3. Of Kanen Hightower

Of Kanen Hightower

  • 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.


  • He's the only person in Narfell that I ever ran into in game that honestly seemed like a true legend in every sense of the word. Even as I got higher in levels, the feeling didn't change.

    I remember a time back when Norwick only had one northern gate…the other was rather destroyed. RP was being done to rebuild and better the defense of the gate. The eastlanders, of course, were having none of this and launching attacks against Norwick.

    The gates got shut, and people crowded inside. Many were pretty badly injured with more eastlanders amassing when Kanen showed up. It seemed like the spirits of everyone in the area rose up. He asked about the situation and without any real hesitation strove forward as if there was no fear in his heart. I remember he came back in shortly after, badly wounded...which had everyone a bit worried...but looking out and seeing the sheer amount of dead eastlanders outside changed that quickly. It seemed to have a renewing effect and as Kanen was getting healed up everyone else rushed forth. Was one of the first moments in Narfell I was in that felt like a bit of an actual epic story.


  • I remember one time when I was chased off the orc fields by a DM posessed Orc Destroyer along with Malachai. We ran all the way back to Jiyyd after almost being pulverized by the thing. We duck in the gates, and slam them shut, and at the time Malachai was still not entirely accepted by some people because of his… spider affliction.

    Rick the Swift was there with Kanen and starts to say something about Malachai, and Amith replies with a "Not now" comment because of this -huge- orc that will likely be attacking any time now.

    Kanen stands up... and I can just hear his line in my head.. said in a Sean Connery type voice... "Well. We can't be having that now.... can we?" Then he goes out the gate. Comes back in a minute or so with an Orcish Slicer. Problem solved.

  • S

    Some of my best memories are of fighting with Kanen and the old Divine Shield in Shade's Jiyyd plots. On one occasion, our group went into the catacombs to uncover the source of an unexpected evil beneath the temple. It was dark, none of us really knew what to look for, and we had no idea what to expect. Then we stumbled on a room with a large statue of Myrkul in the middle. In his classic style, Kanen pulled out his adamantine longsword, shouted "NOT…IN THE HOUSE OF HELM!" and reduced the statue to a fine dust in seconds. 🙂

    It was both cool...and a bit scary to watch. And, as he often did, Kanen made all of us feel a lot safer with just one brief act.