The Ancient Gaming Noob
EverQuest Starting Points – Under Qeynos in the AqueductWilhelm Arcturus
I’ve briefly written about Qeynos, the first city of Norrath, at least in my heart. But I cannot move further afield until we get to the bottom of the city, for underneath the city lays the Qeynos Aqueducts. Also, I apparently misspell “aqueduct” at every opportunity. I think I have fixed them now. Qeynos Aqueduct System While there was a whole front yard of mobs to work on before north Qeynos, snakes, skeletons, beetles, a few gnolls, interspersed with a few higher level mobs including Fippy
7. Březen 2024 v 17:15

EverQuest Starting Points – Under Qeynos in the Aqueduct

Od: Wilhelm Arcturus

7. Březen 2024 v 17:15

I’ve briefly written about Qeynos, the first city of Norrath, at least in my heart. But I cannot move further afield until we get to the bottom of the city, for underneath the city lays the Qeynos Aqueducts. Also, I apparently misspell “aqueduct” at every opportunity. I think I have fixed them now.

Qeynos Aqueduct System

While there was a whole front yard of mobs to work on before north Qeynos, snakes, skeletons, beetles, a few gnolls, interspersed with a few higher level mobs including Fippy Darkpaw at least once a night, those were mostly very low level and the return on slaying them diminished quickly with a few levels.

As has become the normal pattern, this was meant to encourage you to move further afield, to go out and explore the world. And there were opportunities not too far off. Just north lay Qeynos Hills, which had some higher level mobs in the mix, and also led to the chaos that was early Blackburrow, which I hope to get to next, and the Karanas, where the real size and scope of the game would start to make itself known.

But, right beneath you in Qeynos, there was also the aqueduct, a zone seemingly less useful for supplying the city with water than providing a refuge for rats, bandits, skeletons, spiders, piranhas, sharks, and the occasional gelatenous cube… which were, in fact, perfect cubes just like in the Monster Manual of old.

Cube Ahoy!

Granted, the old school cubes were alleged to have been shaped by moving through perfectly squared off dungeon corridores, while the Qeynos cubes move like a six sided die rolling down a channel.

Cube in motion

You would think that would wear them down to spheres, but the limits on available polygons probably prevents that.

Also, in case you thought I was kidding about the shark.

As advertised

I don’t know what a shark in the aqueduct of a city whose only nearby water is a presumably salt water ocean says about the drinkability of Qeynos water, but there it is. (The whole place feels more like a sewer system, and I habitually refer to it as the Qeynos sewers, but what do I know?) How it got there remains a mystery, though no greater of a mystery than the piranha I suppose.

Not a shark, but still bitey

The level ranges of the mobs down in the aqueduct varies greatly and a low level explorer looking for adventure could very quickly find themselves in over their head after defeating a few of the easier mobs that show up. Also, I don’t think this should need to be said, but having seen enough corpses, don’t jump in the water with the shark.

But the trick of the aqueduct is less about the mobs and more about simply finding them and getting into them… not that there aren’t a number of ways in. Go back to my previous post about Qeynos proper and look at the map legends and you will see a few ways in. And good size bit of water, like that pond in the north half of the city, has a way into the aqueduct.

Down at the bottom of this pond

There is even a poorly hidden entry outside the city if you want your troll, ogre, and dark elf friends to come join your party down below the city. There is bit of false wall, which is a different color from the rest of the city wall.

Move along, nothing to see here…

Furthermore, that bit of wall practically glows at night, guiding you to it.

Big red arrow probably not required

No, the problem was, and remains, how to swim in the game.

Being able to control your swimming to allow you to do simple things like swim down to the entry to the aqueduct or just get out of the water before you drown, requires you to be zoomed in to first person view. If you have scrolled out and are playing in the third person, over the shoulder view, which I certainly prefer if only for the greater sense of situational awareness it allows, then you are going to drown.

The number of corpses I have seen in that pond above over the years… yeah, drowning is a real possibility. So you really had to kind of commit to the swimming thing before you could even get started on getting to the aqueduct.

No, you need to be in first person view!

And not being able to swim was only the start of issues. If, for example, you went down through the hole in the pond in front of Crow’s Pub, when you zoned in you were under water and your limited breath meter was counting down.

