Reviving this topic to talk more about it:
First: repop is hugely fast here, yet mobs barely even hit you. Granted, this is in scale with the other 70+ exp zones, so I suppose it's alright. I think juggs of Guk hit harder than all the 70+ exp zones.
Second: armor drops of the Kael era seem to fall only off of Councillor Thubins @ 15% chance
http://thehiddenforest.dyndns.org/npc.php?id=129044I saw him up twice for some reason, on the stairway and in one of the back rooms. The back room where he spwaned also had a nice present of wall aggro of about 6 sentries, which I guess is from the arena area.. Which, yeah yeah, "wall aggro intended, for difficulty!" but had to note it anyways.
Anyways, tons of council members spawn but only one drops the easy to snag kael armor at 15% chance, most other dwarves don't seem to drop anything at all..
can I kill Lily? she drops armor pieces!

Bottom area seems more spread out and has better drop chances of decent stuff, but cleared whole bottom area, didn't get any drops. Oh well. On to a new zone~