Antonica · EverQuest (original release)
Blackburrow
The Sabertooth gnolls’ warren between Qeynos and Halas: a ring around a deep pit, tunnels down to tougher gnolls, and the most famous trains on the west coast.
Home of the clan
Blackburrow is the home of the Sabertooth clan of gnolls, a mix of underground dungeon and open hunting ground. It is also the only path between Everfrost and the barbarian city of Halas in the north and the Qeynos Hills and lands beyond in the south, so every barbarian bound for the wider world must pass through it.
The layout is simple: two entrances and a ring of passages around a deep hole, with tunnels down to lower levels where higher-level gnolls live. Monsters run from about level 4 to 15 and above: gnoll pups and scrawny gnolls up top, guards, shamans, brewers, elite guards and commanders lower down, with razorgills, plague rats, snakes and bears for variety.
Sources: EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Blackburrow · Allakhazam: Blackburrow (zone) · Project 1999 Wiki: Blackburrow
Trains
Blackburrow is famous for trains. A gnoll that is attacked runs down to the lower levels, collects its tougher friends and brings them back up. The EQ Atlas writer saw trains of almost a dozen gnoll elite guards, all above tenth level, run through a top floor full of eighth-level characters, leaving bodies and shouts of “TRAIN!” behind them. High-level characters camping scrawny gnolls at the top made it worse: let a weak gnoll flee down its hole, and a train is on its way.
The spawns at the top also vary widely in strength and appear all around you, so it pays to check every gnoll before you pull. Allakhazam notes a respawn of about 22 minutes.
Sources: EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Blackburrow · Allakhazam: Blackburrow (zone)
Why people came
The gnolls are wealthy: most carry a weapon or a piece of cloth armour worth coin, and every trip home feels profitable. Monks from Qeynos come for quest items found only here, and many other town quests send adventurers in, so the burrow is always busy.
The guide records how the place changed as players levelled. When most characters were around tenth level, the dungeon was swamped, trains came every five minutes, and you had to log in at three in the morning to camp the Elite Room. Later it opened up. Named gnolls include Lord Elgnub, Trannix Darkpaw and a gnoll courier.
Sources: EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Blackburrow · Allakhazam: Blackburrow (zone) · Project 1999 Wiki: Blackburrow
Two doors
The northern entrance lies in the southeast of the Everfrost canyons, hard to find in their maze. Its long, dark tunnel is guarded by several gnolls, and timid barbarians often hunt there rather than enter. The southern entrance is in the northeastern corner of the Qeynos Hills, east of Surefall and north of the Karana zone line, under its unmistakable canopy of gnoll heads; that tunnel is lighter and shorter.
The gnolls’ history and their feud with Qeynos are told in Blackburrow and the Sabertooths.
Sources: EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Blackburrow · Allakhazam: Blackburrow (zone) · Project 1999 Wiki: Blackburrow
Lore tied to this zone
Sources: EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Blackburrow · Allakhazam: Blackburrow (zone) · Project 1999 Wiki: Blackburrow