Strayed Captain

So you’ve wreaked (wroken?) havoc at Wulf’s Cleft and witnessed the defeat of the Avanc-lûth but now is time to move on.

Outside and above Wulf’s Cleft you meet with Gwîn – probably the sole survivor of the battle save for you. You part your ways and he lends you a horse to travel to Barnavon, the village of the Ox-clan in Carreglyn. As far as naming goes Carreglyn means Stone Valley (and there are rocks everywhere), Barnavon on the other hand I’m not sure about – barn means judgement or doom and avon would be river, except there isn’t one, only a small lake and a puddle.

Anyway, as I said Carreglyn is really rocky and that’s about its only quality. There are hostile Dunlendings, oxen and a Warg-rider scout every now and then – good thing about those is that they are really varied, white wargs, black wargs, striped wargs, it’s a technology Turbine seems to be really taking advantage of as of late. And there are also bugan. When you first arrive at Barnavon you’ll learn that the village is divided into Lower and Upper Barnavon. Upper Barnavon is inhabited by the Uch-lûth and as opposed to the Algraig in Enedwaith these are hostile. They are also sort of oppressing the Lower Barnavon where the remnants of the Boar-clan live. Outside the gate you’ll meet Gwilum a member of the Ox-clan who isn’t happy about what’s going on and is willing to help you if you help him first (he has already heard of your quest-completing provess). Lower Barnavon used to be patroled by hostile guards that would attack you in the most inconvenient moment like talking to an NPC but unfortunately they were removed in a later patch. In Lower Barnavon you will also find Nona who sends you to recover some bribing gold from the inhabitants of Upper Barnavon (Saruman pays well). After the deed is done you’ll be given a necklace and for a while you’ll leave Nona to her business since after helping as much as you can you are to meet with Amlan of the Grey Company.

But back to Gwilum: you’ll be given one quest that introduces a sort of circular design of zone-completion (hence the name of the post). You’re sent to travel around Carreglyn to find some clues as to why there are so many Warg-riders around lately. You’ll “circumnavigate” around the sort of central hill with a watch-tower on top and at each spot that you’ll scout more quests will pop. First you go to a puddle-sized lake called Avanc Lhun (the Avanc lake). You won’t find anything warg-rider-related but a shiny chain will catch your eye. You pull the chain and a big Avanc will come out of the lake. You’ll quickly dispatch it and continue along the road. Then you will come to the Barnavon Mine which is the only “hub” beside Barnavon where men of the Boar-clan have been sent to work. As you arrive you’ll notice the men are scared – the mine has been invested by the bugan, the hobbit-looking goblins from Enedwaith, you can tell they are not hobbits as some of them seem to be genuinely doing some work. You are sent into the mine for various tasks including gathering broken tools, mining ore, finding lost miners and of course killing the bugan. Unfortunately the miner seeking isn’t as fun as it may sound. The missing miners are deep within the mine and to rescue them you have to escort them to the exit one by one while the bugan keep respawning (and if someone else grabs a lost miner you’ll have to wait a while before you can rescue him). “Fortunately” some of those miners are dead and you don’t have to rescue them. Still, avoiding the bugan isn’t really an option and the mine will really make you hate them, on the plus side you’ll end up with many task items. Once you’re finally outside you need to gather some herbs to cure the wounded miners. The herbs grow around Hen Turrau, Ancient Towers, an old Gondorian watchtower that you can’t look down from either. This is also the third point to scout, once again no warg-riders but you’ll notice a heap of crates at the base of the tower. You will also notice a dead ox lying nearby, it is supposed to give you the idea that maybe the inhabitants of Barnavon would like some meat. You slay some cows, gather some herbs and return to the mine. You are thanked by the lead miner for you work and asked to talk with the wives of the miners back in Barnavon.

Continuing from the mine you’ll make a turn around the hill and at the northern point of the road you’ll turn north and come to a lake with a large shrine of the Ox-spirit. This is the final point to scout. You’ll notice a plaque describing some kind of ritual concerning the Ox-spirit but it requires a special sigil. Look around until you find a warg-rider, kill him and recover the sigil, he may also drop a piece of carved treebark, the sign that the Warg-riders are in league with the Dunlendings. Back at the shrine you will perform the ritual and Munfaeril, one of the servants of the Huntsman from Enedwaith, will appear. She is displeased with what’s going on in Barnavon and asks you to remind the leader, Madin Brenin, how to behave. The leader doesn’t believe you the least and you have no choice but to kill him and almost kill his son before he banishes you from Barnavon (or at least the upper part thereof). Back in the lower part you’ll meet with Gwilum and return a good amount quests, you’ll then talk with the relatives of the miners and call some more miners to the mine so that the clan doesn’t suffer the wrath of their overseer.

For the final part of your adventures in Barnavon you’ll return to Upper Barnavon to kill some of the high-ranked officials, free some hostages (no escorting this time), gather some food and burn some supplies, the usual stuff. Upon returning and distributing the food you are ready to leave. Gwilum gives you some final tasks concerning the Warg-riders – kill goblins, kill Wargs, gather orders, kill the leader of the Warg-riders. You will find the goblin camp in the northern part of Carreglyn. These quests will auto-complete and after you finish them all you will have to find Amlan who is nearby at the borders of the Gravenwood forest.

Carreglyn is probably the dullest of the areas. There are enough quests but basically you complete them in one big run around the area and it feels short. The fact that there is nothing to look at apart from rocks and hills doesn’t help either. But some area always has to be the worst I guess. Next time – Gravenwood, the last area in Dunland.