#longroot

[valentine--heart]

[ante-roomfuk]

おはようございます 本日元気に営業しております。 暑い中、いらしていただいたお客様には、パタゴニアの美味しいビール🍺、キンキンに冷やしてお待ちしております。 是非、お立ち寄りくださいね〜❗️ #anteroom #patagonia #patagoniabeer #longroot #ようふくやさん #remake #imaizumi #suzukitakayuki #poterclassic #handwork #あつい #おいしい #ビール#息抜き (Anteroom)

[thecryptoreport]

Travel Tech Firm Monaker Group Eyes Regulated Thai ICO Market

Travel Tech Firm Monaker Group Eyes Regulated Thai ICO Market

Monaker Group, which builds booking platforms for the travel industry, is venturing into tokenized assets with the indirect acquisition of Thailand’s Longroot initial coin offering (ICO) portal.

The Nasdaq traded company took an “indirect controlling stake” in the entity that owns Longroot on Thursday, one day after buying up a third of Longroot minority shareholder Axion Ventures, a video game…

[maxbit]

Travel Tech Firm Monaker Group Eyes Regulated Thai ICO Market Monaker Group, which builds booking platforms for the travel industry, is venturing into tokenized assets with the indirect acquisition of Thailand’s Longroot initial coin offering (ICO) portal.

[bowsetter]

Thailand Approves 4 New Cryptocurrency Service Providers

The Thai Securities and Exchange Commission has approved four new crypto business operators to legally operate in the country. In addition to licensing a new crypto exchange, the government has officially approved the country’s first three digital token portals. Meanwhile, new rules, conditions, and procedures have been introduced for digital asset businesses.

Also read: G20 Leaders Issue Declaration on Crypto Assets – A Look at Their Commitments

Digital Asset Business Operators

Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has officially approved four new digital asset business operators. Under the country’s current regulatory framework for digital assets, which covers both cryptocurrency and digital tokens, a company can apply for a license to operate an exchange, a broker, or a dealer for cryptocurrency, digital tokens, or both. Separate licenses are required for cryptocurrency and digital tokens.

Among the four new digital asset business operators is Bitherb Co. Ltd. The company has received four licenses from the Thai SEC — one for providing a crypto exchange service, one for a digital token exchange service, one for a crypto brokerage service, and one for a digital token brokerage service. According to the commission’s website, the company has not begun operations.

Bitherb Co. Ltd. is a subsidiary of Japanese public company Remixpoint, which operates a regulated Japanese crypto exchange, Bitpoint Japan. It is co-founded by Asia Herb Association Bangkok Co. Ltd. Remixpoint revealed in February that it had obtained four licenses from the Thai SEC but the subsidiary had not been added to the SEC’s list of approved digital asset business operators at the time since its system still needed to be inspected and validated by the regulator. A representative of Bitpoint Japan told news.Bitcoin.com at the time that Bitherb “will begin to operate after [the] SEC inspects the company within 180 days after license acquisition (by July 30th, 2019).” Bitherb is now listed on the SEC website as an approved digital asset business operator.

Including Bitherb, Thailand now has four digital asset exchanges, all of which have been approved for both cryptocurrency and digital tokens. Three of them — Bitkub Online Co. Ltd. (Bitkub), Bitcoin Co. Ltd. (BX), and Satang Corporation (Satang Pro) — were approved in January. Another digital asset operator that has been approved by the Thai SEC is Coins TH. This company was approved in January to operate as a broker and a dealer for cryptocurrency.

First 3 Licensed ICO Portals Unveiled

Local media reported in March that the Thai SEC had approved the country’s first portal for initial coin offerings (ICOs). However, the commission neither made an official announcement about the approval nor disclosed the name of the portal it supposedly approved until now.

The country’s first three SEC-approved ICO portals have now been added to the commission’s website. They are Longroot (Thailand) Co. Ltd. (Longroot), T-box (Thailand) Co. Ltd. (T-box), and SE Digital Co. Ltd. (SE Digital). According to the regulator, none of them have started operations. Further, the latter two companies still need to have their systems inspected and validated by the SEC before they can begin operations.

