The Sword of Lost Hope

This write-up is a quick rough-draft of all the information I have been able to dig up. This is a multi-level, multi-person quest, with characters needed in a range from level 15 and up. I will break the information I have down into the 3 separate dungeons. If you have any addition information/details, PLEASE send me an email at The Spectre so I may add them.

The quest starts off with Asheron's Missive, found on many characters when the event was triggered. Upon reading the text of this missive, the locations of three new dungeons were found...

Part I: The Level 15-30 quest for the Skull of Palacost/ Barbed Fletching Tool/Obsidian Dagger

On entry: A couple of liches may wander in at the beginning. Use the lobby to get your group together so everyone stays in one group. The monsters can be pretty tough for the lower level characters.

Navigation: Two teams work together to open doors for each other. The first half everyone is together, and then you separate. The first half run is pretty straightforward, with only small alcoves at the sides. Once you've gone down the ramp and into a larger room with a monster above (which I always just run below), there is a bend to the left. On either side is a small drop. Let your group know which side to run to (North or South). Once the monsters in that room have been killed, this is a good spot to buff.

There is a jump down at this point, with exit portals on either side. I usually send in melee, archers, then mages. After everyone is ready, head east through the corridors to a crossroads, then take the one with the ramp that goes down. This is the final room before the split into the two groups.

A couple of monsters will greet you at the portals for high and low side, so send the melee & people who have downloaded the dungeon before first.

Low Side: After coming through the portal, there is an exit portal to the side again. Go into the corridor, and after dispatching the monsters there, wait for your high siders to let you know they are at a door. Use the button on the right hand wall, and wait until they are all over their pit so no one is left hanging behind a closed door. Low group runs ahead to a room with 4 monsters & sarcophagi, to the right is a corridor to their door. They must wait until the high side opens for them. Once they do, this is the biggest acid jump for the low side. There is a plank sticking out at the doorway, but it's very hard to see. I usually do the *ymca* emote so they can tell where to line up, once I've gotten over. There is no recovery from these pits. (I have seen folks use decent acid prots & recall out after falling in the acid, but you have to really be ready to do that when you jump.)

Follow the corridors to the right until you reach the two small rooms off of each side of the corridor. The left room has the next button on the wall to the right of the doorway. Again, wait until the whole high side group is over before proceeding. Once they give the all-clear, take the corridor to the next room and your second door. Once the high side opens for you, jump this slightly smaller pit, and continue through the corridor to the end room. Two Risen Knights, Three liches and the Guardian of the Mausoleum spawn every 5 minutes or so. The dagger, barbed fletch tool & Empyrean Scale mail shirt are on the Guardian. The quest is on a 3 week timer. On the back wall to the right is a torch. That's the final "lever" for the high side's last room.

High Side: Pretty similar to the low side, more lich lords and Knights. The high side jumps first, then opens two doors for the low side, first a button, then a lever. Both are in rooms on the right side as you go thru, one after each jump. The second jump is the big one for the high siders. The final room is shaped like a box, with an acid pit as a smaller box at the entry. If you position yourself correctly with the spawns, you can get the lich lords to jump into the acid pit, thus negating any war spells from them. This room has a Guardian that drops the Skull of Avoren Palacost. About 5 minutes for the spawn here as well.

Both final rooms have an exit portal.

Part II: The Level 26-40 quest for the Heart of Shadow/Shadow Captain's Heaume

This quest begins at the Shade Stronghold, located at 73.5N, 0.3W. I do not have much in the way of a write-up for this dungeon, as I cannot go on this quest with my character. Here is what I do know though. This dungeon is populated by shadows, so wear magical protections and bring your fire-weapon. This dungeon goes down to two portals. One portal is level restricted to 26-35. This portal leads to the Shadow Captain's Heaume. The other portal is level restricted to 31-40 and leads to the Heart of Shadow. You will need to go down to the bottom of the first dungeon and split into teams, one for each part. The reason for this is that there are switches/levers in each dungeon that opens a door in the other dungeon! (Evil, huh?)

Part III: The Level 36+ quest for the Shard of the Singularity/Virindi Servant's Amulet

This quest begins at the Chakron Flux Dungeon, located at 52.8S, 62.7W. This dungeon is populated with Virindi, Tuskers, and Hollow Minions. Due to the Hollow Minions, do not attempt this dungeon wearing merely a robe. You will die very quickly. I highly recommend the highest BASE AL armor and shield you can find, along with every magical protection possible. All of these monsters are susceptible to piercing damage, though fire is best on the Tuskers, and Slashing is best on the Hollow Minions and Virindi.

The goal here is to get two groups down to the double portals at the bottom. The route down is fairly straightforward. In the bottom room is a Virindi Observer, a couple of masters, and numerous Hollow Minions and Tusker Guards. Once you get to the bottom, you will need to spilt up into a group of level 36-45 characters, and a group of 41+ characters. I highly recommend that all 36-45 characters go into the lower dungeon, as they will be hard-pressed to beat the monsters in there without mass numbers. Make sure you setup a couple of people into fellowships across dungeons, so they can communicate their progress more easily to each group.

