As we draw closer to expansion announcement time, it is also time to prepare for the prelude event that is meant to lead up to it. This event quest is called "Against the Elements", with both a Qeynos and a Freeport version of the quest. (Both quests are the same, they are just involve different quest NPCs at the start and end.) This event was activated on September 13, 2018 at 12:01 AM PDT for the live servers (other than Fallen Gate, which won't receive expansion content, so also won't get this prelude for the expansion). It will continue to run up until some undisclosed time. (While we had been told it would run until the expansion was released sometime in November, we have been told by Gninja that the event may run longer so folks have more time to farm ESS.)

More About the Quest

While quest starter NPCs can be found in 33 zones near some of the tempest spawns, I will include a few of the spots where they can be found. For the good side: "a Concordium Pupil Adept" at /way -43, -15, -315 in Antonica; /way 55, -38, -678 in Greater Faydark. Some quest starter NPCs for the evil side: "an Arcane Science Apprentice" at /way -506, -54, 138 in Darklight Woods; /way -1195, -52, -419 in Commonlands; and /way 36, 12, -44 in the Timorous Deep newbie area. Many, many more are shown in the color-coded spreadsheet linked at the bottom of the page.

After obtaining the quest, you will be sent to the Qeynos mage tower (then take the red port pad) for the good side, and the Freeport mage guild (then take the elevator down) for the evil side.

The full list of quest rewards may change slightly, but this is how it stands at the moment:

• Grants you the title "Elemental Assailant"
• Grants you your choice of one of the following house items: Arcane Rune Cube, Bowl of Umbrite, Elemental Everfrost Gemstone, Elementalist's Lavastorm Boulder, Red Wurm Eggs
• Unlocks the ability to loot no-trade (will be made heirloom on Test soon) Elemental Storm Shreds that are the currency used to purchase 41 items from vendors located in Qeynos and Freeport.
• Unlock the ability to loot (body drops) the 12 pieces needed for the collection quest.
• Last, but not least, if you are level 110 when completing the quest, you will be granted an "Against the Elements Ancient Spell Scrolls", which automatically unpacks to offer you your choice of level 101-110 ancient spell scroll upgrade. (At that time you will need to choose to receive a tome for your class or for one of the four ascension classes, but will not have to select the specific ancient.) If you are not level 110 when you hand in the quest, the scroll will be on the vendor, for however long the vendor stays around, for purchase for 0c but you must be level 110 to claim it. (Translation: you will get one free ancient spell of level 101 or higher if and only if you are level 110 before the end of the prelude event. You will need to select class or ascension category when you first receive the item, but won't have to pick the exact spell within that category until you you want to consume it.) Read the item description carefully for additional requirements (must have researched or bought grandmaster version before you can upgrade to ancient, cannot be something you grandmastered via the character training tab of your achievements, etc.)
• You know, a large chunk of the folks visiting this article ignore bullet points and/or lengthy explanations, and miss something important. Then they'll complain later that they "didn't know" about something. Not you, you read them all. Go you! You're likely about to become the "answer person" for your guild/friends/chat channel if you aren't already!

Note that for the quest update, you MUST go after "challenging" (green con or better) mobs. It will involve killing several mobs that spawn out of a special tempest (many of them scattered throughout Norrath), then eventually killing the tempest itself. Once you have finished the quest and handed it in, you can then go after any of the other tempests in the land for the currency and the collectibles. (For the farming, you can go after grey ones if you want, be mentored, etc. You may also group for the currency updates, and everyone in the group will get it.) The tempests have about a 5-minute respawn timer on them, and are in several specific locations in 33 zones.

Example of a tempest in the wild

Vendor Offerings

Vendors are Mage Fulcrum Gearshift in South Qeynos at 706, -19, 170 and Scientist Dally Scrumplecog in Freeport at -10, -8, -89. These locations are just outside their respective mage guilds.

In addition to the items pictured below, and the ancient scroll mentioned up in the bullet list regarding quest rewards, the "Building on Sundered Ground" recipe book containing recipes for granite and sandstone blocks is making a return, for 80 Elemental Storm Shreds.