ICO portals are an integral part of Thailand’s regulatory framework for digital tokens. To sell tokens to the public, the seller must obtain approval from the SEC and the tokens must be sold through an SEC-approved ICO portal. Thailand now has three ICO portals, but no ICO issuer has been approved so far.

In addition, the Thai SEC maintains two lists of “website, tokens, and coins the SEC has advised the public to be careful with any investment solicitations of such entities,” the commission detailed. The first list is for “digital tokens which have not applied or granted approval for offerings.” It comprises 21 names including Onecoin by OFC coin​, ​​DB token, ICO by Adventure Hostel Bangkok​, and ​Muay Thai coin. The other list is for “persons and websites relating to digital assets which have not been licensed.” There are currently 18 entries on the list, including ​Q Exchange​, a joint venture between Thai and South Korean companies.

Follow-Up Crypto Regulation

The Thai government’s Fiscal Policy Office has published the SEC’s follow-up regulation entitled “Rules, Conditions, and Procedures for Digital Asset Businesses.” It will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2020.

Among the rules set forth in this document is the capital requirements for digital asset businesses. For example, operators holding customer assets must generally maintain daily liquid capital of at least 15 million baht [~$485,572] and at least 5% of the customer’s asset value. The percentage requirement is lower if some of the assets are kept in cold storage. Digital asset exchanges that do not hold customer assets must maintain capital of at least 5 million baht.

Thailand enacted two royal decrees to regulate crypto assets on May 14 last year — the Royal Decree on the Digital Asset Businesses B.E. 2561 and the Royal Decree of the Amendment to the Revenue Code. The latter imposes levies on income derived from cryptocurrency and digital tokens. Prior to any token offerings, the issuers must obtain approval from the SEC and “the registration statement and draft prospectus shall be filed with the SEC office,” the government explained.

In March, the Thai SEC announced that four cryptocurrencies had been approved: BTC, ETH, XRP, and XLM. They can be legally used for investments in ICOs and as base trading pairs against other cryptocurrencies. This list replaces the previous one announced in June last year. However, approval does not make these coins legal tender, the regulator clarified.

Sunisa Thamphiban, Assistant Director of the Legal and Development Department at the Thai SEC, emphasized at a public seminar on July 11 that “the Digital Asset Act” aims to “supervise the middleman that will act as an intermediary in the exchange of digital assets.” She elaborated that they must comply with all of the requirements set by the SEC and the Office of the Anti-Money Laundering Committee in order to “prevent the use of digital assets for money laundering.”

What do you think of the way Thailand regulates cryptocurrency? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock.

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The post Thailand Approves 4 New Cryptocurrency Service Providers appeared first on Bitcoin News.

READ MORE http://bit.ly/2lbbipm

[tangledwing]

Longroot smartweed (Persicaria amphibia), water knotweed or water smartweed is a species of flowering plant in the knotweed family Polygonaceae. Plants may have bisexual or unisexual flowers, with some plants bearing only male or only female flowers. Various parts of this plant were used by several Native American groups as medicinal remedies and sometimes as food.

[ante-roomfuk]

Repost from @takeshi_ara @TopRankRepost #TopRankRepost 【LongRoot ALEと・・・】 本日は、おつまみ付きですよ〜 #anteroom #patagonia #longrootale #fukuoka #imaizumi #longroot#yamazaki #ランチパック #ラスク ランチパックを作る時にできるパンの🍞耳をラスクにするというコンセプトに惹かれました🙇 (Anteroom)

[the-nerdseye-view]

Last Name Inspiration: L

Real:

Labelle: French; meaning “fair, good-looking”

Laberenz: German; meaning “Lorenz”

Labriola: Italian; location

Lachance: French meaning “chance, luck”

Lacy: English; derived from a town in Normandy

Lager: Swedish; meaning “laurel”

Lagomarsino: Italian; meaning “green lizard”

Lahti: Finish; meaning “bay, cove”

Lam: Chinese; form of Lin

Landvik: Norwegian; meaning “land and bay”

Lane: English/Irish

Langer: German/Jewish; form of Long

Langley: English; meaning “woodland, clearing”

Larsen: Danish; meaning “son of Lars”

Laszlo: Hungarian; meaning “rule”

Laurent: French; meaning “laurel”

Law: English; meaning “hill”

Lazzari: Italian; meaning “son of Lazzaro”

