Crushbone

The thorn in Faydwer’s side

Crushbone is the home of the Crushbone clan of orcs and, in the words of both the Project 1999 guide and EQ Atlas, the major thorn in the side of everyone who lives on Faydwer. It lies directly north of the wood elf city of Kelethin, on the northern boundary of the Greater Faydark, and it has only one entrance. Allakhazam and the Project 1999 guide both rate its orcs at levels 5 to 20; EQ Atlas, writing in the early days, put the bottom of the range at 2.

Finding the gate is easy. From Kelethin, walk north from the northernmost of its three lifts, the one farthest from the other two, or simply follow the path straight out; the entrance is ringed by two burning pyres. From Felwithe a traveller can follow the trail to Kelethin and turn north, or turn right out of the city gate and follow the forest’s edge all the way round, a duller route that is almost impossible to get lost on.

Sources: Project 1999 Wiki: Crushbone · EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Crushbone · Allakhazam: Crushbone (zone)

A city in a ring

Inside, the orcs’ home is laid out as a ring. A river flows around and through it. In the centre rises Trainer Hill, where the orc trainer drills his troops; the Project 1999 guide calls it the place “where camping was born.” On the west side are the slaver caves and the slave pit with its orc taskmaster, and beside them a small cabin where captive elves and dwarves actually live. To the northeast, across a bridge, stands Castle Crush, home of the clan’s leaders, and the camp outside its entrance is the one players simply called Wall.

Our lore page Crushbone and the Faydark Orcs tells how the clan found this place: a broad hill in a shallow bowl, walled by nature with a river through it, taken after weeks of slaughter, with the wood elves’ Shadow-Wood Keep burned the same night. The game’s layout and the orcs’ own legend describe the same ground.

Sources: EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Crushbone · Project 1999 Wiki: Crushbone

Emperor Crush and his court

The castle holds the dangerous end of the zone: orc emissaries, royal guards, oracles, Lord Darish, The Prophet and Emperor Crush himself in the throne room. Its most famous resident is not an orc at all. Ambassador D’Vinn, a dark elf, keeps Neriak’s interest in the clan alive, and the guides call him “our favorite newbie killer.” He drops the Dragoon Dirk. The Teir’Dal side of that alliance is in Neriak and the Teir’Dal.

The loot made the risk worth it. Most orcs carry cloth armour or a weapon worth selling, and cracked staffs could fetch more than a platinum each. The orc trainer sometimes carries the Shiny Brass Shield, legionnaires drop shoulderpads and bracers and the parts of the Screaming Mace quest, and the Emperor drops the Dwarven Ringmail Tunic. Retlon Brenclog and Rondo Dunfire are among the named figures connected to the slave quests.

Sources: Project 1999 Wiki: Crushbone · EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Crushbone

Trains to the zone line

Crushbone can be entered cautiously at level 6, and a group that can hold the throne room or the legionnaires can ride it to about level 15. It is extremely dangerous all the same. When the zone is quiet, the orcs reclaim their ground spawn by spawn, and then the patrols begin: pairs of orc centurions, then a legionnaire with two high-level centurions, walking from one side to the entrance and back.

When it is busy, which was most of the time, fast kills meant fast spawns and constant trains, and the trains here were the orcs people fled from: the legionnaire and his escort, or Emperor Crush with an oracle or two. The Project 1999 guide expected a train to the zone line every five to ten minutes and warned about bridges where broken pathing sends pulled orcs swimming through the camps behind the castle. Players learned the routes, kept their eyes on the entrance, and rarely got a warning.

Sources: Project 1999 Wiki: Crushbone · EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Crushbone

Later Crushbones

The orcs never left. Allakhazam notes a higher-level revamp of the zone that appears only during special events, usually branded Hardcore Heritage, running several weeks in the spring or summer. The classic fortress described here is the one Faydwer’s young adventurers knew.

Sources: Allakhazam: Crushbone (zone)