When the Legend of Dead Kel was first announced as a DLC for The Kingdoms of Amalur, admittedly I groaned a little. You know, zombies, pirates and then some zombie pirates. However, even though it had these elements, Dead Kel actually proved to be a decent DLC. Actually calling it a DLC is an insult as it should of being tagged at a full fledge expansion pack as the island, not even the area is quite large to explore, there's tonnes of side quests and memorable characters / lore that makes this ‘DLC’ a worthy addition to the main game.
That said, you cannot simply romp into Dead Kel’s territory known as Gallows End as there are two criteria to meet – the first being you need to be at least level 10 and secondly, you need to discover Rathir. So being at level 10 shouldn't be an issue if you managed to reach to Rathir anyways. From there, you need to take a boat to Gallows End and to do this you will meet your first character Rast Brattigan – she more of a comic relief however this time, it's done extremely well.
So this is one of Dead Kel’s strengths – the characters you'll meet I actually quite enjoy listening to their babble. Rast Brattigan considers herself as the best sailor, you will soon realise she's just a buffoon however later on, I actually felt sorry for her. Other characters like Padrig Dower (Paddy) the gnome I feel is a total legend (and mind you, I hate the gnomes in The Kingdoms of Amalur and if I could, I would burn down Adessa however Paddy changed my thoughts about gnomes in general), Myfa Rhonwen (diplomat and boy she knows how to spend on clothing) and many more.
There are also more gear to find, more lore stones to listen to, more achievements to gain however one of the bigger sellers is to upgrade your keep. This forms part of the faction quest yet it's not mandatory to do so. So if you decided to build up your keep, it's a total blast to do so as not even it can provide you certain benefits, it's fun to see it grow – similar to Assassins Creed 2 when constructing your villa (if you played that game) and besides, you also attract more characters too. Too bad though the keep doesn't produce money however at that stage, I think money shouldn't be a problem.
Gallows End is quite a large island to discover filled with side / hidden quests. Doing just the main mission should take you around five hours to complete. That in itself is worth your $10. However you are definitely doing this DLC a disservice as the island is filled with rich lore / locales to discover and if you want to complete the entire game (like me) it can easily take fifteen hours or more. So The Legend of Dead Kel, even though had a controversial start (i.e. an early DLC), this game is far more just a DLC – it's an entirely new addition to the Kingdoms of Amalur. Just one last note though…be nice to Captain Brattigan as I wasn't.