For reference, information can be found on the
Ultima Online Shattered Obelisk page.
What follows is a summary of everything thus far. SPOILERS.
Part 1 - Not So Ordinary World
The Oracle and the Bard - The gargoyle seer Naxalitor has some mind altering vision and is now sick, and Queen Zhah gives Mariah a message to deliver to Blackthorn. Meanwhile, a bunch of journalists decide to restart the "Town Cryer" newspaper.
In Game: Town Cryers begin distribution. The first copy announces Blackthorn reducing the trade tariff to spur trade. Coincidentally ambushes begin taking place that are unlike the old ambushes. Before, the ambushers were just brigands, ettins, orcs, that kind of thing, now there were brigands dressed in unusual clothes/armor, liches, daemons, drakes, and other various undead. Some carried items indicating they are.. uh.. evil or something. There were also burning carts for some reason.
Enlightenment - A bunch of sick people in a lazar house are healed by someone with some kind of disease (leprosy?). In return the 'healer' asks the cured people to help her "save the world".
Hickory Dickory Dock - Sherry the Mouse has a dream where she is watching a play with the Time Lord. Certain individuals in the audience represent the titans. Another unidentified being sits in a shadow (the guardian probably). The characters on stage represent Britannians.
Part 2 - Exotic Treasures
In Game: The Town Cryer reports that due to a recent operation by the Royal Britannian Guard (there wasn't an actual in-game operation though) a bunch of treasure maps had been discovered and somehow acquired by Al Harrington of Needful Things in Jhelom. When you speak to Al he'll tell you he's out of maps but that more can be found in Hythloth, Deceit, and Destard (and nowhere else, apparently). Maps found in those dungeons can be read by cartographers which lead to buried obelisks containing normal treasure loot plus additional, relevant items such as: red candles, black candles, pagan spell scrolls, obsidian, pumice, blackmoore, and executioner caps. The obelisks and the new items are connected to the ambushers and the whole obelisk plot, though it's not clear at this point.
Talking Through Wisps - A mage named Heigel speaks to the magician Gilforn and tells him that he has been exchanging messages with someone from another world (Mythran, it is later revealed) through a wisp and wants to gather mages at the Lycaeum to talk about it. Heigel also says he thinks he is being followed.
Part 3 - An Ethereal Journey
The House Between Here and There - Takes place 2 years ago during the Time of Legends arc. Mythran is sitting in his void house and then observes a huge magical event taking place in Britannia - the event in question is the big spell the Time Lord recruited everyone to cast to open up Eodon. The titans and their "master" also notice.
In Game: Vesper is now flooded. Undead wander Iver's Rounding. A few farms in Britain are on perpetual fire. Rockslide traps miners in Minoc mine and quicksilver elementals appear. The Town Cryer reports a horrendous crime having taken place in the Lycaeum.
Quest: The City Heralds (who distribute the paper) also give a quest in which your character is curious to learn more and randomly decides to visit the Marsh Hall in Vesper (apparently the quest says people from the Marsh Hall were quoted in the article, but I don't see any Marsh Hall quotes).
Once you speak to the people in Marsh Hall, Sherry the Mouse will want to speak to you. She'll give you a scroll to teleport to Mythran's house. Mythran will ask you to check on Heigel at the Lycaeum. You find Heigel dead and go back to Mythran. He gives you a pagan spellbook and wants you to gather various objects so you can become a Warrior of Ether.
The air item can be acquired in Minoc. You need 20 quicksilver looted from Quicksilver elementals. A crafter with 100 tinkering and 100 magery can craft the Focus of Theurgy, which is the reagent required to use the Intervention spell. Say the mantra at the rockslide to get the air item.
The earth item can be acquired by casting Grant Peace on Iver's Rounding. Kill the undead there until you get a Key of the Caretaker, put 1 executioner cap and 1 blackmoore into a small pouch, double click the key of the caretaker and target the pouch.
The fire item is acquiring by fighting Perihelion. This demon is summoned first by acquiring the focus. The focus is acquired by setting up reagents and candles in a particular configuration on a pentagram, then using the mantra. This will put the focus item in your backpack. Then you use the focus on a pentagram (I used mine at the pentagram at the Daemon Temple on Fire Island, and fight Perihelion. Be warned that the demon is fairly tough.
The water item is acquired by finding Kalen the Necromancer in Vesper and accepting his quest. He needs a staff which can only be found by fishing up MIB's. This is probably the hardest one to acquire.
This is as far as I have gotten so far.
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