Quest Guide — Homer's LOTR

Bill Ferny's Ring

Bill Ferny, a shifty resident of Bree, claims an underling ran into a nearby cave with his ring. He asks you to retrieve it. A straightforward early quest that uncovers a darker conspiracy.

1. Accept Ferny's request.
2. Enter Bree Cave and recover the Ring of Sharkey from the bandits (or a container).
3. Return to Ferny. The ring's inscription reads "Servant of Sharkey" — suspicious.
4. At Ferny's house you will face an ambush. Two choices after:
   • Give Ferny back his letter (Sharkey's Orders) — 500 XP + 200 gp.
   • Keep the letter — 500 XP, no gold, but you retain an evidence item.

1. You agreed to help Ferny recover his ring from a bandit who fled into a nearby cave.
2. You delivered the ring. The inscription "Servant of Sharkey" gives you pause.
3. An ambush awaited at Ferny's house. You kept the letter about Sharkey.
4. An ambush awaited at Ferny's house. You gave Ferny his letter back.

Ferny's Return

A prequel to Bill Ferny's Ring. Bill Ferny has been seen skulking around his old house — but Ferny himself has been standing in the market all the while. Someone is wearing Ferny's name, and the Bree watch is stretched too thin to find out who.

1. Accept the guard's request. The impostor takes up residence in Bill Ferny's house.
2. Confront the "Bill Ferny" squatting there and call his bluff. He is one of Sharkey's ruffians, and he offers a choice:
   • Take his bribe — 75 gp from Ferny's own stash, and he slips out of Bree; or
   • Refuse and fight — he turns hostile.
3. Report back to any Guardian of Bree for the payout — the report line differs by outcome, but both complete the quest.

Prequel bonus: completing this quest permanently unlocks a grateful greeting from Bill Ferny and a half-again payout on the Ferny's Ring turn-in (+100 gp on either ending). The favour sticks across relogs and reboots.

The Miller's Son

The Miller of Bree has lost his son — the boy was delivering an ale shipment to Tharbad along the South Greenway Road. He asks you to find out what happened.

1. Accept the Miller's request.
2. Travel south along the Greenway. You will find what happened to his son.
3. Return and deliver the grim news to the Miller — 450 XP.

1. You agreed to find the Miller's son and the missing ale shipment headed for Tharbad.
2. You delivered the sad news. The Miller grieves; his wife and his ale are small comfort.

The Miller's Other Son

A sequel to The Miller's Son — offered only after that quest is complete. Han's other son, Dob, took his brother's death hard and fell in with a "trading crowd" on the road to Tharbad. The traders turned out to be cultists of the Red Eye, and their leader — a man they call the Voice — keeps the boy close.

1. Accept Han's plea.
2. (Optional) Talk to Tolly the Peddler at Tharbad Bridge — a coin (10 gp) or a kind word buys directions to the cult camp.
3. Confront the Voice of the Red Eye in Tharbad (East). Three resolutions:
   • Persuade (DC 18, one attempt per character, ever): he releases Dob peacefully. On a failed roll he attacks;
   • Fight — he turns hostile; his death frees the boy (and advances all party members in the area);
   • Walk away — leave Dob to the cult. You can still change your mind and fight him later.
4. Report back to Han — outcome-specific lines. Freed endings pay 500 gp + 500 XP + a Magic Bag ("Dob's trading pack"); the sad truth pays 200 XP.

Feeding Tharbad

The Temple of Ilúvatar in Tharbad is struggling to feed hungry refugees at the bridge. They ask you to purchase venison from a local store and hand it out to 20 refugees at the bridge.

1. Agree to help.
2. Buy venison from the general store.
3. Travel to Tharbad Bridge and feed 20 refugees.
4. Return to the cleric — 500 XP and the Book of the Cora awarded.

1. You agreed to help the Temple feed hungry refugees at Tharbad Bridge — buy venison and feed 20 people.
2. The refugees will not go hungry tonight. You gave selflessly for a noble cause.

Glorfindel's Curative

Glorfindel of Rivendell asks you to gather the ingredients for a curative: Athelas from the foothills of the Misty Mountains, a graveside token from the Statue of Arathorn headstone in the Barrow Downs, and drake essence from the Caves of the Carrock.

