When it was all said and done, the current $199.99 lifetime membership pricing is what pushed me over the edge.

Yeah!!! No more quarterly or monthly fees! WHOO HOO!

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Mike

Last night, Godrik, Gelthorin, Thorgarth and Glorybound, my regular Thursday night group finished out Volume 1, books one through eight!!! We all have the “A light from the Shadows” title and are proudly displaying it for all to see.

Our two main stumbling blocks for the longest time were The last chapters of both books 5 and book 8. Last night we did both and have completed the first set of book quests. Next week, I’m sure we’ll try and tackle book 9 and go from there.

Since Godrik is my only character to have completed the books this far, I’m pretty happy about it. The only one that is even close to him is Wildegarde who has completed everything up through, but not having finished book 8 (done with PUGging)

Anyway, the festival has officially started and my only character to not have all of the Festival junk completed is Hallys. I suppose I’ll have to get that stuff done this weekend.

Thanks for reading!

Mike

The four companions hailed us as they got closer. In the light of dawn, it was hard to make out, but the forms took shape and became very familiar to me and Eki. It was our kinsmen.

Godrik, Gelthorin, Thorgarth and Glorybound reined in their horses at the last moment and skidded to a stop right in front of us. Godrik looked worried. There are few times where I’ve seen my brother looking that grave before and one of them was when news was brought to us of our parent’s deaths.

He immediately dismounted, grabbed and pulled me aside. Ekithrin, moved off to talk to the others, glancing occasionally in my direction.

“Hallys is missing!” Godrik stated. “It’s been three weeks since he was last supposed to report in to his watch commander in Bree.”

I told Godrik that Hallys can take care of himself. “I’m sure he just got caught up in a hunt for mordor scum and lost track of time.”

Godrik pulled out a bundle from under his hauberk, It was Hallys’s cloak, the one Godrik made for him upon his joining the Breeland Wardens. It was torn badly and coated in blood. This was found by Candaith just North of Weathertop and across the river. Word has it that he may have been investigating an Orc compound in the area.

If Hallys had indeed fallen to orcs, none of that tribe would live to see the next full moon.

“When do we leave?” I asked while nodding at the others.

“It will just be you and I, brother.” Godrik stated. “Ekithrin and the others will finish up here in Eregion. This mission you and Ekithrin took up is too important to abandon. Once we’ve verified what happened to Hallys, we’ll join up with the others in Moria.”

WIth an all too familiar feeling of hatred for orc-kind burning within me, I press for Godrik and I to leave immediately. He agreed.

I went to the stables and leapt into my horse’s saddle, grabbed the reins and spurred her into motion to join the others. After a few parting words between close friends, our groups parted ways. Godrik and I heading to the Lonelands and Ekithrin and our Dwarf kinsmen remaining behind to deal with Eregions problems.

We have a long ride ahead of us, Godrik and I.

~Wil

While taking one last glance at my supplies, I hear a knock at the door.  Going over and peeking out, I see the shadowed form of Dalmar. He waves. I open the door and let him know it will be a second before I’m ready to go. He steps inside at my beckoning.

These morning walks that Dalmar and I take each day are wonderful. He’s excellent company and on market days, it’s nice to have someone who can help protect my merchandise if for some reason I’m waylaid on the way into the Hall.

I’ll have to work on getting Dalmar a wife. He’ll be a great catch for a lucky dwarf maiden someday.

Not wasting any time, I gather up my merchandise and Dalmar and I head over to the market. We make good time and get there early. Dalmar helps me set up my display. After a quick check, from one of the baskets of baked goods, I provide him a few muffins to take with him. He thanks me, lets me know that he will meet me at the end of the day, then he departs.

Soon my fellow merchants start to arrive. I greet each as they arrive and start to set up shop. As usual, Durgin is the last one to show up. He looks as mean and foul as that first day I saw him. I politely nod to him, to which he gives me an evil look. Under his breath, I hear him say “…thought I told that stupid wench not to come back here.” with a slight chuckle he bellows, “Today is going to be a great day!”

I thought to myself, “I heartily agree, my dear Durgin.”

With a false smile, I nod again to him and go back to my work.

