EverQuest Starting Points – Butcherblock and Kaladim

One of the interesting aspects of old EverQuest, something else borrowed from TorilMUD and in turn used by WoW (even as it was skipped by EverQuest II which had just two cities, each with several racial ghettos) was the fact that every race had their own distinct hometown to start in.

Except humans, who had two, Qeynos and Freeport, because they run the place and you all suffer under the boot of their oppression or some such.  But the catalog of other races got their own special places.  And those were, indeed, starting points.

I’ve already mentioned on, Surefall Glade, the little side area that half elves were relegated to.  But the other races were a little more well accommodated, and I am going to go down the list of those home towns in order of my familiarity with them, starting with Kaladim and its zone, Butcher Block, located on Faydwer… or as the Freeport leaders called it, “weirdo island.”

Seriously, the boat from Freeport to Butchblock was slow as an attempt to reduce the tide of shorties and pointy ears from showing up.  Or that is my theory in any case.

Kaladim I have vague memories of.  It was certainly a fully developed underground city with amenities to rival Qeynos, if not Freeport.  But by the time I made my dwarf alt, a paladin who became my main character for quite a while, I had spent enough time exploring cities and wasting time on crafting.  I was more about being out in the world and grouping up to kill stuff… undead especially.

Kaladim was divided into north and south, much like Qeynos, with the south end leading out to the world through the magnificent edifice of the hills that represented all the subtlety of the dwarves.

Welcome to Kaladim!

There was no missing that if you were out wandering Butcherblock.

Inside you can see the layout of the city, which was carved out of the living rock and only mildly claustrophobic, with caves that had buildings in them.

Not sure why the needed roofed buildings, it wasn’t going to rain in here

Wandering it for this post, clearly a lot of work went into crafting it, and there were all sorts of things including a mine with some mobs to sink your teeth into… rats mostly, but better than nothing.  The kill ten rats meme lives on.

Down in the mines of Kaladim

There are maps of course, once again grabbed from the Project 1999 wiki.

North Kaladim

• 1. Merchant selling Gems
• 2. Merchant selling Brellium, Ore, Smithy Hammers, Sharpening Stones
• 3. Cleric Guild – Merchants selling Blunt Weapons, Food and Goods Merchant outside
• 4. Ratsbone Treasure and Assay Office – Bank, Merchants who sell Throwing Weapons (Kafia Ratsbone), Mining Supplies & Boxes (Kadek Norkhitter), and Rogue Guild Members outside
• 5. Pottery Wheel and Kiln
• 6. Empty Hut
• 7. Empty Hut
• 8. Everhot Forge – Merchants selling Blunt and Sharp Weapons, Small Chain and Plate Armor, Small Plate and Shield Molds, Weapon Molds (Bndainy Everhot), Jewelry Metal and Rare Gems, Forge Outside
• 9. Greybloom Farms – Merchants selling Grapes, Brew Barrel inside, Oven outside
• 10. Paladin Guild

South Kaladim

• 1. Tanned Assets – Merchant selling Small Leather Armor
• 2. Irontoe’s Eats – home of Tumpy Irontoe, Merchants selling Alcohol and Meat Pies
• 3. Staff and Spear – Merchants selling Swords (Didek Stormhammer) and Fletching Supplies (Alanury Stormhammer)
• 4. Redfist’s Metal – Merchants selling Small Shields and Weapons of all types, Forge and Stormguard Forge outside
• 5. The Arena (not PvP)
• 6. Pub Kal – Merchants selling Alcohol (Hanamaf Darkfoam & Dura Darkfoam), Brew Barrel, Bard outside
• 7. Warrior’s Guild with Merchants selling Various Weapons
• 8. Priest of Discord
• 9. Merchant selling Potions and Crystals
• 10. Merchant selling Bags, Pottery Wheel and Kiln outside
• 11. Gurtha’s Ware with Merchants selling Small Boots, Small Cloth Armor, Pottery Supplies, Oven outside
• 12. Castle – home of the King

Heading south out of Kaladim, you enter the zone of Butcherblock, which is in its way one of the more iconic zones of the early game.

