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RESTRICTIONS: Level 50+, Two Parties Required

The Story So Far...

  The Arcanum continues to have problems that they apparently cannot handle alone. They say: "We have found large cisterns fueling the magical Essences of Dereth, but something deep within these furnaces is hindering the flow of mana. Go there, find a means to collect proof that you have assisted in the clearing of this stopgap, and return to any Arcanum Agent with the proof to receive your rewards." Sounds simple, eh?

  Well, I must admit that the rewards are definitely worthwhile, but it takes a bit of time and some coordination to complete these quests, especially if you want to get both rewards for each of the four quests/elements.

[Disclaimer: This information is compiled from my personal experience in the Ice & Lightning dungeons and various partial sources I've seen. Since my memory & those sources are not necessarily complete/accurate, please let Mitsuya or The Spectre if we missed something or misstated it.]

Step 0: Preparation

• For Upper Level (Olthoi):

  • Acid and Piercing Protection

  • Bludgeoning or Piercing Weapon

• For Lower Level (Frost Elementals and Glacial Golems):

  • Acid? and Magical Protections

  • ?? Weapon

Step 1: Getting There

  The Acid Propylaeum is located at 31.6s, 74.2w, near the Verdancy Essence.  Getting there may be a problem.  The closest dungeon portal I can think of is the Westernmost Sclavus Cathedral.

Step 2: The Upper Level (The Hammer of Acid)

  The first section is pretty straightforward and the layout is apparently identical for all of the four elements. First of all, gather your group together and fellow/buff either outside the propylaeum dungeon portal or in the dungeon lobby, whichever is safer. In the lobby you will have the occasional Olthoi disrupting things, but often that is better than what lies outside the dungeons. So, once you're ready head out of the lobby & go right (left is short dead-end). Follow the passage around the corner and watch for a horde of Olthoi (~10) down the ramp. You can safely debuff them from the hallway before going down the ramp. In this room will be a pit with acid/cold damage at the bottom, along with some more Olthoi. I recommend shift-jumping from the east (left) side of the pit to the west (right) side, since the opening at the bottom is to the west. Make sure that you are protected for bludgeoning damage and the appropriate element, since they can hurt.  Take out the Olthoi and find the chest down the hall to the west with a hammer in it.

  Once everyone that is going to the lower dungeon for the crystal has a hammer (575 burden units), proceed down the hallway to the south, descend the stairway, kill more Olthoi and get ready to split into two equally powered groups for the upper & lower cistern dungeons. I'd recommend a good mix of mages & melee on both upper & lower teams, since the critters can be tough to melee effectively without debuffs. There are portals to both sections in this final room (upper on right, lower on left) and the Olthoi respawn here is pretty quick, so hop through the portals once everyone knows where to go and you can buff in safety on the other side. As a note, the return portal in the upper & lower "lobbies" take you back to the beginning of the first section and not to the final room you just came from -- So, make sure people grab the correct portal.

Step 3: The Lower Levels (Two parties required)

  Now the fun begins! Basically the folks in the upper section run around, pull levers & push buttons in order to open doors for the lower level team, all the while avoiding/killing off the elementals & golems in this section and moving up. My information is terribly incomplete here, but I hope to determine the system of levels & doors on my next venture. I would have non-mages pull the levers & push buttons first, since some of them have dispel traps. Rumor has it that the levers with dispel traps do nothing (other than dispel your buffs). The upper team must also wait for the lower team to pull levers in order to open doors in the upper section. Coordinating all this takes a lot of communication & patience. Also, before proceeding to the bracelet pick-up, make sure that the lower team has gotten to the end crystal, since it's difficult to backtrack.

Step 3a: The Upper Cistern (Bracelet)

  In order to get the bracelet, you need to find the large room with the hanging "cages". Do a full jump into the corner of the cage (middle of room) and have it catch you. From there jump diagonally across to the neighboring hanging metal platform and then look in the chest for the elemental bracelet. The lever in this room might be the one needed to open the door at bottom of lower section pit. If you miss one of the jumps and have a good jump skill (~250), you can jump on top of the lever in the room below and jump onto the hanging platform. There is a surface portal just down the hallway.

Ebullient Bracelet
1st Spell	Acid Prot. Other VI
2nd Spell	Magic Resist. Other V
3rd Spell	Minor Endurance (+5 Endurance)
4th Spell	Consumption (max mana -20)
Difficulty	150
User Level	Level 50+
Value	8500 p
Burden	80 bu
Mana	600
Mana Cost	1 per 30 seconds
Note	no-give

Step 3b: The Lower Cistern (Fragment of the Acid Prism)

  Much like the upper section of this quest, you need to push buttons & pull levers to open doors for the upper team, while progressing downwards. Keep in mind that doors can be "propped" by standing in the middle of them before they close -- Just be sure you can handle the spawn if it takes a while to get people to the correct doors. Apparently there is a locked door that does not need to be picked in order to complete this quest, and it just releases more golems & elementals, so I wouldn't bother. Once you've made it through about five doors, you'll come to a pit. Don't jump! yet. Make sure that the door at the bottom of the pit is open before you jump down, since the bottom of the pit causes major damage. From there you should be close to the crystal, but make sure that the upper team gets you all the way to the end (& vice versa) before hitting the crystal, since it's difficult or impossible to backtrack.

  Once you are all in the room holding the crystal, make sure the crystal is LOCKED and only then use the hammer on the crystal to get the fragment. The hammer acts as a key to open the fragment, and it is only good for a single use. So, I suggest going in a predetermined order and making sure everyone uses the hammer on a locked crystal. Lastly, the surface portal here is beyond the last door you came through, so unless you had it "propped" you'll probably have to recall or summon a portal to leave.

Step 4: Rewards for prisms

  So once everyone has the fragment, you can turn it in any Agent of the Arcanum for your reward, which will be 2 writs, 500,000xps, and a craftable version of the fragment.