I’ve been trying to finish the first step in the Vitality title quest for some time now, but killing 200 of two types of kobolds plus 20 of another is a rather daunting task, especially because around the city I’m normally at (Dagnamyr) we don’t have a single kobold spawn. There are a few good ones somewhat close if I travel north to the dwarf starter areas however, which is exactly where I was last night.

And much to my surprise, the area is not only busy with newbie dwarf players (who rolls a dwarf…?) but also PKs looking for an easy kill. Until recently I had always assumed the dwarf area was the least populated in the game, so either all of the starter areas are now just as busy, or trial players love dwarves.

One PK was particularly memorable not only because he kept coming back, but also because of his fighting style. He heavily favored debuffs and archery, and went into melee with sub-par (under r40) weapons and armor.

The first time he rushed in to melee me, my guess is assuming I was a new player. At that point I had decent-enough gear on me to easily handle him, and soon he was decapitated and his loot mine. I was not his first target that night it seemed, as he had a tombstone full of some rather random loot.

Some time later he came back, and this time was real sneaky about things. He hit me with a few debuffs before I could find him, and I then made the mistake of just charging at him with my vitality low. As I noob charged he put some arrows into me, and this time won the melee battle as I had about 150hp when it began. Round two goes to him, with some nice loot off me.

For round three I was wearing a robe and only had an r40 greatsword on me (another PK of much higher skill had just killed me), so I just charged him while dodging his spells, but lacking any ranged attack above a mob-dropped r0 bow, he was able to kite me long enough to get the kill. Round three to him, though his winnings were slim.

For round four I actually spotted him trying to kill a different player near a wilderness bank close to the kobolds, and initially engaged him mounted. He got in a few shots on me and my horse while I got some hits in with my axe, but at around the time I was going to pull back to save my horse he decided to pull off and head into the water. After I despawned my mount I followed him into the water where, much to my surprise, he was shooting arrows at another player on the waters edge. Since I had aqua-shot, I just jumped in, went underwater, and starter putting arrows into him. He initially fired back but soon realized I was out-damaging him (crafted r40 ftw) and tried to escape. Sadly for him he was both low on health and not close to any land, so after only a brief chase down he went. Funny enough he had a mount on him at the time, along with other assorted gear. Round four was mine.

For round five he brought in a buddy. His friend (a blue human) initially shot me with a fireball within tower range, so got zapped a bit. In a panic he spawned his mount, and I happily shot it out from under him as he tried to get out of tower range. Since he only hit me once he went blue again before I could actually fight him, but the death of his horse would do. The two then tried to jump me at the kobold spawn, but I managed to dodge enough of their attacks to make it back to the tower/bank. At this point it was getting late, and having had enough fun with them, I logged after a bit of friendly (not really) trash talk.

Oh and feel-good bonus of the night (possible of the year): When I got killed by the above-mentioned powerful PK, I went to the dwarf capital bank (that is my current bind point) to regear, feeling a bit down (I had a good fight with the PK but ended up losing a decent set of gear that I brought out to fight the other PK with), and at the bank crafting is an enemy guild member. Just for kicks I grab an r40 greatsword and start attacking him, fully expecting him to run around and make it impossible to finish him due to the other blue players in the area. Swing swing swing, no movement. Swing swing dead, no movement.

I open up his tombstone and find two blue bags which I immediately grab. As I grab the second, I notice a stack of steedgrass behind it, but before I can even see the number on the stack it’s gone thanks to the random other players now crowding around the tombstone. It was at least 10+, and possible 20+. I then check one of the bags and inside I find 37 horse mounts. Mounts go for 800-1000 a pop. Thanks buddy, and welcome to DarkFall.

(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.)