Along the Paths of Middle-earth

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Niphredil, another flower you'll pick that grows amongst the mellryn trees of Lothlorien.

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A second screenshot near Cerin Amroth in Lothlorien at gloaming time. Not sure why I like the look of these times. I think partly it has to do with how beautiful many of the vistas are in the landscapes of Middle Earth the artists at Turbine give us to enjoy.

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As most of you who've been following this thread know, I found that the artists at Turbine had been spending a lot of their creativity and talent on the dwarven doors in Moria; elven doors in Eregion, too, but not as many.

It seems that they've continued to apply this talent, not with doors, but with posts, lamps, obelisks, covered bridge roof legs and the like in Lothlorien and Caras Galadhon. Today is a pair of screenshots of bridge abutment lamps, one in daylight and one at night.

The daylight lamp is very fine work. I like it. If you make it larger, say as desktop wallpaper, you can see the scroll work much better.

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I've done a bit of thinking, and ... it hurts! Oh, no, that's not what I wanted to say.

I've done a bit of thinking and I think I'm going to expand this thread to anywhere in LOTRO's Middle Earth. There are so many places that are so cool that I think this would be worthwhile. I won't stop posting pics from the Mines of Moria expansion, though.

For today, Gimli meets Celeborn and Galadriel in Caras Galadhon.

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Light posts near the entry to Caras Galadhon, with a close-up detail shot.

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Talking to the leader of the dwarf expedition into Khazad-dum, Bosi, on the left, is one of the earliest stops on your way to entering Moria.

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Guess who!?


[For those that really don't know the lore, it's the ancient evil balrog Durin's Bane. Originally one of Morgoth's servants, it survived the destruction of Angband at the end of the First Age and was reawoken by dwarves of Durin VI in the Third.]

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These may be my first non-MoM screenshots in this thread, but I did warn you I was going to do this a couple of posts ago.

I thought you might like to see what I think is a good paladin set of heavy armor. There isn't a class of paladins in this game, so an elf guardian with the right attitude and armor can suffice, for me.

This is a set of Mirrored Elven Knights heavy armor. Mirrored Knight's was the best crafted heavy armor in the game prior to the MoM expansion. It is dyed white as I like it for a paladin-style look.



These next two shots are of details. First the chest piece and shoulder guards close up. Then, a Fine Radiant cloak, dyed white. In the case of dying the cloak, the white dye mostly slightly fades the intense dark color on the cloak. I think it was the best crafted cloak in the game prior to MoM:

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This IS a Mines of Moria item, a heavy armor helm called Survivor of the Watcher, which you can get as a part of the quest chain to get inside Khazad-dum.

Why is he not wearing the companion helm from the Mirrored Elven Knight's set from yesterday's post? Because, imo, it's seriously ugly. Besides this one has better stats overall, is much better looking, and stylistically goes with the set better than the "correct" one.

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A light post in Caras Galadhon, followed by a close-up for the detail.

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The Black Pool of the Watcher at night, just outside Durin's Gate into Khazad-dum.

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And, following on from yesterday's screenshot of the Black Pool, your first view of the Doors of Durin will look like this one. The dwarf expedition workers are trying to clear rubble from in front of the door.

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In Malenhad, there is a line of dread watching statues that will defeat your character if you try to pass them without having finished Volume 1, Book 6.

This shot is of the southern end of the line of statues, looking west.

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Facing north, you can see the line of dread watching statues coming south in Malenhad.

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When I first looked up and saw a fairly dense cluster of Mellryn trees in Lothlorien, I thought to myself: Where have I seen these trees before? I couldn't think of where it was but I was new to Lothlorien so it couldn't have been there.



As it turns out, I think I had seen trees somewhat like them. Second Hall tree pillars! Perhaps it's just coincidental that they look similar, but I doubt it. I wonder if the dwarves of Khazad-dum had seen the mellyrn in Lothlorien as they were constructing the Second Hall.

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A lighted covered bridge in Lothlorien.



Details of the bridge's roof legs.

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Another in my series of creative, good-looking doors in the game. This one is the door into Delossad, Tal Bruinen in the Trollshaws.

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How many of you have looked, I mean really looked, at the worms of LOTRO. IMO, the artists at Turbine have done a wonderful job with them. So, along with doors and light poles and other interesting things, I'm going to start bringing you a variety of screenshots of the Worms of LOTRO.

This first one is Sarlug, a boss quest worm in Tal Bruinen.

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How did the eastern kingdom of the Dunedain known as Rhudaur get to be one of the agents of the Enemy? You find out here, at Krusle Lannanin in Gorothlad.

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And here is another worm, a Crawling Fire-worm from Eastern Malenhad.

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Elven home on a flet, Caras Galadhon.

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As handy-men and-women know, having the right tool for the job is very important in doing the job right. Thus, there are times, as Sam found in the movies, that only a frying pan will do.

In this case, the dwarf level 60 guardian in the yellow and green dress in the foreground is using his frying pan to avoid killing the skinny orc but keeping his aggro. This skinny orc in Fil Gashan must be kept alive but under aggro at all times as controlling him is a key part of successful killing of the main boss, General Talug. The frying pan was used the entire time we were in this part of the instance to control the skinny orc.

And, thanks to The Team and Aphadrim uin Calad for taking down General Talug. Good friends and good allies are very important in high level instances.

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For a different looking worm, this Ice-worm from Forochel is pretty good looking. Compare to the previous worm pics I've posted in the last few days.

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A serious cook doesn't appreciate criticism of his cooking. In Fil Gashan. Members of AuC and The Team team up to be sure this cook knows we don't appreciate his cooking.

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I hope you don't belong to a kinship that looks like this. It can be no fun to deal with a dying kinship or one that is wrecking itself. If you do and it's affecting your gaming fun, take a look around. There are lots of good kinships on every server that can revitalize your gaming in LOTRO.

Shipwreck in the Ice Bay of Forochel.