Vissidal's Gatekeepers

Difficulty:  Minimum to survive, 150+ to solo
Level Restriction:  130+ 
Timer:  1 Day on the Gems (if you die), Repeat timer unknown
Can be Solo'd?  Yes
Rewards:  Access to Vissidal Isle, 190M XP

A new island has appeared off of the northeast coast of Dereth!  Before you can set foot on the island, you must undergo a grueling flagging process.

Step 1:  Preparation.  Before you can start the quest, you need to collect four items for later - a yellow Virindi gem, a bar of pyreal (8 motes combined), a swamp stone, and a Sezzherei's Lair portal gem.  Getting the portal gem is truly an annoying process - you will need to hunt down and kill a Fallen monster, as the gem is no drop, no give.  These beasts only spawn in the Valley of Death or on Singularity Caul and are quite difficult to kill if you aren't a mage.  The drop rate on the gem is 100%, so you will only need to kill one Fallen.  If you don't have life magic specialized, you will have a very hard time getting your gem.  The other items are fairly mundane - Observers and Executors drop yellow gems pretty frequently and low level Mosswarts drop gems very often.  A bar of pyreal takes 8 motes, so that could take some time, but isn't particularly difficult.  Last, but not least, it would be extremely helpful to have Aerlinthe Recall at your disposal.

Step 2:  Devastated Falatacot Temple.  Begin your quest in Ayan Baqur.  There you will find a Lugian in pretty bad shape named Shuthoth (located at 60.1S, 87.7W).  Greet him and you will receive a Watcher Token.  Time to buff!  Slashing weapons are a pretty good general choice here.  Full protects and physical and acid banes should be sufficient for the majority of the quest.  When you are done buffing, Aerlinthe Recall and run to the Devestated Watcher, located on the east shore at 87.3N, 51.2E.  Give it your token and it will teleport you into a dungeon.  Inside you will face Doomed Spirits, Bone Scourges, Entropy Wisps, and some unique Mu-Miyahs at the very end.  It is entirely possible to run through this dungeon and I would suggest doing so if you have less than 5 people in your fellowship.  Otherwise, you'll have too many people and it would be quicker to fight your way through.  The path is fairly straightforward.  When you reach a large room with a lava pit in the middle, you will need to kill an Entropy Wisp guarding an exit on the far side of the pit.  Now follow the corridors upward and across an invisible bridge over the large room you just cleared.  The edge of the bridge leads to a long upward ramp.  Follow it up and you'll reach the last room.  Be careful - there are a lot of monsters in here.  At the very end is a portal - hop in!

Step 3:  The Gatekeepers.  As you exit the portal, you will find yourself atop an obsidian spire in the Southern Landbridge.  Surrounding you are four crystals.  Each of these will require one of the items you collected prior to the quest, so hopefully you brought them along!  If not, the portal you just took is recallable, so you can head home and pick up your items.  Find the crystal Shemza and greet it.  It will flag you to use a portal back to this point outside of Ayan (60.4S 90.7W, by the Festival Stone) and will ask you for your yellow gem.  Hand it over and it will teleport you into a new dungeon.  I'd suggest taking the time to portal tie to the exit portal just in case.  *Be sure to talk to the Crystal first!  If you turn in your gem before talking, you will never be able to enter the portal near Ayan!*

Step 3a:  Radiant Shard.  The first dungeon is populated with lots of Doomed Spirits and Entropy Wisps.  Doomed Spirits have a habit of vulning and chain-casting war spells, so go carefully.  As you move into the dungeon, you will reach a series of passages.  Head straight and you will come to a pair of lever doors.  The levers are disguised as candles and can be found in rectangular rooms to the left and the right.  Once you pass through, you will find yourself in front of a pit.  Before you jump, you might want to check out the unlocked Black Marrow Reliquary, which is located across the pit from you.  The bottom of the pit is quite dangerous - there are at least four Spirits down there.  If you can imperil them first, do so.  Jump down and kill when you are ready.  At the bottom, you will find several passages - all of which lead to an L-shaped room.  On the far side is a ramp leading back up through a few more Entropy Wisps.  At the top of the path are a few more Spirits and a large crystal.  The crystal is harmless, so kill it last.  When it dies, several Radiant Shards will appear on the ground.  Everyone in your group needs to pick one up.  Take the exit portal back to the crystals.