Trying hard to drown people here

Back in the early days of dial up internet, slow speeds, high latency, and frequent disconnects, it didn’t take much of a hiccup in the system to end up as another corpse floating around at the zone in point.

This is not such a big deal now, both due to better internet and the fact that they have since upped the breath timer, but it was a hazard early on.

All that aside, for many of us the aqueduct was the first dangerous, dungeon-like experience we had in EverQuest.

As with past posts, I am going to swipe the map from the Project 1999 wiki, where it is also referred to as the Qeynos Catacombs, a named derived from its zone name within the game.

All that stuff under Qeynos

The connections to Qeynos have letters on the map:

A. Exit to Secret Entrance in Newbie Area of North Qeynos
B. Exit to Pool between Crow’s Nest and Monk Guild in North Qeynos
C. Exit to Rogue’s Guild in North Qeynos, Pits fall into Area #14
D. Exit to Water by Magic Users Guild Halls in South Qeynos
E. Exit to Hidden Entrance beneath Grounds of Fate
F. Exit to Water near to the Bank
G. Exit to Water in the Bay near Docks

And the locations on the map are numbered:

1. Spawn Area for Vin Moltor
2. Various NPCs appear here
3. An undead knight (Qeynos Aqueducts) who drops Limestone Ring
4. Bloated Alligator who drops Alligator Egg
5. An injured rat who drops Alligator Tooth Earring
6. Mercenaries with a shady mercenary who drops Thick Black Cape
7. Drosco and A Nesting Rat who drops Golden Locket
8. Temple of Bertoxxulous
- 8a. Enchanter, Magician, and Shadow Knight Trainers, Banker, Merchants selling Spells and Weapons
- 8b. Warrior, Wizard, and Necromancer Trainers, Merchants selling Necromancer Spells and Equipment
- 8c. Shadow Knight and Cleric Trainers
9. Sewer Sentinels
10. Cuburt spawn area
11. Frogloks
12. an injured brigand
13. an exhausted guard
14. Shark Pool with two lvl 17 a shark
15. Smuggler Camps with a smuggler, a courier and Malka Rale
16. Various NPCs and Beggar Wyllin spawn here
17. Thug Camp with a thug

In addition, the wiki has a second map, which is a little more clear to me, and which calls the whole thing the Qeynos Underground. That is apparently not the revolutionary movement I thought it was.

A little better map of the whole thing

The one thing is that, whatever you call it, the area under Qeynos lends itself to the classic graph paper mapping methodology.

And that is about all I have to say about the Qeynos sewers, or whatever you choose to call them. I am finally going to get on the road out of Qeynos at this point, though we have one last stop in the Qeynos Hills first in order to visit some gnolls.

The locations so far:

The Ancient Gaming Noob
EverQuest Starting Points – What Can I Even Say About Qeynos?Wilhelm Arcturus
Through pixels dim, a vista grand, Qeynos unfolds, a promised land. Cobblestone streets, a bustling throng, Where merchants hawk, and bards sing strong. -Google Gemini, trying to make some Norrath poetry Qeynos will always hold a special place in my image of EverQuest. It was the first “city” I visitied in Norrath. It was both busy to look at and a bit confusing to navigate when compared to the simplicity of Surefall Glade or the open spaces of Qeynos Hills or the Karanas. I remain to this
19. Únor 2024 v 17:15

EverQuest Starting Points – What Can I Even Say About Qeynos?

The Ancient Gaming Noob

Od: Wilhelm Arcturus

19. Únor 2024 v 17:15

Through pixels dim, a vista grand,
Qeynos unfolds, a promised land.
Cobblestone streets, a bustling throng,
Where merchants hawk, and bards sing strong.

-Google Gemini, trying to make some Norrath poetry

Qeynos will always hold a special place in my image of EverQuest. It was the first “city” I visitied in Norrath. It was both busy to look at and a bit confusing to navigate when compared to the simplicity of Surefall Glade or the open spaces of Qeynos Hills or the Karanas.

I remain to this day a partisan of Qeynos and stand against the tyranny of Freeport… or something. Freeport, the city on the far side of the continent of Antonica, was clearly the darling of the developers.

