Focusing Stone

Difficulty:  Minimum to survive
Level Restriction:  14+ 
Timer:  3 Weeks
Can be Solo'd?  Yes, with Lockpick, a good connection, and good speed
Rewards: Focusing Stone

The Focusing Stone used to be the spellcasting device that every mage wielded constantly.  While Rending Wands and the mana conversion bonus to wands have made it less useful, it is still useful in buffing and in performing difficult crafting.  It's an item every character needs and the quest to get it is a fun one.

Step 0:  Complete Soul Fearing.  There are two locked doors in the Mines of Despair that are too difficult to pick.  You will need to recover the Skull of the High Acolyte from Soul Fearing and trade it to Le-Ai Rae for the keys.  Refer to my guide to learn how to complete Soul Fearing.

Step 1:  Mines of Despair.  The Mines are located at 75.4S, 57.3E, just outside an Undead town.  As the leader, you really should portal tie to the dungeon because you will need to quickly return to the top of the dungeon.  The fastest way to the dungeon is from the Xinh settlement out of Mayoi.  Before you leave, make sure someone in the group has lockpick.  That person gets to be your special friend for the first half of the quest.  Also pick a co-leader to take care of the group while you and your lockpicker are busy.  Now summon the portal and buff up.  Most characters won't really need to buff, but if you are under 50 or so, cast elemental protections.  You'll be fighting low- to mid-level undead and skeletons, so fire or bludgeon weapons are your best bet.  When everyone is done, move straight ahead from the drop to a locked door.  Use the Golden Key to open the door.  Send your co-leader and the bulk of the group to the right while you and the lockpicker go left.  Both teams will jump down into a foggy room.  The main team should move through a rectangular room and past a turn to the right, where they will find a lever door.  Have them wait there.  You and the lockpicker should follow the path and take your first left, followed by another left into a large room with a slope in the middle.  At the bottom of the ramp is a locked door.  Pick it, turn right, and you will reach a closed (but not locked) door.  Open it, head through the small square room, and take a left.  Now you will come to a maze section.  The important thing to remember in this section is not to go down any ramps.  You will turn right and then take a quick left, which will lead you down a narrow path, past a ledge, and into another square room.  There is a lever in this room.  You will need to hit this lever and another nearby as fast as possible, so make sure you know where you're going next.  Remember the ledge you just passed?  After you hit the lever, you will jump down into a pit and then follow a corridor leading out.  Ignore the turn-off to the right and head down a ramp to a small room with a Lich Lord in it.  Ignore him and hit the lever inside his room.  Now it's time to get back to the top of the dungeon ASAP.  Summon the portal again for yourself and your lockpicker and run to the group.  The door where you left them will now be open.  Head through it and turn right into a large room.  There is another lever door (that you opened) on the far wall.  Don't worry about the skeletons inside - just get through the lever door.  When everyone is through, follow the corridor and turn left, going down a ramp.  Head through a door protected by the Cursed Foreman and you will wind through the corridor, past several weak war and life traps, to a large open room.  Here you will find the Lich Overseer.  Ignore his minions and kill him, as all his friends will die when he does.  On his corpse is the Focusing Stone.  Unfortunately, its power has faded, so you will need to recharge it before you can use it.  The Overseer only drops one stone per kill, so you may be here for quite some time, depending on the size of your group.  After everyone who wants the stone has one, head to the west end of the Overseer's room, where you will see a large metal door.  Use Le-Ai Rae's key to open the door and get everyone through.  On the far side, you will find a portal in a pool of horrible goop.  Everyone should enter it.

Step 2:  Beyond the Mines.  You will arrive in a room just like the room in which you found the portal.  Rebuff if you need to - same buffs as before.  When you are ready, head into the dungeon.  The first couple rooms are very linear, leading up a ramp and into a room with a bridge.  You will actually want to jump down into the pit below the bridge.  There are Magma Golems on trap spawns in the pit, so hug the right wall carefully to ignore them.  Or just kill them, either way.  The far section of the pit has a corridor leading down farther into the dungeon.  From here on, ignore all turns off of the corridor.  At the very end, you will find a room with an orange magical vortex in the far corner of the room.  Everyone will need to use (doubleclick the unimbued focus stone, singleclick the vortex) the focusing stone on the vortex to power it up.  You will now have a useable stone (almost, anyway... it won't have any mana, so use a mana charge on it)!  The Focusing Stone casts Concentration and Malediction on you, which increase your Focus by 25 points and reduce your maximum mana by 50 points.  If you use the stone on another person, you will cast Brilliance on them, which increases their focus by a whopping 50 points for about 15-20 seconds.  Both Concentration and Brilliance are fully stackable with every other kind of Focus spells, including themselves.  Unfortunately, casting Brilliance is very mana-intensive and can cost thousands of points of mana from your stone.  The spell itself has low spellcraft though, so it is easy to reduce the cost with mana conversion.  Brilliance is a very useful spell to cast on crafters attempting difficult tasks, so it's well worth the mana cost.