Story order problem in the Stonedeans

[Thornglen]

There are many times in LOTRO where it might be difficult to determine how (or if) the Epic Quests in an area interact with the landscape story quests. Most of those times I have been able to puzzle it out by quest level, use of the wiki, or even just after the fact when I see all the pieces in hindsight.

The Epic that leads into Woodhurst in the Stonedeans of West Rohan, however, does not seem to have a good way to mesh with the Woodhurst story quests.

SPOILERS AHEAD



The problem has two parts.

First, when running through the story in the Broadacres, the quest 'Assault on Bardh-dorám' warns that the Broadacres story can not be continued until the player has completed Epic Volume III Book 12 Chapter 8, 'Hill Tribes and Horse-lords'. This part of the Epic sends you out to the Stonedeans to contact Heremond or his wife Briant in Woodhurst and breaks the flow of the Broadacres story for what seems to be no good reason.

Once I ran through Chapter 8 and went back to the Broadacres to continue, the reasoning became a bit clearer, but it had nothing to do with to story and instead was a way to make sure the player completed that chapter before the questgiver was removed. Had the player either not gotten or gotten and dropped VIII B12 C8 before the quest following 'Assault on Bardh-dorám' ('Celebration of Victory'), I assume it would no longer be available and could break the Epic questline.

Which makes sense mechanically, but narratively I think it would have been better to add a quick hop over to another NPC in Stoke from the questgiver who could then direct the player on to Woodhurst if the player chose to go before finishing the Broadacres story.

Second problem is in Woodhurst itself. Chapter 8 of the Epic starts right at the gate of the town and directs you to a character who is in hiding without giving you any reasoning for why you would know that hiding place. It says specifically "Briant is inside her son's hideout, in Woodhurst. You do not know where Reeve Heremond is." (emphasis mine)

Now, if you do the landscape story quests for Woodhurst, they eventually lead you to that hideout in a more natural way, but you get that information only after discovering what had become of Reeve Heremond. So even if you switch up the order of quests the game seems to push toward, the two are not consistent.


I know it is very unlikely anything will change at this point, but with the Legendary servers causing some ripples in the older content, maybe some small tweaks will find their way in at the LS "launch" of Helm's Deep. One can dream.