Tolkein's books are full of lovely travelogues. Characters hike from one place to another for pages on end, often filling the time with singing. If the Fellowship had a car, The Lord of the Rings would probably be a buddy road movie, with Frodo and Sam driving to Mordor, playing tapes, and not needing the other seven people along. "It's okay, guys," they would have told the Council at Rivendell, "we've got it from here." They'd pile into a battered Chevy with a bunch of Slim Jims, Pepsi, and pipeweed. They'd roll up the windows if there were Nazguls around. But, alas, cars hadn't been invented yet.

It's easy to have your own picturesque trip in Lord of the Rings Online. Hit F12 to turn off the interface and hit N to turn off the floaty names (otherwise, every last field hare, rowan branch, and copper ore will announce itself to you). Then mount up and ride where you're going. And be sure to leave the music on.

Read the Lord of the Rings Online game diary after the jump.

From Angmar, I take the automatic horse to Esteldin, the hidden Ranger enclave. Don't tell anyone I told you about it. I ride out of Esteldin and across Kingsfell by night, passing the windmill and the farmsteads near the baby auroch quest (I love that little guy). I cross the river where you can see all the way down to some falls if you look north. I pass Minas Vrun where I used to regularly detour to collect scholarly materials (the stuff in there is beneath me now, so I ride on). I pass Amon Raith, the watchtower looking across the Fields of Fornost, and then I ride down into the Fields. If Angmar looks evil, Fornost looks forlorn. The Barrow Downs south of Bree are a graveyard where wights that have clawed their way up out of the earth. But Fornost is an erstwhile battlefield where the oath-breakers drift. Farther north is the city of Fornost, an epic-length instance I never finished (it breaks my heart to think how close I came to finishing Fornost, which is like Middle Earth's Stalingrad). At the far end of the Fields is the gate to Evendim. Here my favorite part of the trip starts, because it's all new to me from here on out.

I love the new Evendim music (well, new to me). It's mischievous, but a little sad. I ride past ruins (elven?) and up a hill just as dawn is breaking. I don't want to spend too much time here, as I'm overleveled for it and I look forward to bringing another character here. As I pass through Cirith Rhiw and descend into the snowy forest of Forochel, the horizon goes blood red. I come to a lake and walk up to it to see the reflection of the mountains on the other side. Lovely. It's cold enough now that I can see my breath. The stars will slowly fade now. As I turn around to go back to the trail, I catch the view of Kauppa-Kohta that Turbine has laid out before me. It's as if they knew I would walk up to the lake and this is how they wanted me to first see where I'm meant to go.

As I draw nearer, I see a dwarf leading two domesticated mammoths. The mammoths stamp and roar, and just past them are the welcome gold rings of all the new quests. There's nothing quite so sweet as a brand new quest hub. Ah, Forochel!

(Read tomorrow's Lord of the Rings Online game diary.)
(Read yesterday's Lord of the Rings Online game diary.)