Club Eclair (A slow-leveling roleplay group) Volume III on Landroval

[Tiempko]

Club Eclair has been roleplaying and slowly levelling through all of the adventures and stories of LOTRO since the Stone of the Tortoise entered the world.

In a few weeks the Mines of Moria and Siege of Mirkwood (Volume II) adventure will end - all that remains is a couple of villains in Dar Narbugud. Then a new adventure - the Rise of Isengard (Volume III) - will begin.

Currently, I am liking at May 7 at Rivendell to start the adventure (Volume III, Book 1, Chapter 1).

we will start with a level cap of 62. This is a walk and talk adventure group. That is, we go through the quests and deeds in character, walking, enjoying each other's company. When we run out of adventures, we raise the level cap and move on, weaving our adventures into a story.

We have a user channel on Landroval we use to talk to each other. You can join it by using /joinchannel club-eclair.

(Yes, there's a story behind that name. The adventures began when the Chief of the Bounders of the Shire sent a squad of Bounders out to deal with problems about the Shire at level 5.)

The group is large enough to complete raids as we come to them.

In this case, I am particularly interested . . . when the group reaches Level 65 at Galtrev . . . to go through the "In Their Absence" instance chain at the appropriate point.

Anyways, if you think this might appeal to you, I can point you to the thread for Club Eclair II:

https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthr...-II-Into-Moria


There will be a new thread started when we are ready for Club Eclair III: The Rise of Isengard in a few days. I offer this advanced warning in case you want to get a character ready.


((PS: There is another group - called the Bearclaws - that is currently Level 25 and near to finishing of North Downs if you would like to join a group earlier in the story. They will be heading to Rivendell shortly. Perhaps a dwarf can from Othrikar or an elf from Lin Giliath can decide to join the group, or an old acquaintance of our Beorn leaders can decide to join. The Bearclaws, too, can be reached using the channel /joinchannel club-eclair))

[Tiempko]

For any who do have an interest, I am including a description of how the adventure will start.



It will start after the Eclairians finish Volume II by slaying the Priestess of Pestilence in Dar Narbugud. Then . . .


Volume III.

Level Cap at start: 62.

Volume III will start with Hedgerow (and Alphred) at the 21st Hall, leaving the dwarfs for a long walk to the Shire. This period is meant to give folks a rest - they can easily adventure alone or with company. Those who want to travel as a group will enjoy a few sessions of chatting and walking.

This walk will take us through "gray" landscape - well below our level. We can ignore the creatures and roleplay that the land has been cleared of villainy. It should take only a couple of sessions to reach Rivendell. There, the group will discover that Elrond has an urgent task that it would like the group to perform. Of course, Alphred and Hedgerow will volunteer to perform it. The mission involves collecting all the Rangers in The Gray Company and sending them to an assembly in Rivendell, from which they will begin a march to meet Aragorn further south. (This is Volume III, Book 1.)

This adventure will continue to be a long walk through gray landscapes (no agro), with some higher-level missions along the way for each ranger. Perhaps the group will revisit places not seen in a while, like the Great Barrow or running a Dol Dinen skirmish raid while passing through Esteldin. (NOTE: There are some new quests in Esteldin for higher level characters, and there is a new skirmish introduced along the way.)

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, at Stoneheight in the North Downs, at the Lost Temple 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 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. Any who joined just for the instances can depart at this time.

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. Clubs. Frying pans. Butter knives. "I found some light armor over here, who wants it?" "I pilfered a hammer from the forge." Sneak out and kill a couple of orcs for their weapons and armor - orcs are always killing other orcs. Of course, after we escape, we "find" the vault with our old equipment and put it back on.

[Tiempko]

An Update

Club Eclair Volume II will end any day now - with only the Blind One and Mistress of Pestilence to go. Then we will be transitioning to Volume III.

See the opening post for details.

[Tiempko]

Club Eclair III: Off to See the Wizard is now scheduled to start on Landroval on April 23 at 9:00 AM or April 25 at 8:30 PM at the Last Homely House in Rivendell.

Characters wanting to participate can, of course, catch up with Club Eclair at any point along our journey. Up until mid June, it is very easy to catch up as the group gathers Rangers and starts them on their journey south. These introductory quests should take a couple of months, meaning that the actual adventure as the group enters Enedwaith begins in late June.

If you have wanted to truly adventure through Middle Earth, you are welcome to join us.

The official Club Eclair III discussion thread is here:

https://forums.lotro.com/forums/show...32#post8130832

[Tiempko]

And so it begins.

This weekend (April 23 at 9:00 AM and April 25 at 8:30 PM) the two Eclair groups will start Volume III.

The first mission - a trek from Rivendell to Thorenhad to find the first Ranger on the list of those to be told of the need to march south to Rohan.

Level cap = 62.