IKS Kuve’kai will be there!

Sounds like I should put my Art Degree to good use. 

Thanks Gareth! I very much enjoyed it. My legs hate you for it! 

Thank you Gareth! The effort you put into this was amazing, I loved the little stories people wrote and descriptions for each day of the journey. This was so much fun - And just what I needed to get out of the house a bit more while I'm finishing up my writing.

The I.K.S. Dyson will answer your call! 

ThanQ Grand Master Garethius for a really great challenge, the lot of work you've done and the great designs and the map! It was fun to participate, and I enjoyed this very much. Your challenge helped me to kick-start my long planned daily training routine to conquer my fatigue syndrom, which is my last leftover from my illness. Now I'm on it again, even my weight gain started (only 1 kg more to go to reach my old weight - yeah).

A big ThanQ to all who participated, and for the stories shared. Fun to read, and made the challenge-days much more amusing. Very cool, we should do this again.

Warriors rejoice for we battle together soon!

Thanks, Gareth for an awesome event!  We know it was a lot of effort to put this together and to update the map and everyone’s totals daily.  

Really motivated me to stay active during a paperwork heavy week.  I loved how this wasn’t just a steps challenge, but how we got to pick our characters and use our steps to imagine that we were doing something fun and geeky that we can all relate to!  Was great - you’ll have to do something like this again! 

Thanks so much for organizing this challenge--I had fun and it was a great way to jump-start my new treadmill!

I woke up on Monday with 7500 steps already so it was a good night

Quote by Gravity

Thank you for all the effort Gareth it was a fun event and i enjoyed reading the entries people made of their journey.

Thank you for sending me your steps for sunday (your "dancing steps" from when you went out for your birthday, as you told me) although you already completed the challenge.. you must be a good dancer! and happy Birthday

The character system really made it fun, thanks g and all my friends here (that's all of you) participating 

Thank you for all the effort Gareth it was a fun event and i enjoyed reading the entries people made of their journey.

Whittier Strong
7 mins · 

So last night I downloaded and started playing a free-to-play game I saw advertised on Facebook. Ordinarily, this wouldn't bode well, as some of these games are just not up to snuff. But this wonderful little game is different.
Occupy White Walls is like The Sims as an MMO, combined with a college course in art history. You build an art museum, with lots of architectural options, and select the art you want to hang--as I understand it, they're digitized versions of works from the Met. As you select pieces, the game steers you to other pieces you might like, and each one has a ton of information about the artist and the work. Other players can visit your museum and comment on it, as well as on the artwork. Every hour, whether you're in game or not, you earn money from visitors to your museum, both other players and NPCs, which you can use to expand your museum.
It's very much an "ungame," and so far, the players have been so friendly. The whole setting is rather peaceful. The game is still in alpha, so they're getting feedback and working out bugs. I have the occasional capacity to crash when I go to another player's museum, but beyond that, no major issues thus far.
As an art lover and a Sims building fanatic, I can't recommend it enough.

Yesterday you all Stepped up... well done to @dax_aussie_boy for being a #RingDestroyer , Cal and Teknomancer you are not far away at all.. just a few more steps needed to destroy the ring and gain another SWC!
Cai and Ted have reached home!! congrats.. can you go a little extra and sail off from Grey Havens?
a lot of you are making your way home and are nearly there... push a bit extra today.. its the last day of the challenge!

congrats to @gravity @midnighttlc and @sixgunsound for doing the bonus step challenge and becoming Emortal!

The weekend is here and you all have done amazing so far (check the map on the 1st page for your positions), most of you have already destroyed your Rings and are making your way home... the route from Isengard Back to Rivendell may look long on the map.. but its not that far... Some of you are really close to Destroying the ring... you just need a few extra steps a day.. jogging on the spot, walking up and down the stairs may help you.


Well done to @ambulancedrivermb (Trek911) for destroing his ring today #RingDestroyer

Also a Massive Well done to Joogoo @traull For Reaching the Bonus stage of Grey Havens, He has sailed off to the Magical Elvish lands to Live forever and become a god!
Well done Joogoo, you have more than completed the Challenge!!

Our journey has come to a close. Our stay in Minas Tirith was short yet joyous. Our kinsmen awoke at daybreak and with enough food and drink in their stomachs to last several weeks felt the need to traverse home as much of the dwellers of Rivendell and Hobbiton do. We were asked to stay for another day but we graciously declined as we were all very ready to return back to our respective beds. There is a power or calling that only ones home has on them, it is a constant reminder in the ever changing world that there is a special space reserved for you, and you alone. 
Some of us have that power drive us back home for our families and friends stronger than others. While some, have other plans. We assembled shortly before mid morning and set out. I remember strapping my sheath to my back, and feeling it a bit lighter than normal. At first I thought that maybe it was the pull home was greater than the weight on my shoulders but it stayed light through our journey back through Rivendell. 
We were greeted home by a releasing of white flowers into the canyon zephyr. The sky was filled with floating lilies and ranunculus. They drifted aimlessly and lightly as if they were held up by magic. The elders were festooned in white flowing robed with etched mithril trims. They honored us in collars of sage and silver. They laid them across our chests careful to not cover our highest honor from the King of Gondor. They asked us to participate in a lighting of the lanterns ceremony. 
We each lit a candle and affixed it to a paper lantern, and when asked we let them sail over from the seat of the Elders and into the ravine below. They gently drifted down the gulley across the falls and were merged by a releasing of hundreds more. Each lantern illuminated as one among hundreds in a sea of light. 
It was the first time that the elders had spoken to me since I was bequeathed the Sword of the Ancients. One whom I had known since a child, whispered that I had finally earned its right to wear it. He smiled and gripped my arm and pointed to the bay at the end of the falls. He let me know that my journey does not end here. I asked him what he meant when another Elder came to take his attention. He nodded to me and winked before he turned away. 
Later that evening a hobbit came to me and asked if I could escort their group tonight back to hobbiton. I obliged and set off. 
Our journey was quick and only lasted a few hours. After ensuring that they were safely in their homes I turned back for Rivendell, but I could not help but feel pause as I stood at a fork in the road. One pointed home and the other pointed to the Gulf of Lune. I couldn’t help but feel the curiosity fo the Elders words. Even though this journey would mean I walk through the night to Grey Havens without sleep, I began on the path down to the bay. 
I arrived early morning, the sun just cusping the waters edge. 
I found a sea side inn that had chairs and tables outside on the dockyard, a man tending bar told me that they were not serving breakfast yet, but I was welcome to stay. I thanked him for his generosity as I let my feet rest. I stared out to the bay, the large narrow ships rocked gently in the harbor. I looked up from the waters edge to the chasm above me. Even with squinting I barely made out the council of Elders seats from which I was told to go here. After staring longly at home a turned back to the bay where a familiar face stood quietly in front of me. It was my Elder who told me to come here. 
“Azreath,” he called to me I’m familiar yet strange Elfish dialect. I told him I had never heard my name spoken so beautifully. He began to explain. 
When I was born a Valar came to him and spoke my name. The same as the person who watched over him and the people before him. This was a sign that when he heard the name spoken aloud that he would need to keep an eye on me and ensure that I was pointed in the right direction. He asked if I knew who had the sword before myself and I said no, he informed me that it was a Maiar like myself, who journeyed on to the path to Lindon. The key to my entry was the sword and the lock was the epic I faced, battling Maiar who aligned with Sauron. As my trials were over I was to go to Lindon and join the ranks of Maiar, like the ones before me. I asked how I was not aware of this. He said, that I was to be born into the Elf Kingdom unaware of my powers. One in many are to be born this way ever since many were corrupted by power greater than themselves. 
I abstained from it and defeated the evil king with my journeymen. 
I stood shocked, as if time had stopped. Things I knew about myself were becoming true. Unfounded feelings from deep inside of me were finally fitting into the puzzle. It became clearer. And as a ship reached port adorning a figurehead guild in a shimmering mithril, I knew this was for me. The skipper called down for me, I nodded and began to unsheathe my sword and as I did the Elder stopped me and said, this is also the path of the sword. 

I refastened the straps. Nodded again and boarded the ship to Lindon. As we set sail the sky almost appeared as it was stitched to the sea. I looked out and felt that I was finally truly heading home. 

With the temptation of the ring gone, kierixs mind is once again freed, and they were able to take in the raw power of mount doom... The size of it, the ferocity of the lava and the power emitted from the magma underground.

The laylines here are strong, no wonder the rings forged here were so powerful, it's such a shame this place is one of evil, otherwise so much could be done, as he turned to leave, he snagged a couple of volcanic rocks of the ground, partly momentoes, partly for magical purposes. 

They have more than just a raw beauty to then these rocks they feel like low Levels of magical energy industry of them...

"Hmmm, I could use these to hell my fellow adventurers on their treks!" 

Opening the make shift book of spells kierix scrolled to the pages on enchantment and began to infuse the stones with magic...

"ut lapides isti in praesidium amicis auxilio opportuno, obsecro superos..." The elementalist chanted feeling his palms grow warm and flow with magical energy.

After they finished enchanting all the stones they began to fasten them to pieces of string to form make shift necklaces, in the hopes of handing them out to those who passed the elementalist.

For it was a long trek back to Hobbiton...