Was on floor below the platform, did the dialogue and turned in the wisp essence. The Shimmering Presense just stood there. Nothing we could do. We went up the steps and jumped down, killed the npc, and respawned him. He turned into the other npc for the other group member and he got his container.

Did this several times this evening. A few points.

At the moment, it is not necessary to do the script. Once the shimmering presence pops, just hand in the Wisp Stone and hand in the Essence Emerald to the following spawn.

When you kill a remains, there is a good chance a Shower of Blood spell will go off. This could aggro one or two of the shades in front of the spawn point. The spell itself was resisted fairly easily by a group of mid 70's. When the shower of blood goes off, it does not appear as though the shimmering presence spawns.

There are three mobs that spawn right behind the remains. They are on the same timer and appear to aggro on anyone in the remains area.

I tried to do the turn in today, and could not get the next response after Vex Thal was mentioned. "What of Vex Thal?" made him repeat the previous message of Atenha`Ra. I tried every combination possible, but unfortunately I caught argo on a couple of mobs doing so and died. I even tried to skip it and ask about the scepter, but got the Atenha`Ra comment again.

Will try again once I stop pulling my hair out. Anyone else having a problem?

Camping the shimmering presence was kind've a pain to me. The remains are a one hit kill with a kick (lol) but adds around have a large aggro range and some vius above the pit repeatedly attack you, took me bout 20 min to spawn.

For those classes that can't identify their shards when they get them..............
Ever think of making a list of the various zones the shards drop in and check them off as you get them? I did that and it made it way easier to remember which zones I visited and which ones I need to hit. I know most people work on the quest from time to time and do not run through it all at once, so the list proved to be invaluable and no need to have the shards identified.

I found what worked best was getting all the shards, saving the SSRA one for last, thus making it a good idea to run the commanders for the emp key and hitting basment in between spawns to get the shard and work on the bane weapon at the same time. Once you are done that you are ready to hit emp and go have fun in VT

I have just finished the part of getting container in Akheva ruins. It took me 2:40h to spawn a Shimerring Presense. (Yes, killing 3 lvl 1 mobs every 5 minutes for almost 3 hours). I didn't killed the last one to avoid the aggro.
So if it not spawns within 2 hours it still may spawn some hours later :)
Also the a Shimmering Presense pops IMMEDIATELY after killing a sacrificed remains. So if you kill a remains you know within second that you have to kill more remains before the Presense will spawn.

Not sure if this has happened to anybody else, but...

I went to SS up on the catwalk and wandered around killing all the guards (possible 50-60) before I got my shard drop. The guard that dropped it was a human that was smaller then usual...like he had been shrunk twice. Since all the others were regular size, not sure if the shrunken one is a hint or a bug, but there you go.

Drume

In the DEEP, lucid shard dropped off of a horror guard, past invis bridge.

"Start off by obtaining yourself a Wisp Stone (summoned by Mages) and an Essence Emerald (created when a Necromancer sacrifices a 45+ player). Then head to Akheva Ruins and kill the Sacrificed Remains inside the Sacrificial Pit. They are PHs for "A Shimmering Presence" and have a respawn time of about five minutes. "

I just want to know how the heck you are supposed to get to these Sacrificed Remains, when they are surrounded by a bunch of different things, including three Atulinae`Vius; these are nasty mobs.

Is not a difficult quest, just very time consuming. Is soloable for 65BST easily, but safer to do w/ a healer (esp in the Deep and FG). Found in FG easy to single pull mobs w/ pacify. Just my 2 cp.....

i ran around the ring on the top solo . . . 1 lap and a half and a shard dropped . . . i heard the mobs that are in the little alcoves have a better chance, but that shard dropped from a regular pather (light blue to 65)

also, the lego of hand (near dsp / ms zones) will drop a shard very very commonly - that's what i would recommend ... killed 9 of them, got 2 shards

BTW as of june 04 this zone is soooooooo laggy you can't AE it =(

Gl all

I can tell you that every shard except the Deep and Ssra is attainable soloing as a 65 druid. The Acrylia one is much easier than the posts I've read make it sound, if you're smart about it. Con everything and clear along the way.

