For those on the Honors track of the Coursera "Online Games" course, the in-game assignment for this week is to join a chicken run to Rivendell.
To sort of make a long story short, there are a number of quests in LOTRO where you can play *as a chicken* (instead of as your usual character) and do some quests that basically involve survival while you accomplish some chicken-related goals. The chicken run to Rivendell is one of these kind of quests.
However! There are five preliminary quests that you should do before you attempt a chicken run to Rivendell. These quests introduce you to how to play as a chicken, and to the particular skills that are available to chicken-type characters. Once you have completed these five quests, it unlocks a quest that allows you to attempt the chicken run to Rivendell.
Here is a FAQ on our kin website that describes the preliminary quests and a little bit more about what it means to play as a chicken.
This Saturday, July 2 at 1pm US Eastern time (EDT), we will do a group chicken run to Rivendell. We will meet at Sandson’s Farm in The Shire (located at 32.0S, 74.3W) where the run will start. If you would like to join this run, please do the preliminary quests first. If this time does not work for you, just ask on the coursera channel and we can find a time for the chicken run that works for you.