Ettenmoors Community Blog: Oathbreakers, Halloween 2009

[romoen]

Let's hear it folks. We want your stories, your screenies, your videos, anything you have. Let's make this blog one for the history books!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oathbreakers, The Free People of Landroval Need You
It's been months since the idea was introduced, and this weekend Gobblemoss' vision was brought to life!

The infestation plauging the Ettenmoors would eventually find its way to our homes and Bree was in grave danger. We had no where else to turn. This Halloween's eve and day, the Oathbreakers had come forth and stood up with the Free People of Landroval in the face of great opposition in an attempt to set out to do what they had long turned away from.

Our journey began in Bree itself as we led the Oathbreakers from the Haunted Alley where they had gathered restlessly so many times before and brought them to the heart of Bree at the Pouncing Pony. With the support of all those that gathered, the Oathbreakers swore to protect us and follow the orders given by any who held the power of the necklace, binding their souls to walk this land until their vow is fullfilled.



Some already bruised and bloodied from such a long battle as we've had, the hearts of many hung heavy and their hopes were worn thin, but with Leekae leading them and the masses of people, veteran and new at our sides, I knew that hope was not lost. Mounting up and guiding the Oathbreakers to what might be certain death, I watched the faces of those we passed in Bree; standing by thier homes and their shops, the patrol men pausing to watch. It brought me inspiration; we were doing this for them; for those that couldn't stand up and fight for themselves. Bree had to be saved.



Not wanting to wait another moment as each hour that passed, more lives were lost we set off for the Ettenmoors.

Continued....

[romoen]

The Land Shall Be Ours!
Not wasting a moment, we pushed off the Steps of Glan Vraig and out to the battle field.

It was dark when we reached the Ettenmoors. The land was all but belonging to the evil that walked the land and the infestation that had poisoned the waters and trees. We'd been able to hold control over Lugazag for most of the day, sending scouts to their base to keep watch over their movements, we'd been lucky to maintain our postion there. By the request of Sergeant-at-Arms, Hafthor the first location we chose to attack was the Lumber Camp. Perhaps if the woods were freed, we could push to the west and hit the Weavers head on in the Spider Den, weakening their numbers and continue on to the other locations that were flying the red banners.

Catching them by surprise we made short order of the camp, the Oathbreakers at our sides providing support like we hadn't seen in ages. The Tyrant fell fast and with a sound so loud it seemed to awake an evil that we hadn't even know could exist as from then on out, our night would be long and we'd see much death on both sides.



Taking our momentum, we pushed to the north-east to Tirth Rhaw but the enemy had already gathered; our ability to take them by surprise was no more. We held our own outside the Keep for as long as we could, but our opposition was immense and we barely made it through the door before too many lives were lost and others fled for the security of the Lumber Camp and Glan Vraig.



The huge hit gave us enough pause for the Eye's army to make their way into Lugazag, slaughtering its guards and pushing our forces back. Mounted, we rode hard and fast clear across the map to aid in the defense of our territory. Ambushing them from behind, we pushed through their lines causing them to scatter then pushed back at them from the front until every last one of them found their way back to Gramsfoot.



Again growing momentum, Wulfhen led our force of 14 into the belly of the beast at Tol Ascarnen while the Oathbreakers continued to follow Leekae and the rest of the Free Peoples. We knew we were putting ourselves into great danger and with our small numbers we feared that we would inspire the Tyrant to greatness that we couldn't defeat if we lost our lives to him there, but it was a risk we were willing to take. Moving in fast, we were spotted immediately but our blades and songs cleaned through the guards in no time. Picking up pace we began on the Tyrant. He seemed to be weaker than he ever had been with the Oathbreaker's presence in the Ettenmoors on our side instead of theirs. More and more began to show to attempt to bring us to our knees but we couldn't be stopped. Focus and determination brought us through such heavy fire and instead of us on our knees it was them on theirs. We ripped down the red banners and flew our flags for all to see.

Returning to Tirth Rhaw to make another attempt at pushing past the forces at the Keep's reinforced enterance we were met with the same opposition as before but this time it stopped us dead in our tracks. Not even making it to the doorway we had no choice but to abandon any hope of taking over that territory.

