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Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne,
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
- J.R.R. Tolkien
Long ago in a time so far removed from the present as to be irrelevant, evil was lurking in a quiet pool inside the root of the Misty Mountains. We do not now know where or when this evil began, only that it has tremendous power over the hearts and minds of men. This evil is so corrupting that it has both physically and mentally disfigured its temporary curator, a once hobbit-like creature named Gollum.
Gollum lurks in his quiet pool, using the power of his "precious" to his own advantage. This evil is manifested in a Ring of Power, the One Ring, that has been lost by its creator Sauron, one of the most evil beings to ever descend on Middle Earth (or any earth for that matter). Gollum has found this ring, which Sauron had lost, and has been using its awesome power for his own twisted purposes, like holding badly out-of-focus and off-center pictures of his mother to his refrigerator in order to scare off any would-be vandals from raiding his stash of bon-bons.
He has also been using it to protect his second most prized possession: his cache. If you are able to recover the One Ring from the depths of Gollum's Lake (or use Gollum's Lake to recover the One Ring from the depths, however you want to look at it), then you will be able to use its awesome power to retrieve this cache and get one of the clues to the last set of caches to complete your quest.
Please DO NOT put the "ring" INTO stage 3. Use on the outside. Please remember to return everything as you found it.