Like the Bree-land deed The History of the Dúnedain, Ered Luin has the deed Elf-Ruins Exploration which you can complete by visiting several areas representing ancient abodes of the Elves in the area. For completing this deed you will receive the Virtue Trait Wisdom+1.

• Nen Hilith (29.4S, 95.2W)
• Tham Gelair (27.5S, 94.4W)
• Limael’s Vineyard (26.2S, 95.9W)
• Dol Ringwest (24.9S, 95.0W)
• The Wardspire (17.8S, 90.1W)

To help find these locations, the direct link to the Middle Earth HQ map of Ered Luin is here.

Lore: The Blue Mountains

From Wikipedia entry on Ered Luin:

“The mountain range was broken during the war of the Valar against Morgoth, and at the middle of the range the sea broke through, creating a new terminus for the river Lhûn. In the middle of the gap, where the Lhûn met the sea, the Grey Havens of Mithlond of the Elven Kingdom of Lindon were built. When seen as the border of Lindon the Ered Luin were called Ered Lindon.”

From lotro.com’s Points of Interest:

“Hundreds of years before the events of The Lord of the Rings, the Elves of Lindon founded a refuge upon the slopes of Ered Luin, where wood for the White Ships was gathered and elven wine was made. Edhelion, it was called, and it was a place of contemplation and peace . . . until Skorgrím Dourhand, an evil Dwarf-lord descended from the kings who once ruled the long-ruined kingdoms of the Blue Mountains, led his people, allied with goblins and trolls, against this elven refuge”

One of the more sought-after titles in LOTRO, “Shire Brew-Master,” is a lot easier to get than most people think. Well, it’s not that easy … but at least you don’t have to dodge any Hungry Hobbits.

In order to gain this title you must complete a quest at each of the Shire’s five pubs:

• The Bird and Baby – Collect the Yellowed Recipe for Carlo Blagrove, innkeeper of The Bird and Baby. The Yellowed Recipe is located on a shelf in the library of the Great Smials in Tuckborough.

• The Floating Log – Ponto Hopsbloom has asked you to pick 12 Frog Hops for his famous beer. Frog Hops grow all over the marsh north of Frogmorton and look like white flowers. Simply pick 12 of them and return to Hopsbloom.

• The Golden Perch - Gunderic Grubb has sent you to search the brigand camp Narrowcleeve for his missing package of yeast. Narrowcleeve is located in the hills south of Woodhall, about mid-way between Tuckborough and Farmer Maggot’s farm. The yeast is located in the second encampment on the right-hand side near a lone Brigand Boss (35.1S, 66.9W).

• The Green Dragon – Barmy Rootknot, the assistant innkeeper at The Green Dragon Inn, has sent you off in search of a lost brandy-barrel. It is located in Lob’s Grove at the base of a pillar (26.8S, 71.8W).

• The Plough and Stars – Halson Tubwort has asked you to collect his powdered gypsum from a cart waylaid by goblins north of Brockenborings. After leaving the pub you must speak to Wilcome Tunnelly (27.6S, 66.4W) at the quarry. The gypsum is in a cart (24.8S, 66.9W) just inside the goblin area in the northeast corner of Greenfields.

Once you have completed these five tasks you will be able to let everyone know that just because you like your beer, you’re no lazy Hobbit!

She sets you off on a mad dash to distribute her pies across the Shire. In return you will receive the Virtue Trait Patience +1, along with Hornblower’s Pie Recipe, a sample Hornblower’s Pie and the title “Pie-runner” which will let everyone know that you are Holly’s b… est friend.

The Spoiled Pie Quests run along the same lines as the Postal Quests: pick up spoiled pies at the 12 locations below and run back to Holly, all the while avoiding water, dangerous beasts and Hungry Hobbits.

The Quests:

• Pie for the Green Dragon (ending at 31.8S, 69.4W) Deliver Holly Hornblower’s pie to Gerd Whitfoot in the Green Dragon Inn in Bywater.

• Lobelia’s Pie (ending at 29.4S, 71.3W) Holly Hornblower wants you to take Lobelia’s pie to Opal at the Party Field then speak to Lobelia Sackville-Baggins.

• No Place for Spoiled Pies (with starting locs) Holly Hornblower wants you bring all the spoiled pies back to her in Hobbiton-Bywater.
  1. Spoiled Pie from Little Delving (32.0S, 76.6W)
  2. Spoiled Pie from Michel Delving (34.1S, 75.1W)
  3. Spoiled Pie from Bywater (31.8S, 69.4W)
  4. Spoiled Pie from the Party Field (29.6S, 71.6W)
  5. Spoiled Pie from Needlehole (28.1S, 75.9W)
  6. Spoiled Pie from Tuckborough (33.5S, 70.9W)
  7. Spoiled Pie from Budgeford (31.1S, 65.4W)
  8. Spoiled Pie from Frogmorton (31.2S, 52.5W)
  9. Spoiled Pie from Stock (32.1S, 63.7W)
  10. Spoiled Pie from Woodhall (33.3S, 65.6W)
  11. Spoiled Pie from Brockenborings (31.2S, 52.5W)
  12. Spoiled Pie from Scary (27.8S, 66.4W)

• A True Friend of Holly Hornblower (31.2S, 71.1W) You have run all over the Shire helping to return spoiled pies to Holly Hornblower – no small feat! Talk to her for your reward.