Continued...

[romoen]

Dar-Gazag Became Our Grave
Not having fullfilled their oath the night previous we ventured out again, this time setting a priority on Dar.

Last night was long and rough. Throughout the evening I died 34 times and most of it was at the hands of the enemy by Dar. We pushed the Keeps, we wiped the map but we were still unable to conquer getting into the door at TR. Because of this all efforts from those in my raid and the Oathbreakers went to takinig the relic held in the fortress of Dar-Gazag.

The details are blurry so I'll be leaving you with only screenshots as I tend to my wounds. >.<





Exhausted and worn from an extremely rough night I took my leave of what has got to be one of the best and most willing and patient groups I've ever had the pleasure of leading. Wandering the map I made my way through the Lumber Camp just as it was being hit and lost my life for the last time that night.



The last two nights were really quite indescribably incredible. I will admit I struggled quite a bit to come up with words to put any justice on it and eventually gave up, heh. A countless number of thank yous to all involved and especially Gobblemoss.

[Starcraftnerz]

i did get a screenie during the second TR fight which as my raid watched a slide show of the battle while fighting it noticed something funny =)


freep buffet and your invited =) all i saw was freeps try to get up the stairs in a single file line lol.

[Ozzyn]

At this point, much of the two nights has melded into one large blur, but one big difference from Friday night vs Saturday was that we could basically function the second night. There was definitely still some lag going on though and I hope someday it's not an issue for this game.

Therefore, my recollection of Halloween night is a bit better. I logged on in the morning yesterday and had some fun small group fights all over the map. It started with just Kargnakh and I, where we roamed the map looking to start trouble. The map was red until a Freep Lugz ninja gave them a base of operations on the map. This led to a few Freeps hunting Creeps on Lugz hill and the surrounding area. Karg and I took it up on ourselves to give them something a little tougher to chew on and we ended up with some good fights with a few champs. Things kept going this way for quite a while, other Creeps started hanging around in the area, then more Freeps, then the next thing you know a Freep/Creep Lugz wall shuffle ensued, so we got out of there. Soon after I had to log for a bit.

Logged back in and was quickly ninja'd leadership of the Agony and Friends half-raid (THANK WYUH!). Heading into primetime, we made sure the map was fully red. Well, that's when hell broke loose. Within an hour, there were three Freep raids running about of varying size. There was one main Freep raid, the Oathbreakers raid, some smaller Freep groups and possibly a third raid, but I couldn't verify that. We were pulling our fur out trying to watch everything at once, but we were doing a decent job of it until the Lugz ninja. Which we weren't too happy about considering the numbers out there. TA was taken right from under our noses, so a fail on our part there. LC also fell and then even Isen fell to the Oathbreakers. So now we're basically trying to defend Dar and TR. Fortunately the spider raid came to our rescue and agreed to watch Dar while we watched TR and patrolled the surrounding area. The Freeps really didn't want to fight us and the lag monster at TR, so they kept trying to pull us out of there with various drive-by tactics. Lots of fights ensued around TR, East TA crossing, STAB and the EC Crossroads. I would say that we did "ok" in those fights, but our target assisting wasn't really up to par until later on.

And then there was... epic hilarity. So there are three Freep raids out there, pulling us all over the map and as I mentioned, we were fighting all around TA and TR. One of the Freep raids was guarding TA. The fun started as we pushed across STAB, killed a couple of outlying Freeps there, kept going, killed a couple more on the lawn, kept going, charged into the full raid at the front door, killed a whole bunch there as they tried to figure out what the hell we were doing. So we kept going, killed a few more as they ran up the stairs (all the time not killing any of the NPC's), killed a few more as they ran into the CG room and then chased the last 2 right to the CG and killed them too. Up to this point, we had not lost a single raid member, which was unbelievable. The healers were flat out amazing. So, we're there with the entire Keep on us and Freeps returning to TA in force, so logically, we decided to try and kill the CG. I'm thinking there's no way this will work, but what the hell. We get started and try to kill Freeps as they came back in and whoa, the CG is actually going down! 200k, 150k, 100k... and well, it didn't work - but we got him down under 100k before the Freeps came back and wiped us - but up to that point, we had lost TWO creeps out of the entire raid. In the end, it was a fail, but we won the game for trying. About 30 minutes later, we used the exact same tactic to successfully take TA, which again was crazy fun. In addition to our healers, a shout out to Mordagil, Nibble and Grishtandush who helped me keep the Raid moving as a single unit. (and to Tahwod for reminding everyone to target assist! Woot!)