As a note, the fungus grove is a great place to rake in a little cash. I was surprised to find that the eyes every other mob dropped sold for 20p to a vendor. I walked out of there after 3 hours with my shard, 800p worth of loot, 1/2 an AA and some nice Chitlin twink gear that seemed to drop on just about every royal.

As far as the other two shards go, this druid couldn't do them alone. The caverns in the Deep are cram packed and a single see invis mob blocks the route to the bridge. There was no safe place to set up camp that I saw except starting from the beginning and killing all the way in, hoping for singles along the way. In Ssra there are Ssssee Invis Ssssnakes that spawn along the way to the basement, and they ssssummon.

Edited, Sat May 22 04:38:58 2004

I noticed a few posts about getting to the good camp across the bridge, but I've noticed when I run there, that there is a one see-invis mob a Shrieker parked with a couple of other fungis near one of the turns. I cannot seem to get around him without being spotted, but luckily there is a good stretch to FD right down the tunnel. Just a warning, but after that mob I've been able to invis all the way across bridge to the horror guards who are really easy to aggro kite.

PS - The visable bridge is a trap the invisable bridge is to the right of it use eqtoolbox map or you probably wont be able to get across

I couldn't get Spirit to evaporate ('What frame of your scepter?' kept giving the same response as 'What spirits?'), but giving it the essence emerald worked ok anyway.

Confirming that hoppers and sambata can drop shards, I've taken lots of people into the caves for these and gotten them from both.

We got one off a guard in The Deep today.

Here's a write up of the VT key quest which I did for my fellow E`Ci public raiders. Hopefully make this looong quest a bit easier for everyone aiming for VT =-)

Shards:
Kel - from the Grey. Camp the Sun Revenants in the NW corner. Six or eight spawns around a lake. Rocks on the West side are trapped, which can be an unpleasant surprise when 3 little boulder guys come out chaining flurry of pebbles and summoning... Avoid the trap, and it's an easy, but long solo for soloing classes. I stayed on the NE corner of the lake, and kited east along the north wall. Took me 40 or 50 kills (about 6 hours total), but most people have better luck.

Dat - Fungus Grove. Drops off Shik'nar Warriors and Royals Guards. Near the TW zone, there's a tunnel that loops around under a hill. Way in the back, there's a cicle of warriors and a priest in front of a side tunnel leading to the Royals. No problem with running down here invis. The warriors were easy singles with snare, but I never managed to get he Royals single. Some warriors and all of the royals summon. This wasn't hard for me and Geffil (druid), and was downright easy when Katatonic (warrior) came to join us. Royals are a pain - I wouldn't bother when them unless you have a reasonably strong group. We picked up one shard in 3 hours (off our first kill, too), but drop rate should normally be higher. Maybe, possibly - though I am probably imagining things after spending too much time here - the drop rate is higher when the priest is up. There are also two warriors in another part of these tunnels, but the larger camp is actually easier.

Dax - Ahkeva Ruins. This can probably be solo'd, slowly. Duoed, with some risk. I really recommend at least 3 people. Shard drops from Rabble Rousers, Shade Golems, Shadow Reavers, and Shaded Stones deeper in Ahkeva. Go straight into the zone, two rooms down, and pull from Va'Dyn's room to a nice safe corner. Also trigger traps in the side halls - some people think trap mobs have a higher drop rate. Rabble Rousers have a ton of HP, so low dps groups may want to avoid them, but the rest are easy. All are rootable, but some mobs are not mezzable. They often come 2-4 at a time without a split puller, so be ready. This camp has been slow for me - but not as bad as FG.

Raf - The Deep. Suppose to drop off horrors on both sides of the bridge - everything but the young ones. We headed across the invis bridge and worked the tunnels closer to SSRa. Some spots where it help to have a pacify caster, but everything except elders are rootable (don't bother with elders unless ya feel ubah - they come in packs, hit for 600, are not rootable, and probably, like most horrors, are not mezzable). This should be soloable for someone with pacify, but I really recommend 2+ people. With a Ranger, druid, enc, mage, and wizzy, we were able to get about one an hour.

