3. Of Kanen Hightower

Of Kanen Hightower


  • So many memories of this guy in Narf that I can't even begin to recount them all, so I'll start this thread with just one; everyone else chip in, 'cause I know you all have something to say about the big guy and what he meant to this place.

    I'll start off with a funny one: One day, long ago, Robyn, Kanen, and Ro met in the Nars, chatting amiably as they trotted to Norwick. Just as they all entered the gate, Ro gets it in his head to transmogrify into an Umberhulk, startling the guards nearby into action, and throws Kanen onto his back. Kanen gripped the hulk's attenae for dear life as a half-ton of fleeing insect rampaged into Norwick, tossing people aside while being chased about by the guards–ending only when Ro terminated the spell, subsequently being crushed by an angry paladin in full-plate mail. :lol:


  • Kanen seemed to know everyone. Our characters rarely interacted, but when they did... he was spot on about our character's history. He was such a strong leader, confident and warm-hearted at the same time. I have tried to play paladins in subsequent years of role playing and have never been able to pull off that combination. It's likely because I'm not paladin material in real life. I think Sean was.

    Kharbeh has nicknames for everyone, believing that saying someone's true name was giving power to those that may not know it. Her nickname for Kanen Hightower was Shiny. Her favorite metal skinned human.

    Feels very elven to come back to this place a decade after your death and still have such great memories from adventuring with you.


  • Had a RL friend recently mention how a guy he knew from online recently passed away and how he was surprised with how sad it felt having never met the guy.

    I wasn't surprised.

    It immiedetely brought my mind back to Narfell, a place for various reasons I've tried to keep off my mind for a long number of months now but always brings a smile to my face when it comes back in. To Kanen first and the hours upon hours of good memories that his DMing brought to me, and then on to the faces and people who despite having never met were truly some of my friends during a long portion of my life. I think above all the talk about what makes Narfell great…from the devs to the roleplaying to the environment and everything else...what truly did it and does it is the bonds you make, the fact that through this you don't simply play a game but you truly make friends.

    If there's one thing I miss being away it would be those moments and that feeling.

    River, I don't know if you come by here much anymore, but know that Sean touched the lives of a great number of people and there's really nothing greater you can say about a person. I wish only the world could've held onto him a bit longer.

    For those that still play here, enjoy the bonds you make and the times you have. Its not often that a random video game can help create memories as good and as strong as moments that happen through the real world. That is something special, and as long as this place remains open then its doing a wonderful thing.

  • A

    I could write a book about my memmories of Kanen Hightower, but to keep true to this thread i will post one IG PC moment.

    One day someone at the wild boar inn thought it fun to convince Cila that Kanen Hightower(the character) was dead. Beeing in a relationship with him, this was devastating for her - even if it was just a rumour. She had to know for sure. I stayed up all night on the server wishing it wasn't so. Finnaly he logged on and walked in to the inn. Apon entrance Cila walked up to him and kissed him passionetly and then hit him across the face as hard as she could. "Don't ever do that to me again". Ofcourse he was flustered - oblivious of the rumours of his death, ( i could imagine what his face must've looked like) and ofcourse he consoled Cila a few moments before i had to log of.

    I Don't remember if he made any foolish promises . I don't think i have to explain how real RP feelings can be. I loved Kanen Hightower.

    Learning of his illness and of his death hurt and saddened me and I shunned these forums because of it.
    I regret that i never got to know Sean, but I did (however breifly) get to know and love Kanen Hightower; he will always have a place in my heart.
    May his soul rest in peace.


  • wraps River in a great big ol' hug

    I miss you bunches sweetcheeks


  • Thank you all for contributing to this. It means a lot to me to see how Sean touched others.

    I, of course, have many memories IG and out.

    My mind randomly flips around dealing with everything but one memory with Kanen as a DM was when he was running an event and something went wrong. He was in the temple in his home territory and many characters died, the server crashed and they came back in thier undies.

    I knew he and I were the only DMs on. It was work night and I was getting ready for bed. I saw on the DM chat…"oh no"

    I went to where he was and laughed seeing all the characters looking ready to have a swim meet. I offered to help find all the "stuff" in the pages and pages of descriptions.

    Everyone was patient and stayed up until it mostly was "ok" again.


  • I'll throw in a PC and DM moment too :)… Pc wise... As Tigrelily I always heard of the hype and grandour of his character. Though... I never engauged in any plots with him sadly. The moments that stick out to me were the tid-bits I'd learn from Sam of his feats. The one moment I remember fondly was when Sam and I visited Kanen at his home in game. He had his babies in another room and it was one of the first times I met the man behind the fame :).