After that, it was a matter of keeping those darn Oathbreakers from stealing our Relic. Time after time the undead returned to Dar Gazag and time after time we'd charge in and save the day. With Ophelia and Shiara there, this was no easy task, but with the overwhelming numbers we brought, we were able to clean them out of there. I just have to say - what an awesome event - to Gobble and Ophy and all of you guys that participated in the Oathbreaker event. It was very cool to hear all over OOC about The Oathbreakers and where they were headed next. If those ghosty guys packed a bit more punch, we might have had some serious trouble on our hands.

In the end, the night ended up with the map red except for Lugz. The remaining Freep raid was entrenched there and after a stand-off fight at the door, with endless Loremaster fire, we made one final Death Charge and disbanded. This was after about 5 hours of raid leading for me and I was fried. But the night didn't end there. Our iconic leader Gobblemoss joined a small Agony and friends group led by Wyuh/Oakrath. There was a lot of OC/Lugz rez shuffle going on (bleh) and so the mighty Gobble made the call to Creeps everywhere to band together for the Eye and return Lugzag back to Sauron!! Rawr!! To shorten an already long story, there was a very good fight, but once we got past the lower level, not many Freeps returned and the Keep was ours.

Red map on Halloween... (finally) and it was goodnight. AROOOOOO0o00o0o0o0o0o0oooooo!! !

[romoen]

Lugz actually wasn't a ninja. Due to the horrifying lag that took place at TR we wanted to try to get the Creeps to actually get out of it so we could take it (or at least see if we could even get inside it) and the only way we knew how to do that was to hit Lugz. But *shrugs* nobody saw us at Lugz despite the fact we took it the old fashioned way and everyone stayed to defend TR instead so Lugz went blue and TR remained red.

[Gillianrial]

If we're talking about last night, I was the only creep in Lugz when it happened and it was a ninja. They had their minstrel bubble and play dead. By the time the creeps could get there, the Tyrant was dead.

*editing to add Phoenix was also talking about last night*...

[Trinstar]

I was extremely disappointed to see that particular group ninjaing and hugging keeps during such an amazing event. For the other freeps out there, I just want to clarify my frustration was only directed at that particular groups leadership, and not in the slightest at everyone else who was supporting such a great event.

Don't need to dwell on that though. Kudos to everyone else on both sides who made it so much fun both nights! The Oathbreaker group just looked so impressive, I kept getting distracted watching them instead of fighting

I think one of the best parts of this event was seeing sooo many people out there both Freepside and Creepside who probably would not have ever stepped foot in the moors otherwise. Hopefully we'll be seeing some new regulars out there now!

It's all kind of blurred together, so I don't have much in the way of stories. Breaking the server on Friday was kind of awesome and funny. Cel's vallygirl motivational speech was AMAZING. You had me laughing so hard I cried. Shiara playing freepside again was OP, although I'm secretly super disappointed that she never got any kbs on Gagamba's baby spider shiaras. The Oathbreaker's determination to get that relic was great, and led to a lot of fun fighting away from the lag centers.

[knowfere]

I created a spider specifically for this event and have never before played creepside. Logged in a couple times before the event to get an idea what I was in for. I logged in on Friday night and joined the spider raid. I figured more than anything I was just fodder for the freeps but it would gain a couple seconds for others in the raid to get something accomplished. I don't recall how many times I died, but it was alot! I didn't care, I was having a blast and just kept running back from rez circle to action for about 2-3 hours. I have to admit, I just don't feel right fighting on the creepside, and after a bit, I logged on to my burg. I didn't really have any intentions of going back out to the moors, but then, I just wanted to see how many freeps there were, so....I ventured out there. I ended up joining a raid again and got caught in the major lagfest at TR. That was some awesome stuff even tho I couldn't do a damn thing! My screen was froze almost constantly with a split second here n there where my character would breath...lol. I made it out alive and was quite surprised. It was just incredible to see someone announce something in some area and everyone make a beeline for that place. Open field battles along the way were great fun. I must have been getting on my brothers' nerves (he plays albeit sporadically), I kept yelling at him "Come and check this out! There's 100's of players in the moors doing some epic battling!!" I think he actually had a twinge of regret that he wasn't involved, cuz I was having so much fun. I played my spider again on Saturday night for a few hours and have come to the conclusion that creepside is not for me. Altho, I may keep the spider just to gain DP by questing. I will say that the pvp environment may one day get me hooked..it is fun...and one reason I feared going out there.