Classic Norrath

Freeport quickly became the popular nexus of the game and for good reason. It was easily reached by much of the game’s population… unless you started in Qeynos or Erudin. If you started on the west side of Antonica, you had a perielious journey ahead of you if you wished to get to the Commonlands tunnel, which was the player created economic hub of Norrath. No auction house, just shouting about your goods and bargaining face to face.

But I am getting ahead of myself. That is all yet to come in my journey. I am still in Qeynos.

How does one even say that name?

Back in 1999 I said it aloud, if I had to, sounding like “Kway-noss.” I knew people who said it more like “Key-noss” or “Kway-niss.” I don’t think I ever heard anybody from the dev team say it until the advent of the SOE podcast, where they said it more like “Key-nose.” I have gone with that pronounciation ever since.

(That is also I heard the name of my server, E’ci, pronounced for the first time. They said it “eee-say,” which was better than my method at the time, which was to simply spell it out, the “Eee, See, Eye” server.)

And yes, Qeynos is “Sony EQ” spelled backwards. And the palindrome of “Bolton” is “Notlob.”

Looking at Qeynos today, it feels almost like Doom, all verticle walls and squared off objects with fairly low resolution textures applied. More sophisticated than Doom for sure, with more patterns, but it still feels closer to Doom than even something like World of Warcraft or EverQuest II, which are only five years younger and headed to their own 20th birthdays later this year.

Look at those textures… also, how many new players drowned in that pond?

Speaking of WoW, one thing I always notice when I go back to EQ or EQII is SOE’s instistance on having doors. It isn’t that there are not ANY doors in Azeroth, but they are few and far between. In EQ there is a door on every damn building, and often a few inside a building. I wonder how much time was spent getting doors to even work right… it is one of those seemingly simple things that is notoriously difficult to implement well… during development of the game? And they are all mildly awkward to use, so I admire the simplicity of Azeroth where you just walk into almost every building.

Once more I will borrow from the Project 1999 wiki, this time for maps of Qeynos… plural beacuse Qeynos was broken out into two zones, north and south.

North was the smaller of the two when it came to being a city, though it had that large “front lawn” with mobs, including Fippy Darkpaw, to play on.

North Qeynos

The points of interest from the Wiki:

Order of the Silent Fist – Monk Guild, Merchant who sells Monk Weapons, Bags, and Bandages
Kliknik Tunnel – leads to Qeynos Aqueducts
Reflecting Pond – tunnel leads to Qeynos Aqueducts
Crow’s Pub & Casino – Merchant selling Alcohol, Brew Barrel, secret tunnel to Rogues’ Guild
Galliway’s Trading Post – Merchants selling Food and other Goods, Priest of Discord outside
Ironforge’s – Merchants selling Sharp Weapons, Medicine Bags, and Weapon Molds, Forge out back
Jewelbox – Merchants selling Jewelry supplies (Metals and Gems)
Ironforges’ Estate
Merchants selling Medium Cloth Armor and Medium Chainmail Molds
The Cobbler – Merchant selling Boots of all types
Merchants selling Blunt Weapons and Cleric/Paladin spells
Teleport leading to Temple of Life, Cleric and Paladin Trainers throughout area

I am drawn to Ironforge’s, and not just because that name would recur again in a big way in WoW.

Now there is a name that will live large… elsewhere

This is where I learned of the injustice of the layout of the world. I set about to do smithing at one point, Ironforge’s being a place that sold most, but not all, of the supplies you would need.

Missing were bits of metal, the basic ingredient required for all smithing. If I has started out in Freeport, the vendor there… who is within line of site of multiple forges… had metal bits. But in Qeynos the nearest vendor who had them was up in Highpass Hold. If you’re going to go that far, you might as well just carry on to Freeport.

The first of many things thwarted due to starting in Qeynos and the nature of travel in the game back then.

South Qeynos was a busier layout than north, and the place where I would get disoriented and stuck trying to get somewhere.