1. Accept the task.
2. Gather the three ingredients across the Misty-Mountain foothills, the Barrow Downs, and the Caves of the Carrock.
3. Return to Glorfindel for 1,700 XP and the Bracers of Glorfindel.

Full write-up: Glorfindel's Curative.

The Twentieth Plot of Mazarbul

A hidden codicil to the Book of Mazarbul names twenty burial plots whose seal-fires keep the dead of Moria at rest. Nineteen were lit before the colony fell — the twentieth never was, and what lies beneath it does not lie still. Frár, a restless dwarf-shade among the toppled record-stones, asks you to finish his colony's last labor: light the three crypt-seal braziers (one in the Chamber of Records, two in Balin's Tomb), then destroy the wraith that rises to smother the third flame.

1. Accept Frár's charge — the journal opens and the seal-braziers will take your flame.
2. Use each of the three Crypt-Seal Braziers once (per-character, persistent — floaty text counts "N of 3"; each lighting also grants a short ward against grave-chill, Negative resist 5/- for 5 minutes).
3. The third brazier raises the Wraith of the Twentieth Plot (CR 21). Destroy it — the killing blow's party credits every party member in the area who is at the wraith stage. If the wraith is slain while you are absent (or you fall and return), stir any brazier's flame to re-summon it, so the fight can always be re-staged.
4. Return to Frár: 1200 gp, 2000 XP and the Seal of the Twentieth. The quest closes for good.

Elrond's Request

Elrond of Rivendell charges you with two tasks: break the Uruk-hai siege of the Troll Halls and retrieve the Helm of Azog the Warlord, then venture into Moria and find evidence of Balin's Expedition (the Dwarf Head). This is the module's main mid-game quest chain.

1. Kill Azog the Warlord (CR 14) in the Angmar Mountain area and loot the Helm of the Warlord.
2. Push into Balin's Tomb in Moria and retrieve the Dwarf Head (evidence of Balin's expedition).
3. Return to Elrond with both items in your party's inventory.
4. Agree to accept your reward — both items are consumed, and you gain 2,000 XP and Elrond's Writ.

1. Elrond has given you two tasks: break the Uruk-hai siege of the Trollshaws and bring the Helm of Azog; venture into Moria and find sign of Balin's Expedition.
2. Both tasks are complete. You now have a new place to call home.

Ruin of Annuminas

An old woman in Bree tells you to seek out the Ruins of Annuminas, an ancient Dúnedain realm to the north. This is the first stage of a two-part arc: kill Azagoth in the ruins, bring his head back to Hanee for 5,000 XP (she doesn't take it — she gleefully points you to the wizards in Gondor), then deliver the head to the Gondor Scribe in the Tower of the High Wizard for a further 10,000 XP.

1. Hear Hanee out and head north to the Ruins of Annuminas.
2. Find and kill Azagoth (CR 37) and loot Azagoth's Head.
3. Return to Hanee with the head still in hand for 5,000 XP — then carry it on to The Well of Souls.

The Well of Souls

The Gondor Scribe asks you to face Azagoth, who threatens to open the Well of Souls — kill Azagoth in the Ruins of Annuminas (not Moria!) and bring back his head to prove the deed is done. This is the second stage of the Ruin of Annuminas arc.

1. Hanee the Loon in Bree points you north to the Ruins of Annuminas.
2. Find and kill Azagoth (CR 37) in the Ruins of Annuminas and loot Azagoth's Head.
3. Return to Hanee for an intermediate 5,000 XP; she keeps you holding the head and points you to the Gondor wizards.
4. Take the head to the Gondor Scribe in the Tower of the High Wizard: Ground Floor — she consumes the head and awards 10,000 XP and the Annuminas Key.
5. Alternate start: talk to the scribe without the head and she offers the quest directly (with the key up front), then kill Azagoth and return for the turn-in.

1. You agreed to face Azagoth and stop his entry into the Well of Souls. May fate guide your steps.
2. Azagoth is dead and the Well of Souls is safe. Time for a drink at the Prancing Pony.

Gloison's Heirloom

Glóin asks you to recover his kinsman Gloisin's family heirloom — a coat of arms stolen by the brigand Gerrey Halliams, who fled to the Ruins of Dale.

