LotRO: Proposition for new zone: Mirkwood, Heart of the Forest

We had a glimpse of Mirkwood with the Siege of Mirkwood expansion. But even though I liked to quest there, the Mirkwood in game is not what is described in „The Hobbit“.

It is not completely braking the lore of the books, as it can be argued, that the presence of the Lieutenant and his rabble have reduced the power of the forest somewhat. So what do we know?

Beorn speaks about a river which is „black and strong“ and „crosses the path. He warns „neither drink of, nor bath in“ it as it as it „carries enchantment and a great drowsiness and forgetfulness“. Perfect bounder border of a zone!

„By the afternoon they had reached the eaves of Mirkwood, and were resting almost beneath the great overhanging boughs of its outer trees. Their trunks were huge and gnarled, their branches twisted, their leaves were dark and long. Ivy grew on them and trailed along the ground.“

There seem to be few things alive in the heart of the forest. Bilbo describes some black squirrels, some moths that come to the fire at night, the elves and the spiders. I doubt that the elves would wander that far south, so I would not add them to this zone.

I do want this zone to be distinct from any other zone. Lets see how: There will be no horse-routes, no camps to fast-travel, no milestones and no quest-hubs with pesky elves or humans. There will be no killing of mobs, at least not anywhere near the scale of the other zones.

The spiders are different from other spiders we met. They talk! Besides Mirkwood which is some kind of entity, spiders are the only intelligent denizens of the forest.

When we can’t kill a lot of monsters, what is there to do? Exploring, recovering, surviving and some very selective killing is my proposition.

The adventure into Mirkwood starts with a letter where Fuirgam in Emyn Lûm asks for your aid. Probably after some minor quests, he sends you to Echad Sirion where you can take the boat to Gladden Fields. I will write more about the zone Gladden Fields in a later post.

For now we only need to know that there is a small settlement with some preliminary quests into Mirkwood, heart of the forest.

The first quest is to rescue a young woodworker whose return from the forest is overdue. Mirkwood is an instance. I want it to be different every time you enter. Lhaid Ogo, the instance in Volume 3, Book 3, Chapter 4, is a hint in the right direction, but of course far too small.

Some big trees, which can be climbed are always at the same place and work as a marker and a resting-place. But the paths to those trees will change every time you enter.

The first time you enter, a countdown starts. If you are on your own and don’t use any special skills or reach on of the trees, you have three minutes to explore the forest. If the time expires before you are out of the forest or at a safe place, you fall in a endless sleep and are automatically rescued by some npcs. After some minutes of dread, you can retry again.

When you find the first tree, ten seconds are added to your counter (as you have learned to cope better with the dread of the forest). Each tree gives this reward only a certain amount of times and the closer the tree is to the Gladden Fields, the fewer time you get this bonus.

The three trees closest to Gladden Fields give this reward three times, so if you have found each of these trees for three times, you get three more minutes before you fall to the forest (three times ten seconds per tree is thirty seconds per tree, is ninety seconds for all three trees plus a bonus of ninety seconds for deed completion).

The next three trees are further in. A second counter starts. To reach the second line of trees, you get an other three minutes. The same rules as with the first trees apply. So for every new found tree, you get an other ten seconds, again with all the bonuses for the second trees, you get an other six minutes to reach them.

What changes is that if you travel on your own, you have only half the time. While it is not impossible to reach the second trees on your own, it will not happen a lot. So bring a friend or two to reach the second set of trees. But remember, the chain breaks at the weakest link. So if one member of your band of three has never been into the forest, you only have three minutes to reach the first trees.

The third set of trees need a full fellowship to get to. If you have completed the deed (reach all the trees of the different lines three times) you get after entering Mirkwood the option to travel to the central of those trees. This only applies, if everyone in your group (if grouped up) has finished that deed.

What kind of loot is there? The further in, the better it is. The borders of the forest mostly have been cleared over the years, but deep inside, there still can be hidden treasures.

Remember, the shadow of Sauron corrupted the forest and there might still be caves and homes the Sindarin Elves left when they fled the shadows. In such caves or ruins, there is room for some classical instances.

I did mention skills. Some skills, like the Irresistible Melody or the Call to Greatness does add some time to the counter. The Minstrel and the Captain have the most skills to help the group. Food and beer also help to raise the spirit and stay longer inside Mirkwood. And smoking pipe-weed has some relaxing effects as well.

Back to the spiders. I don’t see the spiders as purely evil. Living in such an unpleasant environment has some negative effect on ones character. Remember, „when they roasted it, it proved horrible to taste, and they shot no more squirrels.“ So befriending a spider could be beneficial too. Spiders seem not to have that much interest in gold and treasure and might be willing to trade some for raw meat or livestock.

It is also very possible, that the spiders are in conflict with the evil dwelling in the elven ruins and caves as well as with scouts from Dol Guldur. Again, I don’t want this to be just an other zone with some quest-hubs, but this doesn't mean that there are no quests to be found.

Making this zone instanced will make the loneliness believable when you don’t see other people doing their quests all the time.