Turbine's Jeff ‘MadeOfLions’ Libby has penned a new dev blog entitled "Update 2: Volume III, Book 3 Quest Notes Developer Diary". The article begins with a discussion of the mysterious relics that have begun to appear in Eriador and then segues into new quest arcs before wrapping up at a preview of the epic content coming in Book 3: Echoes of the Dead.

As with the other Epic Books of Volume III, "Echoes of the Dead" is a Level 65 quest arc and is completely soloable. However, with a single exception (that we’ll get into in a moment), you can also complete this entire quest arc in a group if you like. Thanks to your feedback, we’ve mostly done away with the ‘forced solo’ quest instances for "Echoes of the Dead." That’s not to say that you won’t see them make their return in a future Epic Book (because you certainly will, in some cases). However, we’ll try and allow for groups as a first option, and only proceed to the ‘solo only’ option if it is truly necessary for story or gameplay reasons.

You’ll therefore receive Inspired Greatness for most of the instances in "Echoes of the Dead" if you enter with less than a Full Fellowship, just as you do for most of Volume I (and, coming up, in Volume II). This should allow for you to experience the storyline the way you prefer, either by yourself or with friends, and not have to drop group if you are trying to follow the storyline with your friends.

Read more here.