1. Accept the task from Gloin.
2. Travel to the Ruins of Dale and kill Gerrey Halliams (CR 17). He carries Gloison's Coat of Arms as droppable loot.
3. Return to Gloin holding the heirloom — the turn-in only appears while you have it. He takes it and pays 5,000 XP + 15,000 gp.

The Thirteenth Ent

Twelve Ents still walk in Fangorn. The thirteenth has stood so long that the bark has grown over the bark, the moss has reached his shoulder, and his own name has gone down into his roots after the water. Most travellers walk straight past him — he looks like an old tree, and an old tree is exactly what he is becoming. Two kinds of people can still reach him: a druid deep enough in the green to trade in Ent-food, and a bard who can play a sleeping thing awake.

1. Accept Leaflock's riddle. He wants a truffle of the deep loam, and truffles hide from eyes and from hands.
2. Wild shape into a boar and walk his wood. Only a boar's nose finds them: while you wear the boar, pale knots of truffle push up out of the leaf-mould near his roots. Root one up.
3. Be quick. A truffle out of the earth dies in about three minutes, and a dead truffle wakes nobody — if yours crumbles, dig another (the day is not spent).
4. Get back to Leaflock, drop the beast-shape, and cast Nature's Balance so that its area of effect covers him, with the truffle still in your pack. Cast it too far off and the Balance settles over the wood instead of over his roots.

1. Offer to play. Leaflock leads: after a short pause he stirs — the bark shifts, a creak runs up the trunk, and a line comes out of the wood.
2. Answer the cue with your Bard Song, standing close. The old Ent weighs your learning as closely as your music: each song rolls both Lore and Perform, and every roll is shown to you.
3. Stage one is DC 30 on both checks; after it he speaks again and stage two is DC 40 on both. A single failed check ends the attempt — he goes down again for a day and a night. Play before he stirs and nothing happens; wait too long after the cue and the moment closes.

Either way the ending is the same: the thirteenth Ent straightens out of an age of root-sleep, remembers that he is called Leaflock, and presses a horn cup of ent-draught into your hands before settling again — not so deep, this time.

Paths of the Dead

Aragorn summons you to walk the Paths of the Dead: rouse the Oathbreakers under the mountain, hold to the oath sworn of old, and turn the tide against the Witch-king. A full five-stage quest chain and the module's marquee reward — a copy of Andúril.

1. Accept Aragorn's charge.
2. Seek the King of the Dead in the Dimholt / Dunharrow.
3. Fight through the Oathbreaker trials.
4. Claim the reward — Andúril, Flame of the West.
5. The chain completes back at Dunharrow.

Full write-up: Paths of the Dead.

The Forbidden Realms

The Forbidden Realms Key has been stealable from Summanus for as long as anyone can remember, and until now it opened precisely nothing. It opens something now. It is a black thing of Númenórean make, heavier than its size wants to be, and the seven marks cut along its ward are not house-wards or chest-wards — they are grave-wards, the sort the old kings cut into a door they did not intend anyone to open again.

Somewhere in the drowned country there is a stone that answers it: a slab of grey stone set into the hillside of Noirinan, with no handle, no hinge and no keyhole, and the same seven marks on its face. Put the key to it and the seal gives way onto the Tombs of the Lost Souls — a barrow that is not a ruin but a court, laid out for the dead the way a hall is laid out for the living. Its lords have not gone quiet. The Weathertop King, his Queen and their Archer still hold their places, and they were sealed in for a reason.

1. Come by the key. The journal opens with what the seven marks mean.
2. Find the seal in Noirinan and use it while carrying the key. Without the key the stone simply describes itself to you and stays shut.
3. Take the barrow-court. Three end-game undead, all of them the sort of fight you bring a party to. Bring one.
4. Get out. The gate stands on the tomb side as well and does not ask for the key on the way back, so losing it in there does not entomb you.

The court re-forms once the tomb has been cleared and left empty, so the fight is repeatable — but the journal completes once, the first time one character has all three down. Party members who are in the tomb when a court member falls all get the credit.

The Last Drop at Frogmorton Inn

The last cask of Frogmorton's famous harvest ale — the Floating Log's own autumn brew, carted over from Frogmorton before the brewer died — sits in Rigrin's cellar, and five patrons each claim the final drop. Rigrin judges the matter by the custom of the cask, an old rule that turns with the month, and he'll pay a neutral party to hear the claimants out and name the rightful drinker. No combat; pure Shire-tone dialogue.

