EverQuest Starting Points – Getting Out of Halas

I actually do not have anything bad to say about Halas.  As a starting town it is compact, which can be a boon, but also has about all you need to get yourself going.

Welcome to Halas

It isn’t as full of options as starting in Qeynos… and nowhere near Freeport… but it has a bank… or a banker at least, there being no room for a full fledge counting house when you have to get a cigar shop, an ale house, and a kilt vendor in the town first… and a few more amenities than Surefall Glade, where half elves are doomed to start.

Kevon the banker… and a box of cigars

I mean, the map… once again from the Project 1999 wiki… makes it very simple, but you can still get turned around and a bit lost.

Halas laid out

Here is the key to that map:

1. Pit of Doom – Warrior Guild, Merchant selling Weapons
2. Merchant selling Bags and Boxes
3. Shaman Guild – Merchants selling Alchemy Items
4. Dok’s Cigars – Merchants selling Food and other Goods, Pottery Equipment
5. The Golden Torc – Merchants Steel and Iron Torques, Pottery Wheel inside and Kiln out back
6. Rogue’s Guild
7. Bank, Merchants for Throwing Weapons, Lockpicks, Food and other Goods, Rogue Trainers, Priest of Discord outside
8. Mac’s Kilts – Merchants (including Cindl) selling Large Cloth and Leather Armor, Small Sewing Kits and Patterns, Loom outside.
9. McDaniels Smokes and Spirits – Merchants selling Alcohol, Smithing Equipment, Large Plate Molds, Large Shield Molds, Smithy Hammers, Large Chainmail Patterns, Baking Supplies, Warrior Trainer, Merchant selling Food and other Goods and Oven outside
10. Hetie McDonald Sells Food and Alcohol, Pottery and Brewing Supplies
11. McPherson’s Bloody Blades – Merchants selling Large Chain and Plate Armor, Bows and Arrows, Fletching Supplies, Weapon Molds, Forges
12. McQuaid’s Dark Stout – Brew Barrel, Merchants selling Alcohol, Merchant selling Ore outside
13. Yee Magik – Merchants selling Blunt Weapons, Medicine Bags, Dufrenite, Potions and Crystals
14. The Bound Mermaid – Merchant selling Fishing Supplies
15. Merchants who sell food, Cooking Equipment and Pottery Patterns
16. Empty buildings and pen with sled dogs

Just about everything you could want, though we were clearly not worried about the message sent about smoking and drinking.  I mean alcohol tolerance was a skill in the game for Pete’s sake.  I think they had to put a warning on the box.

Of course, Halas its own death trap.  In this case, there is a small lake out front to fall into and drown, because as I pointed out in previous posts, you can only control your movement in and out of water when you’re zoomed into first person perspective.  There is a small raft that moves back and forth across the lake to ferry those not interested in swimming from shore to shore.

Moving across the water to Halas

There is no driver or bargeman or whatever to command or steer the raft, it just moved back and forth between the shores of its own accord… though it does had an odd quirk.

I had forgotten all about this until I went to Halas to take some screenshots and had to step away, leaving myself idling on the raft.  The raft, when it sets sail, flips directions then moves to the other shore, so if you’re facing the way it is sailing and go away, you will come back still facing the way it is sailing, even if it is sailing to the opposite shore.

Back to the landing across from Halas

This is an incredibly tiny bit of trivia, but I am sure it speaks to some technical issue they couldn’t solve… like making the raft sail back and forth without making it do a 180 at each side.  So the raft is completely symmetrical, that high post on the left in the image above is mirrored by a matching high post on the right towards the back, such that you might never notice it had flipped directions by observations.

That said, I do not recall as many corpses floating in this lake as I do in the pond in Qeynos.  Barbarians take these things more seriously I guess.

From the raft you go through a cave, where you hit the zone line.  On the far side you fine yourself in Everfrost Peaks, once again a map from the wiki.

