The second final test of the second telling, released 02-24-2006-15:36
Periodically, the gods will conjure a divine altar with a shining beacon above it. These altars vanish very quicklly, if you see one, you should immediately perform the anchoring mediation:
This will anchor the divine altar to our world for about 30 minutes. You will know that the altar has been anchored because the glowing light will vanish, leaving just the alter.
During the altar's stay on earth, it can only be used for one purpose: the beacon ritual. The beacon ritual must be performed by the same three priests who did the anchoring meditation. You do not need to be signed up for the Test (or even worship-initiated) to anchor or complete a beacon, only to attract one (some people got all 7 beacons in T1 without signing up).
The three priests who perform the anchoring meditation will each receive a vision. These visions will tell you the steps of the beacon ritual (it is different each time). Sometimes the visions are vague, and you will have to experiment to discover the specifics of the ritual.
The altars seem to be attracted to individuals who meet certain conditions:
The last condition, the 'favored' activity, is particularly befuddling. About once a week, the gods choose some activity as favored. Their choice of activity seems to be oddly arbitrary. If you want to attract beacon altars, you will need to figure out the favored activity that week. Occasionally, somebody will get a sense that they did the favored activity.
To encourage the altar to appear, you need to first figure out the favored activity. Perform it once per hour whenever you are traveling, or out fishing, or visiting a school, or are away from your camp for any other reason. Chances are, this will trigger an appearance. The altar will appear within about 3 minutes if it's coming. Examples of favoured activities (from T1) include:
Attracting a beacon but it failing to appear because you're at home or there are too many people around doesn't lose you the chance for that week. Attracting it but not using it or it failing to turn up (this does happen sometimes) does count against you.
If you live in a very underpopulated region, you may have to travel to a place where there are more people in order to succeed. Such is the nature of the discipline of worship.
Of course, when the altar does appear, you'll have to convince whomever is around you to help you. Be prepared. Have a speech ready to talk them into helping. If necessary, have money to pay them with. Finally, carry medium gems, as these are inevitably used in the ritual.
The T1 wiki was most helpful, I read it while trying to do my first beacon. -Balthazarr
http://wiki.atitd.net/tale1/The_Test_Of_Beacons
I also completed my first Beacon found this little gem of a link...
DarthBobo's Beacon Ritual Script Generator
http://www.purplefrog.com/~thoth/atitd/beacon.html