Leary: Irish

Leblanc: French; meaning “the white”

Leclair: French; meaning “bright”

Lee: English/Chinese/Korean

Lennox: Scottish district

Leon: French/English; meaning “lion”

Leroy: French; meaning “the king”

Li: Chinese; meaning “plum” or “black” or referring to a place

Lin: Chinese; meaning “forest”

Lindholm: Swedish; meaning “lime tree + islet”

Lindquist: Swedish; “tree + twig”

Linna: Finnish; meaning “castle”

Lippi: Italian; from the name “Filippo”

Lis: Polish; meaning “fox”

Lithgow: Scottish; meaning “damp, hollow”

Little: English

Lloyd: Welsh; meaning “grey”

Lockwood: English; meaning “enclosure forest”

Loncar: Serbian/Slovene; meaning “potter”

Loritz: German; meaning “laurel”

Love: English

Lovell: English; meaning “wolf”

Lu: Chinese; meaning “musical note”

Lusk: Scottish; meaning “cave”

Lykke: Danish; meaning “happy”

Created/Fantasy

Lightbrew

Lightbringer

Lightmore

Lightshaper

Lightsong

Lionblade

Lioncaller

Lionforce

Lionmore

Lionseeker

Lionsinger

Lionvigot

Lonebear

Loneclaw

Loneeagle

Longleaf

Longroot

Longspear

Lowshadow

Lowshine

Lowwoods

Lowwound

Lunalight

Lunasong

Lunatide

[ciathyzareposts]

The Two Towers: Bored of the Rings

The Ringbearer hasn’t left the same perilous countryside since the game began.

         Lord of the Rings, Vol. II simply doesn’t work. I’m sorry to have reached that conclusion. I had enjoyed the first game well enough and had been looking forward to the sequel, even though I knew there would be no Vol. III. Now I feel that if Interplay was going to leave fans hanging, they should have left them hanging after Vol. I instead of proceeding with this lackluster title.

The yanking around from party to party got worse–laughably worse–after the last session. I began this session with Frodo and Sam, and I’d barely done more than wander through the marsh for five minutes and fight one battle with some orcs, when the game decided it was time to switch the action to Edoras. There, Aragorn et. al. did nothing more than approach the gates of the city before we were off to check in on Merry and Pippin. Then, for some reason, those two had an absurdly long session, ignoring several obvious transition points, culminating in the destruction of Isengard by the Ents. It feels like their story is over before Frodo even got near the Black Gate.

        One of my three parties now has nothing to do but wait.

       But the problems with Vol. II run much deeper than that. It’s core problem is that it is satisfying neither as a Lord of the Rings game nor a standard RPG. If you were a fan of the original books, I can’t imagine that you’d find this game a good representation. The characters are mute and bereft of any personality. Epic moments are rendered in banal, bloodless manual text or on-screen exposition. The little side quests that the developers threw in to lengthen the plot and make it more like a standard RPG simply slow down and confuse the main story.

Even worse–and I don’t often criticize games on these grounds–the graphics fail to evoke any sense of the kind of awe and wonder you should feel when exploring Middle Earth, running up against its most famous landmarks, and meeting its most famous denizens. I wasn’t one of them, but I can imagine a Lord of the Rings fan, having read the book umpteen times, conceiving in his imagination “the green shoulders of the hills” and the “wide wind-swept walls and the gates of Edoras.” Let’s recall how Tolkien describes the Black Gate:

            This was Cirith Gorgor, the Haunted Pass, the entrance to the land of the Enemy. High cliffs lowered upon either side, and thrust forward from its mouth were two sheer hills, black-boned and bare. Upon them stood the Teeth of Mordor, two towers strong and tall. In days long past they were built by the Men of Gondor in their pride and power, after the overthrow of Sauron and his flight, lest he should seek to return to his old realm. But the strength of Gondor failed, and men slept, and for long years the towers stood empty. Then Sauron returned. Now the watch-towers, which had fallen into decay, were repaired, and filled with arms, and garrisoned with ceaseless vigilance. Stony-faced they were, with dark window-holes staring north and east and west, and each window was full of sleepless eyes.