Everfrost Peaks map

The legend for that map:

1. Merchants selling Large Sewing Kits, Sewing Supplies, and Goods
2. Ice Goblin Igloos with low-level spawns
3. Ice Goblin Igloos
4. Barbarian Guards
5. Bandl McMarrin — Barbarian Guard
6. Ice Goblin Igloos with mid-level spawns
7. Temple with Barbarian Shaman selling Poison-based Spells
8. “North Tower” or “Megan’s Tower”
9. Temple inhabited by Icy Orcs and Redwind
10. Stone Giant Statue
11. “South Tower”

The merchants at location one are in some tents… inside the cave.  I guess the tents keep the chill off, though it feels like maybe some better cold weather gear might do a better job.

The tents in the cave

Of course, that brings up the whole barbarian race/culture thing.  They live in a place covered with snow and think kilts are a good idea.  Barbarians could be warriors, shaman, or rogues back in the day.  I don’t recall them being exceptional warriors or rogues, but I had a few barbarian shaman over the years.  Not quite as popular as druids, but another hybrid caster that got Spirit of the Wolf fairly early on, so still popular with the masses.  Oh, and barbarians got some innate cold resist.  They also couldn’t fit through some doors, especially around Kaladim on Faydwer.  But that is another story.

Anyway, past the vendors and a pair of barbarian guards, who could be life savers if you were close enough to get to them, is Everfrost.

The line of safety is about at the fire pits

Beyond there lay the easy mobs.  Due to the nature of the terrain… south of Halas is all snow canyons which channel mobs down a limited number of paths… there is often a parade of level 1 and level 2 mobs just walking by; ice goblins, gnoll pups, polar bear cubs, skeletons, wolves, spiderlings… all offered up like sushi boats circulating around the zone.

Mobs on parade

The main danger if you are out there alone is their proximity means getting multiple mobs after you is a distinct possibility.  So it is best to maybe not stray too far from the barbarian guards until you get a couple of levels.

When things are busy out, a rare thing I know, you can get a group together and just roll up mobs one after another.

Yeah, we’re in a circle… what are you trying to say?

There are some landmarks along the way to break up the monotony of the snow landscape… such as snow structures.

The shirtless igloo dealer

For the daring, you can rove east into the wider wilds, but the mobs do start to ramp up in level pretty quickly.  I ran into a level 9 orc snow trooper while out there.

Or is it a snow orc trooper? Whatever

I thought he might have been a more recent addition to the zone, but the wiki says they were out there back in the day.  So were the mammoths.

Can you spare him a few more polygons… and maybe a bit less tusk?

Honestly, my memories of the open areas of Everfrost are vague at best.  It was dangerous out there and my friends were on the other side of Blackburrow in Qeynos or the Karanas back in the day.  So after a bit of scouting… I am sure the wayfarer camp wasn’t there back in the day… I carried on south down the canyons.

A white wolf parade

Down at the south end of the west side of the zone is another cave that tapers down to the way into Blackburrow, guarded by a couple of gnolls… though they were only level 4, so my memory of the route being guarded might be a bit over blown.

Looks at that scrawny guard

There are a couple more guards on the path to the zone line.  Not a huge barrier, but you shouldn’t stop before you get the zone message.

That said, I have at least one old post that indicates getting THROUGH Blackburrow to Qeynos Hills could pose a hazard.

Between Trains in Blackburrow

So it goes.  These days you don’t start in Halas unless you REALLY want to.  The Glooming Deep tutorial is a superior experience and puts you out at the far end well above the level of any of these zones so far.

And now I have tarries on the unfashionable western coast of Antonica for probably too long.  The 25th anniversary is just days away at this point.  It is probably time for a road trip.

• EverQuest Starting Points – Surefall Glade
• EverQuest Starting Points – Qeynos Hills
• EverQuest Starting Points – Finding Qeynos
• EverQuest Starting Points – What Can I Even Say About Qeynos?
• EverQuest Starting Points – Under Qeynos in the Aqueduct

• EverQuest Starting Points – Is Blackburrow a Dungeon, a Zone, or a City?