Shendolain Vestibule

Hobbies

Quests

click pics to enlarge

To begin the Shendolain Vestibule quest, you'll need a Shedolain Key from a Harrower or Destroyer Grievver. Everyone going will need their own key. Or take two! They're small.

The best way to get to the dungeon at 53.8S, 59.6W is to have a member of your party tie to the entrance and give you a ride. If that's not an option, you can run from either the Tumedion Fortress (55.9S, 60.7W) or the Black Spawn Den (60.0S, 57.7W). There's a lifestone relatively close by at 49.9S, 53.7W. The dungeon itself is restricted to Levels 36+.

There are two parts to the quest. The first part consists of using your key on the gate to get your Shendolain Portal Gem, and the second part consists of killing the Shendolain Crystal for your gem. You may even want to consider doing the quest on two different nights. If you're going with a large group, the final wait for everyone to get their gem can be brutal and can turn the quest into a 4-5 hour marathon and you'll find yourself still up at 3AM and you'll be completely worthless the next day! Hee hee. Longest durn quest I ever did! 

It's much better inside, than outside! When you first enter the dungeon, you'll be in a room that is safe to organize and buff.  You'll need to split your party into two group. Teamwork is required. One group will be the Lever Team to open the doors for the rest of the party; the other group, the Gate Team, will be working their way down through the dungeon to the Shendolain Gate. The Lever Team doesn't have to be large -- just enough to kill a few Skeleton Bone Knights, two Dark Revenants and the occasional Great Skeleton. A mage who can Imperil and a few melees (use fire) should do the trick. You should also have one person from each Team tie to the entrance portal so you can more easily reorganize at the top when the first group is done. Then make a new Lever Team and do it again so that everyone has a chance to get a Shendolain Portal Gem for the 2nd half.

The Lever Team
When you're ready, take the right passage from the entrance heading West and go down the ramp and across the bridge. To avoid the lag spike, lower your graphics settings. Fight the Great Skeleton and Bone Knight at bottom of the ramp. Keep to the right and head up. At the split take the right passage and the lever room is up the ramp in a room to the right. You'll see four groups of 4 levers levers each. Leave your Lever Team here. Have one person in the Gate Group Fellowship with the Lever Team in order to coordinate opening the doors. The Lever team won't be doing much more than killing the spawn while they wait for the signal from the Gate team, watching for the occasional pea drop!

Door 1
The Gate Team will want to follow the same directions from the entrance, except they will take the left at the split, instead of the right passage which leads to the lever room. At the next 3 way split go straight then take a right over the bridge. Head down a ramp and at the T at the bottom kill the Diamond Golem and the Great Skeletons. The first door is directly to your left. Wait here for the Lever Team to open it.

Each group of four levers opens one of the doors below. The first door is opened by one of the levers in the group of four closest to the door (to your right if you are standing in the doorway). Pull the levers slowly, one at a time, until the lower group gives the signal that you have opened the door. 

Note: there are several theories about how the levers work. 1) You need to pull the levers 4-3-2-1 right to left to open the door. 2) You need to pull the levers 4-3-2 but don't hit 1 or the door with close after it opens. 3) It's a random lever of the group of 4 that resets with each quest. Best bet is to pull them right to left, slowly one at a time, until the Gate Team signals it's open.

Door 2
From there, the Gate Team will take the ramp down and kill the  3 Cursed Bones & Revenants. At the first split make a left heading North. At the T take a right heading E. You'll see your first large open room ahead, but don't go in! It's full of nasties! Keep to the left and take the North ramp heading down again, past the Diamond Golem above. From there, make your first right heading South, then head down another ramp. After passing a Great Skeleton and a Dark Revenant you'll enter a small room with a lever and two doors, one straight ahead and one around to the right. Be careful not to use the lever. The door you want is around to the right on the South Wall. Supposedly, both doors lead to the same location, but the right door has easier monster -- mostly undead, and the other has deadly golems. Additionally, there have been reports of problems getting the other doors open when taking the straight ahead route.

This second door, like the first, must be opened from above. Give the signal to Lever Team and they'll use the 2nd group of levers to the left of the first. The door doesn't stay open long, so hurry through!

Door 3
The path to the 3nd door is very straightforward. Take the ramp down and kill the Skeleton Bone Lords & Great Skeleton in the hall. Follow the passage until you reach the door. It's guarded by more undead. Again, the Lever Team above opens the door with the next group of levers, to the left of the previous one.

Door 4
From here, the path gets even more treacherous, with Plasma & Diamond Golems, Relic Bones and more. Cross the bridge and kill the Plasma Golems, then the Relic and Ashen Bones. Watch out for Plasmas dropping from above. Take the passage past the Dark Revs, Plasma Golems & Relic Bones to the room with the 4th door. After the Lever Team opens the door (using the far left set of levers), go through and buff for the final room.

Shendolain Gate
The passage to the Shendolain Gate is blocked by 2 Plasma Golems, Relic Bones and a Diamond Golem. When you reach the final room, you'll have to kill more undead (lots of Dark Revs, Skeleton Bone Lords, etc.) and the occasional Diamond Golem. Use your key on the Gate to get your Portal Gem. If you brought extra keys, you can get more than one portal gem -- insurance in case you need to recover a corpse in the 2nd half! When everyone is ready, regroup at the entrance so you can do it again! This time, the Lever Team will become part of the Gate Team so they can also get a Portal Gem.

Shendolain Chamber
For the 2nd part of the quest, your group must have a lock-picker among you. When everyone has a Shendolain Portal Gem, use them at the same time and enter the Shendolain dungeon. The entrance is safe, so you can wait for everyone to download. You'll be in a large room, on a ledge overlooking a pit. After everyone is in, buff, then jump down into the pit (minor damage). 

There are two ways to go. One leads to a door that must be opened with a lever; the other leads to a door that must be opened with lockpick to activate the lever. Take most of your group down the SW passage, then make your first right, heading North. You'll encounter your first Plasma Golem. Make you next right heading East, and kill another Plasma Golem. Make a left and then an immediate right heading East until you find the locked door guarded by a Diamond Golem. 

Have a few members of your group go the other direction. (Make sure the lock-picker is among them!) Find the locked door and pick it, then throw the lever inside to open the door to the lower part of the dungeon. After going through the door, it's pretty easy to make your way down past the Dual Fragments to the Shendolain Crystal, but watch out for the Magic Traps! They cast Mana Blight and will drain 170 points of your mana. 

The Shendolain Crystal (Level 126) is surrounded by about 4 Shendolain Satellite Fragments (level 53 -- like Dual Frags on a 15 minute spawn). Wear your Lightning Protection! An Imperil from a Mage, and a few good Archers or Mace fighters will bring the Crystal down without too much trouble. 

Shendolain Crystal Gem
The Shendolain Crystal Gem is found on the corpse of the Crystal. It's no-drop, no-give and is on a one week real life timer. The Crystal itself is on a 5 minute spawn, so it's not too bad a wait for your entire group to get a Gem. Before starting, make sure everyone knows how long the approximate wait will be in the final chamber. There's nothing more annoying than having folks grab their gem then recalling out, leaving the rest to fend for themselves. While you're waiting, the hall before the chamber is a great place to kill Dual Fragments. There are 4 of them that spawn at a 7 minute interval.

Shendolain
Shendolain Vestibule

For fabulous screen shots of the Shendolain Vestibule quest, click here! 

Special thanks to Gheres Reficul for the invite and to Garabaldi di Alia, Videian, Auzim, Rellim, Gilia, Vasarius, Augar, Kurse, Merlin Wizbang, Evil Cazero, Regina Farr, Oreanna, The Mad Bowman, Ken Shinjo, & Aogi Tensing! Sorry if I missed anyone. It was a lot of fun! :)

Visit the Abbreviations and Pronunciation page to find out how to pronounce Shendolain!