Too Precious For Words

Jaci Conrad, Albert Lin

SOLUTION:

Each of the ten files contains a quote from the Lord of the Rings in a weird encoding: each ring is a word; a scrambled alphabet is written around the outside of each ring; and lines are drawn sequentially between the letters on the ring for each letter of the word. Also, the speaker or subject of the quote was used as the "key" when placing letters around the circle, so each page has its own encoding.

The quotes, with the page numbers [of my illegal electronic copy], are:

Still lakes mirror them; A glimmering world looks up from dark pools covered with clear glass... [Gimli, The Two Towers, p. 810]
But autumn WAS waning fast; slowly the golden light faded to pale silver, and the lingering leaves fell from the naked trees. [Rivendell, The Fellowship of the Ring, p. 518]
Out of doubt, out of dark, to the day's RISING he rode singing in the sun, sword unsheathing. [Theoden, The Return of the King, p. 1270]
But the shadow of horror wheeled and returned, passing lower now, right above them, sweeping the fen REEK with its ghastly wings. [Nazgul, TTT, p. 897]
Often we let him MOUNT up to the highest branches, until he felt the free wind... [Gollum, FotR, p. 498]
And anyway he did not understand them; and he made the GREAT mistake of leaving them out of his calculations. [Saruman, TTT, p. 831]
...but the smoke of the BURNING rose high to heaven and was seen by many watchful eyes. [Riders, TTT, p. 715]
...songs like trees bear fruit only in their own time and their own way; AND sometimes they are withered untimely. [Fangorn, TTT, p. 743]

Each quote has a missing word (capitalized above); when ordered by location in the trilogy, one obtains:

MOUNT WAS BURNING AND A GREAT REEK RISING

which is a quote from FotR, missing the word DOOM, the answer.


Solution keys:

01-sol.pdf
02-sol.pdf
03-sol.pdf
04-sol.pdf
05-sol.pdf
06-sol.pdf
07-sol.pdf
08-sol.pdf

Answer: DOOM