Getting to Aerlinthe can be difficult the first couple of times, but luckily there is a Aerlinthe recall scroll if one is successful in killing the Lady so return trips are much easier.  Of course it does require getting there the hard way at least once, or for the unfortunate many times more!  Lacking a quick recall to Candeth Keep, the expensive route is running through Slysfear Dungeon and exiting to the Direlands Lifestone just east of Candeth Keep.

Then heading West to three bunker buildings you run into the emissary Garaenal, who when given a D note will summon you a portal to Aerlinthe Isle.  The arrival should be safe unless someone has dragged monsters up the hill.

The rotting woman inclines her head stiffly, and a disembodied voice seeps across your mind like oil.

"Child, you walk among the tombs of the Sand Kings. Long ago they were mighty captains in service to the powers behind the Ice Throne.  Now they rest, and dream of new plots.  Yet still they hold themselves great power, and are ageless and fey."

"My mistress sent me hither to solicit their aid in a great cause.  Perhaps you could serve, for I shall call the enemy of mine enemy friend.  Those in shadow...thralls of the one called Slayer of Hope...beset our isle.  If you give me a note worth 50,000 of the Yalaini pyreal, to fund my mission to bribe the Sand Kings, I shall open the gate for you.

"Be warned; only the mightiest may pass through this gate, and I will not allow you to tie to it."

You give Garaena the Emissary Trade Note (100,000).

The voice in your mind purrs, "You are generous, not to mention strong. Yet honor requires I return the excess."

Garaena the Emissary gives you Trade Note (50,000).

The voice in your mind purrs,

"Seek the dark ones and destroy them...yet meddle not with the devices you may find on our island of Aerlinthe.  Perilous they are to those who do not understand their art."

Note:

An alternate route, even more difficult to reach involves getting to Chalcimere Fortress and paying emissary Faladha a C note to summon a portal to Aerlinthe Isle.

The dead man turns and looks down the rotted remains of his nose at you.  A cool, aristocratic presence invades your mind, and seems to speak in Roulean.

"You are foolish to come here, outlander.  This is the castle called Chalicmere, fortress of the Latzimestal faction..."

"Ah, but such subtleties are beyond you.  To your barbarian eye, we are merely corpses and bones, all alike and monstrous.  Yet it is not so, and these rotting forms you revile shaped the destinies of men and kingdoms far beyond your ken.

"Obstruct me not, whelp.  I have urgent traffic with the Lords of the Latzimestal... unless you will give me a note worth 10,000 pyreal.  Then I shall grant you all the adventure you desire, if you be mighty enough to use my passage.  Yet I shall not suffer barbarians in my home, and will prevent you from conjuring the gate yourself."

You give Faladha the Emissary Trade Note (10,000).

The voice in your mind sneers,

"You are wise to offer me such a boon, lest I strike ye down like a cur in the street.  I shall open the path to my home, the ancient port of Aerlinthe.  You would be wise to tread lightly, lest you wake the ire of my island and my Lady."

Back in the old days there were odd routes for getting around the isle based on your willingness to risk it all or not.  With the invention of level 7 protection spells, simple running the shortest route is more in vogue. Often yelling neenier, neenier, neenier you can hurt me!  With a problem occurring typically only if you get blocked, stuck and die in traffic, then corpse recovery can get hairy.

Running around the bay to the west side eventually I came across a destroyed library in a town of undead which still contained one book.

A bit further to the west there appeared a mysterious named relic skeleton

Smith Ejan says,

"Kall ama te fen? Reann au..?"
In your mind, the dusty voice of Ejan whispers,  "Who was it for me? Where do I..?"

"Ai, Metresa?"
In your mind, the dusty voice of Ejan whispers,  "Yes, Mistress?"

"Zorn... zorn..."
In your mind, the dusty voice of Ejan whispers,  "All gone, all gone..."

"Au virinaa! Au... baeaa?"
In your mind, the dusty voice of Ejan whispers,  "I breathe not! I... am not... slain?"

"Suvani hasode, Metresa, tamaa Der Hallae."
In your mind, the dusty voice of Ejan whispers,  "Yes. The Shadows remain below, Mistress, at the Old Ring."

"Etah si au hisenaa!"
In your mind, the dusty voice of Ejan whispers,  "Why can I not recall!"

"Hanaurel..."
In your mind the dusty voice of Ejan whispers,  "Written thoughts - letter..."

NOTE: not sure that is all the text Ejan will send you while around him, it was all i listened to before killing him.

From Ejan's corpse I recovered an unreadable singed note.  Seems a trip to Cragstone for translation will be required if I desire to read the information it contains.

You give Bretself the Translator Charred Book.

Bretself the Translator tells you,

"Well, this may be of use in our researches.  This is a sort of record or timeline, detailing the major events in the history of the Aerlinthe port and island."

Bretself the Translator gives you Aerlinthe Record. Note: read the 33 pages of the Aerlinthe Record translation.

You give Bretself the Translator Singed Note.

Bretself the Translator tells you,

"Hm. This appears to be nothing of great import.  A simple request for parts from one Yalaini smith to another.  Where did you say you found this?"

Bretself the Translator gives you Smith's Note. Note: read the 4 pages of the Smith's Note translation.

We know the history of the quest, and some important facts hidden within the translations, time to make preprations to actually perform the quest.

Ag Nar

Pick up of Pyreal Bellows in Crater Cave

Pick up Sluice Gate Bar

Turn in Sluice Gate Bar

Turn in Pyreal Bellows

Kill Behemoth/Hellfire

Kill the Watchman Relic

Getting it on in the keep

NOTES:

This part, other the the paths/portals of getting to Aerlinthe island, really isn't necessary as the lore books only provide clues to the various steps in the quest, no rewards.  So having read them here there isn't a need to actually fetch/retrieve them yourself.

This was the first, and some say the only true, EPIC quest of AC.  It arrived and origianally stumped folks.  With people collecting information and passing it along via websites it took nearly two months of folks working on 7 world servers (back when the average nightly log ins were 1500-2500) to piece together all the intraciate details of the quest and successfully complete it from start to finish.  As compared to today where folks brag of running the quest from start to finish in 34 minutes.  Of course I suspect their start point could be a lot different then mine.

Several in our allegiance several leaders were willing to take folks upon the quest but to prove their readiness for the quest the person had to solo getting the Pyreal Bellows from Crater dungeon.  This was after I was dragged along too early in my development as a mage to successfully survive the quest - being more of a generalist then a specialist (back then) like a lot of the others running the quest.  While I was very close in level range to them I was much, much weaker so I died repeatedly on this quest.  So I would go on the quest a lot to help out and die gloriously somewhere along the way.  I think there was actual betting involved on how far I'd get each trip before kissing the lifestone.  Eventually I made it thru the entire quest in a party, but by then I'd come to hate the darn thing as a waste of time.

We'd spend lots of time preparing getting stuff and then I'd die and cause them more delay.  Back in those days not everyone had all their level 6 spells, mages wore 0AL faran robes & baned them and tinkered weapons weren't even a dream.  You know the ole:  "5miles to school thru 4 feet of snow, uphill both ways and we liked it like that" situation  as compared today's equipment and skills.

Some of the stumbling blocks in initially solving the quest were recognizing after turning in item X that it spawned eventually NPC/Monster Y over at Z.  Also folks working on doing something in one part could be hampered by folks off killing monsters unrelated to the quest stumbling upon Monster Y and doing it in before the questor's arrived.  Over the months this style often lead to 'quest jumping' where some party would camp the hellfire or undead town and hijack the quest after folks had done a lot of the slow/tedious prep work - some dark days in AC's past history.