Though, admittedly, it isn’t all that impressive up front.  I mean, the place is covered wall to wall and up to the mountain tops in the generic faux grass linoleum pattern, with squiggly paths drawn by inebriated elves (we’ll get to them later) to help guide you around.

The long and winding path…

And there are these neat little buildings scattered about.

Hey, who lives here?

However most of them are empty, the provide no protection from the roving mobs of the zone unless you find the few that have guards around them, and if you’ve made a barbarian you’re going to be unable to go inside in any case.  The lesson here was to only make short characters, as this issue would crop up elsewhere.

And the zone itself… was not all that big.  Once again, to the map room on the Project 1999 wiki.

Butcherblock Mountains

The legend for that map:

• G. Guard Houses
• 1. Docks: Northern Pier leads to Freeport, Southern Pier leads to Firiona Vie in Kunark, Merchants that sell Food and other goods, also many houses representing all the races on Faydwer
• 2. Stone with Guard, Blyle Bundin spawns south of here
• 3. Ancient Stone Ring, protected by Dwarves
• 4. Huts with Merchants who sell Food, Cookie Molds, Smithing Molds, Brewing Supplies and Books, and other Goods
• 5. Goblin Camp
• 6. Partially destroyed Ancient Stone Ring with a small level goblin camp. A Crazed Goblin spawns here.
• 7. The Chessboard
• 8. Dwarf Hut
• 9. Tower with Guards and High Elf Merchant selling Food and other goods
• 10. Bandit Camp with Peg Leg and others
• 11. Goblin Warrior Camp
• 12. Bandit Camp
• 13. Altar
• 14. Stone Pillar protected by Orcs
• 15. Goblin Camp
• 16. Dwarf Houses which sell Leather Armor and Sewing Patterns
• 17. Abandoned Guard House with Signus Boran inside
• 18. “The Crossroads” – Guard House with Nyzil Bloodforge
• 19. Merchants who sell Clay, Firing Sheets, Chain Armor, tailoring patterns, Large Sewing Kit and other goods
• 20. Druid Ring with Merchant selling Druid Spells
• 21. Haunted Tower
• 22. Goblin Camp, Spawn Point for Corflunk Placeholder (-2083, -194)
• 23. Stone Tower
• 24. Enraged Goblins

The zone felt much larger because, unlike the Plains of Karanas, it was divided up into little chunks that forced you to go the long way around to get places rather than running straight across the zone.  That was the only way to accommodate all that is going on with that map I suppose

On the west side of the map is Port Faydwer, which connects to the Ocean of Tears and then to Freeport.

Welcome to Port Faydwer

With the coming of Kunark it also offered service to Firiona Vie, the main port there.

Port Faydwer is where you would wait for the boat, which seemed to run at a very leisurely pace back in the day.  You would wait and wait and wait some more and get bored and run off to kill some aqua goblins that showed up and then somebody would yell, “BOAT!” across the zone and you would run for the dock because you didn’t want to do that wait again.

The new boat

I don’t think that is the original 1999 boat.  I think it got a revamp when Freeport did. It certainly “feels” different, the textures close up seem to be more of the update era than 1999… but I could be wrong.

The zone also has a druid ring… if not a well kept one… and it has skeletons around it… as well as a tower of bone… also skeleton infested… and one of the prime landmarks, the chessboard.

Also featuring skeletons

I remember spending time camping the undead around the chessboard, as they were higher level than most of the zone and also prime targets for a dwarf paladin.

The zone itself is the gateway to Faydwer, and from Butcherblock you can travel to Dagnor’s Cauldron and, from there, the Estate of Unrest.  I will have to get to the Estate of Unrest at some point.

You can also head over to Lesser Faydark, and where all the elves are, which is where I will be heading next.

Series so far: