funding the 2.5 million gold for my last warbank slot so Auros doesn't have to dig into his wallet (he bought all the others).
[11:56 PM]Eönwë Valar: YouTube - Snowlight - Frieren OST — Zoltraak Extended Ver.
[July 30, 2025
[5:53 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Hurrah, my first Underpin kill, even though it's only ? difficulty
[9:35 PM]Eönwë Valar: Congrats :}
[9:35 PM]Eönwë Valar: I'm not going to get ?? on Underpin before next week, and I still haven't got ?? for Zekh'vir, so I'm just not gonna stress about it. Pretty much knew that was my fate after beating Underpin once on ?.
[9:37 PM]Eönwë Valar: But here, have a song: YouTube - by My Chemical Romance - The Light Behind Your Eyes
[Official Audio]
[9:39 PM]Eönwë Valar: And another: YouTube - From The Ash Band (Official) - Fearless (Official Lyric Video)
[August 2, 2025
[6:06 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Time for possibly my last season 2 delve, to finish up the console. Might try out ?? a few times, but for normal delves this'll be all I need.
[6:07 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Max Brann, all curios, all the undercoins I need...