Soon the market starts to see some business. The early birds come in to try and get the best buys before the majority of the crowd arrives. Not too long after opening a dwarf woman stops at my stall and starts perusing the bracelets and cuffs I have to offer. I start to banter with the woman, offer her a muffin and chat with her about whatever seems to interest her.

Durgin immediately approaches to attempt to steal my customer from me. As she chews on the muffin, Durgin tries to explain how his wares are better and of the highest “Dwarf” quality. She looks at Durgin and tells him to stop bothering her. She states, if she doesn’t see anything she likes here, she might stop by his stall later. Durgin fumes. He stares at my basket of muffins and makes his way back to his stall, grumbling the whole way.

After bantering for a good 20 minutes, I make my first sale in the marketplace. The woman ends up purchasing a bracelet, a cuff, and a jeweled pendant. I offer her another muffin on her way out. She accepts and tells me she will inform all of her friends about my wonderful little shop. From off to the side, I can feel the looks Durgin is giving me from his stall.

Taking a casual glance in his direction, I can see him start to come towards me with a look of malice in his eyes. Mid-stride, he starts looking nervous and steps back towards his stall. I turn around and see a few of the local guards heading in my direction. At their head is Unnarr. He comes up to my shop and gives me a hearty hug. With a jovial tone, he asks how his favorite new pupil doing. You can see Durgin off to the side looking a bit befuddled. I offer each of the guards a muffin and give the remainder of the basket to Unnarr. I thank him for stopping by and look forward to our classes tomorrow night. He gratefully accepts the muffins, pats his tummy and says, “I’m pretty sure I’m getting the better end of this deal, Janna.”

With that, Unnarr and his guards continue on with their daily patrol. As he passes his cousins stall, Unnarr nods curtly in Durgin’s direction. Durgin, still with a befuddled look nods back. He then gazes over at me and sees me putting out a fresh basket of muffins for my customers. You can see the anger welling within him. His face turning a few shades of red. He makes a beeline for my stall once Unnarr is out of sight.

Durgin storms up and yells, “Today is your last day of business WENCH!!! I see what you’re playing at here. You’re trying to put me out of business by bribing my clientele with your foul cookery! I see you’ve even tried to get my own family in on your conspiracy!!! I will not have IT!”

I stand up to him and gaze down into his angry eyes. “It’s not me that’s destroying your business. You’re doing a fine job of it yourself!”

With a sneer, he says “Maybe I should take a cue from you and bake muffins for my customers!” With that, he grabs my basket of muffins and heads off to his stall, hollering “Thanks for the muffins!” over his shoulder at me. I try to act distraught as best I can…

As he gets back to his stall, he places the muffins on his counter and starts to put on a more friendly facade. After a few moments, the smell of the muffins start to permeate the air around his stall. I try not to look too long to arouse his suspicion, but I have feeling my revenge is coming to a close. As a customer arrives at his stall, I head over. Durgin keeps an eye on me while trying to look his best in front of the customer. He offers them a muffin while they discuss the customer’s needs. I go up and tell them, “Don’t eat his muffins! They’re bad! I had one myself earlier and I’m in such pain.”

Durgin, looks at me and says, “Get back to your stall and stop trying to steal my customers!” He looks at the customer through a false smile and says, “She’s always trying to do that to me. You can’t trust the race of men, you know!”

I say to the customer as they are about to take a bite, “I really wouldn’t do that if I were you! They are really, very bad muffins.”

Durgin looks at me and then sees the look on his customer’s face. He realizes he’s losing them. “Wait!” he states, “I know these are great! I’ll show you, myself!” With that, he grabs a muffin and jams it into his mouth. After chewing it down, he greedily takes another. After the second muffin and through a muffled voice, he states “See, I told you they were really good!”

The customer, a bit squeamish after seeing Durgin shove two muffins down his gullet walks away. He stares at me as he swallows the last bit of muffin and says hotly, “You’re going to pay for that wench! You won’t make it home tonight.”

I laugh and walk away. “We’ll see about that Durgin!”

After a few minutes, Durgin starts to look a bit odd. I’m busy with another customer and don’t really have too much time to pay attention. Once my customer leaves I glance over and can see he’s looking a bit green.

