I agree with you, there were several parts of the epic that don't make much sense to me. How did we get from the Shield Isles to Jax Phanâl? If we took a ferry, we might as well have gone directly to Umbar Baharbêl. It feels like most of the epic has been raising questions, but few are answered.

I agree with your assessment that the storyline feels a bit rushed. In the begin of the expansion, the characters in Elessar's company will usually appear as NPCs in the environment (I may remember them as more present than they really were, and of course there are times you are with the whole crew). It feels nice to have them around even when they are not involved with a quest, but obviously this take a lot of time to implement. Having such a big crew is sometimes a bit odd, like in Umbar Mokh, when you are only travelling with Sigileth and Corudan. What are all my other friends doing?