Balin’s Camp – running the gauntlet

 fiction, games, lotr, mmorpg  Comments Off
Dec 162012
 

Edit: With recent changes to quests in Nud-Melek and Zelem-Melek, I don’t think you even need to go here any more.

Balin’s Camp is located in Nud-Melek, midway along a corridor that runs between The Chamber of Mazarbul and The Deep Crossroad. Now, it looks accessible on the Durin’s Way map that comes with the game but it isn’t. The eastern end of the Chamber of Mazarbul is blocked off with rubble.

Blocked hallway

The blocked hallway from the east side of the passage.

To get there you need to get to the eastern end of Nud-Melek, near where the passage from The Fanged Pit joins. Then you need to run a gauntlet through a variety of orcs and gredbyg to reach it. Assuming they’re of a level to attack you. Balin’s Camp is midway, and there are two things there to click for quest updates.

Nud Melek

Annotated Nud Melek map

Deforested Minhiriath

 fantasy, fiction, lotr  Comments Off
Jun 042012
 

Quite a few places mention how Minhiriath’s forests were felled by the Dunedain in the Second Age, and then how the entire region was depopulated (or almost so) after the Great Plague in TA 1636. Most, if not all, sites and books still make the claim that the region is deforested. Well, assuming the climate and hydrology hasn’t changed, there’s no reason why the great forests wouldn’t re-grow. There’s nobody there to cut them down, is there? The War of the Ring started in TA 3018. That’s 1382 years of potential regrowth. More than mother Nature needs, trust me.

There’d be forests in Minhiriath again.

minhiriath map