Faydwer · EverQuest (original release)
Butcherblock Mountains
The dwarves’ rugged front door: goblin camps and an undead chessboard on the slopes, Kaladim’s gates in the north, and Faydwer’s only harbour on the shore.
The land of the dwarves
The Butcherblock Mountains are the gateway into Norrath for the dwarves of Kaladim, and their citizens, guards and merchants are found all through the range. Allakhazam and the Project 1999 guide both put the zone at roughly levels 1 to 15, though a few camps along the shore run far higher.
Its connections make it Faydwer’s crossroads to the world. Greater Faydark lies to the east, through a tunnel in the eastern mountains. Kaladim’s entrance is in the middle of the northern edge, and the entrance to Dagnor’s Cauldron is in the southern wall.
Sources: Allakhazam: Butcherblock Mountains (zone) · Project 1999 Wiki: Butcherblock Mountains
Port Faydwer
West of the huge statue that marks the dwarves’ home are the docks, which serve both oceans. From the northern pier the slow boat crossed the Ocean of Tears to Freeport, a round trip of about thirty minutes, and travellers waited for cries of “boat!!” rather than miss it. From the southern pier, after 2000, ships ran across the Timorous Deep to Firiona Vie on Kunark. Houses representing all of Faydwer’s races stand around the harbour.
The statue at Kaladim’s own entrance shows either Brell Serilis or the first king, Dagnor Butcherblock, whose name the range and the Cauldron to the south both carry. The dwarves’ city and its royal house are covered in Kaladim and the Stormhammers.
Sources: Project 1999 Wiki: Butcherblock Mountains · Allakhazam: Butcherblock Mountains (zone)
The Chessboard and the goblins
Butcherblock’s dangers are mostly ones you walk into. There are few roaming aggressive creatures, apart from orc runners near the Greater Faydark edge, but many camps that group up and crush the careless. The most notorious is the Chessboard, where undead pawns, rooks, bishops and knights stand on their squares around an undead king; pull one too close to another and it becomes a grave.
Goblin camps spawn goblins from about fourth to tenth level, sometimes with a shaman or wizard tougher than their level suggests. There are aggressive skeletons at the outlying ruins, camps of dwarf bandits, high-level aqua goblins along the shoreline, and a camp of enraged goblins just off the path from town to the docks.
Faces on the road
Named figures include Peg Leg, who keeps a bandit camp; Nyzil Bloodforge at the guard house called the Crossroads; Signus Boran in an abandoned guard house; and the rare spawns Corflunk, Zarchoomi and Glubbsink. Ancient stone rings, a druid ring with a spell merchant, a haunted tower and huts selling smithing and brewing supplies dot the hills.
South through the Cauldron lie two of Faydwer’s old dungeons: Kedge Keep beneath the lake and the Estate of Unrest beyond the southern wall.
Sources: Project 1999 Wiki: Butcherblock Mountains · Allakhazam: Dagnor’s Cauldron (zone)
Lore tied to this zone
Sources: Allakhazam: Butcherblock Mountains (zone) · Project 1999 Wiki: Butcherblock Mountains