Ok, now that you are all ready, make sure the guys going into the lower level dungeon are buffed to the gills, as they will be attacked by Tuskers the moment they appear. You don't want to lose most of your party right from the get-go. Once the two groups are buffed and into their respective dungeons, they will need to progress down to the bottom. To do this, each group will need to pull levers and switches for the other group. This dungeon, like the ones above, has switches that activate the doors in the OTHER dungeon. Have each group proceed to a switch, then activate it once the other group gets to their switch. This is the only way to get down.

Now, my character, The Spectre, went through the higher level dungeon, so I will talk from that perspective from this point. The first blocked door (and all others) is INVISIBLE initially. You will come to a room with a pit full of electricity, with a ramp leading down into it. There is (apparantly) a hallway on the other side of the pit. There is actually an invisible door there, so don't bother jumping across yet. Wait for the group in the lower dungeon to find their first switch and activate it.

Now you can progress to a room with a pit. At the bottom of the pit is a small swarm of monsters. Jump down en masse and kill everything right there. There is a switch/lever here that will need to be activated once the other group tells you to. Go on until you hit another blocked door and wait for the other group to activate it for you.

On the other side of that door is a series of jumps across pits you will need to make. They are not difficult, except you will need mages or archers to take down the Virindi that line the opposite side pit first. You will eventually come to another pit, this one (I believe) with a switch at the TOP. You will need to wait here for the other group to get to their blocked door, so you can open it for them.

Now you head down, through a couple of large rooms full of nasties, and come to yet another door. Wait for the other group to pull the lever and go kill everything. You will come to a final pit. Make sure you are all FULLY buffed before you jump down, as this is the final room. At the bottom of the pit are lots o' nasties just waiting to take you out just before you can complete the quest.

There are two crystal pillars in this room, with electricity arcing across between them. In the center of them, on the floor is the Shard of Singularity, on an approx. 2 minute respawn. Make sure everyone in the group gets one before you leave.

Now, assuming the other group has survived all the way down their dungeon, they should be in their final room, which contains the Virindi Servant's Amulet, a very nice treasure indeed (message me in-game if you have one for sale, or are willing to give it up for all this free advice I am giving you, as I cannot get it myself due to levels) :)

Once you manage to get ahold of all three pieces, you can then combine the Heart and Singularity into the Dark Singularity, and from there combine that with the skull to get the "Dark Crucible", which is then taken to the Chosen of Asheron, which seems to be in remote areas near most towns (one is 3 clicks south of Heiban-To on a grey hill, another is near the broken shadow-spire in Cragstone) to get the portal gem to the "Sanctum of the Hopeslayer."

Once the Portal Gem is created, it is time to get together as many of the meanest, toughest folks you can find. The journey continues into the Sanctum of the Hopeslayer. Though he has been temporarily defeated, this dungeon is no pushover. It is populated by Bane and Destroyer Grievvers, Umbri and Panumbris Shadows, and down at the bottom is the Shadow of Black Ferah. For this section you will want ALL protects on for the spells, and bane your shield against Lightning, Acid, and Bludgeoning for the physical attacks.

You will need three teams to get through here. There are two levers that must be pulled, and a team is required to stand at each for the third team to get through the doors. Here is a screen shot of the entrance room (and the HUGE crowd of Clan EpiK folks that went on this quest):

I am still looking for the map of this dungeon I have, but in the meantime, I remember that the first lever you come across (in a big room) opens the first door at the bottom. The second lever was way off the main path in a room. Once you get the doors open you will come to a jump-down point:

Buff like a madman here, have the mages in the group debuff EVERYTHING below, then get all the melee folks to jump down AT THE SAME TIME. Kill everything, with the mages healing the melee folks. Once the melee folks are engaged, have the archers jump down and get on top of the statues you see below (they are to the SOUTH when you land) and start taking pot-shots. Once you kill the first spawn, have the mages jump down and perch as well. Re-spawn is every TWO MINUTES, so if your buffs start to run out, get up on a perch and rebuff in safety.

As you can see from the arrow in the picture above, the "Blood of the Hopeslayer" is located here, when you double-click on the Remnants of Illservian. To convert your Sword of Lost Light into the Sword of Lost Hope, use the blood on it.

The blood can either be used on the Sword of Lost Light, or turned in to Lily of Glendon Wood for a 10 Million XP reward!

NOTE: ONCE THE BLOOD OF THE HOPESLAYER HAS BEEN APPLIED, YOU CANNOT USE THE INFUSIONS FROM THE AERLINTHE QUEST ON IT. MAKE SURE YOU DO NOT USE THE BLOOD UNTIL YOU HAVE ALL THE INFUSIONS.