1. Rigrin states this month's custom of the cask (e.g. "the coin that bought the barrel drains it") — twelve rules cycling through the year.
2. Chat with the five claimants in the common room — Marigold Bunce (brewed it), Poppy Thistlewool (paid for it), Hob Broadbelt (tapped it and drank first), Ned Puddifoot (hauled it from Frogmorton), Daisy Goodbody (won it at darts) — and work out who the rule points at.
3. Give Rigrin your answer. One judgment per day: a right call pays 25 gp plus a Frogmorton Pint; a wrong call gets you gently laughed out of the room — either way the matter is settled until tomorrow.

The Frogmorton Pint is a single-use drink: 4 hp back and a short, purely cosmetic drunken stagger. It cannot hurt you or anyone else.

Hobbit Post

Posco Whitfoot has founded the Hobbit Post and needs an honest pair of legs: one sealed parcel per real day, delivered somewhere in the Shire for pay. The addressee rotates with the calendar day across five recipients — Daddy Twofoot (Hobbiton), Old Noakes (Bywater), the Keeper of the Green Dragon (Green Dragon Inn, door off Hobbiton), and Salvia Brockhouse and Milo Burrows (both in the Whitfurrow Inn common room). Pure low-pressure Shire flavour; no combat.

1. Posco reads you the address off the label (it rotates daily). Forgot where it's bound? Ask him again — he'll re-read the label, or write a fresh one.
2. Carry the parcel to the named recipient and talk to them. The Shire judges its post by the freshness of the seal: land it within 5 real minutes of accepting and the fee rises from 60 gp to 100 gp.
3. Rarely (8%) Posco's label is wrong: the named recipient refuses the parcel and points you at its true owner (another of the five), who pays 60 gp extra plus a small bonus item for untangling the post.
4. Payment on delivery closes the day; the post-bag reopens at UTC midnight (Posco quotes the exact time remaining).

The parcel itself is plot-flagged and cursed — it can't be sold, dropped or traded, and re-accepting from Posco replaces any parcel you're already carrying, so they can never pile up.

Spider Silk Harvest

The great spiders choke Thranduil's wood, but their silk is stronger than steel wire and his weavers prize it. Once per real day the Elvenking pays a flat bounty for six bolts of spider silk cut from the spiders of Mirkwood. The silk comes from the wood's named horrors — Giant Spider, Spider-Queen, Lava Climber, Death Weeper, Black Spear Spider and Sword Spider — which fill the encounters of every outdoor Mirkwood area (West, North, East, Central, Central East and Central South). The common base-game spiders and ettercaps mixed into the same encounters spin nothing worth carding.

1. Accept the harvest from Thranduil — the journal opens and the day's hunt goes live.
2. Kill the named spiders anywhere beneath Mirkwood's boughs. Each qualifying kill has a 75% chance to cut a Bolt of Spider Silk straight into your pack (kills by your summons and companions credit you, same rule as the bestiary). Drops stop at six bolts carried — silk cannot be hoarded past a day's need.
3. Return to Thranduil with six bolts and turn them in: 300 gp + 600 XP, bolts consumed, day closed.
4. The bounty reopens at UTC midnight; until then Thranduil quotes the exact time remaining.

Bolts drop only while your own hunt is active (accepted today, not yet paid), so a party member without the quest gets nothing and there is no stockpiling across days. Spare bolts are worth a few coppers as vendor trash at most.

The Riddle Game

Something pale and whispering squats at the water's edge in the cave beneath Bree-hill, and it wants to play the old game: seven riddles, asked in the classic Hobbit style and answered by picking one of four answers. Guess five or more of the seven rightly and it grudgingly surrenders a present from its little hoard; guess fewer and you get nothing but wet chuckling. It plays once per real week per character, win or lose — the riddles "must ripen".

1. Accept the game — the journal opens and the wretch asks riddle one of seven.
2. Answer each riddle from the four choices. The wretch heckles you between riddles either way; the running score is kept for you.
3. After the seventh answer the game resolves on the spot: 5+ right pays 100–300 gp, 250 XP and one random minor treasure (a lesser ring, a gem or a potent potion); fewer pays nothing.
4. The game reopens when the calendar week turns (Monday 00:00 UTC); until then the wretch quotes the exact time remaining.