    Dm he was very helpful... and I had recently come back to play Narfell after hearing of his passing. And this is one of those odd coincidences that just makes you grin. I was trying to get my main character back into the game as I found out about the lovely lightening strike that crippled some players characters. I thought it odd that I hadn't had Lily anymore but had 3 other characters I thought for sure would be gone if Lily was.

    So needless to say I was told... well we'd need a .bic file or something else to bring Lily back. I quickly saddened cause... I hadn't played Narfell for 2 years... this was a new computer... there's no way I had a save file of her... and low-and-behold... I didn't :(. Then it dawned on me a few days later as I looked down at my hunk of junk old computer... "HEy I hadn't scrapped it yet... MAYBE... just MAYBE I'd have a save file of her on there."

    And to make a long story short... the one save file I had of Lily from Narfell was the rebuild Kanen had helped me with prior to leaving Narfell :oops:. It was just one of those moments you sit back and say wow that was weird.

    So anywho, yeah... I miss the guy and am grateful to have know as little as I did about him 😞

  • S

    Too many memories to be honest, as PC, as DM, IC and OOC… Kanen and I both went through quite a rough period in life around the same time, and so we got to chat up quite a bit about random stuff.

    PC... Some of the best RP moments I've ever shared with Kanen were at first in the old and ancient ruined temple in Jiyyd, that would one day become a nice and restored building, when he'd just lost a young boy in the Minthas Lich plot. Kanen was on the verge of breaking down, and Shane tried her best to keep him reasoning (which wasn't all that easy for the poor girl mind you ^^).

    He returned the favor several months later when Shane was about to lose faith and Andelas was hovering to see if he had to drop a fallen token, and helped her pull through just as well. Both were very nice and great RP moments that will always remain with me. Likewise it was equally nice when Shane married, and he insisted to keep guard at the temple door so nothing would go wrong, coming to get her when it was time for the ceremony. Almost like a father figure 🙂

    AS DM, I have too many memories and interactions of plots he did I PC'ed in, plots I did he PC'ed in, and plots we helped eachother in in one way or the other. Though one thing I will always apreciate of him, which happened when I decided back then to keep Shane permanently dead. In the end of a plotline where this choice would inevitably fall, he insisted on being present as PC, and asked me several times if I was really sure, that no one would mind if I reconsidered, etc. For sure, he made it a hard choice for me to make.

    Good things and bad things have happened around, that remains a fact. Still, I can only say I'm pleased to have known Kanen in his play times here. When I heard that he'd married Riverthorn, I was happy for him, no matter how things ended up afterwards.


  • Oh i forgot about red jack… a fabulous character. I wonder if I can find Kanen's post on Red jack trying to get Tala to sleep with him. I was new. like level 2. I laughed for hours and for weeks hoped to run into red jack again.

    He is the father of Cera's daughter Clover... Red Jack that is.


  • @7b68b1034b=Vilehelm:

    With Shyrae, I have better memories of Kanen's alt character, Redjack Rogers. She had very simple, low level and very fun adventures with this red-haired no-gooder, back when Narfell was still very new for me.

    Redjack was once sent to the Gypsy Camp to purchase some "special" sheepskins for the good ol' Friar, if you catch my drift. 😉


  • @50b8a2592d=ShadowElf:

    His first words were…. "I told you to run"

    Ever the hero.

    heh heh!


  • I have two of Kanen, that to this day….. make me smile.

    A wussy druid caught in a transition by 5 soldiers some one else had left lying in wait....
    suddenly a dead druid.
    Back then, you got to watch yourself die, one tick of the death clock at a time.....
    I had time for one scream.....

    chuckles

    Kanen heard it. and I got a tell.

    "again???"

    Even frustrated, angry at dying, sick of dying..... ready to quit over my post Build 8 squishy druid..... I laughed. I had to laugh.

    He rescued my poor deaded druid, hauled her and her things to Fred and got her a rezz...
    poor Kanen. He was forever rescueing those of us who weren't in the least grateful.

    My second memory was not too long before I got banned. He and I were headed north along the bridge road, and out of nowhere (read Mas) a dozen of the old Iceshots and Flameshots lined the road....
    both of us went to badly wounded in nothing flat, 2 rounds?
    Kanen's yelling "RUN"!

    Next thing we were both in the fugue...

    and again, as angry as I was....
    Kanen made me smile.

    His first words were.... "I told you to run"

    Ever the hero.


  • Some of the memories I have of Kanen….

    First and foremost in my mind is that he was the one to ask me if I wanted to become a DM on Narfell.

