A Trip to Rivendell

This week I made my first trip to Rivendell in Lord of the Rings Online (commonly known as LOTRO). It was a harrowing experience. My character, you see, is a level 20 Man Captain. If you don't play LOTRO, this number is fairly meaningless, but the LOTRO players among you will know that this is substantially lower than the level of the region that Rivendell is in. I'm pretty sure that a couple of the creatures that pursued me were level 37, nearly twice my own level, and everything for quite some distance on my walk was purple (a color code indicating a considerably higher level enemy than my own level). And yes, I did say WALK. I took a stable horse as far as the Forsaken Inn, and then walked my way from there through the Lone Lands, into the Trollshaws, and all the way to Rivendell. It was my first time ever past Ost Gutruth (Guruth?), and thus my map was most uninformative except to give me an idea of the general direction in which Rivendell lay. LOTRO's map system only displays regions that you've actually entered, and is sometimes seemingly a little unpredictable as to how far into a region you must go before the map unveils that section. Once you actually find Rivendell...which I did by running in the direction I thought it was with a lynx on my heels...it's a beautiful location. And I saw at least a few recognizable figures there, though I did not get to explore it all and thus may have missed more.

So why did I take a level 20 to so high level an area? The answer lies in crafting. You see, my Captain has gathered all the craft XP necessary for his Artisan Jeweler ranking, and the crafting quest to achieve it sends you to talk to an elf in Rivendell. Naturally, just when I was feeling self-congratulatory at making it to Rivendell alive, this elf felt it necessary to ask me to go to Angmar to retrieve a jewel with which some brilliant fellow has apparently decided to go waltzing through enemy territory. So now I am waiting to catch a properly high level Kinmate on who is willing to escort me into Angmar and kill Orcs for me till one drops what I need. Esteldin is nice this time of year. Well, not really, it's kind of a ruin. But it's a safe ruin, and that counts for much in the North Downs. I did make an attempt to follow the road north to Angmar, but after running into far too many giantkind, wargs, and hillmen, I decided that sneaking north was not going to work (for my nerves, if nothing else) and went back to Esteldin to wait in safety.

The origin of Magnificent Chang

Once upon a time, in a virtual world set in a certain sci fi universe, fans gathered to portray characters of their own invention living out lives in their beloved theme. In text. Where the closest things to graphics were those impressive creations known as Ascii Art.

And into that virtual world was born one improbable, perhaps impossible, Chino-Polish Gypsy Magician. Or perhaps more properly, Magician/Pickpocket/Con Man/Circus Performer/Thespian/Cowboy/Busboy/Master of Disguise. Imagine, if you will, Artemus Gordon of Wild Wild West combined with Hannibal Smith and Face of A-Team and Artful Dodge from Oliver Twist, with just a little Murdock from A-Team thrown in for good measure, and you have the roleplaying entity known as the Magnificent Chang. Obvious and inscrutable, frivolous and deeply serious and sometimes deadly....and maybe just a little bit mad. The Magnificent Chang. A fool and a clown, but like the Jesters of many old tales, often the only one who truly knew how things stood and had the license to say so, if perhaps wrapping it in a riddle and an enigma so that the easily distracted would not notice while those most suited to take action would see beneath to the important truth.

When roleplaying, my characters tend to be believably and likably outlandish. That's not to say I never make a serious character or a simple and straightforward one. But I often excel with the outlandish ones that allow creative and absurd responses to a situation.