Faydwer · EverQuest (original release)
Dagnor’s Cauldron
A broken, barren bowl of grey stone around a lake, south of the Butcherblock Mountains: aqua goblins and undertow skeletons on the cliffs, Kedge Keep beneath the water and the tunnel to Unrest in the southern wall.
A wasteland around a lake
Dagnor’s Cauldron takes its name from the lake it surrounds. The Project 1999 guide and EQ Atlas call it a barren wasteland separating the Butcherblock Mountains from the haunted estate to the south, so twisted that nobody can imagine what impact, magical or natural, tore the land apart. Its stone is grey with patches of red and green moss, and very broken.
Allakhazam rates it for levels 12 to 20; the classic guides list creatures from about 10 to 25: scalded and cauldron rats, shoal and sandbar serpents, undertow skeletons, orc scouts, and aqua goblins in ranks from mariners and shamans to bosuns and tidal lords. Named creatures include Barnacle Bones, Flotsam and Jetsam, Squallslither and the aqua goblin Captain Klunga.
Sources: EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Dagnor’s Cauldron · Project 1999 Wiki: Dagnor’s Cauldron · Allakhazam: Dagnor’s Cauldron (zone)
Between the mountains and the manor
The Cauldron lies south of the Butcherblock Mountains, reached through a gorge from Butcherblock’s southern wall. At the bottom of the lake, entered from its floor, is Kedge Keep; EQ Atlas says the way down is at the southern tip of the lake. Along the southern mountain boundary a tunnel leads to the undead manor of the Estate of Unrest.
The guides’ advice for the walk south is consistent: keep to the water’s edge on the west side of the lake, the safest route from north to south, and watch for the aqua goblins, at least one of which swims out into the lake.
Sources: Allakhazam: Dagnor’s Cauldron (zone) · EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Dagnor’s Cauldron · Project 1999 Wiki: Dagnor’s Cauldron · Project 1999 Wiki: The Estate of Unrest
Falls and ambushes
The danger is partly the monsters and partly the ground. Aggressive aqua goblins and undertow skeletons roam everywhere and are hard to spot among the rocks. The terrain is the other enemy: the EQ Atlas author once lost 151 hit points to a single fall while running sideways along a cliff, and advised Levitate for anyone hunting here. Fleeing monsters are hard to follow, so snares and roots help.
There is a friendly camp for good races where players can heal, a thief who sells poison, a dwarven stone marker and an orc scout camp, all marked on the Project 1999 map. Among its named figures are Gundalthur Izuran, Dwigus Lowater, Bilge Farfathom and an exiled legionnaire.
Sources: EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Dagnor’s Cauldron · Project 1999 Wiki: Dagnor’s Cauldron
Dagnor’s name
The Cauldron carries the name of Dagnor Butcherblock, the first dwarven king, like the mountains to its north; the history is in Kaladim. EQ Atlas and the Project 1999 guide tie its ruin to the estate beyond: the estate was overrun by the undead after the unholy destruction that created the Cauldron. Below the water lies an older story still, that of the kedge and Prexus, told in Kedge Keep and Phinigel Autropos.
The guides admit the Cauldron has few advantages over other Faydwer zones: snakes at low levels, aqua goblins later. Most people saw it on the way to Unrest or Kedge Keep.
Sources: EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Estate of Unrest · Project 1999 Wiki: The Estate of Unrest · EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Dagnor’s Cauldron
Lore tied to this zone
Sources: EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Dagnor’s Cauldron · Allakhazam: Dagnor’s Cauldron (zone) · Project 1999 Wiki: Dagnor’s Cauldron