Kedge Keep

Beneath the Cauldron

Kedge Keep is the ancient fortress of the kedge, an aquatic race whose civilisation perished centuries ago. It lies at the bottom of the lake in Dagnor’s Cauldron, near the Estate of Unrest, and there is one way in: swim down through the waters at the southern tip of the lake to the broken entrance hidden in the depths. Allakhazam rates it for levels 35 to 50, and EQ Atlas lists the same range.

Allakhazam records that the current version is a revamp released on October 28, 1999, during the original EverQuest era, so the dungeon most players remember already dates from the game’s first months.

Sources: EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Kedge Keep · Allakhazam: Kedge Keep (zone) · Allakhazam: Dagnor’s Cauldron (zone)

A dungeon with no air

Unlike any other place in the classic game, the whole dungeon is underwater. Every member of a group needs a way to breathe, from an item, a spell or a bard song, and spells must be kept up, because drowning is fast and recovering a corpse means swimming back in. The dungeon also extends up and down as much as across, so an area-of-effect spell can wake the creatures in the room above or below.

Pathing was its own hazard. Fish pulled from a distance might circle the room, swim off or get stuck, and then suddenly pop into the middle of the group with friends. Shimmering sailfins can explode for about 400 points of area damage when killed, and clearing the sailfins makes more aggressive piranhas start to spawn. The sailfins, swordfish and stingrays come in many colours and kinds.

Sources: EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Kedge Keep

Estrella and Phinigel

Two rare spawns dominate the stories. Estrella of Gloomwater sees through invisibility, has guardians who do too, dispels buffs, blinds, and summons her victims; EQ Atlas thought she might be harder than Phinigel himself. Phinigel Autropos waits below a star-shaped opening at the bottom of a barrel-shaped room, ringed by guardians, and pulling him any way but alone was called a death wish.

Our lore page Kedge Keep and Phinigel Autropos tells who he is. Prexus made the kedge finite, so that one could be born only when another died, and Phinigel is the last of them. In Al’Kabor’s telling it was Phinigel himself who condemned his own people to undeath. Allakhazam calls him the leader of the kedge and one of the most sought-after targets in Norrath.

Sources: EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Kedge Keep · Allakhazam: Kedge Keep (zone)

The temple of Prexus

Hidden in the depths of the Keep is a temple to Prexus, the Oceanlord, the god who made the kedge. A few kedge still swim the halls, but most of the Keep’s inhabitants are its fish and the guardians of its rare spawns.

The reward for all that trouble was solitude. EQ Atlas called it the least inhabited zone in the game: no trains but your own, no camp checks, no lines, and the rare feeling of exploring something few players had seen, with gems and unusual items from clustered rare spawns.

Sources: EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Kedge Keep

Connections

Its classic neighbour is Dagnor’s Cauldron, above it. Allakhazam’s connection list for the current zone also shows later links, including Jaggedpine Forest, Toxxulia Forest and the Dreadlands, which belong to later eras and are not part of the classic way in.

Sources: Allakhazam: Kedge Keep (zone) · EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Kedge Keep