I mentioned in my previous “Tales from DarkFall” post (that’s going to be the prefix title going forward) that while Inquisition is getting stronger as a whole, we are not yet up to city-raider level. This is mostly true, and Grim can nerdrage, err, tell you just how successful we are raiding say, Sunthrone and its lovely flamethrower tower. With that said, Darkmoore is a city we have had a few successful adventures in and around, and that is where today’s tale starts.

Darkmoore is one of the more interesting cities in Agon in terms of layout. All of the buildings are located at ground level, but in the center of the city you have a large rock structure with a lift carved out of the middle. On the outskirts of the city there are about eight tall plateaus, and these are all connected by rope bridges. The only way up is through the central lift, and the plateaus are a nice source of iron, stone, and timber. The perimeter of the city is a mix of player-made walls and the plateaus, giving anyone multiple access points to launch over the walls in addition to the two or three gatehouses.

In short, it’s a nice city in terms of location and resources, but terrible in terms of defense and locating invaders. The city on NA1 is currently owned by Legion XIII, with multiple allied clans also taking up residence. The overall player skill level is somewhat lower compared to a city like Aradoth or Erinthel, but activity is always high, and since its location is not far from our current home of Dagnamyr, it’s a fun and at times profitable place to raid.

And so our group of four (yea, it was a long day) made our way to Darkmoore. The strategy going in was to launch over the west wall and run towards the lift, hopefully avoiding detection until we got to the top. With only one way up, it would be a potential holding point, plus we could sneak around on the plateaus and maybe gank a harvester or two before the city mobilized. That was the plan anyway, and we did get up top without detection. Once at the top however, an active player happened to be wandering around, spotted us, and no doubt sounded the alarm.

We gave chase for a bit until he jumped down into the main section of the city, and before we could reach the lift ourselves it was already swarming with close to a dozen players. Darkmoore mobilizes fast it seems. After a bit of a ranged stand off, us on our plateau and the locals on theirs, the rope bridge dividing us, we mounted up and jumped down and out of the city, hoping to lure some pursuers out and away from their home turf. Initially they just stood at the edge of the outer plateau, thinking we had a back-up force to lure them into. Once it became clear it really was just us four, they dropped down as well and started chasing us west.

As with any chase, it’s always difficult to judge the number of pursuers, but we went to Darkmoore looking for a fight and knew that in all likelihood we were walking into a death trap. Survival would be nice, but if not, we will take as many of them down as we can before we die. With that mindframe, we made a stand at the top of a small hill, and the initial skirmish was going well. We took down one enemy quickly, and when his ally went to try and rez him I took him down as well. As my mount was standing still while I butchered the guy, the rest were able to get in some easy shots and I was soon on my feet.

After running for a bit to survey the battlefield and regain some stamina and health, I noticed someone had dismounted right in the middle of the battle, and quickly ran to grab the mount. Someone else beat me to that mount, but as luck would have it someone else had also recently gotten off (maybe they made that call in vent?) and this time I was not going to be denied. On a fresh mount, I noticed the battle was quickly getting out of hand as more enemies continued to engage, and the call was given to retreat.

At this point we were close to a clan members personal house, and with the numbers so heavily against us, we rode and swam to the village, the horde in hot pursuit. We got to the village, dove inside the house, and slammed the door shut behind us. Outside the horde gathered like a mob looking for blood, trying in vain to launch spells and arrows through the windows to try and take us down. Luckily for us the windows were limited enough that we could easily stay inside and avoid damage, and this began a prolonged game of cat and mouse.

We would open the door in the hopes that a few would be lured inside (collision detection and a narrow entrance means not all of them can stream in at once), and once in we would close to the door and murder anyone who entered and was now stuck inside. Their plan for when the door was open was to nuke the holy hell out of the entrance with AoE magic, and to also drop Wall of Force bubbles in the hopes of pulling us out. Sadly neither side fell for the others trap, and the standstill continued.

As we were contemplating rushing out of the house and into a glorious death, the house started to shake. The bastards had someone go back to town and bring out some battle spikes to blow down the door! After only a few explosions, the door was no more and we no longer had the ability to seal the entrance. It did not take long for them to rush in, and after some quick and chaotic melee on the ground floor, we were soon split once again. The four of us were holed up on the upper level, while they had the entrance area packed. Only a small set of stairs separated us, yet no one made a move to start the slaughter.

We quickly decided to drop a confusion spell (blinds everyone) and try to make it out of the house, and the plan sorta worked. The confusion went off, but unfortunately in addition to blinding the enemies it also blinded us. After some fumbling and random swinging, the spell wore off and we were able to finally exit before any of them blocked the door. Once outside, it was every man for himself as we ran to try and get some distance between ourselves and the enemy. One of our guys unfortunately ran into a group of enemies and was taken down, while two others were able to get some space and get into a (initially) more manageable fight. They did well, but soon the enemy converged and down they went. I was the lucky one, as somehow no one saw my escape, and I was able to retreat into the water and log out before anyone spotted me.

We owe the residence of Darkmoore a return trip of course, if for no other reason than to ask for a replacement door! After the smoke cleared and everyone was back in Dagnamyr, it was decided that the next time we get into a 4v12+ like that; we are fighting them straight up. We will see how well that goes soon.

(DarkFall-related post disclaimer/reminder. If you click the image link near the top-right of this page and buy a DarkFall account, I get paid 20% of the client cost. If you believe this taints my views and reporting on DarkFall, your opinion is wrong.)