I recently broke into tier three, and was extremely exited to reach Emberlight, having been amazed on how fun Moorcroft was. Upon exploring however, I realized that Moorcroft had (ironically) much more life to it! It is understandable for the town to be depressing, considering the lore, but with only two vendors and an alchemy station, it just isn't fun being there...
My suggestion is to simply add a few NPCs scattered around to talk to and see the personal opinions of a few gremlin outcasts.
Other than that, fantastic game!
what dark ritual? ^_^