    The most memorable time I can remember of PCing with Kanen was when Riverthorn was running a faith event for Krig. It so happened that the finally of these events ended up going down inside the militia barracks in Norwick. Covah, Galnin and Kanen happened to be around in town and came to help Krig out. At that point in time, I never really played Krig as faithful as a cleric should be, I'd emote praying when resting but not much else. Things were going badly for Krig when Kanen started praying to his Lord. Just like a switch being turned on, it hit me that Krig should be doing the same. Well the evilness didnt last too long after Krig began praying to Tempus and it ended up with Kanen and the others helping Krig bury the remains of his ancient relative in the graveyard, where at the end, Tempus shined his light down on Krig with a simple but keenly felt smile. (As always, I thank Riverthorn again for this great event that helped form who Krig is now.)

    Dming.....

    The Eyes of Makrath plot in the Lost City comes to mind. What a challenge this event was. Remnants upon remnants and somehow we made it through. It took a lot of effort to produce a worthy challenge for the group we had there and Kanen provided us with that effort for that event. I was never so scared to have Krig put on a helm before, while praying not to roll a one on a will save. Krig still keeps that helm safe to this day.


  • Only a small memory since I never spoke to Kanen in-character. By the time she actually heard someone address the huge guy in plate as Kanen, she'd heard so much about him that keeping at least 50 feet away and staying very quiet was by far the better option for Keira.

    Legendary.

  • D

    Adam Bromley once aquired a load of masterwork instruments from a master bard. They were capable of holding enchantments, and Adam dished them out to the other bards on the server. Meril got a masterwork mandolin.

    Unfortunately, every time an opportunity arose for getting it enchanted, I somehow missed it. I mentioned it to Kanen one time and he offered to get it done. Meril visited Hemrod, and Hemrod agreed to put on a small elemental protection spell (I'd wanted the level 1 variant, as it lasted 24 hours).

    When Meril returned, about a week later, Hemrod had finished. Kanen had created a lovely mandolin called 'Silver Melody Mandolin', and had inscribed Meril's name on the neck of it. He'd also added not one, but two spells! Eagle's Splendor and Resist Elements. Both of those were level 2. Unfortunateley, resist elements at that level doesn't last very long at all - about 3 minutes. Kanen hadn't realised this - but I didn't really mind, I'd got an lovely item with far more than I'd asked for on it!

    Later that very week, a party ventured into the Lost City (Meril tagging behind). Lots of people died, including Roland, Ayanie and Adam Bromley. The last two permenantly so. It was only because I could use that elemental protection that I managed to survive the multiple icestorms that got cast on us all, and got the hell out of there. Such a lucky break. Kanen's random little item had saved my bard.


  • @68ee1a7747=Robyn:

    The other memory I have of that time, was when Robyn took to giving Kanen hard cider with dinner. One day he emoted having too much, and Robyn and a slightly buzzed Kanen went to Peltarch. On the way there we were jumped by bandits, and Kanen accidentally hit Robyn with a knockdown attack, right in front of one of the bandit assassins. Robyn came very, very close to death, and Kanen never touched hard cider again.

    Anakore was there, and I still have a screenshot of that incident.

    Neither Anakore nor Shyrae had much in the way of interaction with Kanen aside of an occasional adventure in the case of the former.

    My Halfling Paladin Nyblas was in the Order when it was led by Kanen, and was mightily impressed by Kanen's Big Sword.

    With Shyrae, I have better memories of Kanen's alt character, Redjack Rogers. She had very simple, low level and very fun adventures with this red-haired no-gooder, back when Narfell was still very new for me.

    Of course Kanen was also the DM to pick up on Anakore's long lost plotline with Illum/Zwei's old PC/NPC Jubei involving Anakore's Katana and quest to master it. With Jubei's previous disappearance 'Kore was left in a void and Kanen gave me the chance to have Anakore choose sides, either as servant/apprentice to Jubei or to renounce him (the weak path, obviously). Anakore chose to be free of him for many reasons, but it gave great closure to a story thread I thought forgotten.


  • One of the best memories I have is the little known (and kept very quiet) budding romance between Kanen and Robyn. After Seven left with the kids, a rather depressed Kanen ended up staying in Robyn’s guest room at her house.

    Every time they were together, we had several DM’s hovering over him ready with fallen tokens. True to Kanen’s nature, he never fell, but the tension was delicious, and the dialogue was great.

    Sean and I discussed the scenario at length when it started, and I still have some of the in-game chat logs from it. When Sean passed away, I revisited them, just to keep the memory alive.

    The other memory I have of that time, was when Robyn took to giving Kanen hard cider with dinner. One day he emoted having too much, and Robyn and a slightly buzzed Kanen went to Peltarch. On the way there we were jumped by bandits, and Kanen accidentally hit Robyn with a knockdown attack, right in front of one of the bandit assassins. Robyn came very, very close to death, and Kanen never touched hard cider again.


  • This one is another small one. One of Mas's old-fashioned Norwick Eastlander invasions. You old-timers know what that means: DOOOOOM!