These quests are another of Turbine’s awesome Hobbit quest chains which take skill and luck but don’t require you to kill anything. A bonus for parents who want to play LOTRO with their children, but are afraid of the constant kill-kill-kill action typical to RPGs and for players who are just a little tired of killing rats for fun.

There are 13(+1) Postal Quests that comprise Restoring the Quick Post. They are all essentially the same quest, but because of the Shire’s geography they all take different amounts of skill and luck. To complete them you must grab a satchel of mail from the table of the Postman you just accepted the quest from. Then RUN!

As soon as you pick up the bag, a you will see a timer on your screen – you must carry the bag of mail to the next Postman within that time. And you can’t take damage or fall in the water along the way. Did I mention to watch out for the Nosey Hobbits? Fortunately they show up on your mini-map so you can easily avoid them.

So what do you get for completing these quests other than a 90 copper tip? By completing the main 13 quests you will earn the Virtue Trait Patience +1. And by capping those 13 quests off with a trip to Postmaster Proudfoot in Michel Delving you will also get the Postmaster’s Cloak and the title “of the Quick Post” so you can let everyone know you are an official Postman or Postwoman of the Shire.

After you grab the mail from the Postman’s table I suggest staying on the road unless you see a Nosey Hobbit’s eye near you on your mini-map. Then simply head off the road for a bit – their range of sight isn’t that large. But because you’re on a timer make sure not to stop. Just keep running. To plan out your route ahead of time, take a look at the MEHQ dynamic map.

The Quests (with beginning loc):

• Bundle for Michel Delving (28.1S, 75.9W) Postman Redsmith of Needlehole has asked you to deliver a satchel to Postmaster Proudfoot in Michel Delving.

• Bundle for Waymeet (33.4S, 75.0W) Postmaster Proudfoot of Michel Delving has asked you to deliver a satchel to Postman Twofoot in Waymeet.

• Bundle for Needlehole (32.8S, 73.0W) Postman Twofoot of Waymeet has asked you to deliver a satchel to Postman Redsmith in Needlehole.

• Bundle for Hobbiton (33.0S, 71.0W) Postman Took of Tuckborough has asked you to deliver a satchel to Postman Grubb in Hobbiton.

• Bundle for Michel Delving (31.8S, 76.7W) Postman Newbuck of Little Delving has asked you to deliver a satchel to Postmaster Proudfoot in Michel Delving.

• Bundle for Tuckborough (33.4S, 75.0W) Postmaster Proudfoot of Michel Delving has asked you to deliver a satchel to Postman Took in Tuckborough.

• Bundle for Bywater (28.1S, 70.1W) Postman Boffin of Overhill has asked you to deliver a satchel to Postman Cotton in Bywater.

• Bundle for Overhill (31.2S, 71.3W) Postman Grubb of Hobbiton has asked you to deliver a satchel to Postman Boffin in Overhill.

• Bundle for Budgeford (31.9S, 63.8W) Postman Smallburrow of Stock has asked you to deliver a satchel to Postman Bolger in Budgeford.

• Bundle for Stock (33.3S, 65.7W) Postman Spinner of Woodhall has asked you to deliver a satchel to Postman Smallburrow in Stock.

• Bundle for Woodhall (32.1S, 68.2W) Postman Oddfoot of Frogmorton has asked you to deliver a mail satchel to Postman Spinner in Woodhall.

• Bundle for Scary (31.2S, 65.4W) Postman Bolger of Budgeford has asked you to deliver a satchel of mail to Postman Digswell in Scary.

• Bundle for Brockenborings (27.8S, 66.5W) Postman Digswell of Scary has asked you to deliver a satchel to Postman Moresby in Brockenborings.
• A True Friend to the Quick Post (33.4S, 75W) You have helped to restore the good name of the Quick Post, and Postmaster Proudfoot is delighted at what you have done.

With these quests (along with a few others), Turbine has taken a decided step toward offering MMORPG players quest-lines that require both real skill and in-game awareness of your surroundings without relying on the general murder/mayhem that is par for the course in this genre.

When traveling in Bree-land you will sometimes come upon remnants of the ancient North-Kingdoms of the Dúnedain. By visiting (and in two instances activating) all six of these relics you will gain Idealism + 1.

• Dúnadan Statue (33.4S, 48.8W)

• Ancient Inscription (30.2S, 49.1W)

• Ancient Cairn (26.8S, 46.6W)

• Ancient Crest (30.7S, 52.6W)

• Ancient Altar (31.2S, 44.9W)

• Ancient Obelisk (29.5S, 45.8W)

Lore: The Dúnedain

From Wikipedia:

“… the Dúnedain (singular: Dúnadan) were a race of Men descended from the Númenóreans that survived the fall of their island kingdom and came to Eriador in Middle-earth, led by Elendil and his sons, Isildur and Anárion. They are also called the Men of the West and the Men of Westernesse (direct translations of the Sindarin term). They settled mainly in Arnor and Gondor.”

