The Spirit Realm

In Katta Castrum, not far from where the Guild Portal takes you:

The line starts with Prime Researcher Elnot, hail him, and he'll give you a mini task (A City in Peril line) which sends you to someone else. The first time, you get a ring - . Subsequent mini quests (after successful main quests) upgrade your ring. Only one person in each group needs to do the mini quest to get the main quest.

The quests can be done out of order, doing the A City in Peril line afterwards should sort out the flagging and ring updates. However, you might have to do some running back and forth and hailing.

Single task: A City in Peril - Speak with Researcher Plik.
This one gets you the Combine Signet Ring.

Group task 1: Knowledge of Power
Quest giver: Prime Researcher Elnot
Zone in is through the regular zone. Clear up to named, play hide and seek. Basically, you need to hide from his seekers, he calls out search patterns, and you can avoid them by hiding in rooms they don't go to for that pattern.
Reward: 50 Orux and faction

Single task: A City in Peril - Speak with Researcher Maladoks. Ring gets upgraded to 30hp.

Group task 2: Locating the Statue
Quest giver: Prime Researcher Elnot
Clear up to a named, kill named, move to the statue.
Reward: 50 Orux and faction

Single task: A City in Peril - Deliver the rubbing to the Head Mage.
Hand in the Etching you got from Locating the Statue. Ring upgrades to 60hp.

Single task: A City in Peril - Speak with Tactician Sodut.

Group task 3: The Snakes are Hiding Something
Quest giver: Tactician Sodut
Zone in by hailing Tactician Sodut and saying a phrase. He's inside the inner ring of the city, just south of the centre by some tents. The quest says it's in Thalassius, but you don't need to go there, just hail.
Kill golems outside the temple until you get a letter drop, then shissars inside, until you get their drop.
Reward: 55 Orux and faction

Ring upgrades to 90hp.

Group task 4: Counter-Attack
Quest giver: Tactician Sodut
Zone in by saying a phrase to Tactician Sodut.
Kill 3 nameds and loot an item from each. These each spawn adds, so you need to burn quickly.
Reward: 65 Orux and faction

Group task 5: Confront Emperor Zaarisz
Quest giver: Tactician Sodut
Zone in by saying a phrase to Tactician Sodut.
Kill 5 of a particular type of mob in the temple. Hail the Emperor. Several waves of adds spawn, need to kill those before the Emperor becomes active. Kill him.
Reward: 55 Orux and faction

Ring gets upgraded at this point to 165hp. I think this happens even if you haven't done all of the previous A City in Peril line.

Single task: A City in Peril - Make contact with the Shissar Loyalists.
Go speak to Vizier Zio.

Group task 6: Where there's a Will
Quest giver: Vizier Zio
Zone in through the regular Zhiza zone (NW in Katta). Clear up to the teleporter. Move close without getting detected. Waves of mobs spawn on you, defeat these and keep going until the quest ends. I'm not sure how many waves it is - different people report different numbers. We had 6 or 7. There might be some way of making it quicker though. Easy but boring.
Reward: 63 Orux and faction

Ring upgrades to 195hp.

Group task 7: Slay the Serpent
Quest giver: Vizier Zio
Zone in through Zhiza. Go to various points on the map to get quest updates. Kill named.
Reward: 80 Orux + faction

Ring upgrades to 225hp.

Group task 8: Stop the Ritual
Quest giver: Vizier Zio
Kill 4 nameds + empress
All 5 names are in the same room. This is the toughest one yet. Each loot a piece from the Empress.
Reward: 95 Orux + faction

Single task: A City in Peril - Give the items he requested to Elnot.
Make sure you do the steps in turn. Ring upgrades to 300hp, and you're Solteris flagged.

Rewards noted are for first time through - it's less for subsequent times, and faction gain is possibly less too.

After the first 3 of these, I had 155 Orux, which was enough for the first spell I could get (Talisman of Persistence Rk.II), but didn't have the faction. After the 4th mission, I was at indifferent and I could get the spell. After all 8, I was at amiable and could get the next 1 (Lassitude Rk.II).

Note: I'm not 100% certain about the ring upgrade points - I didn't do the hail quests all at the right time!

Please post any more updates/further explanations/corrections![/url]

[quote="Kruzar"]the monster that is summoned is very tough, and does mitigate alot of the strikes. Critical melee hits were working just fine, and our Rogues were getting good hits using throwing, while the tank kept aggro.
quote]

Noticed that piercing and blunt weapons were mitigated, but slashing seemed to hit for full. Also noticed that different ones were more suseptible to certain types of magic (cold/fire/etc.).

what's the name of the ring?

Combine Signet Ring - http://lucy.allakhazam.com/item.html?id=79901 - will edit the post to add the link too.

This crap is so bugged its not even fun. I managed to get to the 3rd mission, finished it and cant get any further. Tactician Sodut only gives me the 3rd quest again. and the Prime Researcher Elnot wants me to restart the whole progression...

Grants, have you hailed Elnot and done the minor quest between each one?

Failing that, I think if you know the trigger phrase, you can trigger the quest by saying that phrase even if you can't get it by navigating through the quest text.

Now at http://samanna.net/gen.info/prog.tbs.shtml or EverQuest General >> Progression >> The Buried Sea >> Overview

Group Task 1: Knowledge of Power

Quest giver: Prime Researcher Elnot
Zone in is through the regular zone. Clear up to named, play hide and seek. Basically, you need to hide from his seekers, he calls out search patterns, and you can avoid them by hiding in rooms they don't go to for that pattern.
Reward: 50 Orux and faction

Did the quest yesterday and we got only 34 Orux plus faction

Smuggler's Energeiac armor prices that you are missing is as follows:

Arms: 250
Head: 225
Feet: 200
Hands: 175
Wrist: 150