Shadow Stone

Difficulty:  Minimum to survive, 160+ to solo (easier for mages)
Level Restriction:  125+
Timer:  4 Weeks
Can be Solo'd?  Yes
Rewards:  Repaired Shadow Stone housing item, upgradeable to Shadowfire Stone, 20M XP

Back in the days before the Hopeslayer returned, his three generals tested several monarchs to see if their loyalty to Queen Elysa and Asheron could be broken.  These monarchs were taken to the Singularity Caul and forced to run a gauntlet.  If they survived, they were rewarded with a Shadow Stone for Atlan weapons.  Years later, the Order of the Raven Hand found a cache of those stones near the Nightmare Gate.  The years have damaged these stones, but they are not beyond repair...

Step 1:  Preparation.  Before you get started, go to Yaraq and buy a Xarabydun portal gem from the mage.  This will come in handly later.  There is a quest flag associated with this quest, but the problem is that no one knows what it is!  A friend of mine made it to the dungeon, only to receive the Quest Flag error message.  Another friend of mine, who hasn't been on the Caul in years, made it in just fine.  As it turns out, the quest flag is killing the Guardian of the Singularity in Singularity Bore.  How you could get onto the Caul without being properly flagged is beyond me, but that's what the flag is.  Gather your group at the Caul drop and buff up.  The run is long and dangerous, so you should really buff against all damage types.  A slashing weapon should be sufficient for the quest.  The quest dungeon is located high up in the ring of rock that surrounds the outer Caul and there's only one way up, which is located at roughly 92S 94.5W.  The only way up the ridge is on the west side.  Send your group to run those coordinates and have them regroup on the cliff access point.  Then you can run the rest of the way to the dungeon, located at 89.3S 93.5W.  There is another tight squeeze up a rock face, but your group should be tight enough to watch you carefully.

Step 2:  Repository.  The Repository is actually a pretty quick dungeon to navigate.  There are two Shadow Stone spawn points, but the spawn rate on the stone is fast enough that you might as well go to the nearest one and wait there.  All you need to remember in this dungeon is to hug the right wall.  Doing so will drag you into one large room with several Penumbral Horrors.  There is a piece of lore here if you want to grab it, but it isn't necessary to the quest.  Make your way down the ramp and continue along the right wall, which will take you into a second large room.  You will start encountering Greater Penumbral Horrors from here on - they drop part of the Nightmare Gate seal, if you want to grab one.  Find the southwest exit (still on your right) out of the big room and continue along the right wall.  Kill your way down and you will appear in a large ramped room.  The Stone is on the floor at the far end, guarded by a pair of Barbaric Mukkirs.  These are nasty critters!  Fortunately, they don't have nearly as much health as the Horrors.  Once everyone has the stone, pop your Xarabydun portal gem.

Step 3:  Rewards.  Find Ciandra the Alchemist in town, line up, and hand her your stone.  She will give you 20M XP and repair it enough so that it may be used as a housing item.  Properly hooked, the stone will cast a spell on you that adds a 12.5% bonus to cold protection for 3 hours, stackable with standard buffs but not cantrips.  New in February 2006 is a quest to alter the repaired stone into the Shadowfire stone, a stone that will upgrade Isparian weapons to do extra damage to Shadows!