It’s hard — or perhaps weird — to believe that we’re already at week nine (of ten) in LOTRO’s anniversary scavenger hunt. I’ve been faithfully knocking out at least one of these hunts every week, and to tell the truth, I’ll be a little sorry when they’re gone. Of course, there will always be next year, right?
So out of the trio of options this week, I went with what I thought was the one that looked both the most interesting and the easiest to do, which was Middle-earth curiosities. This is why I signed up to do these quests (well, that and the rewards), because I want to be shown things I’ve never seen before or missed in this game. And while I knew about two or three of these, the rest were complete surprises.
A snowman in Ered Luin. An ice skater in Forochel. OK, yawn. The cat lady’s house… everyone knows this one, although that lady never seems to come home. But then things started to pick up when I had to find the turtle guy’s house. I’d never even heard of the turtle guy, which is because I didn’t do his short quest series. I had to rectify that, because there was no entering his house to get the quest update if I didn’t, and ultimately I was glad I did. It’s an amusing series of quests around Bree that are totally turtle-themed, leading into a house decked out with turtles everywhere. Even had their own open exhibit.
“Well, that’s no ordinary rabbit. That’s the most foul, cruel, and bad-tempered rodent you ever set eyes on. Look, that rabbit’s got a vicious streak a mile wide, it’s a killer! He’s got huge, sharp — he can leap about — look at the bones!”
Probably the one locale that really caught me off guard was the Three Little Bears house. I’m guessing this is one of those easter eggs that everyone else probably knows about by now and has escaped my attention, but I was cracking up when I found it in Rohan. Garden gnome, three bears, three beds, sleeping Goldilocks, porridge, the whole works. And it doesn’t look that out of place in this game world, even so.
While the quest was entertaining, I have to say that I’m becoming a little let down with the rewards. Actually, in eavesdropping in our kin chat, I think this is a shared sentiment. Every week you do a fairly complicated quest with these scavenger hunts and are then rewarded with at least two objects — usually pets, housing items, or cosmetics. I’m all down for that, but apart from the pets (I love the cow!), nothing’s really amazed me. A big spoon? Another raggedy cloak? I was kind of hoping for something a little more amazing here.
I did make a point of stopping by the anniversary vendor in Bree last night, seeing as how she’s returned for a limited run for those of us still racking up tokens from the hunts. I spent as many as I could, buying mostly housing items (I wasn’t that thrilled with the dragon-themed outfit and horse armor).
Bio Break 