Ithaenc Quiddity Seed

Difficulty:  150+
Level Restriction:  130+ 
Timer:  Unknown
Can be Solo'd?  No, too hard
Rewards:  Empowered Pauldrons of the Perfect Light, Hope of the Past title, XP, Luminance

Somehow Aerbax has managed to invade the dreams of the Shadow General Isin Dule.  Without his help, the Hopeslayer would never have been defeated and the world would still be shrouded in darkness.  Our only recourse is to delve into the mind of the Shadow Lord and take out the Hopeslayer again.

Step 1:  Assuming you followed the steps in the Quiddity Seed quest guide, your first stop should be to visit Aun Aemaua, who lives in Fort Tethana.  The fastest way there is via portal gem, but those are somewhat hard to come by, so another alternative is the Foundry Portal in Ayan.  Once you arrive, talk to the Tumerok and he will flag you to proceed with the quest.  Now it's time to visit the Cathedral of Ithaenc.  If you don't have Sanctuary Recall, you will need to buy a wedding invitation portal gem from a Wedding Planner and then run.  This quest is by far the hardest of the set, so you will absolutely need a robust fellowship.  Your opposition will be Virindi, Grievvers, nasty Shadows, and the Hopeslayer himself!  Bring along slash and Shadowfire weapons.  Buff up completely and then find the Quiddity Seed on the ramp leading up just behind the recall point in the Cathedral. 

Step 2:  Thief of Dreams.  Once you use the Quiddity Seed,  you will find yourself in the Sepulcher of the Hopeslayer (kinda).  Instead of Shadows and Grievvers, you'll be fighting Virindi.  These Virindi have very high magic D but practically no armor, so consider them melee and archer fodder.  Make your way west from the drop and you will come across Isin Dule.  You can ignore him for now, but you will be coming back.  Keep going west, killing as you go, and you will eventually come to a ramp leading down.  In the next room you will find the Thief of Dreams, a Virindi boss.  Dispatch him and be sure to loot the Skull of Avoren Palacost, the Hopeslayer's son.  The Thief of Dreams also drops some interesting lore.  Once you have the skull, make a hasty retreat back to Dule.  When your group is assembled, turn in the skull and Dule will summon a portal into the next section of the dungeon.  Using the portal will also flag you to go directly back to the second section if you manage to die.

Step 3:  The Hopeslayer Revisted.  Dule's portal takes you to the far west end of the upper section of the map above.  Now for the fun part.  If you choose to fight near the drop, you will face wave after wave of VoD Grievvers and even nastier Shadows.  If your group is small, there's no way you will outkill the spawn rate, so consider running.  Your team eventually needs to make it as far as possible to the east, whether it be via killing or by running.  There is a lever door at the far end, so they won't be able to get any farther than you'd like. You will need to open that lever door.  At the bottom of the ramp near the drop is a four-way intersection.  Turn left and run.  Use [ and ] to find the lever on the wall in the second big room you enter.  Then hug the left wall and you will eventually rejoin your team.  Make sure everyone gets past the lever (since there may be monsters around, it would be a good idea to have someone bug the door for you) and then kill whatever followed you through the door.  Once things calm down, it's time for the boss fight.  You will find yourself overlooking a pit filled with Grievvers, Black Breaths, and the Hopeslayer!  Have everyone start imperilling the Grievvers and fire vulning the Black Breaths.  It would be a good idea to designate a healer to stay up top too.  When everything is nice and debuffed, have your team jump down.  Make sure you gather in the western alcove so your healer can easily target you.  Mages should take out the Black Breaths (one fire bolt off a Shadowfire wand will suffice) and have everyone else go after the Grievvers.  When everything else is dead, go after the Hopeslayer.  Fortuately he's not nearly as nasty as he was years ago, but he's still a rough customer.  You might want to instruct your mages to loot their Black Breath kills because they will make a smoky mess of the place.  Be aware for the Grievvers and Black Breaths to respawn - when they do, immediately go after them.  When the Hopeslayer dies, everyone needs to loot a claw from his corpse.  You may need to kill him a second time - respawn time is about 5 minutes.  Once everyone has their claw, head back to Fort Teth.

Step 4:  Rewards.  Hand Aun Aemaua your claw and he will reward you.  You will earn XP (capping at 130M), 18,000 Luminance, the Empowered Pauldrons of the Perfect Light, a quiddity ingot (whose use is still unknown), and the title Hope of the Past.