News Manager Keith Cross recently had a chance to play through a guided tour of Module 8: Prisoners of Prophecy, the next content update for Dungeons and Dragons Online. During the tour he had the opportunity to take a look at some of the game's newest dungeons and try out the new hireling system.

Every few months, the folks at Turbine get ready to roll out another content update, or module, for Dungeons & Dragons Online (DDO). When this happens they call upon a small group of people in the games media to take a tour of what they’ve been working on. This time, as last time, I represented MMORPG.com on this trek through the continent of Xen’drik and the new content of Module 8: Prisoners of Prophecy.

We started by looking at the latest revamp of the starting area for new players. This is the second time that the DDO team has gone back to the beginning and done a complete makeover of the new player experience, and this time the changes are more drastic. Players start off on a once tropical island somewhere off the coast near Stormreach. The island has become besieged by a rather large white dragon who has altered the tropical climate to resemble the frozen lands where it’s kind normally dwell. The dragon is also the device that brings new players to this area, as it has taken to turning passing ships, on their way to Stormreach, into shipwrecks. As a survivor of one such wreck, you’re soon recruited to help stop this menace. You join up with some NPCs and they show you how to interact with the world, navigate it’s dungeons, and take care of pesky dragons.

Read A Look at Module 8: Prisoners of Prophecy.