Step 3b:  Dazzling Shard.  Give the Radiant Shard to Lurza and he will ask you for a Sezzherei's Lair gem.  Turning in the gem will teleport you into a second dungeon.  This one is more like a sewer than the first one and is populated with more Wisps, some Diseased Wasps, and a few Acid Elementals.  As you press through the dungeon, you will eventually come to a hole leading into the sewer section.  Keep going and you will reach another hole, which leads into an acid pit!  If you have an acid vuln on you, be sure to dispel!  When you are ready, jump into the acid - the damage is much lower than a regular pit.  I only took 10-15 points every few seconds.  Put your head down and start running to the south, ignoring the elementals.  Eventually, you will emerge in a large room.  The acid pit makes an upside-down T on the floor here.  You can't see it from the pit, but there is a grating in the narrow part of the T that you will need to jump on top of.  You may need to kill some wasps on the grating, but ultimately, you will want to jump up onto the main floor of the room, where the Crystal is.  Kill the remaining wasps and then the crystal.  Again, it will drop shards on the ground (this time, dazzling shards).  Take the exit portal when you have your gem.

Step 3c:  Brilliant Shard.  Find the crystal Dmesne and give it your dazzling shard.  The crystal will ask you for a bar of pyreal, which you should hand over.  Doing so will teleport you into the last Gatekeeper dungeon.  This one has a mixture of Bone Scourges, Acid Elementals, and Spirits.  There are also a lot of war magic traps, so watch your step, especially in the large room with the acid elementals.  After you pass through that large room, you will weave through a passage with several Spirits.  At the bottom is the final crystal, as well as a couple more Spirits.  Kill them all and grab a Brilliant Shard.  Take the exit portal.

Step 3d:  The Final Crystal.  Now greet the crystal Rhujun.  He will ask for your Brilliant Shard and then ask you for your swamp stone.  Give it the stone and you will be sent to a tiny island in the middle of nowhere.

Step 4:  Flame Guardian.  You will arrive on the island of the Flame Guardian.  There is a lifestone here that I would strongly recommend you use.  Greet the Guardian and he will ask you to defeat 5 Water Golems on his island.  These aren't your run-of-the-mill Water Golems though!  All they do is vuln, harm, and war.  Ranged characters will have no trouble with them, but melees need to be careful.  Oddly enough, bludgeon seems to work best here.  Kill 5 of them and then head back to the Guardian.  He will teleport you into a new dungeon.

Step 5:  Pseudo-Subway.  Upon materializing, you will find yourself at what appears to be the drop point of Subway!  Everything looks right until you reach the pit above what would be the portal chamber.  Instead of portals, you will find at least a dozen Undead Minions and a Falatacot named Bur Lizk (who spawns where the Holtburg portal would be).  Jump down and immediately run into Bur's alcove to avoid as many of the Undead as you can.  You'll take a whole lot of debuffs, but the monsters only do melee damage, so don't be too concerned.  Now kill off the Undead who followed you (fire works well - if they have shields, be sure to imperil or you'll never outdamage their regen rate).  When you have Bur alone, debuff her.  Her regen rate is very high, so you'll almost assuredly need to imperil and fester her.  Fire damage is very ineffective - I used bludgeoning and that worked well, but I hear frost works better.  Her elemental resistances are impressive, so she is very much a melee/missile monster.  It will take you some time to kill her, but when you do, she will summon a portal in the middle of the room.  Get in as fast as possible.

Step 6:  Water Guardian.  The summoned portal leads you to another small island similar to the Flame Guardian's home.  Lifestone again if you like and then greet the Guardian.  Just like the Flame Guardian, you will need to kill 5 golems.  Bludgeon works very well and again, the golems will only harm, vuln, and war.  Once you kill the fifth golem, return to the Guardian and he will teleport you and give you a Watery Token.

Step 7:  Rewards.  The Water Guardian will return you to Dereth proper, right by a lifestone and the Watcher of the Deep.  Give  your Watery Token to the Watcher and it will reward you with 190 million XP and flag you to enter the portal to Vissidal Isle, which is right next to the Watcher.  Originally, the first person to turn in the token caused a massive Remoran named the Leviathan to appear.  After it died, the permanent portal to Vissidal appeared, as did the portal to the crystals near Ayan.