    The Eastlanders do their usual "waah, we're gonna kill ya' so bad, man!" routine, then Kanen and Sam decide they've had enough talking and throw open the gates right in front of several dozen Bandit Archers, Officers, and Faithful, plus at least two war machines. I had the presence of mind to hide behind those two as they got a face full of arrows, charging RIGHT at the HUGE blog of red swamping the north side of the screen. Both Kanen and Sam–then, the biggest melee characters on the server--were down to Badly Wounded in one round. Everyone who was about to charge in after them stopped dead in their tracks when they noticed how bad those two got it :lol: . Yet, despite the near guarantee of death, Kanen and Sam chugged away at potions and held them off for at least a solid minute while the rest of us fools were falling likes flies under the onslaught.

    Epic.


  • On the DM side, I have more memories than I can count from Kanen…

    My first Major adventure I ever went on was at 4th level, in an event he ran for Adam Bromley/Maya. It was actually that adventure that I met Adam and it also largely shaped Zyphlin's life in Narfell in many ways. It was a story that continued on for a good long time, and Kanen spun masterfully. From early on, as a low level, he made me feel useful and later on made me feel like Zyph was actually a hero.

    He also was one of the first DM's ever to do something personal with Zyph, and for that I thank both him and Wolfhere. I got to finally delve a bit into Zyph's strange past, and recieved some of the items that were most dearest to him. (In a strange sense of irony, the large majority of them were lost in the lightening strike as they were kept safely in his persistent storage because I did not want to risk losing them on death 😞 )

    His legendary NPC, Koreth the Crusader, former prince of Amn and later Captain of the Black Dragon Knights and Senator of Peltarch, became one of two NPC's that could very easily be classified as "arch-nemisis's" of Zyphlin. The play between the two went on easily for a year straight...from the days of him killing people vigilantly style after instigating a fight, till the time of the civil war. There was never a more fun time I've had in any video game, or as a PC in any roleplaying game ever, as I did during the time of Koreth. Its those days that I remember most fondly (along with many of the things at the same time by Vino) that make me long to see Peltarch be what it once was. I only wish he would've had a chance to properly end Koreth's story...

    His second legendary PC, who tied in with Koreth in so many ways, was yet another one that inspired many memories...partially because it did intertwine with the shiney cleric so much. It meant a lot to me that Kanen trusted me as a player OOCly enough to drag me into Zargothis's plot to try and frame Zyphlin, locking me in jail for a good few weeks of what was a very fun and frightful plot. I truly hope that sometime before this server finally finds its end that I may be lucky enough to see some of the old posts or notes of those two great NPC's and see the full story revealed because I think I could read over it like it was a masterfully written novel and enjoy it in that same way.

    And now I've gone and made my self sad. Hope you've got a good set of dice up in the sky and are finding an ounce of the happiness that you brought so many others down here...


  • One of my favorite early memories of Kanen was being there the night he became a PL. Some months later we were talking about rising through the ranks as he had become a DM. Some time after that I remember him dropping my c-token on me, falshy light and a congratulations.

    First Dm memory: I guess Tala was level 5 maybe 4 somewhere in that range. I had wandered all the way to Peltarch from Norwick with some folks that were level 8 or 9. I remember Olivia being there and some other higher end people. This of course was when 10 was amazing and 12 was unheard of. There apparently was a noble that was looking for his family home to be declared ghost free. He was looking for brave adventurers to stay overnight in the family home to prove this.

    The people i walked with got pulled off to do this event. I was told in a tell that I was too low a level to go with and would surely die if I did. No one really wanted to pay to raise me should that occur.

    So I'm irked and annoyed, siting in the Peltarch commons alone. Kanen msg's me and says, "Why isn't Tala going?" and I said something along the lines of, "Because they think she'll die and don't want to be bothered raising her." So since he was the DM running the event he suggest that perhaps they would need another archer. I got an invite and away we go. I can still show you all which house it was in Peltarch.

    We walk in it is daylight we know night is quickly approaching though. The door locks loudly behind us and we know we are doomed. Necromancer ghostly mage shows up offers us quick death if we just let him kill us. Fighting ensues my first experience with fear auras occurs. We are searching the library of the home for clues. Next thing I know Tala is in a cell and Kanen says in a tell, "Stay still" and then spawns boulders so I cannot get out. He throws all kinds of crazy stuff at them I can watch their hit points. I'm shouting from my trap and they all came to rescue me. If they had not rescued me I was to be the first guest for dinner, apparently tala looked tastier to eat then the rest. We all made it out of the house though, but not before we set fire to it. The noble was in great consternation about having set his family home on fire, but paid us anyway just to keep us quiet about the ghosts.

    One of the scariest events for me and so very much fun. Partly because until that point I had not been in a DM event that wasn't a town attack on Norwick. It was new and that added an edge of the unknown that it is hard to duplicate. One of my favorite events ever.