Darkforge is a two-level dungeon located south of the Caverns of Chaos. The upper level, called the Non-Descript Cave, is a random level that may contain an assortment of dungeon features and monsters of difficultly comparable to those between Animated Forest and Water Temple, with addition of a lone steel golem guarding the down stairs. The lower level is Darkforge proper, and is best known for large caches of equipment, pools, and a shortcut to the lower Caverns of Chaos.
Main Features[]
The only feature of mention in the upper level is the lone steel golem guarding the stairs. This should serve as a warning to weak players about what lies below. That level also supports most common dungeon features.
| Symbol | Name | Notes |
| # | Secret passage | Searching will reveal the hidden passage. |
| h | Kherab | Chaotic quest giver. |
| [ | Crown of Science | Has a steel golem standing on top of it to guard it. |
The lower level has a number of important features. Due west of the starting position is a collection of pools, usually 6-10 in number. Many players visit these pools in hopes of getting a wish or other valuable intrinsics. Further west of that is a large cache of armor. These pieces of armor can be of quite high quality, including dragon scale armor, eternium pieces, or occasionally artifacts. There is another cache of weapons in the south side of the map, featuring a number of weapons of similar quality.
Teleport control has a high chance of failure in Darkforge, meaning that if the PC teleports (willingly or not), it will usually be a random teleport instead of a controlled one. Excepting a lot of luck on the player's part, the PC must make their way through a gauntlet of numerous steel golems to reach the caches. These monsters have high health and PV, attack with fire, and can do critical hits exceeding 100 damage—very dangerous for an unprepared player.
The treasure rooms themselves are accessed from trapped hallways connecting to central room complete with nine forges, and Kherab, the dwarven artificer. Kherab will assign three quests of dubious value, since all are chaotic quests that involve killing important or dangerous NPCs. The west side of the map contains a small cache of gold, and a final set of steel golems guarding the shortcut to the Caverns of Chaos. These stairs allow the player quick access to D32 or D33, but can only be used after dealing with the Eternal guardian peacefully. A secret room in this same hallway also holds the Crown of science, an artifact that provides a significant boost to learning, as well as fire immunity, but is autocursing and dooms the wearer. The crown is surrounded by traps and has yet another steel golem on it.
Kherab may also be killed to gain full control of teleportation, or in order to gain smithing supplies, such as an anvil, but caution should be taken in attacking him; he has powerful armor-punching melee attacks and regenerates health very rapidly. Kherab must be killed on the lower Darkforge level and not lured off of it to properly regain teleportation control. Smithing is generally not recommended in Darkforge, because of the background corruption is quite high, and monster generation rate.
Inhabitants[]
- Numerous guaranteed steel golems
- Steel zombies, animated armor, dwarven chaos knights, steel horrors
- Kherab, the dwarven artificer
Quests[]
Kherab offers three quests. The first is to kill Guth'Alak in Terinyo. The reward is the Shield of Raw Steel. The second is to kill Thrundarr in exchange for the Amulet of Raw Steel. The third is to kill the seraph in exchange for the Chain Mail of Raw Steel.
Version History[]
In 1.1.1, it was always possible to control teleportation in Darkforge, allowing for extremely early Darkforge raids.
Kherab's third quest to kill the Seraphim of order in exchange for the Chain mail of raw steel was added in 3.0.0.