Across the mouth of the pass, from cliff to cliff, the Dark Lord had built a rampart of stone. In it there was a single gate of iron, and upon its battlement sentinels paced unceasingly. Beneath the hills on either side the rock was bored into a hundred caves and maggot-holes: there a host of orcs lurked, ready at a signal to issue forth like black ants going to war. None could pass the Teeth of Mordor and not feel their bite, unless they were summoned by Sauron, or knew the secret passwords that would open the Morannon, the black gate of his land.

             Even I, as a non-fan, have to admit that this is pretty powerful stuff. And here is the Black Gate in-game:

          One of the two Teeth. There’s a mirror about one screen to the east.

          Say what you want about the recent Shadow of Mordor/Shadow of War series, but at least they did (in my opinion) graphical justice to the setting. Here, no matter what Tolkien intended, the architectural style favored by the game for just about every building is “aluminum airplane hangar.” The setting’s most fearsome foes and most majestic allies are impressive in neither icon nor portrait. 

         Every building looks like the same temporary shelter with no door.

         As an RPG, meanwhile, the game fails in almost every category. Character development occurs solely at plot intervals and is remarkably impalpable. The skills system, by which characters can actively use certain skills and attributes, goes back to Wasteland but is ill-used here. Among the individuals in each party, you never lack the necessary skill, and it’s always perfectly obvious where to use it. It might as well have happened automatically. The basic equipment list is unexciting, and the combat system–by which you select “attack” and choose from a list of indistinguishable foes–is even less so.

          The game’s relatively boring inventory system.

         Many of these problems were present in Vol. I, too, so you will naturally wonder how I can justify giving that game a relatively high score and a positive review. To be fair, I did levy some of the same criticisms about how the game fared as an RPG, but beyond that . . . I don’t know . . . the game just somehow felt fresher. I recognized that it wasn’t perfect, but it was doing something new and original and I was more willing to give it a chance. I expected the developers to have learned some lessons between Vol. I and Vol. II and thus have corrected some of the engine’s weaknesses. If anything, they went backwards.

The lack of cut scenes is a particular blow. The first game had some original artwork at set intervals that served to keep the characters’ personalities embedded in your mind, and that kept you on track with the source material. (The remake replaced this artwork with scenes from the Ralph Bakshi film, which I liked less, but was still better than nothing.) The fall of Isengard ought to command more than a single paragraph of exposition next to a couple of goofy little icons that are supposed to be Ents.

Feeling as I do, I was going to try to push through to the end of the game for this entry, but I didn’t quite make it. Perhaps I didn’t even come close–I have no idea how this game is going to stretch and warp the book’s events. I’ll recap the progress of the characters, but to avoid exposing you to the same constantly-jarring changes in perspective that I experienced, I’ll just relate each group in turn.

Frodo, Sam, Gollum, and Gilglin started at the edge of the Dead Marshes, essentially where they’d started the game 7 hours prior. They’d had the vampire interlude and were looking for something called the “star ruby” before making their way to (or past) the Black Gate. Gollum warned us not to follow the lights in the marsh (I wonder what would have happened if we’d never enlisted him).

           “Do not follow the lights. They lead to . . . [hiss] . . . Cleveland.”

         Systematically exploring the marshes, we soon fell into a barrow in the ground and met an elf named Nendol. He had sworn to never leave the side of a Numenorean named Vorondur who had saved him in combat–a vow that he soon regretted when Vorondur was cursed by undeath and sentenced to wander the marshes as a shade. Nendol asked if I might be able to release him.

We climbed out of the barrow but soon fell into another one where a ghost, in exchange for some rations (which he mimed eating), allowed us to take the Star Ruby. Back at the vampire’s tower, the Star Ruby banished the undead who wanted it. I think it probably would have helped me against the vampire, but who explores the map in such an erratic fashion that they’d find the ruby first? 

          A magic ruby for some Lembas bread that you can’t even eat. Seems fair.

         We found a group of ghosts hanging out in the marshes, and one of them was Vorondur. Since we had already killed the vampire and received the “spirit key,” all we had to do was give it to Vorondur, and he and the other ghosts were able to pass on. Nendol rewarded us with a dagger, some food, a prybar, a shovel, and leather armor. This was good since Gilglin had joined us with no equipment and had had been beating orcs with his fists.

             This was a fun encounter, but some bug put the text all over the place.