The riddle set changes weekly — everyone on the server gets the same seven riddles in a given week, drawn from a larger bank, and the answer order shuffles per riddle. Walking away (or relogging) mid-game forfeits nothing: the week is only spent when the seventh answer lands, and the wretch will restart the same week's game from riddle one.

Concerning Hobbits

Odo Proudfoot, keeper of the Hobbiton family-books, is forever settling a dispute at the Ivy Bush over who is cousin to whom. He puts five questions of Shire lineage to you — Bagginses, Boffins, Tooks, Brandybucks and all — answered by picking one of four choices. Answer four or more of the five rightly and he counts you a friend of the family-books and pays you from the family stores; fewer and you go home to study. He puts the questions once per day per character, win or lose.

1. Accept the challenge — the journal opens and Odo asks question one of five.
2. Answer each question from the four choices. Odo confirms or corrects you between questions; the running score is kept for you.
3. After the fifth answer the game resolves on the spot: 4+ right pays 40–100 gp, 100 XP and a keepsake (a pouch of pipe-weed, upgraded to a Greater Ring of Scholars on a perfect 5/5); fewer pays nothing.
4. The dispute reopens at the turn of the day (00:00 UTC); until then Odo quotes the time remaining.

The correct answer rotates by season. The set of five questions and the order of their answers are seeded from the in-game calendar season, so the whole server shares one seasonal dispute and the winning choice moves each season — you can't just memorise “always pick the second one.” Walking away (or relogging) mid-game forfeits nothing: the day is only spent when the fifth answer lands.

Win it and Odo keeps a counter for you. Once you have taken the dispute outright, a new line opens in his conversation: he will sell you five strains of Shire pipe-weed, each with its own gift and its own penalty, all of them smokable in the water pipes of the Smoking Chamber at the Well of Eru. He sells and does not buy. See Pipe-Weed & the Smoking Chamber for the strain table.

Getting there. Hobbiton is now one of the Guardian of Light's fast-travel destinations at the Well of Eru — ask for “The Shire — Hobbiton” and you arrive on the green, with the Green Dragon and Bag End both a door away. It is open to every character at any level, like the rest of his destinations.

Pass the Pass

Baldor runs a mule-train over the High Pass and pays swords to see it safely across to the eastern waystation. You choose the risk yourself at dialogue, and the pay scales with it: Easy (a goblin rabble), Normal (goblin soldiers led by a brute), or Hard, where a Stone-Giant of the High Pass (CR 25) comes down off the crags to smash the caravan. One escort per real calendar day.

This is a bounded escort — there is no walking companion to babysit. When you accept, a difficulty-scaled ambush spawns mid-pass in the first Misty Mountains area and the journal opens; you fight your way east and report to Wilrun at the waystation for your pay. Reaching the far side is the whole objective, and the ambush is the danger rather than a hard fail-state.

1. Accept from Baldor and choose Easy, Normal or Hard. The journal opens and the ambush spawns ahead of you on the pass.
2. Cross the Misty Mountains eastward, fighting through the warband (and the Stone-Giant on Hard).
3. Talk to Wilrun the Quartermaster at the eastern waystation to close the run and collect your pay.
4. Payment closes the day; Baldor's hire reopens at UTC midnight (he quotes the exact time remaining).

Sowing Discord in Bree

Ferny has paper that needs delivering: three forged letters — poison-pen accusations in fine respectable handwriting, none of it his — to be planted under three different tables in the Prancing Pony. The catch is the same one every dirty job in Bree has: no eye may mark your hand. Each letter must be slipped into place while you move in stealth mode; come at a table openly and the plant simply fails (nothing is lost — step into shadow and try again). Naturally, Good-aligned characters never hear the offer at all.

1. Take the three Forged Letters (plot items — they can't be dropped or sold).
2. In the Prancing Pony, enter stealth mode and use a table to tuck a letter under it. Three different tables — a table already holding your letter refuses a second.
3. The moment the third letter lands, the letters start working. About twenty seconds later the Sheriff of Bree (CR 16) storms in with a Guardian of Bree at his heel, right at the last table you touched — and they come for you, and only you. Fight or run; the quest doesn't care which, and the rest of the taproom stays out of it.
4. Return to Ferny for 500–800 gp and 500 XP. The first completion ever also pays the Morgul-Weave Cloak; repeats are gold and XP only.

