Comcast attempt to fix our internet: round two, is set for tonight. /pray

That aside, our connection was working well enough to actually allow me to play a bit of Darkfall without it being a total disaster, and thanks to a little clan switch / disconnect / death incident, I found myself bound near NEWs city of Hammerdale. After checking in on the city and chatting a bit with the local noobie population, I set out to the nearby dungeon to check out the recent changes.

The first thing I noticed was the new NPC hanging out in the entrance area. In addition to being a well-stocked vendor (skinning knife, arrows, small/med pots, etc), he also has the local dungeon quest. For this dungeon it was to first kill four cave trolls, with the follow-up being to kill 40. The follow-up is the repeatable quest that contains the randomly generated reward.

After grabbing the first quest, I went down a tunnel into what I remember being the first ‘room’ of the dungeon, but to my surprise the entire thing had been changed around and was now a sort of ‘greeting area’ filled with 4-6 cave trolls. Cave trolls are a slightly tougher version of normal trolls, and their most annoying tactic is to spam the vision-obscuring ray spell pungent mist. They also enjoy casting meteor swarm, even if it means damaging each other. Like normal trolls however, they have fairly low HP and go down in 5-6 melee swings (75+ GS mastery, mob-drop r40, 70-ish str). They drop more regs than normal trolls, along with a nice boost in gold (about 60 each).

After killing the four needed for the first quest, I went back, grabbed the follow-up, and decided to push in a bit further and see what else the dungeon contained. After another tunnel, the next area looked familiar in terms of the original layout, but the old goblin inhabitants were replaced with a large (10-12?) spawn of cave trolls. This is the first time in DF that I’ve seen a spawn that large, and while one cave troll is nothing serious, that many all focus firing me resulted in a quick and somewhat embarrassing death.

Once I made it back into the dungeon, I started the slow and careful process of looting my grave and keeping the trolls in check. While I never could clear the spawn (the respawn rate is crazy), I was able to kill enough of them to get some breathing room. Once I recovered all my gear, I pushed past the spawn to continue exploring. The old exit location now contained a chest instead, and I noticed the veilron chest had been moved to the upper area of the large troll spawn.

The final tunnel from that area lead to yet another room, this one containing an underground lake with some lizardmen around it. The geometry was interesting here, as it contained a lot of narrow ‘walkways’ above the water, and with the lizardmen spitting knockback projectiles, it made getting around a real challenge. The dungeon exit was in the very center of the room, and after some tightrope action to reach it, I made it out.

Overall the dungeon was much improved over its original version. It just felt more like a dungeon crawl then a few small underground rooms, and the larger spawns and fast respawn rate further separate the dungeon from overworld mob camps. I could easily see new and mid-ranged small groups (2-4) having a fun and profitable time here for a few hours (enough to have everyone finish the 40 troll kill quest). The place also presents a challenge for a solo advanced character, and I’m curious to return with some better gear to see how it goes (I was wearing a junk bag, due to the internet being shady). I’ve heard that other dungeons have received even more significant revamps, so I’m very curious to check them out.

I also need to swing by the new newbie dungeon in the capital. Perhaps I’ll run into some undead while I’m there.

(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.)