          We finally made our way through the marshes and south to the Black Gate. There was one encounter where we had to hide from some passing orcs using the “Sneak” skill. As we approached the gate itself, Gollum gave his canonical speech about we’ll all die that way and he can show us a secret path instead. Just for fun, I pressed forward and got a scripted ending. Reloading, I followed Gollum’s directions, and Frodo’s part of the adventure ended as he crossed the border into Ithilien.

            West of the sea, everything’s cool.

           Merry, Pippin, and their two Ent friends resumed their adventures in Fangorn Forest. They had been tasked with finding two Ents–Leaflock and Skinbark–and watering them so they could rouse themselves and get to the Entmoot. I already knew their locations, and my travel was facilitated by the wandering Ent named Longroot, who will carry the party from place to place if they’re lucky enough to encounter him. Leaflock and Skinbark both responded to Entwater, and both gave the party some kind of password to use, although there was never a place that I used them. I also don’t think I fully explored the ruins or solved the quest involving the seed and the Entwash source. Oh, well.

Back at the Entmoot, the Ents agreed to march on Isengard, and action transitioned to the next map, with Treebeard joining the party (now composed of more Ents than hobbits). Rather than head directly for the fortress, I steered them around the edges and through a mountain pass that led to a village of Dunlendings. They demanded that we leave the village, and when we refused, they attacked us in force and slaughtered us.

           To be fair, they are marching to Isengard, not Dunland.

           On a reload, I went directly to Isengard. As we approached the gates, we got a textual notice that orcs and men were emptying the fortress, marching off to war somewhere, leaving a skeleton force behind.

Since the party had prematurely cleared out a couple of battles in the previous session, we had an easy time on this visit. After a single battle against a few orcs, the game informed me that the Ents were destroying the fortress, Saruman was in hiding, and there wasn’t anything left for Merry and Pippin to do but go wait by the gatehouse for the rest of the Fellowship to show up. I don’t know how the book is paced, but this seemed an awfully early ending to this thread.

           The film version was slightly more epic.

          Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas, and Gandalf had barely set foot into Rohan before they were set upon by a band of Rohirrim and escorted to Edoras. Most of the buildings were empty, the occupants fled, so the party made its way to the Golden Hall. There, as in the book, Hama insisted that we divest our weapons, but he grudgingly allowed Gandalf to keep his staff. I had to play this encounter twice because the first time, I didn’t realize that Gandalf’s “Glamdring” was a sword, not a ring, and I didn’t drop it before entering the hall.

          This felt wrong, and it turned out it was wrong.

          Inside the hall, the dialogue between Gandalf, Grima Wormtongue, and the possessed Theoden played out as in the book. When it was over, I used Gandalf’s staff, Theoden returned to his senses, and Grima fled the hall.

             Paraphrased dialogue from the book.

           In a divergence from the book, it now transpired that Grima and his allies had set traps all around the multi-leveled Golden Hall, and somewhere had secreted three ancient artifacts: Helm’s Horn, the Cup of Rohan, a bridle, and a scepter. Some prophecy said that Rohan’s armies would never be successful lacking these items, so we had to find them before anyone would ride to war. The party had to wander the rooms and corners of the four levels, using “Perception” and “Disarm Trap” frequently, until we recovered all items. (Some notes in a box that Grima left behind gave us clues as to where to find the items.) There was one battle with a spider in the basement. 

            Finding the bridle.

         When we found the scepter in the attic, Saruman oddly appeared and attacked us. We exchanged a few blows and then he disappeared. I don’t know what that was about.

          That was briefly satisfying.

        We briefly met Eowyn in one of the bedrooms and recovered Theoden’s sword, Herugrim, in another, although oddly the game wouldn’t let us give it to him. A found note gave a clue as to a side-quest: Saruman had tasked Grima with finding some magical gauntlets near Helm’s Deep. We looted some magic armor and a magic sword from the armory, which turned out to be fortunate because when we left the Golden Hall, the game said that Grima had stolen Anduril in his flight.

    I’m surprised that Eowyn won’t join the party. Shoot–maybe I didn’t try.

               When the party left the hall, the Rohirrim were yelling things like “For the Mark!” and “Forth Eorlingas!,” so I assume they’re on the move. I end this session with Aragorn and company exploring the area surrounding Edoras to see if they can recover Anduril and/or meet up with the hobbits at Isengard.