I slowly walk over to his stall pretending to be concerned. “Durgin, are you okay? You’re looking a bit pale.”

He looks over at me, recognition setting in, “You poisoned me, didn’t you?”

I look at him, grin and say, “Actually Durgin, I told you the muffins were bad. It’s not my fault you didn’t listen to me. I have many witnesses around these stalls that will vouch for our earlier conversation. With that comment, recognition of what’s been going on sets in with a few of the local merchants. They quickly come over to confront the local bully in force. Members of the crowd shout, “That’s right Durgin! We heard her warn you. We even saw you steal her muffins from her. Isn’t stealing against the law? Shouldn’t someone call the guard?”

Durgin bellows, “I’ll kill you for this woman!!”

With that statement, he lunges at me and grasps for my throat. I deftly dodge out of the lumbering dwarf’s way. As he lands, the contents of his stomach are expelled all over the floor of his stall.

Thoroughly embarrassed, Durgin runs from the marketplace, periodically stopping to further empty the contents of his stomach on his way out.

Having endured his bullying presence for so long, the local merchants cheer and laugh as Durgin disappears from sight.

A few merchants congratulated me, while others just went back to their stalls laughing heartily at Durgin’s fall. I collected the evidence of my poisoning and disposed of it. I then headed back over to my stall, grabbed a new basket full of muffins and went on with my day as if nothing ever happened.

Later that evening, Dalmar stopped by to pick me up. Turns out, without Durgin around to mess with my business, I sold a good portion of my husband’s creations. Business had been good to me today.

My rival would be sick for the next week or so, so I wouldn’t need to worry about his seeking revenge for a while. In the meantime, I intend to work with Unnarr on practicing my martial skills.

While the marketplace is fun, I’m starting to feel I need a bit more adventure in my life….

Until next we meet!

~Janna

[Sorry for the long delay, folks! After more than a month off from blogging because of my injuries and hospital stay, I'm finally starting to feel like a real person again. I really hope the close of this chapter in Janna's life was worth the wait. ~Mike]

For those not in the know… on 8/30, I had an accident.

My kids and I were up early making donuts from scratch on that Sunday morning. We had never done it before and, well stuff went wrong. While heating up the oil for deep frying, it sort of caught fire. My kids and pets got out of the house right away. My wife and I tried to put out the grease fire. I learned 3 things.

1. 10 year old fire extinguishers don’t work.

2. If your going to smother a flaming pan with a cover, the cover needs to fit.

3. Flaming Oil, when it hits your hands and feet cause lots of pain and damage.

So, we tried to put it out with an extinguisher first. That didn’t work as you probably figured out. Taking a pan cover and smothering the flames doesn’t work either unless you have the appropriate sized cover for the pan. Sooooo, I covered the pan with an ill-fitting cover, wrapped a towel around it and tried to walk it outside to my patio to save the house.

Good news is, the house is saved. Bad news was the fiery oil spilled over the towel and through the cover and burned my left hand, right wrist and left foot.

A skin graft surgery, a very sore donor site and roughly 1.5 weeks healing time later and I’m now home.

I should be back up and writing soon, but right now, it kind of hurts to move too much.

Thanks for all the well wishes on my previous note. I look forward to being well enough to blog again soon.

~Mike

~ Mike

I was going through the My Admin area and decided to look at the Users field for some reason. Strangely, what I noticed is that I have subscribers. Not many, but they are there. Is anybody out there aware about the subscription process and how it works?

I would love to subscribe to my favorite blogs and get updates to my email stating “so-and-so” has a new blog and then have it provide me with a link to go straight to the subscribed to blog. If that is indeed what a subscription is.

I’m just curious as to how it works because, I didn’t have to authorize these individuals to become subscribers of my blog. In fact, I don’t recognize the names from my friends list either.

I’m hoping somebody out there can shed some light on this for me as I’m eager to utilize this feature.

I can’t address the subscribers directly because they seem to be anonymous.

~Mike

The streets of Combe are slick with rain water. It starts to pool in the imperfections of the hard-packed earth leading into the town center. Few residents are about. A lone man slowly makes his way into town. He heavily favors a walking staff for support. His body wracked with coughing fits. His hooded cloak is pulled tightly around him. His boots caked with mud. He’s soaked to the skin. Few acknowledge his presence as he trudges towards his goal… The Combe and Wattle Inn.

