Inside, I meet a mage who's trying to run this quest himself and take out a drudge that's beating on him. He offers a fellowship, and while I'm not averse to the idea, I prefer to go solo when I can. I decline and tell him to go first, then log out. Twenty minutes later, I log back in to see that he's either done his thing or moved out, leaving the spawns for me.
Enemies in this dungeon are numerous but simple, mostly 20ish banderlings which are weak against my lightning lancet and brown drudges which are weak against anything weapon-like. The Dull Dagger performs quite well, although the fact that it can't be tethered proves a small drawback. Some of the rooms have interesting flavor. Beyond a large dining hall lies a kitchen-like area where a Banderling Ogre watches over two tame Fire Aurochs:
Unfortunately, this is not the Ogre I'm looking for, so onward I go. I stumble into a long corridor with lots of side rooms, each containing a trio of drudges or banderlings. The side rooms often contain drudges and nothing else. I fight through them with little trouble, finding nothing in the rooms but the loot on them. Disappointing, but it's still good experience. I eventually find the first key on a Drudge Servant with a unique name:
The key opens a door nearby that takes me upstairs to a small room overlooking a larger one. However, with Liches downstairs tossing War Magic around, I have to back up and try a different path. It doesn't much matter, because the path I take eventually brings me around to the same point:
These liches are a real piece of work. I hide behind the door, and they shoot arrows at me and wait. I open the door to take the fight to them, and immediately get smacked with a Force Bolt. Then they charge, after I have the door open. Fortunately, between a decent magic resist, my Lugian gems, and a quick finger with the potion hotkey, I manage to beat them. A small room inside the larger one holds a unique banderling who has the second key:
That's two out of I don't know how many. Further on I find the dungeon's most impressive room: a series of corridors lined with locked gates holding enemies. Jail cells. Sonnovabich, this dungeon is a dungeon!
While I like a good fight as much as the next MMOer, breaking into each of these cells and massacring the occupants seems tedious and unrewarding, so instead I look for a way on to the next area. I think I find it in a tunnel leading downward to a cave system, but therein lies a nasty surprise:
Yikes! That's way too rich for my blood. And there's several of them down here, too. I consider picking a fight with one, but then slap myself, whazzamattawithyou? I try to sneak around behind their backs, I find a portal to a level 80 area while avoiding fights, but not much else. So I head back up to the prison, figuring there must be another way. The only other exit is through two locked doors. Neither key works on them. I pick the lock of the first, but the second proves too tough for me. Burdened down with loot and with little idea where to go next, I /lifestone to Cragstone to sell and resupply.
When I return to the dungeon, I decide to take a different path at the start in hopes of finding another key somewhere. The path I choose takes me upstairs, where I find balconies overlooking both start room and this one:
The pit visible behind the small structure in the center is worth mentioning: My radar picks up some very tempting loot down there (we're talking multiple level IV enchantments), but it's also a very long drop into a nest of Armoredillos. Given that, plus the fact that I can't meet the lore requirements, I ignore it.
After meticulously combing every inch of the dungeon looking for a key or a room I've missed, I find nothing and wind up back at the jail cells. I now have three options to find the third key:
A) Systematically kill every creature in each of these cells, hoping one has the key.
B) Jump into the pit, hoping there's a path down there which will lead to the key.
C) Brave the Granite Golems downstairs to see if I can find the key there.
As none of those sound appealing, I choose D) Forget the key and wail on the door with my lockpicks until it gives. Luckily, I brought spare lockpicks. After a few minutes and a bit of persistence, I succeed. Shortly past the door, I find the boss:
He may be big, but he's also inattentive. I sneak attack him from behind before he aggros, then follow up with my lightning lancet and pretty soon he hits the ground. The Hauberk is mine. I forgot to get a screenshot, but as you can see from this wiki link, it's disappointing. Sure, the enchant is nice, but it doesn't make a bit of difference to a Finesse fighter. Plus the AL is crap and an armor that fills that many slots better damn well come with more than one enchantment. I show it to the warden, then sell it.
Later I check the wiki to see if I missed anything. Turns out that third key was on a Giant Silver Rat in one of the jail cells. I also found a fourth on the boss, which opened a chest that I had already picked. And down in the Golem room was an item needed for a large and tricky quest, which I will get around to some day.
Glenden Wood dungeon is not a bad dungeon, but it annoyed me. There are too many enemies. They're weak, so there's little chance of death, but it gets repetitive after awhile. And the layout is a little too confusing, with the needle-and-haystack search for the third key being especially poor form. So while it's okay and I can see it being good grinding for lowbies, I'm glad to move on to the next quest.
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