/salute to all who made this a spectacular event!

[Zalexia]

[QUOTE=Trinstar;4144311]I was extremely disappointed to see that particular group ninjaing and hugging keeps during such an amazing event. For the other freeps out there, I just want to clarify my frustration was only directed at that particular groups leadership, and not in the slightest at everyone else who was supporting such a great event.

I will just say this we werent asked we were told and any time that we tried to help u we'ld die and no one was there. The lag was so bad it couldnt handle all of us in the same area. i love helpin all our guys but when ever u'ld call us most the time we were killing creeps somewhere. There were just so many. our raid tried our best in many instances . I avoided tr i refused to go it was a death trap. (lag trap) i think we all gotta just remember to be humble and patient. If ppl can't respond right that second then it usually means theres a lot of something going on. we had 24 ppl we were trying to coordinate in our raid for 1 leader thats a hard task so to try and get the other groups to coordinate. There was no talking between leaders just yelling in ooc. The main raids are usually partly experienced people partly non experienced ppl so it takes a whole lot of patience its not like a skilled group ur running with. The end result if ppl get frustrated cause we're running neither here nor there and dying then they're gonna leave and there will be no back up anyway. We did not want to hug keeps but as soon as we left one it flipped btw i enjoyed the ta keep flipping ninja by freeps and creeps. so little more patience goes a long way. Just respect each other and u will have fun.

ps i wasnt leading but our leaders did great.

[romoen]

In regard to all the Freep frustrations from group to group last night all I can say is I hope it's already ended. And while I appreciated the thought from those of you sending me tells to let me know various things, I'd rather not have been told at all. People have varying opinions on tactics and what was best, but regardless of any of that, the event itself was great. No need to place a blemish on the nights by even making it talk worthy.

If we're talking about last night, I was the only creep in Lugz when it happened and it was a ninja. They had their minstrel bubble and play dead. By the time the creeps could get there, the Tyrant was dead.

My head is swimming. I must have been thinking of Friday night.

[Zalexia]

I think w/ o the lag ophy more raids would be willing to show up and help. the lag is killing the moors and causing frustrations w/ the people. but over all we all got the same goals.

i had a blast despite the lag hell.

ps .... nice picts.

[romoen]

I can't believe on such a creative and expressive server like ours that this was all the stories we got!!!

Everyone here? /highfive

Everyone else? /fired!!!

[Thane9]

I can't believe on such a creative and expressive server like ours that this was all the stories we got!!!

Everyone here? /highfive

Everyone else? /fired!!!

I'm trying Oph, but I'm really at an all time low with my disenchantment of the moors.

Friday was very fun, 99.9999% in part to the people I was grouped with.
Saturday, less so, primarily due to the nature of the fighting and the results.
Sunday, I logged in disgust, multiple times.

I know, I know, Luc's broken record, but I'm really just getting sick of the zerg and the fact that the diversity and dynamic fighting in the moors that I fell in love with seems totally and utterly gone.

It seems to me that the vast majority of the moors, or at least leadership in the moors, has fully subscribed to "more is better" and that leaves ANYONE who doesn't agree with that perspective screwed because they can't find opponents or when they do they're helplessly outnumbered and just insta-killed.

My hats off to Gobble for preparing and running such an amazing event.
My sincere congrats to all of those who had fun, got a bunch of kills, and participated.
My endless hopes that we may have actually gotten some GM/Dev attention to the moors.