South Qeynos

Again, the legend borrowed from the wiki:

Tin Soldier – Forge outside, Merchants selling Medium Chain Armor and Full Plate Molds
The Wind Spirit’s Song – Bard Guild Hall, Merchants selling Bard songs and various Weapons
Fharn’s Leather & Thread – Merchant selling Medium Leather Armor and Small Sewing Kit and Patterns
Bag n Barrel – Merchants selling Bags, Pottery Wheel and Kiln out back
Nesiff’s Wooden Weapons – Merchants selling Blunt Weapons, Bows, outside Merchant selling Fletching Supplies (Arrows), Royal Qeynos Forge nearby
Lion’s Mane Inn – Merchants selling Alcohol, Brew Barrel, Message Board
Tax Hall
Qeynos Hold – Bank
Underwater tunnel to Qeynos Aqueducts
The Herb Jar – Merchants selling Spells, Potions, Books, Crystals, and Magician Equipment
Wizard, Enchanter, and Magician Guild Hall with Merchants selling Spells and Wizard Equipment, outside Wizard, Enchanter, and Magician Trainers
Tent Merchants selling Small Leather and Ringmail Armor and Medium Cloth Armor, Loom nearby
Fireprides – Merchants selling Medium Plate, Chain and Leather Armor and Shields, Shield Molds, Forge outside
Tent Merchant selling Large Leather and Ringmail Armor and Large Shields
Boat Dock – with travel to Erud’s Crossing
Mermaid’s Lure – Merchant selling Fishing Supplies
Tent Merchants selling Cloth Armor, Small Sewing Kits, Bags, Axes, and Sharp Weapons (including Claymore)
Warrior Training Hall inside the Grounds of Fate (PvP Area), Merchant selling Various Weapons, underground tunnel leads to a variety of evil trainers and merchants in the Qeynos Aqueducts (follow the bones)
Underwater tunnel to Qeynos Aqueducts
Port Authority
Merchant selling Instrument Parts, Spells, Compass, and Fish
Voleen’s Fine Baked Goods – Merchants selling Food, Brewing Supplies, some Baking Supplies, Oven inside
Fish’s Ale – Merchants selling Alcohol, Brew Barrel inside, Message Board
Temple of Thunder – Paladin and Cleric Trainers, Merchants selling Spells, Various Weapons, and Shields of all sizes

I remember a lot of the vendors in South Qeynos, but the most immediate draw was the bank, the Qeynos Hold, because of course inventory management was an issue from day one and bags were small and scarce and so on. Also, if you look at that map, there wasn’t a nice straight line from the north part of town to the bank. No, you had to weave around the place.

Dun is new around here I think

There inside the bank, with the two tellers and the guard… and a very active guard because “A” turned on auto-attack and so many people accidently attacked guards or vendors or what not by accident because of that… was always crowded, with lots of people coming and going or just hanging around idle.

Inside the Qeynos Hold

There were no shared bank slots across accounts and no mailing stuff to yourself back then. I’d get an alt character logged out in the far corner of one of the nearby buildings, then go over to that spot with something I wanted to hand off to them, drop it on the ground, log out, then log in with the alt and pick it up… because stuff you dropped stayed there. Crazy times.

And there was the harbor, where you could take the boat to Erudin or learn about fishing from that guy down at the end of the dock.

The Port Authority

You used to be able to get up on top of the walls inside of town and get out to the end overlooking the harbor and you were high enough to see that the sky box was more like an inverted goldfish bowl, the lip of which would be clearly visible. Lots of things to see in Qeynos.

The clock tower in South Qeynos

It was all very old school and there was nothing like yellow paint or other highlights to guide players to find hidden things like so many games today.

Move along, nothing to see here…

Qeynos is not exactly as it was 25 years ago. There are new NPCs and the teleport book to bring you to the Plane of Knowledge and quests that were not there back in the day. But the crude look and feel of the place… SOE redid Freeport, its darling favorite city and, while it does look better, its new look did away with all the memories that the old location would no doubt bring out in old school players.

Sometimes it is better to be ignored and left alone.

The story so far:

The Ancient Gaming Noob
EverQuest Starting Points – What Can I Even Say About Qeynos?Wilhelm Arcturus
Through pixels dim, a vista grand, Qeynos unfolds, a promised land. Cobblestone streets, a bustling throng, Where merchants hawk, and bards sing strong. -Google Gemini, trying to make some Norrath poetry Qeynos will always hold a special place in my image of EverQuest. It was the first “city” I visitied in Norrath. It was both busy to look at and a bit confusing to navigate when compared to the simplicity of Surefall Glade or the open spaces of Qeynos Hills or the Karanas. I remain to this
19. Únor 2024 v 17:15