[Striiker]

Great recollection of the old days. I shared some of your experiences in the Qeynos area as that was where I made my first EQ character. A half-elf Paladin (whom I only played to about level 18 or so).
It certainly was a different world back then. There were no websites listing off quests, items, mobs, etc. There were no maps (save the useless ones which shipped in the original EQ box). Cries of "has anyone seen my corpse?" were the norm. In fact, I would always send a tell to any player when I would stumble upon their corpse (especially in West Karana).
I remember attacking the NPC's by accident because I hit the wrong key when typing. I also remember how scary it was moving beyond the safety of Qeynos to Qeynos Hills. I certainly remember meeting people sitting and fighting around the stone road marker in Qeynos Hills. We all grouped up and decided to head off towards West Karana, not knowing what to expect. It was nighttime in the game and raining with thunder booming. It's an experience which I will always cherish and which immediately comes to mind when I think of Everquest's early days.
We all explored the area, finding the guard towers along the roads, setting up camp at what we called "T2", the last guard tower on the hill near the Miller's farm. Spiders, lions, wolves, giant fire beetles, and the like fell before us. We marveled at a roaming Treant and wiped out to a brigand who decided to stop by.
I could go on for hours about these early experiences.