[Gillianrial]

I think people posted screenies/stories in so many other threads, so that may have diluted this great one tying them together. (my screenies are repeats here because I am at work atm)

Briefly, I played both sides: Freepside on Friday and Creepside on Saturday.

Friday on my minstrel: I tried to support Lee's Oathbreaker raid by healing him (and them) outside the group, alongside my kinmate and friend, Dowhat, on her mini. I died over 20 times in the span of a couple hours - as freep raids plowed by numerous times leaving us to fend for ourselves, which mostly made me laugh. The only rez or support I got all night long (outside of Dowhat and the Oathbreakers) was from Ophelia, in fact (TY!). I know people's own groups are their priorities of course, and it was most definitely chaotic, so it was understandable given the circumstances.

Regardless of the carnage, it was great fun running around and going splat everywhere. I really enjoyed seeing the creeps and freeps crash into each other near Dar in the Slugs. That was truly an epic fight for the ages. Mostly, I really enjoyed watching Leekae playing freepside again because no one protects my minstrel like he does



Saturday night on creepside: I opted to play my spider in lieu of my trusted warg, as I've been really enjoying her of late. I joined Phoenex and our 2 groups of Agony/Pwny and we had some AWESOME skirmishes in bear/death valley with some very effective ambushes. Then BOOM! The Freepnami of multiple raids hit early, which necessitated a need to scout and defend with our smaller numbers. Our raid did eventually fill up and allowed us to move with a little more confidence. We had some good wins and some epic fails where we were unable to drop a single target; but more than anything, we had huge laughs.

I already said elsewhere how fantastic 2 of the freep raids were...Ophelia's raid and the Oathbreakers. They were EVERYWHERE and aggressive. They made us have to choose what we would defend and we were always on the move. I also already mentioned how disappointed we all were by the hugging after the very unnecessary Lugz ninja by a totally different freep raid.

We brushed it off and tried to show that the best way to have fun is to do the unexpected...the very antithesis of ninja is the Pirate Ninja, which means every NPC is aggro'd and you CHARGE together into utter destruction and certain death. It was complete chaos and an epic kind of creep fun!



We had numerous Dar battles where Ophelia's raid and the Oathbreakers were relentless. We were able to hold the relic despite numerous attempts, but only because those freeps were overwhelmed. /Bow for your tenacity!



By the end of the night, my bug finally got her babies and her mez; I told Wyuh I loved her about 20 times (<3 WL bubbles); and my voice was hoarse from laughing. I logged off thinking how amazing the event was from start to finish and how lucky we are to have so many great folks to fight with and against.

A huge thank you to Gobblemoss for the amazing story, which evolved into a truly epic event that I won't soon forget!

[Wulfhen]

Hearing Luc laugh, and giggle, when half a raid of green/blue spiders jumped off a bridge ontop of him was...

...was..

Words fail me. I wish I had it recorded.

[iceknight493]

I Saw Bownooooooooooooooo

[romoen]

I'm trying Oph, but I'm really at an all time low with my disenchantment of the moors.

I <3 you and your effort, Luc!!! <3

I think people posted screenies/stories in so many other threads, so that may have diluted this great one tying them together. (my screenies are repeats here because I am at work atm)

I think you're absolutely right.

P.S. Thank you.

Hearing Luc laugh, and giggle, when half a raid of green/blue spiders jumped off a bridge ontop of him was...

...was..

Words fail me. I wish I had it recorded.

Oh. My. God. I completely forgot about that... and Trinstar's posting of Cel's speach! I forgot that too!!!

That was *so* epic.

[Thane9]

Hearing Luc laugh, and giggle, when half a raid of green/blue spiders jumped off a bridge ontop of him was...

...was..

Words fail me. I wish I had it recorded.

Nothing in the entire game of LotRO is better than bugs with broken legs dropping from the sky into me with full fervour pips and my sprint up. NOTHING.

NOT A THING.

It was actually a really cool moment. We had just pushed creeps from TA....in a really nice save...and were giving chase to the bridge. We hit the bridge, with only a partial force and there were a TON of bugs there (it was one of those....oh **** there's a TON here what do we do....oh Luc's charging push push push moments)...I pushed hard (far beyond where I should've been) and was engaging 8-10 bugs easily (there were probably 15 there total...maybe more) with no freeps in my front facing field of vision. At that point...I think it may have been Wulf, but I'm not sure, it was called to jump over the side...we were pretty outnumbered due to many people not having left TA, or not having pushed at all, and splash I hit the bottom....

