Volume III Book 5 Quest Notes

By: Jeff ‘MadeOfLions’ Libby

Quest Notes!

It hasn’t been very long since the last edition of Quest Notes, but already it’s time to sit down and discuss what lies ahead in the next installment of the Epic Story for LOTRO! So let’s flip forward a few pages and see what awaits you in Volume III, Book 5: ‘The Prince of Rohan.’

I’ve Met That Guy!

It’s true! The title of this Book refers to Prince Théodred, who helped you and the Rangers out of a bind in ‘Rise of Isengard.’ He’s the heir of King Théoden of Rohan, and he has been charged with the defense of Rohan’s borders. It’s no small task, as you learned in Book 4: not only does Saruman have an army of Uruks preparing for war behind the walls of Isengard, but he also commands the loyalty of more of the Dunlending tribes than even Elrond suspected. There are a lot of foes on this side of the river Isen, and it’s Théodred’s job to keep them from crossing.

Just look at this guy! I’d vote for him!

And since he helped you in the last Book and it’s such an important task... now it’s your job as well!

Farewell to the Rangers

As a reader of The Lord of the Rings might have suspected, you won’t be traveling the rest of the way with the Grey Company. Instead, it’s now time for your paths to diverge. You will go to the Fords of the Isen with Prince Théodred, and the Rangers will recuperate from their recent experiences and continue with their mission, steering clear of the coming war for as long as they can.

You’ve played a significant role in the journey of the Grey Company to this point, and in appreciation of that the Rangers want to gift you some duds! At the beginning of Book 5, you’ll receive the pieces for one of two cosmetic outfits:

Fine Grey Company Outfit
Worn Ranger Garb

Here’s what they look like in the sterile environment of our development tools. Just imagine how great one of them will look on *you* as you as you run around Middle-earth, pretending to be a Ranger.

(And by ‘pretending to be a Ranger’ I mean bumbling into monster nests, formulating rather bad plans that require the villains to be true to their word, getting other adventurers to do your dirty work... for other examples, just check some of the great threads on the forums! Oh, you Rangers. I kid because I love.)

What Day Is It Anyway?

When you’re telling stories in parallel with one everybody knows like The Lord of the Rings, one of the most interesting challenges is keeping track of where all the important characters are at any given point in time. Chris, one of our lore fiends and a stellar world builder, put together a comprehensive spreadsheet that lets us see at a glance where each named character is on any given day of the story.

Why is it important to know where everybody is? The reason is because early in the life of LOTRO, during the Volume I and Volume II days, we had the advantage of being able to move characters to a location, such as Rivendell or Lothlórien, and then leave them there. We had to hit the pause button, but it was generally made believable by the fact that the Fellowship spent a good amount of time at these locations. They were essentially rest stops on the journey, so seeing Aragorn and Frodo and Boromir at these spots for whole stretches seemed to work fairly well.

But now, things in the story are about to hit fast and furious mode. You haven’t really been able to set a specific date on locations in LOTRO for awhile now, but in Book 5 you’ll be able to: we’re at the end of February, 3019, and Frodo will arrive at Mount Doom in one month.

Clearly it will take us more than a month to advance the story to that point, but it does mean that we’ll be making liberal use of the pause button so you can see as many exciting places and have as many adventures as possible before the Ring-bearer comes to the point of decision. And after that? Well, there’s a whole new world of possibilities!

A Couple Teases

‘The Prince of Rohan’ is a shorter book than ‘Rise of Isengard,’ but there are definitely some interesting developments packed into its four chapters. I’ll just leave a few screenshots here to whet your appetite, and I’ll see you next time for another edition of Quest Notes!

Sweet moustache!

The Rohirrim need your help if they are to face the forces of Saruman!

New methods of delivering information via movies!

The Kingdom of Rohan imperiled!