A Strange Black Rock
Walkthrough
Help Scholar Al'Quylar research a mysterious black stone by harvesting underwater power sources, collecting Varsoon's research tomes, obtaining palladium jewelry, destroying the named tomes, slaying Varsoon the Undying, and finally defeating Al'Quylar himself for the Glowing Black Stone heritage reward.
How to start
Speak with Scholar Al'Quylar behind the Tower of the Oracles in Antonica. He gives you a list of power sources to harvest and research to gather.
- Scholar Al'Quylar (quest start & turn-in)
Notes & prerequisites
- Adventure level 25+ required to receive this quest.
- Take a Totem of the Otter to breathe underwater for the power source harvest step.
- Scholar Al'Quylar is slain at the end of this quest — if someone else killed him recently, wait for his 20-minute respawn.
Steps
1. Harvest underwater power sources
Harvest underwater power sources in two zones, then return to Scholar Al'Quylar.
- Soul Eater Falls pool (Nektulos Forest)
- Ship wreck west of Shrine of the Sirens (Thundering Steppes)
Zone: Nektulos Forest · The Thundering Steppes
2. Obtain research tomes from Varsoon
Collect the Brown Research Tome on Binding and Black Research Tome on Immortality from Varsoon's ruined laboratories.
- The Tome of Life and Tome of Death spawn in the same rooms — avoid killing them now; you need them for a later step.
- If the named tomes are problematic, the research tomes can be picked up from the corner of the hall that precedes those rooms.
- Brown Research Tome on Binding
- Black Research Tome on Immortality
Zone: The Ruins of Varsoon
3. Obtain a palladium torque or bangle
Obtain a Palladium torque or Palladium bangle and return to Scholar Al'Quylar. The quest does not auto-update — you must hand the item in.
- The item is looted from the chest dropped by the named monsters — if your character is too high-level, chrono down to level 25 so the chest will drop.
- A crafted Fashioned Palladium Bangle or Fashioned Palladium Torque also works.
- You can purchase either item from the broker, but the quest will not update until you hand it in to Scholar Al'Quylar.
- Known bug: the quest may appear to fail to update and Al'Quylar will not have a quest marker — talk to him with the item in your inventory anyway.
- Lord Androus (Palladium torque)
- The Char Fiend (Palladium bangle)
- Statuette of Sir Tankor (Palladium bangle)
Zone: Stormhold
4. Destroy the named tomes
Return to the Ruins of Varsoon and slay the Tome of Life and Tome of Death encounters.
- Tome of Life has a 10-minute respawn timer; Tome of Death has a 25-minute respawn timer.
- You must kill the entire encounter for the journal update — killing just the named mob will not work. Grey mobs do work.
- Tome of Life
- Tome of Death
Zone: The Ruins of Varsoon
5. Kill Varsoon the Undying
Slay Varsoon the Undying in the Chamber of Immortality within the Ruins of Varsoon.
- Step 4 of Stiletto's Orders Intercepted also requires Varsoon the Undying — coordinate these steps since Chamber of Immortality has a 90-minute success lockout.
- Grey mob updates the quest.
- Varsoon the Undying
Zone: Chamber of Immortality · The Ruins of Varsoon
6. Kill Scholar Al'Quylar for your reward
Return to Scholar Al'Quylar. He becomes aggressive as a level 35^^^ heroic named monster with a pet and knockback ability. Kill him to receive the Glowing Black Stone.
- Everyone in the group does not need to hail Scholar Al'Quylar at the same time to get the update.
- Scholar Al'Quylar (named monster)
Zone: Antonica
Tips
- Bring a Totem of the Otter before starting — two of the early steps require underwater harvesting.
- Avoid killing the Tome of Life and Tome of Death when collecting research tomes; you will need to destroy them in a later step.
- If Stormhold named mobs won't drop the palladium item, chrono to level 25 or use crafted/broker alternatives.
- Coordinate the Varsoon the Undying kill with Stiletto's Orders Intercepted to save a Chamber of Immortality run.
- Scholar Al'Quylar respawns in 20 minutes if killed by another player before you can turn in.
Guide adapted from EQ2 Fandom (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Quest Text
I've offered my services to a scholar in Antonica named Al'Quylar. It seems he's found a black rock that has marks of warding on it, and he'd like to learn more about it.
Completion
I'm now in possession of a glowing black stone that Scholar Al'Quylar found long ago. Someone was trapped inside the stone during Varsoon's earlier experiments with immortality, apparently the former owner of the stone.
Stages
- Stage 1(2 objectives)
Scholar Al'Quylar has tasked me with finding several ways to power the trinket he found.
Harvest a bit of the power from an energy source near the waterfall in the Nektulos forest.
Item: ethereal energyDone: The power from the Nektulos forest has been harvested.
Find a power-source from the bottom of a sunken ship in the Steppes.
Item: ethereal energyDone: The power-source from the Thundering Steppes has been recovered.
I have found the power-sources Al'Quylar tasked me with finding.
- Stage 2
I should return to Scholar Al'Quylar, in Antonica, to give him the power-sources I found.
Return to Scholar Al'Quylar.
Zone: AntonicaDone: You have spoken with Scholar Al'Quylar.
I have returned to Scholar Al'Quylar and given him the power-sources.
- Stage 3(2 objectives)
Scholar Al'Quylar has asked that I venture into Varsoon's lair to collect his research notes.
Recover the brown research tome on binding from Varsoon's lair.
Reward data may be incomplete for choice rewards and conditional items.