Just when we thought we had seen all of the diaries for the Echoes of the Dead update, Jeff “MadeofLions” Libby (MoL) comes out with another one walking through the various storylines coming up.

Most of the storyline comes from the Mysterious Relic event from January as the starting point of the events leading to this update.  As the Rangers have started a new mission, the threat of the Gaunt Lords has arisen in their absence.  One of the problems that this instance cluster presents is that the instances are spread all over Middle-Earth without a common location to tie them together.

To tie these together there’s a new 15 chapter quest arc, “In Their Absence,” the guides and explains all the story around these instances.  This quest line isn’t intended to be soloable and builds in size from small fellowship all the way up to the 12-man raid.  Now just because there’s a story arc, you can do the instances in any order you want but the story might not make as much sense.

MoL also walks through the story and implementation of the next installment of the Epic Line.  This book will tries very hard to eliminate forced solo instances (there’s one exception) and instead uses Inspire Greatness such that you can finish the epic story with whatever group size you want to.

Now the exception I mentioned above is a new session play that sounds amazing as we get to not only go to Gondor but experience the Second Age of Middle-Earth.  I really can’t wait to see how they wrap all this story up together as well as find a logical role for us to play.  Plus, who doesn’t want to chat with Isildur?