To save myself some typing, I am shortening "Elemental Storm Shreds" costs to be "ESS" in the below table. :P

With the Sep. 17 patch, the Replica Wizard Spire and the Replica Dragon Ring will be changed from no-trade to tradeable.

Amber Soulwell 8 ESS	Arcane Preserved Eggs 2 ESS	Basket of Chilis 1 ESS
Broken Red Wurm Eggs 2 ESS	Crystalline Tentacle Terror Plushie 8 ESS	Elementalist's Everfrost Gemstone 2 ESS
Elementalist's Lavastorm Boulder 2 ESS	Elementalist's Lavastorm Stone 2 ESS	Emerald Soulwell 8 ESS
Enraged Stonespren (housepet) (heirloom), 15 ESS	Felwithe Luminous Petals (animated), 20 ESS	Fryd Lyrech Rune Totem 8 ESS
Hanging Felwithe Luminous Petals (animated), 20 ESS	Leva Lyrech Rune Totem 8 ESS	Mobile Firebolt Generator 10 ESS
Petamorph Wand: Enraged Mantle Walker 15 ESS	Petamorph Wand: Rumbling Tide Walker 15 ESS	Pillar of Erud's Light 8 ESS
Red Wurm Eggs 2 ESS	Replica Dragon Ring 20 ESS	Replica Wizard Spire 20 ESS
Ruby Soulwell 8 ESS	Rust-Striped Kitten (housepet) (heirloom), 15 ESS	Shadowy House Actor* (heirloom), 20 ESS
Shallow Basket of Beans 1 ESS	Spiritual Scrying Globe 2 ESS	Tall Basket of Oranges 1 ESS
Vasty Deep Stone Medallion 8 ESS	Verdant Baby Dragon Clothwork** (heirloom housepet), 15 ESS	Winged Nightmare Plushie 8 ESS
Zar Lyrech Rune Totem 8 ESS	Arcane Rune Cube 2 ESS	Bowl of Umbrite 2 ESS
Librarian of Light Arcane Scroll 1 ESS

*"Shadowy House Actor" works exactly the same as other house actors, but is pitch black, allowing you to have just the silhouette of the character.

**"Verdant Baby Dragon Clothwork" currently previews with arcs of electricity all around his body. This is NOT visible when he is placed, so we have a question in on it now.

Appearance Sets

There are two sets of tradeable appearance armor on the vendors. Each "set" consists of: Collar for 10 ESS, gloves for 2 ESS, Hood for 10 ESS, Robe for 30 ESS, and slippers for 2 ESS. You cannot wear both collar and hood at the same time, however, as they are both head slot items. The two sets are called "Earth Wielder's" and "Water Wielder's". The pictures below include the hood, not the collar. Be aware that the Earth Wielder's Collar currently makes you look bald. This WILL be fixed in the next fix that includes art, but did not make it into the last patch before it goes live. (For those not aware, art builds are special creatures that take extra patching contortions, so they don't happen with every hotfix.)

Earth Wielder's

Water Wielder's

The particle effect that you see coming up from the shoulder area comes from equipping the robe.

A Closer Look at the Items

Ocarinah has kindly done item preview videos for us once again. The full version can be found here and a silent version can be found here. A huge thank you, as always, to Ocarinah, for taking the time to make these videos!

The Collection

As mentioned above somewhere, there is a 12-piece collection that you will be able to loot off the tempest-spawned elementals (grey mobs as well). The reward for the collection is an "Enraged Mantle Walker Plushie"

Enraged Mantle Walker Plushie

But What About Those 33 Zones?

The below spreadsheet has as many locs as we could readily find in the 33 zones. It is the product of much hard work by multiple volunteers finding and re-verifying locations.

Locations of tempests for Against the Elements, in XLS form

Since there was a request for it, if you are unable to view xls files, I've converted it to a down and dirty html version as well, but it's not as fancy on the formatting. You can also download/install the open source (free) Open Office (I have personally verified the link, as this is the software that I use for my spreadsheet needs).

A HUGE thank you is owed to all the folks who helped submit initial information and/or verify locations once all the hotfixes to the event were done on Test. You folks ROCK!