I met a fellow BDer!!

[the phantom]

Sally, Mnemo, and I have gotten together a couple times in recent months. Sorry- no epic pictures this time around, but we did have lots of fun!

The get-togethers were largely defined by playing a LotR/Barrow-Downs themed D&D campaign that I wrote. Duck and Sally showed considerable skill in figuring out the various riddles and references throughout the game and turning them to their advantage. Here are just a few of the things their characters (a Rogue from Dale and Paladin from Minas Tirith) did during the course of their quest.

• cheered up a thoroughly depressed Tom Bombadil
• scaled Tol Brandir
• summoned a bigger fish (kudos if you know the reference )
• engaged "Darth Wader" in combat
• rescued Peter Hampton from Hookbill's castle
• set Treebeard on fire
• called Nob a "slowcoach"
• battled a mob of penguins in Lommy's house
• led noobs into a chat skwerl death-trap
• killed the imposter Kent
• bluffed a rather dim-witted Tumnus
• maimed Anakin Skywalker
• convinced Alien to leave Phantom's dwelling
• passed a deadly series of Indiana Jones booby-traps

There was much much more, but to really get the full story you'd just have to play the campaign. Anyway, it was great fun writing and administering the game, and I feel quite fortunate to know people that I can truly geek out with.

[Eorl of Rohan]

Wow, I'm really envious of you, Phantom.
No one I know in real life even knows English, let alone the Barrow-Downs.

Anyone from South Korea? *hopefully looks around*

[Boromir88]

Originally Posted by the phantom

[*]killed the imposter Kent

Hahaha, I approve of that action. Well done you three.

[Mnemosyne]

...Yeah, I still feel kind of bad for that, as all game!Boro told us to do was get rid of him...

Then again, he was stupid enough to be bluffed into leaning over the top of a very, very steep tower, with these kind of scruffy-looking adventurers standing behind him...

[Hookbill the Goomba]

Originally Posted by the phantom

• convinced Alien to leave Phantom's dwelling

Gosh! How did they mange that? That's like untying the Gordian Knot!

[TheGreatElvenWarrior]

Yesterday Laurinquë and I had the great pleasure of meeting Hookbill the Goomba. It was one of the grandest days of my life, Downers really are wonderful people. We didn't talk about the Downs too much, more Doctor Who than anything else; but you really couldn't expect anything very different. Also, I now know that Hookbill is more than willing to push people (such as myself) into moving trams for his own amusement.
I also learned that Hookbill is a tea-snob who will ONLY drink Twinings' tea. . . well, mostly. I realised that running into windmills isn't really a very good idea. Furthermore, Hookbill's brothers are strange blokes. Lauri and I were greeted with "And who are you on the Barrow-Downs?" I'm guessing from that that this was somewhat of a normal occurrence. . . Hookbill also made us Jelly Baby milkshakes (which were lovely) and tea (which we drank a lot of).

I should think that pictures will come later, since my mother took five or six of them of all of us together in various places (like Mordor, for instance).

[Guinevere]

I’m much belated in writing this, as usual.
It’s now already two weeks since I’ve come back from Jena (Germany) where I attended the 2010 Tolkien Seminar. It was very interesting, but what I enjoyed most was meeting Estelyn Telcontar again. (for the 5th time!) We arrived and met the day before and shared a room in the Hostel, so we had the evening and next morning to ourselves for chatting and strolling around in Jena, visiting a museum and enjoying meals in cosy restaurants. Esty has become a very dear friend!

At the Seminar I also met Shadowfax again, who has joined the Downs only recently, but whom I already know from the Swiss Tolkien Society. (which sadly doesn’t exist anymore ) It's always a pleasure to talk with him.

Oh, and I finally bought my own copy of Esty's book "Music in Middle-earth" and she signed it for me - so it was worth waiting for! (and I had something to read on the 7 hours of train journey)