He staggers the last few feet towards the door, opens it and edges into the establishment. The Inn’s main room is full tonight. A large crowd is gathered around listening to a Bard practicing their art. The warmth of the fire beckons him in from the cold, rainy weather. All seem engrossed in the story until the point that the man enters.  A hush falls over the crowd and all eyes point in his direction.

He gazes up from under his hood, scans the room slowly. His body is briefly wracked by an intense coughing fit. As he finishes his sweep of the room, a look of distant recognition sets in. The worried, feverish expression he wore disappears slowly from his face. Within moments, the man crumbles to the ground unconscious, his staff skittering across the floor…

[A few days later]

Hallys awakens. His eyes quickly adjust to the light shining into his room. He finds himself lying in a bed. He wonders how he got here. Not only that, but he’s not sure where here is, yet? Somehow, this room seems familiar, but he can’t quite place it. He sits up and stretches, but soon doubles over in a fit of coughing. He starts to feel a soreness all over his body. His back still itches from the scabbing on his wounds. He raises his hand up and feels his face. The scar across his right eye is still not fully healed yet either.

Scanning the room, he notes his clothing on a chair next to the bed. As he gets up he realizes he is not fully clothed. He quickly grabs his attire and starts getting dressed.

He notes that his weapons are nowhere in sight.

Another coughing fit overtakes him, but he recovers just as quickly as it came on.

In the midst of getting dressed, the door opens. A young woman enters. She is slight of build and attractive. She appears to be only a few years his junior. In her hands, she carries a pitcher and a washing bowl. She blushes at the sight of Hallys dressing and averts her eyes. She states, “My pardon, I had no idea you had awoken yet. I’ll alert the mistress of this immediately.”

She places the bowl and pitcher on a side table and starts to leave the room.

Hallys looks at her with his piercing gaze and says, “Could you tell me where I am?”

She betrays a slight look of surprise as she answers, “Why, you’re at the Combe and Wattle Inn, just outside Bree.”

“And your name?”, he asks playfully. (somehow he just can’t turn off the charm.)

“Miranda” the girl says with a slight giggle.

He smiles back and thanks her. She heads out of the room, but before leaving, steals a quick glance over her shoulder at the half-clad young man.

Hallys quickly pulls on his shirt and fastens his belt. Without the heft of his swords at his side, he feels uncomfortable. In fact, aside from his clothing, none of his other belongings appear to be in the room. Taking one final look around, he heads to the door and is seized by another fit of coughing.

As he’s about to leave the room, the door bursts open.

“And WHERE do you think YOU are going?”, bellows a short, matronly looking woman. She states it with an air of authority that tells Hallys, this woman is in charge around here. As she shouts at Hallys, she starts poking him in the chest and herding him back towards the bed.

“You’ve been lying in bed unconscious and sick for three days. Obviously, you are in no condition yet to be up and about. Lay down, and let us make sure you are well. You’ve been banged up quite a bit it seems and I don’t want you falling apart because I didn’t take good enough care of you.” she says.

Thankful for her assistance, Hallys complies with the womans demands. He asks after his weapons and equipment. The woman tells him, “Never you mind about that. You concentrate on getting better. In due time, your belongings will be returned to you.”

Hallys asks, “May I know who to thank for their kindness to me?”

She looks at him and states, “I’m Lizbeth Honeymeade, the proprietor of the Combe and Wattle Inn. Rest easy young man. You are in good care!”

With that, she closes the curtains to the room, tucks Hallys back into bed, heads out the door and closes it behind her.

Hallys almost immediately starts to drift off to sleep. The last thing he thinks before sleep overtakes him is that he is finally safe.

The nightmare is over…

Blueberry Tart - 200s (although later that weekend someone was giving them away for free)

Strawberry Tart - 400s

Raspberry Tart - 1g 600s

Blackberry Tart - 2g

I started the weekend producing blackberry ale and trying to recoup my cash reserves. While I didn’t quite get to where I was before, I did manage to bulk up my purchasing power a bit.

