Beginnings
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I remember still hearing about this game being released…Neverwinter Nights. I was running a PnP game at the time and can remember being very excited at the possibility of running a game online that the players could actually see. It wouldn't be a few months before I was getting set up to play.
I had skipped the OC and still don't know what happens in it to be honest, and went directly for the multiplayer games. I found a swarm of them, but nothing really grabbed me. The servers around didn't develop into something that I thought I would enjoy. It reminded me of the online shooters I had played. I think I was just going to the wrong servers now, but then I was sorely disappointed. I went back to the OC and played it off and on for a while. At that point my job was going far far away and I had to concentrate on it and it wouldn't be a few more months until I was able to try out the multiplayer again.
Eventually I decided to narrow down my search by going to the server with the most people and at that point in time, under the PW section, I saw Narfell. I logged in and rolled up a quickly dead character. It was addictive right from the start. I rolled up character after character and it wasn't for another month before my first real character, and first successful account took flight. Since then I have had multiple accounts that I have played and still to this day nothing gives me such a good feeling as receiving my c token. No matter what account I have gotten it under or how long it has taken.
Most of my early memories gets jumbled together now and I have a hard time seperating which account this PC was on and was it really this PC that interacted with this person. I do have some very vivid memories of an elf, a hin, and a barbarian that I'd like to share from the early days and one of my first successful accounts. Later on I will get into a character that caused me irritation, joy and quick entertainment when I was stressed. Also one of the characters that nearly got me banned....
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Peram was a hin cleric of Mystra, and not only that, but he shared the first name of every single hin that logged into Narfell it seemed. If only I had known that the name Peram was so popular….I'd have chosen Pedro. A little background on Peram will help set the stage for a few memories concerning the hin with a great heart and a desire to be a mage.
Peram was a follower of Mystra, whom he called another name that I can't recall right now, but it did take people quite a while to catch on. I think only those who got close enough to him realized what was going on with this over excited, and ambitious halfling. Peram desired above all else to be a mage, but had the intelligence of your average joe. Nothing was special about him really or would have been if it weren't for his prayers to the goddess of magic to one day make him a mage. Instead of flowing robes and the stench of bat dung and sulfur she gifted him in other ways. He never fully understood what was going on with him for quite some time and with the help of a few friends he saw that he didn't need to be a mage, and that he was something different altogether.
I remember one day sitting by the south fire, and peram was making himself busy telling everyone on how he was going to be shooting fire from his fingertips and calling down birds of acid on the goblins. This coming from a hin wearing chainmail and sporting a mace. You see Peram was not smart, but he wasn't dumb enough to walk into the forest with no protection hoping the he could do magic. He fully realized that if he couldn't, but that did not stop the desire from being there.
It wasn't long until Peram had made new friends. Actually two players who knew my other PC that preceded Peram, Darya Frost and Alijah Arkweld. Still two players and characters that I will likely never forget. The times I had alongside these two were great. Over time Peram had shared story after story of how he wanted to be a mage and people had to have grown tired of me typing out prayer after prayer to Mystra asking for simple little things like a fireball to shoot from his fingertips... The Lady was what he called her.
And listen she did. Eventually Peram was gifted with the spell mage armor, and little did he know it was his prayers being answered in the form of divine magic and not his ability to manipulate the Weave as does a mage. But every time he went to cast that did not stop him from waving his hands around, chanting a few words he had heard other mages say, and bringing forth this spell of protection. Every single time he thought that Mystra had let him learn a spell...a real spell. And he was quite possibly the happiest hin in the North.
Peram had grown in level and cofidence with his newfound abilities. He wasn't real sure of how he healed people and he just thought it was some ... new, powerful, form of magic that he had unlocked. He knew he could cast while wearing armor and that alone confused him even more. The fact that sometimes he forgot the words he said to cast Mage Armor and often substituted other words that ... well worked just as good never really made him think that... he wasn't a mage.
It was this realization about the armor that led him to start crafting and eventually he ran into a legend even at that time in the game. A young Krig Skullboil had recently gained the ability to manipulate Silver and it was the talk of Narfell. Everyone knew he was an armorer and Peram sought him out looking for this amazing material. He sat outside the crafter's hall waiting for a very long time, he could have waited inside just as well, but there were more people walking by that he could see. And finally Krig came grunting along to the smithy, loaded down with ore. Peram's eyes grew large.
After some quick chatting with Krig, letting him know he's a crafter too, and he wanted some of this amazing armor that he could make. Krig quoted him a price of four thousand gold, 6500 if it was made very well and master quality. Peram nodded and thus began the quickest accumilation of gold I have ever seen. You should have taken Peram's mace away and given him a shovel and a hoe. It was time to farm goblins and it wasn't long before that 6500 was acquired.
Peram returned to Krig, days, yes only days later. He had a bundle of gold stashed away already, but I know I farmed like no one had likely done before me those few days. Peram made his way back to Krig, hands shaking as he showed him his treasure. Krig told him that he even had the ingots for one try. Which in all likelyhood he had more than enough for several tries. Good ol' Kuker.
Peram watched as the 2.3 seconds ticked by while the armor was made and handed, somewhat uncerimonously to him. Peram tossed his gold to him and ran off to try on what would be called from that day forth....his Hin Tin. I recall that for a moment there....for a brief moment when Peram came out wearing his new shiney armor and him celebrating in front of the others that everyone stopped. Everyone turned to regard this overjoyed hin for a brief moment....before going back to their conversations. Peram was annoying more often than likeable at times and he didn't know many others besides his small circle of friends, whom he rushed off to find...