Stormwaltz played Lord of the Rings Online

My gaming chair is solid wood, gamerDNA Bot. I doubt any creases will be forming there.

After another brief run slaughtering worms in Trollshaws, I unlocked Valour 5. I'll be replacing Justice 5 with that, though I haven't visited anywhere with a Minstrel yet.

I ground more crawlers, wolves, and trolls for the other Trollshaws traits, but after going upstairs to put Jeremiah back to bed again, I was bored. I started up towards Rivendell, but on a whim, I tried to get to Eregion. Last time I tried, the only way I knew of to get there was through Giant Valley, the entrance of which is blocked by the static spawn of a 40 Elite Drake. It killed me several times when I was 43. Its now grey to me, but I killed it anyway for pissing me off before.

It was only after travelling all the way down from Giant Valley to Gwingris that I discovered the southern path that now connects to Tal Buinen. Last time I tried to get into Eregion, it simply wasn't there yet.

Eregion is pretty enough, though I haven't assembled my thoughts on it yet. I did notice that it's the first time I've seen framerate lag in LotRO on my new machine. I'm guessing its the number of trees, shrubs, and frills on the landscape, which seem to be a bit thicker in density. I can run every other area in the game with every setting maxed, including the DX10 effects. Thanks to the Moria bugfixes, I can even set antialiasing up to 8x and not have to worry about my video card (ATI HD 4870) crashing when I enter a building.

I ran through a handful of quests, fought some Dunlanders (whose presence this far north surprised me - the lore rationale is that Saruman sent them as laborers for the White Hand orcs invading Moria), and generally had a good time for few hours. I went to bed at 7AM significantly richer.

Did I say richer? Oh yes. Fighting grey Elites and mining dwarf-iron (still sells for 500s a stack!) had boosted my coffers quite a bit. Eregion is sick with loot. Wood-trolls, Fell Holly-Tenders, and Huorns all drop trophies that sell for 2-3s a piece. Plus there's a once-a-day collection quest that nets you the same Red Tea Supreme Cooks can make. Ironically, the Dunlanders have crap loot - no cash, and little of sale value. Usually non-sapient monsters give extra XP and intelligent races give money and good loot.

Anyway, I'm now over 9g and well-prepared for the horror-show of maintenance fees I've heard Moria is.