LotRO celebrates it's annual Harvest Festival.

A few days ago, Middle Earth began it's autumn celebration "Harvestmath"in the online MMO Lord or the Rings online. Players can now enjoy a variety of fun and interesting mini games (dancing and playing tricks on towns people) and side quests, as well as explore "The Haunted Barrow", a MMO style haunted house.

Entrance to the Haunted Barrow

Players can take up quests that lead into various wings of the Barrow and uncover all sorts of "spooky" secrets in return for tokens that can be traded for various cosmetic items.

Oh look, the ghost is a just hobbit with a sheet.

The Barrow acts as a maze, full of moveable walls, trick doors, and spooky "traps". The traps aren't traps in the normal sense, but places that trigger events that scare your character, such as bats flying around his head or spirits holding him in place for a short while. It's not too hard to navigate but it takes a few minutes to get used to everything.

I wonder what's in the barrel...

OH GAWD IT'S HILLARY CLINTON

Anyways, it's nothing too serious. Some fun quests and mini games that offer decent costume cosmetic rewards and silly emotes. There's also the option to raise reputation with the Inn League or the Ale Association, so there's a ton of things to keep you busy. It does a good job of providing a change of pace compared to normal game play. Being new to the game, I was pretty impressed.

Also, for anyone who plays and hasn't found it yet, there's a fake wall in the basement that has a little something special waiting for people who find it. It's not that hidden, but in case anyone if looking for it...

The right part of these barrels is the hidden door.

And as a side note, Lord of the Rings is now free to play. It's limited, but you can enjoy the game without paying anything and enjoy most of the features. If you're upset at the recent fail of FF14 and need an MMO to hold you over for Cataclysm, I'd recommend giving this a shot. Despite what you'd think, it's actually a good game.

EDIT: For some reason only the first picture is linking correctly, hopefully I can fix it later but I'm frustrated with it now.