The job resets on a rolling 24-hour cooldown from each payout — Ferny quotes the exact time remaining if you come back early. Progress is carried entirely by the letters and the server's records, so relogging (or a server reboot) mid-job loses nothing.

Beorn's Garden

A warg pack has been raiding the bee-meadows below the Carrock, and Grimbeorn has hives to mend and no hands to spare. The day's work has two halves that feed each other: harvest the three great honey hives (hollow stumps — one in Beorn's garden, one on each Carrock height) and skin six warg pelts from the raiders. There are no wargs standing about waiting to be farmed — cracking a hive open is what calls the pack in: each harvest spawns two Garden-Raiding Wargs (CR 6) right at the stump.

1. Accept the garden work — the journal opens and the hives become harvestable for you.
2. Use each of the three Honey Hives once (per-hive, per-day — floaty text counts "N of 3"). Each harvest spawns a warg pack at the hive.
3. Kill wargs while the quest is active; the killing blow's party owner skins a pelt per warg ("N of 6"). Short on pelts with all hives drawn? Rattle any emptied hive to call another pack — the day can always be finished (spawns are capped per area so hives can't be clicked into a flood).
4. Return to Grimbeorn with 6 pelts and 3 combs drawn: he takes the pelts and pays 250–450 gp, 700 XP and honeycomb from Beorn's stores (always one comb; sometimes a second, or a Cure Serious Wounds potion instead of the second comb).
5. The day resets at UTC midnight; until then Grimbeorn quotes the exact time remaining.

Kallrist Tiger Hunt

A potion merchant named Sald on Kallrist Island will pay 200 gold for every Kallrist Tiger Heart you bring him. The tigers (CR 6) roam the island's shore and interior areas. This is a repeatable delivery quest — there is no fixed completion state.

1. Hunt Kallrist Tigers across the island's nine areas. Each drops a Kallrist Tiger Heart.
2. Return to Sald with hearts in your inventory — he inspects each one, takes it, and pays 200 gp.
3. Repeat as desired — the open-ended journal entry stays in the log.

Halmir the Grey

Halmir keeps a long roll of parchment and a working knowledge of who still needs something done. Tell him roughly where you stand and he will name the quests worth your time, who gives each one, and where to find them — nothing more. He does not brief you, spoil the ending, or hand out objectives; that is the quest-giver’s job.

He answers to five measures:

• “I am new to these lands.” — the Bree and Shire quests, roughly levels 1–10.
• “I have some road behind me.” — the wider Eriador and Wilderland work, roughly 10–20.
• “I am well seasoned.” — the long quests of Rivendell, Annúminas and Fangorn, roughly 20–40.
• “There is little left to test me.” — the end-game: the Paths of the Dead, Erebor, the Forbidden Realms.
• “What can be walked at any strength?” — the dailies, the weekly Riddle Game, and the Path of Meaning.

You can ask him about one band after another without leaving the conversation, so there is no harm in asking about a band above your own to see what is coming.

Server Info Journals

Several journal categories carry server reference information and are handed to you automatically when you log in — no quest-giver needed. Eight are delivered:

If you ever want to re-read one, they stay in the Completed section of your journal permanently.

The Path of Meaning

A strange music echoes across Middle-earth. Seven legendary figures are scattered through the world, each with their own challenge. Meet all seven, then seek Akira the Don in the Hall of Legends inside the Well of Eru.

1. A strange music whispers across Middle-earth. Seven legends are scattered across the world. Find them, prove yourself, and the Hall of Legends will open to you.
2. One legend recognises you. Six remain.
3. Two legends. Five remain.
4. Three legends. Four remain.
5. Four legends. The music grows clearer.
6. Five legends gathered. Two voices still hidden.
7. Six legends. One voice remains.
8. All seven. Akira the Don awaits in the Hall of Legends — find the Wayshrine in the Well of Eru.
9. (Finale) Akira the Don passed you the mixtape. The path of meaning is walked, but the journey never ends.