Shadowfire

Difficulty:  Minimum to survive, 150+ recommended
Level Restriction:  125+
Timer:  4 Weeks
Can be Solo'd?  No, too hard
Rewards:  Shadowfire Isparian Stone, 20M XP, or Title

The Shadow Stone as a housing item is useful, but its latent power is somewhat misused if you are only using it to cast a cold protection spell.  After a month's research, Ciandra has discovered how to not only unlock its power, but to turn its power against its creators, the Shadows.  The quest is long and difficult, but hopefully the Shadowfire Isparian weapons will be exceedingly helpful in the days to come.

Step 1:  Preparation.  First of all, have you recovered a Shadow Stone?  If not, do that first.  To start the quest, return to Xarabydun and hand Ciandra your repaired Shadow Stone.  She will tell you that she's discovered a method to repair the stone, but it will require ancient tools from a storehouse once used by Lord Atlan himself.  While you are in Xarabydun, buy two more Xarabydun portal gems, as you will be coming back twice.  The quest will require you to buff at least twice, so be prepared.  Once your team is ready, head to Neydissa Castle - there's a portal in Holtburg for your convenience.  Once in Neydissa, head to the dungeon, located at 66.9N 15.9E.  The run is safe, so don't bother buffing until you get to the dungeon.

Step 2:  Empyrean Workshop.  This first dungeon is filled with a lot of VoD Shadows - Wretcheds and Void Knights.  I suggest buffing a slashing weapon instead of a fire weapon for this dungeon, as you won't want your fire weapons later.  Protect against all damage types, but you can get away with baning against physical and fire damages only.  Your goal in this dungeon is to have everyone recover an Empyrean Notebook right at the end of the dungeon.  Your goal in this dungeon is to continue heading east as far as you can until you come to a ramp leading down.  Once you are down the ramp, double back to the west.  You will quickly come to a series of small rooms, two of which have holes in the floor.  Ignore the pits and make your way to the farthest room east, where you will find two doors.  Pick either one and keep going east.  You will soon come to a large room with a ramp leading up and a bridge above you.  Ignore those and make your way out the exit on the far wall (to the east, of course!).  You will come to another split leading to two small rooms with doors.  Go either way, go through the door, and continue east.  You'll come to a Y intersection once you pass the door.  Stay along the inner wall and you will see a path leading east.  If you take the outer wall, you'll double back west, which you don't want to do yet.  Just past the east path is the ramp you've been looking for.  Once you are down the ramp, you're almost there - just keep going west and you will reach a final large room.  The room is protected by some Shadows, but more importantly, you will see a pair of Luminary Knights and an Inner Chamber Guardian.  Kill them, but look on the ground for an Empyrean Notebook.  Everyone needs one!  Once everyone has the notebook, summon Subway and have everyone head to Cragstone.

Step 3:  Translation.  Once in Cragstone, head to the Translator, behind you from the drop.  Have everyone turn in their texts.  You won't be able to read it, but at least it's in Roulean now!  When everyone has their translated book, use one of your Xarabydun portals and return to Ciandra.  Line up and hand in your books.  Ciandra will decipher the text and flag you to enter Atlan's Laboratory.  Unfortunately, that means fighting through the Empyrean Workshop again.  The portal to Atlan's Lab is just past the Luminary Knights and the Inner Chamber Guardian.  Check the Guardian for a key on his corpse and use it to open the door to the portal.  Head inside.

Step 4:  Atlan's Laboratory.  You should probably rebuff at this point.  The drop isn't 100% safe, so buff carefully.  You will be fighting Incendiary Knights exclusively.  These guys are Fire Elementals, but because of their buffing habits, don't use a frost weapon.  Slashing is your best bet.  The other thing to be aware of is that these elementals naturally have horrible armor.  If you catch them quickly and land an imperil, non-mages will be able to do 4-digit damage.  Typically, they cast Armor and Frost protection very quickly, negating their armor problems.  Mages should Imperil before they think about war.  Protect and bane against fire only - you won't take any other kind of damage.  When you are ready, follow the corridor into a large room with a hole in the floor.  Have your mages imperil the monsters below and then jump down.  If you have a small group, don't stay in the pit - fall back into one of the corridors leading out of the pit to fight.  When the pit is clear, pick one of the exits and follow it.  You will eventually come to a four-way intersection.  Take the west exit, which leads to a large room.  Carefully clear it, watching your back for spawns.  The exit from this room is to the northeast, leading to a network of corridors.  Ignore the first turn to the right but then take the second right you come to.  This will lead you to a ramp heading downward.  Once you've made it down this ramp, you're home free.  The ramp leads over a series of bridges and eventually to a small island in a lake of lava.  Asheron's Crafting Golem spawns here.  Unfortunately, all that running across the bridges has a tendancy to make him fall into the lava lake below!  If he's down there, you don't have any recourse but to press on in the dungeon and force him to reset.  I suppose you could have your mages just kill him too and wait for the respawn.  Either way, you need to kill him in a position where you can loot him, as he drops Damaged Stone Infusers (several).  Once everyone has an Infuser, pop another Xarabydun portal gem and take your prize back to Ciandra.

Step 5:  Infusion.  Line up and hand Ciandra your infuser.  She will reward you with 20M XP and tell you how to use it to fix your stone, which is a bit more complicated that it seems.  You will need to make a couple side trips - one to recover mana in a Decanter of Essence (See the Isparian Weapons quest for nore details) and one to the Shade of Farelaith, who guards the Temple of Stirring Shadow.  The fastest way to visit him is via the Halinia settlement in Cragstone.  To purge the evil magic from the stone, you will need to give him your stone and then a Decanter of Essence.  He will purify the stone, but you will need to use the Infuser to activate it.  Add your second Decanter to the repaired Infuser Ciandra gave you to charge it up.  Then use the charged Infuser on the dormant stone to activate it.  Congratulations, you now have a fully charged Shadowfire Stone!  The stone can only be added to Perfect Isparian weapons and the change is irreversible - no tool exists to remove it.  Personally, I just made a new Isparian weapon to hold the stone.  Have a look at Gyes' Axe and June's Wand.  If you've already made one stone and now have a second, turn it in to Salkin Killcrane in Wei Jhou for some more XP and the title Honorary Shadow Hunter.