           Is Anduril even supposed to be reforged yet?

         Having not made it past the first 40% of Lord of the Rings, I’m extremely fuzzy on where this installment is likely to end. (Fuzzy and slightly curious; in fact, vague curiosity about how this game ends is really all I have left to look forward to.) I think I remember someone telling me that the film of The Two Towers ends well before its point in the book, but I could be wrong. As far as I know, Merry and Pippin have nothing left to do. Aragorn and his party still have to go to Helm’s Deep, which I assume will be the climax of the game.” As for Frodo and Sam, I suspect they need to meet Faramir (though I understand events play out very different in the book than in the films) and then find the secret tunnel. Will they run into Shelob? I guess we’ll soon see. One more entry should do it.

Time so far: 12 hours

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/the-two-towers-bored-of-the-rings/

[ciathyzareposts]

The Two Towers: A Decent Percentage of Those Who Wander Are, in Fact, Lost

Well, that’s helpful.

             We haven’t had many games that support multiple parties adventuring at the same time, and each has handled the notion a slightly different way, depending on the reasons for the separation. For instance, some games support multiple players operating simultaneously, either cooperatively or competitively, such as the Stuart Smith titles, Swords of Glass (1986), and Bloodwych (1989). In contrast, Ultima VI‘s ability to send an individual party member off on his own was more a matter of expedience in exploration and combat. In some games, you need multiple independent parties to solve puzzles–a dynamic we saw in The Magic Candle (1989) and Fate: Gates of Dawn (1991) .

The Two Towers is the first game to require multiple parties solely for fidelity to the narrative. It is also the first in which parties, by design, can never meet. They can’t swap equipment, can’t help each other out, can’t arrange party members in the ways that makes the most sense given the nature of the area and the enemies that they face. I realize why this had to happen to preserve the link to the source material, but given the number of narrative fancies the game manages to introduce within each section, one wonders why they couldn’t have taken the same laissez-faire attitude to the story as a whole.

         Frodo’s “lore” skill comes through.

           When I started the game, I thought that the action would switch only between two parties: Aragorn’s and Frodo’s. It turns out there are three. The game actually found enough for Merry and Pippin to do in Fangorn Forest (most of it non-canonical, of course). Three parties is too much to juggle. Maybe it changes later, but playing the game in its first few sessions is like playing three separate games with the same engine, and no control over switching among them. The game’s abrupt and arbitrary movement among the parties makes it easy to forget what one party was doing before it was so rudely interrupted. I’m not enjoying that aspect.

(Note: if you’re already lost because you don’t know anything about the source material, I’m afraid this entry is going to be rough on you. It’s hard enough to explain all the deviations without explaining the original text, too. I recommend at least watching the film trilogy to get a sense of the original characters.)

The last session had ended when the action abruptly left Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas and cut to Frodo and Sam, on the other side of the river that I originally thought was the Isen but now know to be the Anduin. Knowing that I had to eventually go south into the Dead Marshes, I began exploring in east-west strips between the river to the west and some mountains to the east. 

             Gollum meekly joins the party.

           The area was quite wide. I had to climb down several tiers of cliffs (using the “Climb” skill) in the opening stages. In between two sets of cliffs, I ran into Gollum. I expected some sound and fury from the encounter, but instead a simple use of the elven rope enlisted him into the party. There were no heated words from Sam. In general, party members in this game don’t speak to each other very much, which of course is a notable change from the original story.

At the base of the cliffs, we found a small hut with a hostile man named Beredu inside. He yelled us not to enter, then yelled at us when we entered anyway, then attacked us when we didn’t leave. We killed him. He had nothing. It didn’t seem like an encounter that was supposed to go that way, but I’ve decided to just roll with everything in this game.

            Gollum, you may be strong and crafty, but don’t go up against the completionist tendencies of the computer RPG player. You’ll lose every time.

          Moving on, we came to a three-story structure that turned out to be owned by a vampire. The attic offered combat with some bats and nothing else. The main floor had a room with a bubbling cauldron where we freed some souls and got a casting of ELBERETH in return. The basement had four sarcophaguses, one of which held a spirit that asked me for the Star Ruby of Gondor, which he said I’d find in a sinkhole out in the marshes.

