My first rift

[Caradir]

Well my first trip into the raid was amazing to say the least. My photos all turned out to be me giving the various bosses a Beleriand Suppostry so nothiong worth posting

First Few Bosses:

Barz:

BFT (big Fucking Troll) number one, tank and spank with lots of legging it away when he decided he was "gonna gnaw on your bones" as his clubs descended in a "lets make jelly" fashion, his pesky adds were 3 iterations of the trash mobs leading up to this point, once his 135k morale was gone a new pair of boots were mine (yipee first raid and i got me first raid set piece)

Zurm:

BFT two He is the easier of the two but we did wipe once due to some add shenanigans and lots of "mez the slave" "oh shit" , "no aoe" goings on, second time was smooth as. again once his 135k morale gone another lucky person got his boots as a just reward.

Then a little run back to the central area to find a door has opened behind where a giant once stood, rushing headlong into the unknown i stumbled across said giant and 3 of his friends they introduce themselves as the Eldgang and have been under assault by fire orcs, who trying to breach the Thaurlachs prison. It was then that a group of said orcs rushed in, the giants looked capable of dealing with these EM orcsies so we left them to it and ran along the cavern until a room opened before us. Jumping up some rubble we saw a few Summoners, these orcs have a thing about summoning fire worms to help them then were stunned and their worms squished, lots of Champion clobbering ensued to stop the buggers summoning more friends.

Then came

Furz:
BFT three

A good ol tank and spank, only thing me and my champ buddy had to do was wait for the spawns of 4 orcs who rush in, when they hit the floor from the broken staircase , the horns were sounded stunning the buggers until we could dice them up quick as they would heal Furz if not killed quickly. A kinny got a new set of gloves as a just reward.

Through another door into the unknown.

A cavern leading to a large open space with summoners and fire drakes, a quick clear revealed

Zogtark:

This orc stood above us laughing as his two Elder Drakes tried their best to set us on fire, we laid down the smack until they took flight, it was then zogtark decide to join in, upon seeing their boss take a pounding the drakes again descended only to be met with a swift end. A kinny recieved a new set of legs (oo er) as a reward

A door opened to reveal a lava filled room with metal (stupid orcs) bridges leading between the small rock formations. Running across these was burny. On setting foot on the first "island" a mini volcano, Fumaro;e appeared lots of clobbering to stop them summoning their glowy friends and stunning/ mezzing the 3 orcs who tried to blind side us was repeated on the next island too.

It was then we spotted

ZOgtark: having a conversation with a rather shady looking character

This sob comes prepared with 4 healers who peel off to keep him alive during the fight, these were dealt with 1 by 1 as the hunters kept an eye on the darklings that were spawning of to the side, as they were trying to get to the swirly void that had opened up in the centre of the dias.

The healers dead zogtark was brought back up to us for a spanking, the hunter kept control of the darklings and all was good. Someone recieved a new set of chest armour as a reward.

By this time we was knackered and everyone headed to bed, 5 down 3 to go.

[Caradir]

Second night shenanigans began around 8 ish

it was back to where we left off open the big door and through to a dark room seperated by a metal screen behind which were 2 big trolls

Shadow Eater and Stone Biter:

Tactics were discussed Shadow has 145k morale Stone 45k but both need deadified together or the World Eaters will appear.

Tanks were assigned duties everyone ran in, tank 2 DCs, i goes oh noes, but luckily i have a shield in my bag, quickly strap it on and shout at stoney who had decided the minstrels looked munchy. I do my best at tanking the big guy keep him on me until the 2nd tank reappeared then gratefully give him my agro and reequip my off hand and reignite my fervour. a bit of running around to keep both bosses at same morale they were quickly vanquished. Strange these guys dont drop anything worthwhile, oh well all goes towards the repair bills.

Another door another lava filled room with the same shady character standing talking to one big giant, leader of the Eldgang it seems and he thinks WE are the ones trying to free the Thaurlach

after a quick pounding on him and killing the orcs that rush into the room, he realises his mistake and

Thrang: appears


Again with his 4 shaman healers who rush in to meet us, they are dutifuly split up so they cant all see each other and have a heal party, once they are down the tank gets Thrangs attention pulls him down the stairs, but wait he is one mean orc and his pact with whichever power he serves means that we cant damage him. However there seems to be more mini volcanoes about, he gets dragged near one as it explodes temporarily breaching his defences and we all go Primevil on his ass until he gets his defences back. Rinse repeat for a good 5 mins and eventually he goes down. A new hat was had.

