Antonica · EverQuest (original release)
Solusek’s Eye
Sol A: the huge lava caverns under Lavastorm where fire goblins and the gnomes of the Solusek Mining Company keep an uneasy alliance against the kobolds and Lord Nagafen.
Goblins and gnomes
Solusek’s Eye, known to players as Sol A, is a set of caves carved into the Lavastorm Mountains beside the great lava pit. It is home to the fire goblins and their allied clans, and to the Solusek Mining Company, an intrepid group of gnomes drawn by the mineral wealth. The two live in an unsteady alliance in the lava-filled caverns, held together by the nearness of their enemies, the Solusek kobolds and Lord Nagafen himself.
Monsters run from about level 20 to 40, with an experience bonus: young, cinder, flame, fire, inferno and Solusek goblins with their wizards and shamans, Solusek champions, priests and mages, gnome miners, curators and conjurers, clockwork CWG models and spiders, and blazing elementals.
Sources: EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Solusek's Eye · Allakhazam: Solusek's Eye (zone) · Project 1999 Wiki: Solusek's Eye
Lava and pit traps
Lava is everywhere, and pit traps drop you to fight an elemental that sees through invisibility. Those elementals, nearly level 40 and aggressive, appear elsewhere in the caves too and are the strongest foes in the zone.
The named roll is long: the Fire Goblin King and High Shaman, a goblin bartender and drunkard, the Inferno Goblin Torturer, Lord Gimblox, Captain Bipnupple, Gabbie Mardoddle and Marfen Binkdirple of the gnomes, the clockwork CWG Model CX and EXG, Kindle, Singe, Lynada the Exiled and a reckless efreeti.
Sources: EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Solusek's Eye · Allakhazam: Solusek's Eye (zone)
A huge dungeon
The guide’s first praise is its size: you can always find something to fight, and many areas go untouched for days because few go deep enough. That means good hunting at almost any level, though camping one particular spawn is harder. Goblins and gnomes need different tactics and drop different loot, and you can sell each side’s loot to the other side’s merchants.
Allakhazam paints the goblins’ side as a real home, with a bar, bedrooms and fireplaces built into living quarters, since they love the heat. They do not welcome visitors: many see through invisibility and they tend to swarm, so trespassers must be ready to fight several at once.
Sources: EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Solusek's Eye · Allakhazam: Solusek's Eye (zone)
Connections
Its entrance lies on the southern edge of the lava pit in Lavastorm, beside the door to Nagafen’s Lair, which also connects underground.
The gnomes’ home is Ak’Anon far across the sea; the fire under them belongs to Solusek Ro, and the dragon to the story told in Nagafen and Vox.
Sources: EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Solusek's Eye · EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Lavastorm Mountains · Allakhazam: Solusek's Eye (zone)
Lore tied to this zone
Sources: EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Solusek’s Eye · Allakhazam: Solusek’s Eye (Solusek A) (zone) · Project 1999 Wiki: Solusek’s Eye