The lightning Atlan stone, yes I recall that quest most vividly for you see it was, if not the first quest, the first major quest I went on in the Allegiance.  I could have been on a few of the smaller, fetch this, bring me that found X in a cave type quests.  As I seem to have travelled into a lair in Eastham's beach to see the famed Gertarh and purchase a dagger for 400py.  But that's a story for another time and place.  Nope the Lightning stone was the first awesome trip with the clan that I experienced.  We assembled at our Lifestone in the dires where we hunted or recalled to sell stuff, this quaint little spot later became known as the Nexus Lifestone, but we were there long before the Nexus.

So we did the ritual buffing up and then commenced a might parade of racing figures thru the dires to the portal. It became a long parade as we kind of straggled out slowly separated by our individual running speeds.  As one of the lower clan mages I was of course tail-end-charlie. I tell you some of those first runs were truely scary, especially as we slowly separated into smaller groups.  Always at the end after the shortest of times that meant I was running alone trying to follow a trail of white dots (back then fellowship groups were white not green as they are today) while a screen of angry ornage dots chased after the folks ahead.  That often meant I was running with, along side of, being bumped into the very monsters I'd rather have avoided.  Lucky for me these single minded creatures were almost always intent on going after the folks that had originally invaded their turf or had given up the chase and were more content on just returning home.  But until I tripped over that discovery/fact, it surely was harrowing running behind folks that instead of zig-zagging around clusters of orange would just run straight thru em!

The fleet of foot would stop short just over the hill/jump to the windmill and wait for us turtles to show up. Giving folks a breather to let debuffs fade (back then debuff spells or gems weren't even dreamed of yet).  As the location was typically surround by some awesome and deadly critters - diamond golems, shadows and their like back then were scarey - the most fleet of foot would see that everyone was ready and then bravely leap off alone.  Racing thru the crowd he would then drag as many away for a short period leaving the windmill mostly unguarded so the rest of us could leap down and race for the portal mostly unhindered.  Once everyone had made it in this brave fool would circle back and join up with us safely inside.

Of course by now after the long run, the short debuff period and the sucker the monsters away foolery, a lot of our awesome level six protections were running short.  So we would all get rebuffed in the saftey of the arrival point and then proceed onward.

Now days there are of course several options for getting to the windmill. One could seek out an AB/Panopticon portal and just run east from there.  Or if everyone has Aerlinthe recall they could recall, step thru the north west dires portal at the arrival point

appear in the dires west of Teth in that small protected valley, turn 180 degrees and leap into the Obsidian Rim Lifestone portal so conviently located.

From the Obsidian Rim Lifestone, often used as a jumping off point to the Valley of Death (hence often an easy portal to find), it is a fairly short run SW to the windmill.

Of if not upto the challenge of such a trip, then the duping accident that occurred during the Heat of Woe is exactly what you are looking for.  Located in the Glendon Woods settlement portals is the Mountain Ridge Abodes Portal

from which it is just a short run to the duplicate portal.

Any route works, it is just a question of what one has access to.  But once inside, you are totally safe until you wander out of the room and make your way to the first leap down (as there is only another door to the exit portal and the way to the leap, even those as unskilled as I can navigate the route).

And we are immediately presented with a choice NW cooridor or SE cooridor.  Suprise both lead to the same NE corner of a center room about 5 feet apart from each other so pick one, it really doesn't matter which.

This room is more of an area surrounding a large grated center colum

Over in the SW corner just barely visible over the sable gromnies and the darkness is two cooridors leading out of the 'room'.  Both will take you down to another similar level area, merely a question as to where you enter into the room (north side of West wall or south side of East wall).

Those quick of mind will see that leaves two exits from this room, and since there are two ways down to it from above.  The east side of the South wall leads to a small room with an exit portal.  So that leaves only the cooridor cut into the west side of North wall as a potential entryway deeper into the dungeon.

Did I mention those dangling chains often encountered in the cooridors, forcing one to occassionally step left or right or progress is impeded?

Once again we are on a lower level that looks almost identical to the two above.  Again one, passageway dead ends and the other two lead you to different areas of the level below.  The north side of the East wall cooridor will deposit you at the edge of a walkway over a pit that has to be jumped with before several other options for getting deeper into the dungeon can be explored.  So why not take the south side of the Western wall as it doesn't require any leaping.  Part way down to the next center room level you will pass a T-intersection that on your left is the walkway the other route would have had you jump over to.  I belive taking that right will get you eventually to the next level but I usually just continue on in this cooridor and arrive in the NE of the next level.

Since I know that the next cooridor is on the north side of the West wall and i'd rather not walk all the way across the room to get to it from the other route - got to save all that energy for fighting the gromnies and the Voltarcs.

Now after a bit of twisting around, over a catway, down about four ramps we will arrive at a T-intersection.

This is an area were we originally got very confused and I understand why now.  After days of laboring over marking the twists and turns I've discovered that we would often wander aimlessly thre three areas merely to circle the dungeon and end up very close to where we started.

What a waste in retrospect it turns out that was, but at least we had fun slaying the monsters as we moved on - back then our method of navigation was if there is an orange dot on the screen we are moving in the right direction.  Any way the shortest route it turns out is to turn right/east at the intersection

and progress all the way down the long hallway east ignoring the first two south cooridors you encounter.  At the eastern end the cooridor to the south only goes several feet before developing into a 4-way intersection running NE to SW and NW to SE.

Taking the 2 or 3 steps SE we enter the intersection and now should take the NE route.

Which puts us in a cooridor that does not deviate any further and ending in the pit hiding the Major lightning stone.  Kill off a few gromnies and Voltarcs and there on the left your prize will be.

Ag Nar

Also found nearby on the floor is another copy (once translated) of the Atlan Teasies.  Of course like the other stones the pick up timer has been reduced to a mere hour.

Click on a topic below to read more about quest related to this one:

Atlan Major Biting (Frost) Stone,

Atlan Major Smoldering (Flame) Stone,

Atlan Major Stinging (Acid) Stone, and

Atlan Stone Tool for Gem Removal.

Coming soon, coverage of Atlan Weapons and Using Stones in Greater Shadow Armor.