Folks who want to listen in on our chattering or even join the adventure can contact us in-game by accessing the user channel club-eclair. Specifically: /joinchannel club-eclair. Feel free to say hullo, ask questions, or chat. As roleplayers, we use *say* and *emote* for our IC conversations, but use the channel for OOC chatter. Mostly. Not always.
Where we are at: April 6
Level cap = 62 (63)
Monday, April 11 - 8:30 PM. We are going to try to get Fraori through the final two Dar Narbugud battles, and Thorcundo wishes to acquire the final elf-stone to complete his armor set. Ergo, Thorcundo will be coming with us, and I will be bringing Hedgerow instead of Alphred (since Thorcundo will be there to do the front-line battling, making Hedgerow more useful than Alphred). Evidence suggests that we need at least 8 people for success, so any help that may be provided would be appreciated.
Where we are going:
Volume III.
Start at Rivendell. Folks who want to take a break can do so . . . this is a set of solo quests for which no help is needed. Those who take a break can quickly solo through Book 1 and Book 2 up to Chapter 9.
This adventure will go through the Lonelands, Breeland, The Shire, Evendim, Forochel, Angmar, and the like, collecting rangers. If there are enough folks, the group can walk during the day collecting Rangers and tell stories of past adventures (redo old instances) in the daylight. In fact, most adventures provide opportunities to skirmish . . . Weathertop when picking up Candaith, defend the Prancing Pony before picking up Saradan.
After collecting the Rangers, the group will meet the assembly in Rivendell. There, they will begin their march south.
At Echad Eregion, the group will pick up Book 2, Chapter 9. This sends them to Eregion. On the way, it will detour slightly for a week or two at Echad Mirobel. While waiting for others to come and join up, they may visit The Library and The School looking for maps and other information about the lands ahead. Once everybody who wants to participate in Volume III has assembled at Echad Mirobel, the real adventure will begin. The group will pack up and march into Enedwaith, where the landscape is no longer gray to us. (We will still be 2 levels above the landscape, so no real threat.)
After a year or so, the group will be at Level 65 in the middle of Dunland at the town of Galtrev. At that point I would very much . . . very much . . . like to get a full raid group of Level 65 folks for the In Their Absence instance chain. In character, Club Eclair will hear "stories" of what has been happening back home since the Rangers left. They will hear of the horrible things that happened at Northcotton Farm, in the North Downs, at the Lost Tomb in the Trollshaws, and the ice caves of Forochel. After hearing these "stories" they will learn that the villain responsible for these horrors has a lair to the north . . . not far. So, the group will march to Ost Donhoth to fight this villain. They will fight their way through this set of raids to their inevitable triumph. After this triumph, they will return to Galtrev and continue to march south with the Gray Company.
NOTE: There is a part of this story where the characters are taken prisoner and held as slaves - but retain all of their equipment. I am wondering if a raid-sized group might be able to survive after being stripped of their equipment. That is - remove all of our armor and weapons, and instead gather what we can find in plotting our escape. "I found some light armor over here, who wants it?" "I pilfered a hammer from the forge." Kill a couple of orcs and take what of their weapons and armor is worth scavanging. Of course, after we escape, we "find" the vault with our old equipment and put it back on.
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Club Eclair
Club Éclair is starting a whole new adventure - a sequel to our Volume I adventure which can be found here:
https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthr...adventure-club
(In-game, you can contact us using the user channel club-eclair. That is: /joinchannel club-éclair)
Prologue begins 9:00 AM, Saturday, August 18 at Gondomon for a march to Moria. Adventuring in Moria begins 9:00 AM, Saturday, September 8 at Echad Dunann in Eregion.
There, our group of adventurers will gather to help the dwarves reclaim their homeland in Moria.
The Dwarves of Moria have entered the city, but encountered no end of troubles and difficulties. So, they have called for help. And help has come.
Some of us would have walked from the Blue Mountains. (The march from the Blue Mountains starts at Gondomon, at 9:00 AM on August 18 with a second group starting 8:30 PM August 20.) Others would have joined the march along the way. Still others will be joining on the day the group enters Moria, ready to begin the adventure.
