Bumbling into Balrogs

It's been an adventuresome couple days in Middle Earth for me... the other day took me well past 130am dealing with OD Tier2 wings... but I'm getting ahead of myself! 

Here's Kierraen down in the Flaming Deeps, checking out some dwarvish school desks.  Quite ornate, but frankly I wasn't in the mood to stay and learn anything tonight - too many orczies to kill!

Did I mention I was down in the Flaming Deeps?  Yep... ever seen a goat on fire?  How about an elf-mounted-goat-in-motion-while-on-fire?  Yeah, those stupid flame bats down here try to burn my arse off every time I go for a goat ride.  Thankfully my goat is flame retardant (sadly my clothing isn't!).

If I didn't have enough fun with fire earlier in the evening, I got more opportunity later on, as some crazy dwarf got the idea that lighting all the goblin bonfires would be good for business.  I'm pretty sure I saw three elf managed "Smores-R-Us" vendors set up shop while I was busy with the fires.  Thank goodness for my zippo!

Finally broke out into Lothlorien for some daylight questing.  Everything is so bright and colourful out here... well except for a few decaying orc bodies now and then.  Ewww. 

The Galadrhim were kind enough to make a bargain with me.  "If you'll carry these arrows just a short way up that path, we'll consider you as a friend."  Yeah, right.  They forgot to mention that the path is orc infested, that you can't fight while carrying their darned arrows, oh, and that they wanted me to do it five times before they'd let me in their pretty yellow forest.  So much for "kindred spirit" with these tree huggers.

Thought I'd try my hand healing some Helegrod runs.  I am saving for just a couple pieces of Hele-gear, so figured it wouldn't be too bad.  First round, no one died!  Erinrover, Aiseki, Brandic, Brosephstalin, Ethas, Nedbo, Stevena, Jimli and myself managed to clear enough drake babies to earn our marks.  There was one tight moment when we had ten worms on us, but we lived. :)

Spider wing was also entertaining.  Those crazy poisions can be quite alarming when the whole group is suffering from them.  I kept looking for my poison removal skill - then realized that only Sarharien had that.  Crap... Fellowship's Heart ftw!

This cute elf Mirwhen caught my eye in Esteldin while crafting something for myself.  I liked her outfit - a rare case where orange doesn't look ghastly.  Like the cape too!

While waiting for our OD Tier 2 Wound Wing to start up, I took a double-take when I thought Viduo had sprouted a third breast!  Oh, nevermind - it's just Erlilda up to more antics at the 21st Milestone marker.  Hail to Avitas, Finarith, Ulerric, Fireo and Fincin who were also marvelling at her yellow pants.  :)

Hooray!  We had an awesome run in Wound Wing.  The amazing thing with this run was that we recovered during the last battle with the mammoths after both healers went down!  Yay for LM and RK rezzes!  Everyone got back into it in time for the end.  Great run.  Sarharien enjoyed the company of Caspur, Fingoldor, Presdas, Orand, Missey, Porkchopsandwich, Jacbo, Psilopsyb, Sno, and Erlilda.  The Elder King relic dropped (grats to Caspur) along with an amazing caster sword (can't recall the name).

At some point after completing Wound Wing, you listen to some boss talk, and then end up on the upper portion of the Endless Stairs.  I have SO always wanted to get up to the top - I hear there's a Balrog up there.  Sno and I went to peek, but there were mobs around the corner, and the rest of the group had...

...disappeared?!?!?  Suddenly I find myself the only one left on the Endless Stairs.  I look WAYYYY down over the edge, and I think I could still see Sno falling.  He yelled back that it was safe - yeah right. "No thanks, I think I'll climb down..." <WHAM>  Bloody orc came by and pushed me off.  >.<

Thankfully the fall ended with me appearing back at the start of OD.  So we decided to tackle the Poison Wing.  I love this moment in the battle.  So much action, and my stance looks awesome just before arrow release.

But then, everyone died.  I think it was my fault.  But, well... yep.  Stupid auto-attack.  "Sorry!  Did you want me to, um, call the healers?"  We tried a few more times but it was 430am for some of us, and 130am for others, and when I started hitting my "whistle for horse" instead of my distracting shot, we kinda knew it was time to call it a night.

Today I ran Grand Stairs a few times.  This is me during one run with Amadman, Etheon, Rafadalca, Taliah, and Illandrae.  Earned enough to get my first piece of Moria gear for my mini today!  Not that I can use it yet... I'm only L57 with Kierraen, and the Moria gear requires L60.  Maybe next weekend I can wear it.

What's this?!?  Short, fugly, hairy.  Gross!  Get me OUT of this body!!!  Yes, it's me - Kierraen the dwarf.  The kind designers at Turbine conspired to encase my feminine elvish figure into this R2D2-sized dwarf.  Couldn't you have at least dry cleaned the costume first?  Ewww.

This session play was worse than spending time on a stairmaster!  Talk to this dwarf, run to the king dude, who says talk to that dwarf BACK at the end of the hall.  Find out that his mother told his father that the king likes soymilk - "Would you run tell the King that for me?"

Clearly this king is old.  I mean so old that he has lost all perspective of TIME.  "It will only take a moment", yeah I call BS on that one.  It felt like I was running back and forth in here for four hours!

At one point, the king dwarf started rambling on about: "when I was a boy, I had to walk to school, up hill, in the snow, for 40 miles!"  Since he wasn't looking my way, I went and took a load off on his throne.  Ahh... even aired out my feet too.  Cool - at least it was cushioned - and I will say, that the decor in the throne room was incredible.  Visuals were amazing, even if the running back and forth was a PITA.

Later on the King told me to smack on some rocks.  I broke through a wall, and was promptly blamed for releasing the Balrog.  Great, just my luck to have uncovered a beast of fire who was clearly suffering from a migraine.

The King and his son rushed in to try and give him some Tylenol.  I think the Dwarvish word for "tylenol" translates loosely into "please crush and stomp on my head" in Balrogian.  Suffice to say, two dwarves down, and I hauled stubby-legged-dwarvish-heiny outta there!

Joined in on a Forges of Khazad-Dum later on in the day.  Here Jos, Finnwe, Handragor, Fireo, and Beregast prepare me for the adventure ahead. "We are going to catch on fire - please heal us."  Sure!

Did you know that I am a secret elvish incendiary device?  Get me all hot and bothered, and I take out a whole raid!  Yeah.  Someone forgot to tell the cute elf that the water bags she was picking up were only for level 58+.  So when we got down to the boss who had planted himself by all the black powder kegs... well, lets just say that Kierraen got hot, and um... yeah, I blew up my whole raid.  It was a pretty epic way to go. >.<

Ended the day with a full-clear of Grand Stairs.  Had loads of fun healing everyone - only a couple deaths along the way - and more Moria marks towards my next piece of bling!  Great group - a lot of fun!

Love and hugs to all my fellow Dwarrowdelfians,

Sarharien -- Bowchick of Red and Collector of Shoes

Kierraen -- Minstrel of Delightful Octaves of Pain
Niphredila -- Warden of Gleeful Green Giggles