With the vibrant revitalization of Bree, property values are soaring and one hopeful merchant in particular is getting ready to open a brand-new venture.   Lalia, daughter of Bob who works at the Prancing Pony, gained a certain level of notoriety amongst adventurers after an incident she had in the Barrow-downs.  However, her wandering days are now behind her*, and she’s opened her very own shop in her adopted city.  As those who’ve met Lalia before know, she’s always had an appreciation of the value of a good piece of clothing, instilled in her by her father, to whom she is devoted.  

 

Born from that appreciation, Lalia has created a splendid assortment of dress-clothes, based on some of the rarest and most beautiful gear worn by the various adventurers she’s seen passing through Bree-town.  Items are displayed and sold ala-carte, so the individual beauty and craftsmanship of each helm or pair of boots can be appreciated.  Customers are encouraged to buy an assortment of items, and then swing by Lalia herself who will happily sell them dyes to finish their unique look.  She’s also appreciates that simply getting to a store can be half the battle, and to that end she’s offering a permanent Return to Lalia’s Market skill at a deep discount.  Unlike the mannequins that residents of Middle-Earth are used to seeing in some cities, the clothing sold in Lalia’s Market won’t be changing on a set schedule.  However, some updates to items sold should be expected on an irregular basis. 

 

Eager shoppers can find Lalia’s Market at the Market Gate entrance to the Boar Fountain in Bree. Resident locals are already calling the shop a favorite, and are hopeful that adventurers and explorers will enjoy the shop when they are next in town. 

 

 

Hello folks! Aubergine here.   I’ve been, shall we say, ‘helping’ Lalia put her store together over that last while, and wanted to go into some detail that was left out of her bulletin notice.  Amlug and I, not-so-secretly, love cosmetics in LOTRO.  We’ve been playing around for a while now with finding a good feeling, immersive, lore-appropriate way of presenting these items for sale.  We want the experience of buying clothes in LOTRO to be more similar to how you buy them in real life. You might know you want a shirt, but you don’t necessarily have your mind made up on a specific one.  Browsing is important, as it lets you discover items you didn’t know exist and didn’t know to look for.   

 

 

The mannequins that we have in various locations were our first step at trying to tackle this problem.  Given that the reason players would purchase cosmetics is to look awesome in-game, we wanted to figure out how to display them in-game, rather than just through the LOTRO store.   With the introduction of Mithril Coins, and with a lot of feedback from the mannequins still fresh in our memory, we wanted to take another stab at presenting cosmetics for sale, and thus Lalia’s Market was born.  

 

It’s been a blast working on this space!  I’m (of course) totally biased, but it’s one of my favorite interiors in LOTRO now.  Our world building team did a fantastic job helping us to create a space that feels alive and bustling.  Hopefully, even if you don’t ever intend to buy an item from the shop, it should still be a space that’s fun to be in.  We’ve also added in a mailbox and a vault-keeper as well, to help this space be useful to everyone. 

 

All items in the shop, with the exception of the war-steed related sets and accessories, are being sold for Mithril Coins, including the dyes and travel skill sold by Lalia. Unlike the monthly rotating mannequins where we sell gear that’s been pre-dyed and selected to create a full matching set, most of the items in Lalia’s Market are sold individually so you can pick out just the right set of shoulders to go with the outfit you’ve already got. Or, you can hand-craft a new outfit of your choosing.  Purchasing the items will work just like purchasing the mannequin sets for Mithril Coins.   Click on a given item and a dressing room window will pop open, displaying the item on your character.  You can play around with the effects of dye on the piece to make sure it behaves the way you want it to before you buy.   Lalia now sells dyes for Mithril Coins as well, so once you have your new item, you can grab the dye you want right there if you so choose. 

 

*Never fear! For those of you who haven’t had the unique pleasure of assisting Lalia in her Barrow-downs adventures, she’s still there.  Chronologically speaking, the Lalia setting up shop in Bree is an older, wiser Lalia, but we haven’t ruined your fun by taking her away from her old quest line.