Pies and Post in The Shire

Guide to Delivery Quests in the Shire

By Darkgolem

The deeds in the Shire are a bit different than in other areas, being somewhat more light-hearted and cuter than others.  A great example of this are the Pie and Post quests.  The Pie quests are required for acquisition of the deed "No Place for Spoiled Pies", which grants Patience +1, and the Post quests are required for the "Restoring the Quick Post" deed, which also grants +1 Patience. 

The nice this about these two quests are that they require no fighting.  In fact, you can't fight while doing these quests, or swim, or take too much damage.  The bad thing about these quests (and this is pretty minor) is that there are a lot of them, and doing them all can become a chore.  Probably the most beneficial thing about these quests is that you can do them at just about any level, since you don't have to have anything but two feet and the ability to survive a little if you get attacked while you run past monsters carrying pies or bundles of mail.

Postal Delivery Quests

The postal delivery quests require you to collect postal bundles from tables next to varying post masters and running them to other towns.  Meanwhile, wandering "nosey hobbits" walk the roads and towns, and if you get too close to one, they will make you fail your quest.  You have a generous timer to make these runs.  You also must avoid getting into water deep enough to swim or take more than a (total while holding the bundle) third of your morale.

You can see Nosey Hobbits in the distance as moving silver rings.  In most cases, you just need to walk around them, but traveling off the road.  This is where the quests become a little difficult.  Since your wandering off the road, you have to worry about creatures noticing you and attacking you.  In the western portions of the Shire, such as Hobbiton, this isn't an issue, most of the creatures are not so dangerous as to pose too much of a danger that they are likely to hit you enough to make you drop your parcel.  In the eastern Shire, especially around the Greenfields, enough creatures wander onto the road that you might have to repeat a quest or two, if your having a bad day.

Make sure to visit Postmaster Proudfoot when your finished, he gives you a nice hat in addition to it being a quest and giving quick experience.

Specific Postal Quests

For Bundle for Woodhall, the timer is a little short.  I found that heading northwest from Oddfoot, then cutting south and heading directly to Woodhall, climbing steep slopes, is the best way to do it quickly.  Postman Spinner is at 33.3S, 65.7W.

Bundle for Stock has a short timer too, travel almost directly toward Stock, banking around nosey hobbits as usual.

Regarding Bundle for Budgeford, Bolger is found in the east portion of Budgeford.  You have just enough time to run it and avoid nosey hobbits, but you cannot afford to delay at all.  The waterlogged ford crossing to Budgeford is not too deep, and will not fail the quest.

Bundle for Scary requires some traveling across fields, which can make this quest easy, if you are skilled at avoiding wild animal attacks.  It is not too populated here, so not too hard.

Postal Delivery Quests
Name	Location	Quest Giver
Bundle for Michel Delving	Little Delving	Postman Newbuck
Bundle for Waymeet	Michel Delving	Postmaster Proudfoot
Bundle for Michel Delving	Needlehole	Postman Redsmith
Bundle for Tuckborough	Michel Delving	Postmaster Proudfoot
Bundle for Hobbiton	Tuckborough	Postman Grubb
Bundle for Needlehole	Waymeet	Postman Twofoot
Bundle for Overhill	Hobbiton-Bywater	Postman Grubb
Bundle for Bywater	Overhill	Postman Overhill
Inspire Postman Oddfoot	Bywater	Postman Cotton
Bundle for Woodhall	Frogmorton	Postman Oddfoot
Bundle for Stock	Woodhall	Postman Spinner
Bundle for Budgeford	Stock	Postman Smallburrow
Bundle for Scary	Budgeford	Postman Bolger
Bundle for Brockenborings	Scary	Postman Digwells
A True Friend of the Quickpost	Michel Delving	Postmaster Proudfoot

Pie Delivery Quests

The pie delivery and retrieval quests are very similar to the postal delivery quests, but are little harder.  Basically the rules are the same, avoid getting wet, don't take too much damage, and (in this case) avoid hungry hobbits rather than nosey hobbits.  However, there are two opening quests (which are actually delivery rather than retrieval quests) which must be done before you can start doing the retrieval quests.  Another difference with the pie quests from the postal quests is that (aside from the first two) you must always deliver the pies to Holly Hornblower.

These quests are usually fairly easy with a spots that can be a little more difficult than otherwise might be the case.  The first problem is that there is a hungry hobbit right near Lobelia, to her west.  Coming from the east, for any of those quests, simply leave the road before getting to Bywater and travel along the river until you get to her.  There are very few hungry hobbits on the main roads, usually you only have to avoid them in the town where you pick up pies and when you get to Hobbiton.  This hobbit near Lobelia is a really pain in the butt when you are coming from Overhill or the Hill though.  You can cross the bridge and get to her in Hobbiton without alerting the hungry hobbit there, but it requires perfect timing.  The second issue is that a lot of the timers for the pie running quests are short enough that you have a little less time than you would like.. that is, you cannot afford to wait for a hungry hobbit to move out of your way.

The only specific pie running quest which needs note is the one from Brockenborings.  This quest has you pick up the pie on the raised southern section of Brockenborings, with a hungry hobbit directly between you and the road.  Instead, go west, along the cliff and slide down to Brockenboring's crafting area.  Then go north and once you hit Brockenboring's main road, go east again toward the road that leads to Scary and eventually Budgeford and the east-west road to Hobbiton.  This is a pain in the butt, and the temptation is to to go west through the animal infested area and eventually get to Budgeford by heading south and west from there.  Don't do this, there are too many creatures which will attack you and you will fail this quest.  You have enough time to do it the way I described, though it is tight.

After you are done with the pie quests, make sure to visit Holly Hornblower, who gives you a pie-runner title, a few pies, and a recipe for Hornblower pie!

Pie Running Quests
Name	Location	Quest Giver
Pie for the Green Dragon	Hobbiton-Bywater	Holly Hornblower
Lobelia's Pie	Hobbiton-Bywater	Holly Hornblower
Spoiled Pie from Michel Delving	Michel Delving	Hugo Broadbelt
Spoiled Pie from Bywater	Bywater	Gerd Whitfoot
Spoiled Pie from Frogmorton	Frogmorton	Myrtle Oddfoot
Spoiled Pie from Little Delving	Little Delving	Wydo Boffin
Spoiled Pie from the Party Field	Party Field (The Hill)	Opal Goodbody
Spoiled Pie from Tuckborough	Tuckborough	Edialina Proudfoot
Spoiled Pie from Needlehole	Needlehole	Iris Chubb
Spoiled Pie from Woodhole	Woodhole	Daisy Hornblower
Spoiled Pie from Stock	Stock	Primrose Proudfoot
Spoiled Pie from Budgeford	Budgeford	Sapphira Bolger
Spoiled Pie from Scary	Scary	Poppy Grubb
Spoiled Pie from Brockenborings	Brockenborings	Ivo Brockhouse
A True Friend of Holly Hornblower	Hobbiton-Bywater	Holly Hornblower

Have you done these quests?  Want to comment?  Do so in our forums here!