After getting rather bored with fishing, farming and cooking on Errold, I decided to try and get some XP for my Hunter Ekithrin, who has been languishing on the sidelines for a bit too long. So, I traveled to Moria and started to gather hides in the library of the Great Delving. Turns out that gathering hides is quite a popular endeavor and I was competing with 3-4 other individuals, so I turned my focus to quest completion.

I managed to gain another 2 levels (now 55) and open up 3 new stable points within Moria. I opened up Stonehold, the 21st Hall and the Waterworks. I even got to set my campfire to the watcher area to give me some additional flexibility regarding where I can travel to.

Hearing some chatter online from kinsmen in the Shadowguard I started to regret my not getting a travel ability for Forochel, so I went there and tooled around until I had enough reputation to unlock the area. After that I headed back to Moria.

Ekithrin managed by the end of the weekend to finish out his Woodworking Guild (kindred level).

A new version of an old character will be coming online soon and joining the Scribes of Eriador.  He’s a Mudge that disappeared for a while. Hallys is back as the youngest Mudge brother and he’s had a career change. Previously, he was a Warden, but he’s decided to try his hand at becoming a Champion. After his foiled attempt at ’saving’ his older brother Wil from marriage, his life took a turn. Perhaps that will be explored in an upcoming story.

In creating Hallys and getting him through the starting areas I noticed some horrible etiquette going on in Archet. It probably rates a post of it’s own, so I won’t elaborate too much here, but I’m referring to mob stealing. It’s something that happens to classes that have lack ranged attacks in their low levels. Burglars, Champions and Guardians seem to be frequently victims of this when it does occur. It seems especially relevant in the early part of their careers. Needless to say, when someone is running towards a monster and they are closer than you are to it, it’s not nice to used ranged attacks to poach the mob from them. Use some gamer Etiquette people!

Overall, a productive weekend. All this was accomplished on Friday and Saturday. Sunday, I tended to stay offline….for the most part. I did check on some auctions and do some fishing for characters that needed it.

I mean, you have to be unplugged occasionally to spend time with the family, right?

Anyway, I will probably be getting out my next installment of the Janna series this week, which may be it for her for a while. I don’t have another storyline in mind for her yet and I’ve got quite a bit of storytelling to get done in order to get Wildegarde up to speed and into Moria. I play faster than I can write, apparently. Technically, I’ve been holding back on Wil until I could get the story up to speed with the character.

Thanks for reading!

~Mike

A hand clamps down over my mouth. I grasp my assailant’s arm, pull them in and within a fraction of a second my dagger is pressed firmly against the interloper’s throat… I smell a familiar scent, release my grip and  sheathe my dagger.

Ekithrin leans in closer, “I thought I had you that time, my friend.”

I push him back to give myself room to stand. Stretching out and looking around, it was still the dead of night in Gwinris. My wounds from fighting the “Lord” of the wood were bound and neatly dressed. A few days had passed since my escape from the trolls cavern.

Ekithrin scans the horizon as I don my armor and fasten my weapons belt.  He asks, “Bronyar stopped by my home not more than a few days ago for a chat. So, I hear you are on an Orc hunt. Why did you not contact me? I would have agreed to come before you had finished asking.”

I thanked my old friend and informed him that I had thought about it. He was my 1st choice to bring along on a stealth mission. I also told him my tactics needed to be brutal and at times cruel to accomplish my goal. That, I did not think he could stomach.

Ekithrin stated, “You’d be surprised at what I could stomach where killing Orcs is involved. I would still like to come along.”

I thanked him, grabbed my pack and we started walking to the stables. On the way, I filled him in on our next stopping point… Echad Eregion.

The trip was not long. We met some slight resistance from some Dunlending brigands in the area, but after a brief “conversation” we worked things out. I forgot how good a negotiator Eki was. Three arrows grouped tightly in the chest of an offending brigand got the point across to his mates that we were not to be trifled with. I was going to appreciate having my elven kinsman along for the ride.