The next thing I know I'm seeing and hearing the crunch of legs as bugs start dropping right on top of me...not many jumped...but man, at that moment I was crazy happy just seeing the ones who did. If only they had ALL jumped...hahahahaha....

[knowfere]

As for the 'zerging', I'm only vaguely familiar with that term and I 'think' it means to just push without any control or strategy...and yeah, I would be guilty of that. I had my headset on but I never once heard any instructions (maybe everyone was in a vent channel I wasn't aware of?). All I did as a creep and on my freep was SEE in the chat window "freeps at <insert keep/area here>" and if I seen the raid leader headed that way on radar, thats where I went. And as I said previously, I knew I was fodder anyway being such a noob, so mostly I just charged right out front with no concern for myself haha. My main ambition was to have fun, see the hoards of players, and take screenshots
I know at one point on my burg, I looked up and seen Nioba on the top of a keep (not even sure which one) right at the door way, masses of warfare going on on the ground, shooting poison at any and all. I thought that was pretty cool

[Bogowan_Kenbogi]

I would post what I did on Halloween, but it would result in much embarrassment on my part and many tsk-tsks on everyone else's.

[bigmatt19]

Wow... the screens look amazing. The tales of battle intense... even getting the devs involved for the lag is epic win!

I wish I could have been there. But here I am reading about it in the forums... at least it is putting a huge smile on my face. Congrats on what looked to be a simply AMAZING event. Lets do it again next year... I'll definitely make sure my cap is at level cap and brings his oath breaker along this time!!

-matt(dor)

[Wulfhen]

I would post what I did on Halloween, but it would result in much embarrassment on my part and many tsk-tsks on everyone else's.

Are you sure I just wouldn't cheer, and go ada boy!

[Aethniniel]

Too many great stories and hilarious encounters for me to post from work, but a big hearty thanks to all on Landroval for this wonderful event. I have some alts on the server and when I heard about it I decided I had to roll a weaver to check this out. So happy that I did! It was so fun meeting and working with the Landy creeps and hitting the Moors in epic raid style that hasn't been seen on Meneldor since book 14. Not to mention having a few great folks from my home server join in the fun as well.

That said, a few of my friends who also participated plan to join you all in the Landy Moors more often. Hope to see you all there soon!



My Funniest LOL Boggle (????) Moment of the Weekend...

I think the loudest I laughed during all of the events happened in DG after about the 4th attempt to take the relic on Halloween. Our swarm of weavers and freep-foes had chased the Oathbreakers and Co. up towards the interior walls of DG and a huge battle ensued. The creeps successfully defended DG and dozens of orcs, uruks, wargs and weavers skittered out leaving just a few standing around behind. I looked up at a fallen NPC troll and noticed a small hobbit just standing there by his corpse... standing... bugged out? No! Fully alive! No one had even noticed the little fella until I spit a little poison his way. (I don't recall who this was, but I believe it was a mini.) At that point I think only 4 creeps remained in DG, so he nearly survived that mess simply by standing very still and being small. LOL

~Beleguial Ofmeneldor
Plague

[john123]

The event was a complete blast and after ~7 hours of pvp on Friday night and then a full ~16 hours of LoTRo on Saturday, my brain is fried.

I was out there on my Captain, Dacronmen, and there are lots of memorable moments that come streaming into my mind as I write this, let me see if I can get a few down.

Opening RP event in Bree before the Oathbreakers took to the Ettenmoors was a lot of fun (both nights).

Each time we formed up as Oathbreakers and did anything with the pets was cool. When we helped at LC on Friday, we sent in the ghosts first which was cool.

On Saturday when we did the "line abreast" formation and sent in ghosts on the spider lair and at OC.

The open field battles between the Lugz rez and DG where great back and forth opportunities for everyone.

The Oathbreakers taking Isen was cool...lots of blue ghosties floating around with 12 captains in the group. :-)

The walk on the south TA bridge with pets was a favorite of mine.