Another big door through to a room with an Elfy Woman with a told you so expression and one big door that she explains has been sealed to keep the Thaurlach imprisoned for eternity, she had asked the wizards to kill him but no they said, in eternity he will suffer.

Thaurlach:

is chained and sealed but struggling as the seals are weakening, the waters around him have been corrupted and need cleansing, of we pop to the two fountains so she can do her thing, only to be jumped by World eaters and more darklings spawning everywhere.

This first part of the big fight went smooth then chaos descended. Me my job was to stand and wait for the second part to end before i would be called to arms.

part 2 as explained from a kinnies view point.

Myself and Cae legged it past the Thaurlach into a room to the right.

We stood and waited for some scarred 80's pop star to appear but all that popped was a ten foot monster from the blue lagoon. It did cross my mind this could be the re-incarnation of the laconic 80's pop icon as it did bear somewhat of a resemblance. I stupidly dismissed this as it had far too much sense of rhythm in the way it was beating Cae over the head in a perfect 4/4 beat.

I decided that not even Jax would send us to our doom in this way. Then again, Dan and Hawkit could well be stood outside pointing and laughing. No. There was more to it.

I searched the room. Sure enough I spotted something I could click on. It was probably going to open a rift in the time space continuum and wipe the entire party but in that millisecond I had to make an important decision. Yes, I'm going to die, and I'm taking the rest of the fsking old gits down with me. Let's see them point and laugh now.

I turned the latch and there was a creaking noise and the sound of water gushing in. Aha, drown the old buggers hehe. I waited for Dan's grumpy admonishment on the headset but nothing crossed the airwaves. Disappointment.

Cae was dying a fast death at the hands of the re-incarnated Seal and some shadowy slug things so I did what any brave hunter would do. I ran past him chuckling inside.

Walls were descending. They were going to trap Cae in the room with those evil bastids. Thank God for that. I might yet survive.

The walls hit ground zero. Cae had already died and a couple of mobs made it out! Oh noes. Yes, I was doomed too. The selfish git.

There were several appaplectic fits going on over the headphones at this point, which was at least somewhat reassuring that it would be a party wipe. I was now rather pleased with my sneaky latch turning. My job was done. Hehe.

I bit dirt. "Have you used the seal?". No he used and abused myself and Cae and, to be honest, no party wipe could cleanse me of that dirty feeling of death.

No, I was wrong, one of those pesky Captains ressed me. Just to watch me die at a later time for the poor innocent was unaware of the impending wipe I had planned so carefully.

"Where's Cae?". Uhmmm, he got stuck in that room. I tried my best to help him. Honest. If it helps at all, I can confirm he's dead.

No. Apparently that was bad news.

"Stay there we are coming over". I ignored this advice and ran to the left room where apparently everything had gone as planned. Why does that always seem to happen to me? Never mind. They had at least cocked up and turned the latch as well as the doors were down. Ha ha. I thought if I stood here for a while they might think I was never in the right room of death and blame someone else.

"Faen, did you use the seal?". Damn, rumbled. Urrm. Yeah, yeah I clicked on something. Cae made me do it.

"So he's locked in the room?". Word up nubbie, yes, where have you been for the last 20 seconds? The selfish git died and left me all alone to my big mountain of doom. You should know how much us Elves hate Doom.

In fact, apparently, we were now all doomed. "Just stand around and die". What, I can't watch the rest of the kin run around in valiantly trying to ressurect a hopeless cause? Ahh, all my plans foiled. Where's the fun in that? I blamed that pesky Xio, he was far too wise and knew far too much to be part of our kin run. He must not be allowed back!

"Leave the raid! Save your repair bill!".

What, leave a kin raid. Never.

Fun and death one Balrog beat us up but next time we will get him (perhaps)

[Mangala]

*FAP FAP FAP*

Sounds great. I'll be there eventually, so much to do in so many games - just wish life would stop harassing me (and dropping B&Q sales on me, just as I decide I want to redecorate the whole damn house, now I have no excuse!).

Its one of the places I love the sound off in Lotro

[Caradir]

P.S. what i forgot to tell you was that Raiding with those nutters in The Last Alliance, aka the old gits. reminded me of the fun i used to have in HoJ raids where advancing is great but as long as everyone is having fun then all is well.

and listening to raid tactics from someone with a broad Newcastle accent is just wrong somehow