Quickly, we arrived in Echad Eregion. Eki and I were both fairly unimpressed with the accommodations. It was a ruined structure, a small domed building with barely enough room for a squad of soldiers to sleep there.The camp was active though. I met with the occupants and they confirmed what I had heard in Gwinris. Two camps of Orcs were operating close to Echad Eregion. Gathering as much data as we could, Eki and I headed towards the nearest group of Orcs. We decided to go on foot and leave our horses behind.

The Orc encampment was East of our position and located at the base of a mountain. Travelling through the scrubland would not give us much cover, but apparently the orcs are occupying a ruins surrounded by trees. The cover provided by this foliage should give us the opportunity to sneak inside once we get past their sentries.

We edged a bit closer. I noticed as we approached that these were not Orcs… at least, in a traditional sense. They resembled the Half-orcs I had run into months ago near Weathertop… And I thought this would be challenging! Eki could handle orclings without me.  Knowing that I sometimes  have a tendency to underestimate Orcish vermin, we approach slowly. We start to notice the Half-orcs more prevalently the closer we get to the ruins proper. While a bit smaller sized than standard orcs and goblins, there were a lot of them. Ekithrin and I exchanged a few words about tactics and then he headed off to find a good perch to shoot from.  I continued on, infiltrating deeper into the ruins.

My mace out and my dagger at the ready, I maneuver behind a few of the sentries and end their careers in service to Mordor. Foul beasts. Their stench sickens me.

As I reach the center of the ruins, I note a small group of Half-orcs surrounding a giant of an Orc. He is a huge slab of muscles and sinew. Something about him, I don’t know what it is, told me he might be the one in charge. I moved into their midst creeping up behind the leader. I search the area looking for a sign from  Ekithrin. My signal arrived as three of the Orclings fell with arrow shafts protruding from their necks. The GIANT orc jumped up with a start. He started reaching for his weapon, a massive bow. I spring from my hiding spot behind the leader and smash my mace down upon his reaching forearm. The bone snaps and goes limp at his side. He recoils from his weapon and howled…. That wasn’t good! Probably should have gone for a head strike.

With his good arm, he grabs me by the collar and hoists me off the ground. His right shoulder is suddenly riddled with arrows. At the same time, I manage to get a glancing blow off of his head with my mace. Viciously, he flings me into a ruined wall. I bounce off the stone wall and recover quickly from the jarring crash as I hit the ground. He glares at me with piercing eyes, cocks his head to the side and with a look of malice on his face, grabs the group of arrows from his shoulder  yanking them free. Seconds later, a fresh set of arrows replace them in the wound.

Gotta love Ekithrin’s sense of humor… dark as it is.

The massive Orc howls again.

Taking advantage Eki’s shots, I rush back into the fight and land a crushing blow to the knee of the Orc leader. He drops down in pain, I bring my mace around crashing it down on his back. A sickening snap in the Orc’s spine  tells me his leadership of this tribe is ended. He falls to the ground howling in pain. The lower half of his body unable to move. I close in quickly with my dagger, whisper a few parting words of contempt and slice his throat from pointed ear to pointed ear. Any interactions I have with orcs remind me of how my siblings and I were orphaned. I take delight in visiting vengeance upon any Orc I can lay hands on for our loss.

It doesn’t matter how many or how often I kill orcs! It will never be enough and never bring my parents back to me. My anger burns deeply within.

There can be no lasting peace for me as long as a single Orc breathes!

It’s a good thing we finished him off quickly. Reinforcements start to arrive. The first few fall to the arrows of Ekithrin, but more quickly follow and I’m pretty sure Ekithrin doesn’t have enough arrows to take out an entire Orcish camp.

I break for the open ground of the scrubland and soon, I’m joined by my fleet Elven friend.  With our ability to evade detection, we easily elude our pursuers, even managing to take out those foolish enough to leave the safety of their group. The orclings give up the chase after a few hours of frustration. Their numbers have significantly dwindled.

We make our way back to Echad Eregion and recount our tale to its residents. The locals, stay on alert for the remainder of the evening and through the next day, but no counter attack was forthcoming. Apparently, the losses Eki and I handed them were enough to give them cause to cease their hostilities for now.

As the sun rose that morning, Eki and I hunkered down for some rest under the protection of the thankful people of Echad Eregion.

~Wildegarde