Kelera - Seru/Katta. I did this one in Katta, but it drops in Seru, as well. For Katta, just head to the castle on the eastern edge of the upper level. Drops of the Cenurions inside and in front of the castle. I cleared the two Legionaires outside, plus one roamer, then pulled the two centurions outside with harmony+snare. Moved inside and killed the first floor centurions at their spawn points. Upstairs is very difficult to pull - drop rate downstairs is so high there's no reason to head upstairs, though a bored monk/sk/necro or non-kos enc/cleric/pally/ranger might give it a try. Centurions summon, so casters be careful soloing. Should be no problem for pet classes. Took me two kills on first run, five or six on second run, five or six kills for three shards on third run. Fast easy shard.

Lor - Dawnshroud. Kill the rockhoppers in the caves. Afaik, any of them can drop it. If the hoppers are not up, head deep into the caves and kill the Sambata Keeper till a named spawns. Killed the named, and the hoppers are back - just don't kill the age old. This one seems to drop pretty quick. Apparently it can also drop off sambata... But I've never seen it.

Set - Scarlet Desert. Head to the ruins on the plateau with a bunch of Sun Revenants. Kill'em all, loot a shard. Fast and easy, took maybe 10 kills solo - about 15 mins.

Tak - Maiden's Eye. Be ready for a long camp.... Four camps with the Goranga scout spawns at each camp. One by DSP zone (seer), two near UP zone (forager and savant), one near Ahkeva (Battlemaster). Kill scouts till the named spawns. The named will usually (but not always) drop, but are rare spawns. I spent 10 hours one day.. 20 minutes the second. Battlemaster seems the most common, but Forager+Savant are accessible from a nice safe little canyon with no roamers. Easy solos, but bring a book.

Vin - SSRa. Hit the skellies in the mines. Closer to The Deep you get, the better off you are. Drops off drudges, corpses, and poxed soriz. May also drop of plagues soriz. I don't think it will drop from slaves or regular "soriz skeletons". A small group will need a enc or pally/cleric/monk/sk/necro to pull, as they usually come in packs. They don't hit hard, but they will beat up your casters. I can see this being difficult solo, but a duo can probably handle it. A decent group will tear the place up and have a good drop rate.

Ved - Acylia Caverns. Invis and head in. Stop past the gate. Clear the skellies to the left, reinvis, then move in down the left passageway. Con as you go - some can see invis around here. A small statue down the left passageway is a clicky portal to Inner AC. Settle into a nice safe spot with no roamers - the large room central to inner seems pretty good - roamers path through the middle, though. I ended up camping on a spawn point at one "end" of the room and dealing with the odd add. A pet class can probably solo this - was easy for me (ranger) and Cygnet (druid) to duo. With a near full group, we owned the place. Supposedly can drop of anything named "Sanctum _____". Drop rate is pretty high, too.

Frame - To get the frame, you should probably bring a balanced group. These are fast and easy, but you'll need to make your way deep into AR, break into a room, and hold a camp on top of three spawns with occasional adds. Form up your group and make sure everyone needing the frame has An Essence Emerald (crated when a necro sacrifices someone) and a Summoned: Wisp Stone (from a low level mage spell). Head deep into AR (silly me never recorded the exact location or path) to a room with a bunch of robes standing around an altar with 4 "Sacrificed Remains" in it. Break into the room and hang out on top of the altar. Kill "Sacrificed Remains" until "A shimmering presence" spawns. Hand the presence the wisp stone, and it will respawn as "Spirit of Akelha`Ra", hand the EE to the spirit to recieve you Frame. In my two frame trips, we've averaged 10 or 15 mins each after 10 or 15 mins to get to and break into the room.

Combine the 10 different shards in the frame to form another container, combine rift and orb to create key. Welcome to Vex Thal! Long slow raids await!

Drops off a rubble rouser in AR

Killed 3 guards at zone line to DSP. Third one dropped a shard - Legionnaire of the Hand.