Many of the objects you must find in this quest deal with the fall of Arthedain and the scattering of the Dúnedain. Below is an excerpt from the Thain’s Book which details a few of the events that caused this scattering and subsequent adoption of the “Ranger” lifestyle.

From the Thain’s Book entry, Dúnedain of the North:

“… Arvedui, son of Araphant, was born in 1864. At his birth, it was foretold by Malbeth the Seer that Arvedui would be the last King of Arthedain …

In 1974, the Witch-king attacked Arthedain and seized the capital of Fornost. Arvedui rescued the palantiri of Annuminas and Amon Sul and he fled to the North Downs where he and his men held out for a time. …

In March of 1975, Cirdan of the Grey Havens sent a ship to rescue Arvedui. The leader of the Snowmen advised Arvedui not to go but to wait for the spring thaw. Arvedui did not heed his advice. … A great blizzard came from the north and the ship was driven against the ice and its hull was crushed. The palantiri were lost and everyone aboard perished including Arvedui, the Last King.

The North-kingdom was ended and the Dunedain became a wandering people. Arvedui’s eldest son Aranarth took the title Chieftain of the Dunedain and through him the line of Isildur was preserved.”

Flowers of the Old Forest is a Bree-land Deed that will give you the Virtue trait Idealism +1 when completed.

To complete this deed you must find and use (i.e. activate) eight flowers scattered throughout the Old Forest.

• Rhosthon’s Flower (32.0S, 61.0W)
• Neldorlas’ Flower (30.6S, 57.3W)
• Dorollin’s Flower (34.2S, 60.1W)
• Cordofoneth’s Flower (32.6S, 59.3W)
• Lenhwest’s Flower (33.3S, 57.5W)
• Silloth’s Flower (35.2S, 56.9W)
• Braiglad’s Flower (32.1S, 58.4W)
• Merllif’s Flower (35.3S, 58.3W)

These eight flowers are named for the eight Entwives who fled into the Old Forest. After activating each flower you will be told the story of the Entwife it represents.

Lore: The Entwives

The following passage is from Chapter 4 of Tolkien’s The Two Towers. They are the Ent Treebeard’s account to Merry and Pippin of the Entwives (pages 99-100) which I have broken up for readablity:

“When the world was young, and the woods were wide and wild, the Ents and the Entwives- and there were Entmaidens then; Ah! The loveliness of Fimbrethil, of Wandlimb the lightfooted, in the days of our youth! They walked together and they housed together. But our hearts did not go on growing in the same way; The Ents gave their love to things that they met in the world, and the Entwives gave their thoughts to other things, for the Ents loved the great trees, and the wild woods, and the slopes of the high hills; and they drank of the mountain-streams, and ate only such fruit as the trees let fall in their path; and they learned of the Elves and spoke with the trees.

But the Entwives gave their minds to the lesser trees, and to the meads in the sunshine beyond the feet of the forests; and they saw the sloe in the thicket, and the wild apple and the cherry blossoming in spring, and the green herbs in the waterlands in summer, and the seeding grasses in the autumn fields. They did not desire to speak with these things; but they wished them to hear and obey what was said to them. The Entwives ordered them to grow according to their wishes, and bear leaf and fruit to their liking; for the Entwives desired order, and plenty, and peace.

So the Entwives made gardens to life in but we Ents went on wandering, and we only came to the gardens now and again. Then when the Darkness came into the North, the Entwives crossed the great river, and made new gardens, and tilled the fields, and we saw them more seldom. After the Darkness was overthrown the land of the Entwives blossomed richly, and their fields were full of corn.

Many men learned the crafts of the Entwives and honored them greatly; but we were only legend to them, a secret in the heart of the forest. Yet here we still are, while all the gardens of the Entwives are wasted. Men call them the brown lands now.

I remember long ago, in the time of the war between Sauron and the men of the sea, desire came over me to see Fimbrethil again. Very fair she was still in my eyes, when I had last seen her, though little like the Entmaiden of old. For the Entwives were bent and browned by their labor; their hair parched by the sun to the hue of ripe corn and their cheeks like red apples. Yet their eyes were still the eyes of our own people.

We crossed over the Anduin and came to their land; but we found a desert: it was all burned and uprooted, for war had passed over it. But the Entwives were not there. Long we called, and long we searched; and we asked folk that we met which way the Entwives had gone. Some say they had never seen them; and some said that had seen them walking away west, and some said east, and others south. But nowhere we went could we find them.

Our sorrow was very great. Yet the wild wood called, and we returned to it. For many years we used to go out every now and then and look for the Entwives, wailing far and wide calling their beautiful names. But as time passed we went more seldom and wandered less far. And now the Entwives are only a memory for us, and our beards are long and grey.”