             I have a bad feeling about this.

         In the middle of the room was an obelisk that sucked us in to an area of darkness, and the vampire attacked. I wouldn’t have thought two hobbits and Gollum would be very effective against a vampire, but we killed him in a few rounds.

           Does Frodo canonically kill anything in the books? I don’t think he does in the films.

         Afterward, we found an elf named Gilglin lurking around the corner of the basement, overcome with ennui. I can’t remember exactly what I did to rouse him–I remember running through all my skills–but he eventually livened up and joined the party. I assume he’s original to the game. The newly-bolstered party had just wandered out the front door of the vampire’s keep and started wading through the marshes when action suddenly shifted to Merry and Pippin in Fangorn Forest.

              A momentous choice.

           Fangorn was a large maze. We soon encountered an Ent named Longroot who offered to take us around. When we asked about Treebeard (which I guess was a bit of a cheat), Longroot offered to take us to him, and we accepted. Treebeard had a bit of introductory dialogue before he took us to some part of the forest called Wellinghall. When we spoke to him about Saruman, he agreed that the wizard must be stopped and summoned the Entmoot.

             Part of the maze of Fangorn.

        The game gave us the option to wait around for the Ents to come to their decision or explore the forest. I decided to explore. Treebeard warned us about evil living trees called “huorns,” but he said they’d leave us alone if we had an Ent in the party, and he gave us one of the “hastier” Ents, called Quickbeam. (The adorable little icon looks more like Baby Groot than the Ents from the flms.) As we explored the forest, we had repeated notes that Quickbeam’s presence kept huorns and perhaps other creatures from attacking.

             What do you want? A cookie?

          It didn’t stop anything else from attacking, though. For a fairly weak party, Merry and Pippin were assailed far more than the two previous groups, mostly by orcs and uruks, and soon their health was at the minimum. Fortunately, Quickbeam had strong attacks and a lot of hit points, and I was able to use him as a tank in most encounters.

The health system hasn’t changed since Vol. I, and it’s a bit weird. While there are some items that provide minor amounts of healing (e.g., eating rations restores a couple of hit points), healing occurs more often by plot point than by player choice. The initial pool of hit points is expected to last for long intervals.

Characters get knocked unconscious if their hit points drop below 6, after which they lose 1 hit point per round until they die or combat is over. But if they don’t die, they “wake up” with 6 hit points and are good to go. For a lot of Merry and Pippin’s session, they remained on the edge like this, lasting only a couple of rounds at the beginnings of combats, but waking up slightly healed after Quickbeam had wrapped things up.

             In battle with some orcs.

         There were a lot of side areas and side-quests in Fangorn. One confusing questline seemed to ask the party to find the source of the “Entwash,” a river that runs to the south of Fangorn and feeds into the Anduin. Some of the Ents I found were inert, and I needed water from the Entwash to revive them. I also needed Entwash water to hydrate a small seed that an elven ghost (Linandel, if that means anything to you fans) wanted me to plant somewhere. In any event, while exploring I ran into an Ent guarding a cache of Entwash water, so I think the whole business about finding the source turned moot.

The forest was full of (I suspect) non-canonical Ents–Greenroot, Longroot, Skinbark, Leaflock–who provided a variety of hints. I rescued some of them from orcs, who had apparently been tasked by Sarumon to chop down as many trees as possible. Eventually, one of them joined us–a young Ent named Twiglate who we saved from a forest fire. That was late in the session, though; I could have used him a lot earlier.

               And the two hobbits will survive a few more battles.

           On the west side of Fangorn, we found an orc encampment of several buildings and multiple battles. Merry and Pippin got some chainmail and shields (they had started with just barrow daggers), so that helped a bit. On the north side of the camp, a tunnel went into the mountains and we found ourselves in a fairly large dungeon. I probably need to cover it more next time because I don’t think I fully finished it this time. The opening room had some large trees, “parched husks,” that we’re clearly meant to do something with, but the obvious solutions (such as giving them water) don’t work. There’s also a large obelisk that I can’t figure out anything to do with and a silver door that I can’t open.

           Saruman has parties of orcs everywhere trying to find us, and we’re in his basement stealing his tobacco.

