Highpass Hold

The road through the mountains

Highpass Hold lies at the centre of Antonica on the main route between Qeynos and Freeport, a mountain pass guarded as well as they can manage by the guards of Highpass Keep. The citizens have carved homes out of the gullies and nooks. Travellers from Freeport come through Kithicor Forest and enter at the south; to the north the road winds down a long, narrow gorge into the Eastern Plains of Karana; and the eastern edge leads into High Keep itself.

Monsters run from about level 12 to 22 (Allakhazam gives 9 to 22): gnolls, soothsayers, flamepaws and shamans at one end; orc soldiers, conscripts, medics, acolytes, scouts, mercenaries, fanatics and shamans at the other.

Sources: EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Highpass Hold · Allakhazam: Highpass Hold (1.0) (zone) · Project 1999 Wiki: Highpass Hold

Orcs and gnolls at the gates

The danger for young travellers is right inside each entrance. Gnolls hold the northern one; orcs, stronger than the gnolls, hold the southern one; and the guards rarely venture out that far. The guide’s advice is to travel invisible, travel fast, or hope other adventurers are thinning them.

A camp of aggressive NPCs sits in a nook straight out from the city gates, and for some reason the guards ignore it. Swim under the bridge by the Tiger’s Roar and you can find a secret bandit hideout, mostly uninterested in anyone but themselves. Named figures include the orc Hagnis Shralok, Dyllin Starshine, and the Mucktail gnolls Vexven and Grenix.

Sources: EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Highpass Hold · Allakhazam: Highpass Hold (1.0) (zone)

A town at the foot of the keep

Most people here are passing through or heading to the keep for a rare item or spell. There is a small economy at the foot of the keep: three of its six buildings are bars, there are good inns, and brewing and pottery are well supported, with every tool and material on hand. The Tiger’s Roar tavern and a casino are among its fixtures.

The keep is the seat of a former empire that once ruled central Antonica; its power has shrunk under orc and gnoll attacks to the pass alone, but its people thrive on the trade, legal and illegal, that crosses the continent here. Inside the keep, pickclaw goblins infest the basement and Princess Lenya is part of a quest. The family behind it is in Highpass Hold and the McCabes.

Sources: EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Highpass Hold · EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): High Keep · Allakhazam: High Keep (zone)

Remade

The Highpass of today is not the classic zone. Allakhazam keeps the original as a separate 1.0 record, and the remade Highpass Hold arrived with The Serpent’s Spine in 2006. This page describes the original pass as players knew it in 1999.

Sources: Allakhazam: Highpass Hold (zone) · Allakhazam: Highpass Hold (1.0) (zone) · Project 1999 Wiki: Highpass Hold