Antonica · EverQuest (original release)
Qeynos Hills
The grassy hills north of Qeynos: one step up from the newbie yard, the crossroads of the west coast, and the place where a pair of ranger NPCs will kill you for fighting a wolf.
The hub of the west coast
Qeynos Hills lies north of the city and is, in the EQ Atlas’s words, the hub of activity on Antonica’s western coast. It links four zones: North Qeynos to the south, Surefall Glade and Blackburrow to the north, and the Western Plains of Karana to the east. It is small and, once you have your bearings, easy to get around, which made it a good place to run for a zone line.
Monsters run from about level 2 to 10: rats, snakes, bats, fire beetles, wolves and bears, skeletons and dread corpses, will-o’-wisps, bandit runners and a steady supply of gnolls from the burrow. Fire beetle eyes sold well as far away as Faydwer, and the wolf and bear pelts fed patchwork leather armour.
Sources: EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Qeynos Hills · Allakhazam: Qeynos Hills (zone) · Project 1999 Wiki: Qeynos Hills
The rangers and their bears
The hills are patrolled jointly by the Qeynos guard and the rangers and druids of Surefall. Two ranger NPCs wander the zone keeping out “poachers”, and to them a poacher is anyone fighting a wolf or a bear, whoever started it. The guide’s author lost count of the deaths: a rabid wolf jumps you, you fight back, and a ranger finishes you off. Its advice is to think hard before hunting wolves here at all.
Other dangers are plainer. Skeletons, grizzlies and rabid wolves are aggressive and cause most of the deaths in the zone. Two necromancers, Pyzjin and Tovax Vmar, wander with their pets and fight harder than they look. Camps of loathsome individuals once held parts of the hills and could return.
Sources: EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Qeynos Hills · Project 1999 Wiki: Qeynos Hills
Gnasher, Varsoon and the ruins
Gnasher, a named gnoll, wanders near the Blackburrow entrance; when you hear “Gnasher by BB”, check what you are fighting. The burrow’s entrance has no path to it: it lies in the northeastern corner of the hills, east of Surefall Glade and north of the zone line to Karana, under a canopy hung with gnoll heads.
Haunted ruins dot the hills, and Varsoon the Undying, a necromancer with an undead form, is among the notable NPCs. Putrid skeletons and dread corpses sometimes come through in trains bound for Surefall, chased by monks after their bones. Other named figures include the Miller family, Baobob and Chandra, and Cros Treewind; the Fishbone Earring and the Glowing Black Stone are among the zone’s well-known finds.
Sources: EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Qeynos Hills · EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Blackburrow · Allakhazam: Qeynos Hills (zone) · Project 1999 Wiki: Qeynos Hills
Roads out
North through Blackburrow lies the long road to Everfrost and Halas; the guide suggests being fourth or fifth level before trying it. The yard in front of Surefall is a quieter newbie area than the one outside Qeynos. East, the Plains of Karana begin, a zone for characters above fourth level, with harder lands beyond.
The hills belong to the story of Qeynos and the Bayles and of the Sabertooth gnolls, whose war on the city is fought here every day.
Sources: EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Qeynos Hills · Allakhazam: Qeynos Hills (zone) · Project 1999 Wiki: Qeynos Hills
Lore tied to this zone
Sources: EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Qeynos Hills · Allakhazam: Qeynos Hills (zone) · Project 1999 Wiki: Qeynos Hills