            Past the obelisk, a tunnel took us to an adjacent cellar full of storerooms with rations and pipeweed and other supplies. Emerging up from this cellar, we were surprised to find ourselves on the main level of Isengard, and two difficult battles with uruks and Dunlendings. Clearly, we were extremely far afield at this point, so it was a slight mercy when, while exploring the edges of the area, the game intervened to tell us we’d gone too far, and warped us back to Fangorn. 

           So “free will” isn’t much of a thing in this setting, huh?

          Merry and Pippin’s session ended when we returned to the Entmoot. Treebeard told us that a couple of Ents hadn’t shown up and asked us to go rouse them. I suspect they both need Entwash water, and I’m pretty sure I already hydrated one of them. Treebeard also gave us a “spell” of sorts that would summon Ents to help us in combat, something we really could have used for the bulk of this session. (Perhaps I was meant to wait out the Entmoot rather than explore while it was deliberating.) Anyway, the game didn’t give me a chance to find the Ents or try out the new spell. It abruptly returned the focus to Aragorn’s party instead.

My time with Aragorn his group–which included the recovered Gandalf–was mostly spent cleaning up quests discovered in the first session. The primary one was to satisfy the “weregild” set by the survivors of the ruined town of Estemnet. The leader of the town had wanted me to find her husband’s sword, her son, and a bag of gold stolen from the town.

The latter two were both found on the edges of Fangorn on the north side of the map. In one clearing, I found the “youth” (although he’s depicted as a middle-aged man with a mustache), Harding, fighting orcs alongside a woman named Folwyn. We helped them out and they joined the party. The bag of gold was in another clearing.

            I suppose that if we were role-playing an “evil” fellowship, we could have just watched him die.

            The main orc encampment was in the middle of a burned section of forest. Every time I entered, the game told me that there were too many of them and gave me a chance to take about one action before they attacked and we met a scripted ending. I attempted various skills during that brief pause and finally hit the solution with “Sneak.” This caused the main body of orcs to drain away, and we were able to set an ambush for the remaining ones. When the dust cleared, we found the sword on the leader’s body.

           I just don’t understand why one character’s “Sneak” skill can hide the entire party.

             Harding and Folwyn left us when we returned to Estemnet and delivered the items. The leader, Leofyn, promised that the survivors would try to clear orcs from the land. I’m not sure what that does for me, but perhaps it results in fewer random encounters.

               You’re  glass-half-empty sort of woman, aren’t you?

          Next, we solved the puzzle of the corrupted mearas pool by attacking the orcs’ altar at night, releasing a bunch of barrow wights, and killing them. Nearby, a local resident named Heof told us that to finish purifying the pool, we would need to get one of the mearas to drink from it. I don’t know why Gandalf is incapable of summoning Shadowfax at the moment, but our solution was to find one to the southeast of the pool and lead him to the pool. 

              “…which, admittedly, wasn’t that long ago.”

             At that point, before we could even take steps towards Edoras and the next stage of our quest, the game yanked us back to Frodo, Sam, Gollum, and Gilglin, who I hope is non-canonical because his name sounds a lot like “Gilligan.”

                 We’re back with the Ringbearer. But for how long?

            Aside from all the chain-jerking between parties, the one thing that really annoys me about this game is that despite decent graphics, it fails to visually depict important environmental features. It tells us about a tunnel into the mountains rather than showing us. We wander into what looks like an empty building but suddenly get a message that there are orcs all around us (and then, of course, they visually appear just in time for combat). The evil altar on the north side of the mearas pond doesn’t appear until we first get a message telling us about it. NPCs show up suddenly in the middle of blank grassland. Too much, in short, depends on the party deciding to walk into what otherwise looks like empty areas, rather than seeing something interesting graphically and saying, “Hey, let’s go check that out.”

             How did we get this far into the building before noticing a “group of angry orcs”?

Neither that shrine nor those wights were visible until we walked upon the right set of pixels.

             But it’s early, and the game may yet have some surprises. I look forward to seeing how it handles certain plot elements while also wondering how it justifies, say, the ability to freely explore Isengard.

          Time so far: 7 hours

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/the-two-towers-a-decent-percentage-of-those-who-wander-are-in-fact-lost/