What really happened to Radagast the Brown.

“I will go to Saruman,” I said.

“Then you must go _now_,” said Radagast; “for I have wasted time in looking for you, and the days are running short. I was told to find you before Midsummer, and that is now here. Even if you set out from this spot, you will hardly reach him before the Nine discover the land that they seek. I myself shall turn back at once.” And with that he mounted and would have ridden straight off.

“Stay a moment! ” I said. “We shall need your help, and the help of all things that will give it. Send out messages to all the beasts and birds that are your friends. Tell them to bring news of anything that bears on this matter to Saruman and Gandalf. Let messages be sent to Orthanc.”

“I will do that,” he said, and rode off as if the Nine were after him.

— J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Alas, he had travelled no more than a few yards from Gandalf before a wandering wolf took a fancy to his steed and began to pursue Radagast. Despite his best efforts, his skill with the steed was no match for the wolf’s almost unnatural speed, and soon Radagast’s mount was brought tumbling down by a cunning bite from the pursuer’s jaws. Radagast regained his feet and using the ways of the Wise he brought the wolf to heel and slew it.

“Any trouble there?” asked Gandalf.

“No, no. I’m fine. I shall away to Isengard at once!” and with that, Radagast mounted his faithful steed and rode off as though he raced to catch up with the setting of the sun.

Unfortunately a short distance further on there was a large bear blocking his path. He swerved to avoid its attentions, leaping his snorting mount over a hedge and into the forest, but was dismayed to find that he had leapt into the midst of a sounder of boars. The boars gave chase and, through some unknown cunning, managed to unseat him from his horse. Tumbling to a halt he jumped to his feet and, calling upon the power of the ancient words that he knew, slew the troublesome beasts.

“Need any help?” Gandalf asked, popping his head through the hedge.

“NO! Fine! … Thank you”. And with that, Radagast flung himself up onto his horse and galloped away as though the world behind him were aflame.

He passed no more than a couple of trees before the bear that he had tried to avoid earlier wandered into view, lazily swatted at him – knocking him flying through the air and into a nearby tree – before wandering off into the forest. Shaking sense back into his stunned head Radagast grabbed for the reins of his horse and with one swift movement propelled himself into the saddle. No sooner had he sat himself upright than a rather crotchety badger poked its head out a hole at the base of the tree and looked at him slightly funny, instantly dismounting him again. As he picked himself up and brushed himself down he glared back at where Gandalf was just now walking around from behind the trees. Gandalf stopped suddenly in his tracks as though struck bodily by the stare, took pause for thought and said nothing. Radagast called his horse to return, wearily climbed up on to its back and trotted off.

He made it fifty yards further down the road before a moth flapped its wings in Mordor and caused him to be thrown forcefully to the ground, at which point he was set upon by all manner of crap angry animals and was never seen again.

____

Not enjoying the mount mechanics in Lord of the Rings Online terribly.

7 thoughts on “What really happened to Radagast the Brown.

  1. unwize

    Haha, you’ll be delighted to hear that it is possible to obtain ‘sturdier’ mounts, capable of taking several hits before dismounting the rider. Consider them the Epic Mounts of LotRO. Same speed, alas.

    You’ll be less delighted to hear that these mounts are available mostly through long faction grinds (Wardens of Annuminas, Council of the North, Lossoth of Forochel, Galadhrim Elves).

    If faction grinding is intolerable, the only other option is to finish all 15 books of the volume 1 epic story, at which point you will be rewarded with a sturdy mount. Since volume 1 contains some of the game’s most interesting content, this is something you’ll probably want to be doing anyway.

  2. Capn John

    Do you remember in WoW how Mobs could dismount you just by sneezing in your general direction, but when you were unloading on a mounted player with every spell you had they just keep riding? They changed that, eventually, but you could nail a guy with 2-3 Crits in a row and he’d just keep riding on, out of range, then disappear over the hill. Hated that.

  3. Melmoth Post author

    @unwize: A sturdier mount would be most splendid. I do quite like the look of the Moria goats though, so I’ll probably wait until then before embarking on the reputation marathon.

    @Capn John: Having read Syncaine’s description of various Darkfall battles it would appear that that game has the mount system about right for PvP. I don’t know how their mounts interact with the PvE environment though. I think WoW is always problematic when you compare a mechanic that is used in both PvE and PvP: something that reduces inconvenience in PvE can often lead to the emergence of frustrating or overpowered game-play in PvP; it’s obviously the eternal struggle for balance that they will always have because their PvE and PvP systems are almost diametrically opposed to one another.

  4. unwize

    Ah yes, the Moria goat comes in two varieties, the slow non-sturdy one and the faster sturdy one, equivalent to the sturdy horses. You will obtain most of the reputation you need through normal questing in Moria.

    Also, with you being on a non-RP server, you will avoid most of the raised eyebrows in response to using a goat outside of Moria!

  5. Brian 'Psychochild' Green

    You forgot a part in the middle.

    “After gaining his horse once again, the brown wizard gritted his teeth and spurred his horse past two marauding wargs. Swift of hoof was his horse, and luck shined on him as the claws of the fell enemies merely grazed his mount. A short distance after the wargs gave up the chase, Radagast dismounted his horse then called again fresh to ride with full its vigour once again toward his goal.”

    Part of my problem when starting LotRO was that I was used to WoW’s system. You horse up and in most cases you could run through relatively dangerous areas and probably come out the other side on your mount. There was always some danger, especially if you were more susceptible to critical hits.

    At the core, though, I like the idea of the LotRO mount system. It’s nice that your ability to stay horsed is represented by a bar instead of seemingly a random event if you take damage. In practice, however, it feels exactly as you wrote there. It’s frustrating when you round a corner only to find a wandering monster there and it dismounts you in one swift stroke. Or, you ride over a stealthed almost trivial enemy and it does the same. The amount of “damage” done to the riding bar tends to be so massive that the bar is almost meaningless.

    There does need to be a balance so that you can’t ride through an army unscathed to get to the other side, but where you can ride past an enemy or two (or even a ranged foe) and not have to sigh and use a speed power to get past the enemies nipping at your heels. I think it would be a tremendous improvement to give the bar a bit more durability so that it takes at least 3-5 hits to dismount you. And, let the bar regenerate if you’re not in combat without having to dismount and remount.

  6. Melmoth Post author

    @unwize: Ah, good to know that the reputation grind won’t be entirely hideous for the sturdy goat. I was hoping that being a dwarf would be enough of an excuse to be riding a goat outside of Moria, but you’re probably right that the hardcore RP types would still disapprove.

    @Brian ‘Psychochild’ Green: Good point on the ol’ dismount-remount shuffle. It is a bit silly, and there’s such a simple elegant solution…

    There does need to be a balance so that you can’t ride through an army unscathed to get to the other side, but where you can ride past an enemy or two (or even a ranged foe) and not have to sigh and use a speed power to get past the enemies nipping at your heels. I think it would be a tremendous improvement to give the bar a bit more durability so that it takes at least 3-5 hits to dismount you. And, let the bar regenerate if you’re not in combat without having to dismount and remount.

    This. Exactly this. Now quickly man, get yourself a job on their design team and get these great ideas implemented!

  7. Toldain

    I think I’ve been playing LOTRO for too long or something because this no longer bothers me. Or maybe its the fact I never played WoW enough to get a mount. Still, nice writeup.

    Actually, the bane of riders are the bats. Their sonic thingy will knock you off every time. In fact, all the flying creatures seem to be tough on riders. Half-orcs, on the other hand, seem to need several shots with their crossbows to get me now.

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