On this first day of adventure, the group will enter Moria and spend the day wandering about near the entrance, getting their first taste of the mines.
But, on September 15, they will leave daylight and fresh air behind, heading deep into the darkness in the hopes of reaching the Dwarven settlement of Dolven View . . . somewhere in the darkness.
ABOUT CLUB ECLAIR
Club Éclair is a slow-leveling adventuring club. Our intention is to roleplay our way through Lord of the Rings Online from the entrance of Moria to the defeat of The Lieutenant at Dol Guldur. Along the way we will experience the adventures and the scenery that make up Moria, Lothlorian, and Mirkwood.
We are not a kinship. We belong to several different kinships.
Club Éclair has two hard and fast rules.
Rule 1: Walk-and-talk roleplay. During our group adventure, we are in-character. We are adventurers. We walk and talk and interact with the environment as adventurers on an adventure, whether one is a hobbit from the Shire with a love of making maps, an elf who is trying to repair relationships between elves and dwarves, or a ruffian from Bree who has heard stories of great wealth and treasure – or a dwarf intent on reclaiming this once magnificent city.
Rule 2: Respect the level cap. The level cap at the start is 50. It will go up to 51 on September 8 the instant the group enters Moria itself. This is so that players can fully utilize the LI system invented for Moria. However, as we go deeper and deeper into Moria, our challenges will become greater and greater. Eventually, we will enter a pattern of adventuring at five levels below the level of the content. This means, for example, that we will not raise the level cap above 51 until we have adventured through the Redhorn Lodes (a Level 56 region).
Other than this, Club Éclair does not care what you do with your character. If you want to run off and participate in festivals, help friends in skirmishes, or . . . whatever . . . it does not matter. So long as when you return to the adventure you are ready to pick up the story where it left off and still respect the level cap.
Similarly, players are free to adopt their own personal rules. For example, my characters will be playing under a set of “full immersion” rules that aim to make the experience as immersive as possible. This includes playing in first person mode, all radars and similar aids tools turned off, no teleportation, limited supplies, and a constant consumption of food. (I want to get my 3D system fixed before entering Moria as well.)
We use an XP Disabler to fix our experience at the level cap.
People make mistakes, and a player may accidentally go over the level cap - forgetting to re-equip the disabler before turning in that quest that puts one over the cap. We will forgive such a mistake and allow a character who is at cap + 1 level – but this is to be avoided, please. Cap + 2 will be prohibited.
We will likely continue the pattern established in Club Éclair of having a Saturday session at 9:00 AM (for the convenience of European members), and Monday evening at 8:30 PM. People are invited to – encouraged to – really strongly encouraged to – pretty please - set up other times for adventure at your convenience. If a group of west Pacific players want to set up a convenient time, then please do so.
Also, there is no need to worry about missing a session – or several sessions – or disappearing for a month or so. Home and family come first.
PREREQUISITES
You have to be able to enter Moria. That’s about it. This means completing Volume II, Book I, at least up to the point where the Watcher has been driven off. We will assume that this has already been done, the dwarves have entered Moria, and they are asking for help.
From this point on, we will roughly follow the epic quest line. However, along the way we will take up other quests that are available to us, go out on patrols, and participate in other adventures. For example, after spending a week at Durin’s Threshold (all of the time that will be required to do the Durin’s Threshold quests and a little exploring), we will move on to Dolven View and camp there for a few weeks, then Deep Descent, and so on. Our adventure will end at Barad Guldur raid to slay The Lieutenant of Dol Guldur. (Then, we will likely adventure through the Epilogues.)
Many of us are completionists. This means that we intend to complete all of the deeds and quests available in these regions and work them into the story. We will be making extra patrols at off-times (to complete slayer and exploration deeds). This will include the instance deeds.
FINAL NOTES
“I am going on an adventure.”
The purpose of Club Éclair is to enjoy an adventure – to enter and explore Moria as an adventurer in the company of other adventurers. If you think this will be fun, you are invited, encouraged, to come along.
(NOTE: Until August 18, Club Éclair Volume I is going through the Level 50 instances – Helegrod and The Rift. You are invited to come along.)