What's your favorite moment in Neverwinter Nights?

[Myv]

It can be on any server or even in single player modules. What moments do you look back on and think that it's one of the highest points in your Neverwinter Nights life?

Mine is from City of Arabel several years ago. I was playing an elven ranger/rogue, of course, and went on to guard a caravan with a few other random people: a human sword-and-board fighter, a half-orc dual weapon user, a halfling cleric, and a human druid. We worked well together and kept protecting caravans together, and eventually started questing together, adventuring together, getting in on things together, and essentially became an actual adventuring party. It was my most favorite thing, because nobody that I've come across has ever done that. Everyone's always too busy trying to be singularly badass, but we were doing badassery as a team. We eventually reached around level 9 and 10 together, which is big on a server where most people only reach level 6 and the strongest people are in the low teens.

It's not exactly one moment, but the end result of a few moments. It was a great time.

[destinysdesire]

For me, it was when I was playing a Paladin of Torm, and was going up against a group of Human Supremists and she was approached by the Banite "Grendal Bloodwater" and they made a peace pact until such time as the human supremists were defeated, many times after that her and the Banite sat and talked, they were never friends, and in the heat of battle they would kill one another, but in those times of neutrality, they often sat and talked about the different points of view....honestly the best RP I ever had!

[Deleted]

When my Avariel Lyralath was turned into a Werebat on Gatecrashers by DM FaeFae. The gods are cruel.

[Ogre Time Yay]

It would be hard for me to pick, I can list a few.

On a different server, a red wizard branded an elven friend of Hydaro and a bard warrior friend. They both caught the Red wizard outside of town and almost publicly executed him. The guards stepped in though and everyone involved (red wizard included) got temporarily banned from Greatgaunt.

On a different server, James St. Bell, Hydaro, one eyed Dwarven warrior, Elven druid, and some others were wandering through a tomb of ghosts and undead, then found out that they were surrounded by vampires when they got deep enough into the tomb. Hydaro stayed behind to distract them while James lit his sword on fire in the dark and told everyone to follow him out. Hydaro caught up with them and they all made a run for the exit, not all of them making it out of there alive. That one was fun.

On a different server, Hydaro met Roem for the first time in Skullcrag. There were a total of four people there sitting at the bar, telling dirty jokes.

On Icewind Dale 2, we had a four person RP campaign with James St. Bell, Hydaro, Io, and Torden.

On this server, meeting Logarti for the first time. He threatened to stab Hydaro with a holy dagger, and they both became friends after that... Oddly enough...

On this server, when James St. Bell was rusty and Hydaro was a cripple, they both teamed up to take down a giant hydra, then brought two heads back into Arabel on horse back.

On this server, Hydaro solo killed Varyxia... That may not seem like much to some of you, but Hydaro doesn't cast any spells. It was a straight up melee fighter going head to head against a Red Dragon, used up all of my potions and the fight lasted what seemed like 30 minutes or more. As the player of my character, that felt really rewarding.

On this server, meeting Lena, Sage, Nadia, Alia, and Simkin back to back, before the White Cloak Academy was even a thing. Some of them just kind of encouraged Hydaro to teach them. They managed to get a crippled, reluctant, tired and near suicidal guy to find a new purpose in life and open up the Academy.

Lena and Hydaro's shenanigans when they started dating, one of which had to do with defending against an invasion of pissed off squirrels that almost felt like a mini Vietnam War. Lena made squirrel stew one of her cooking specialties that day. Another one was when they were drinking Haabsmefaj in the arena and nearly poisoned themselves.

Making random ridiculous outfits, then putting them under the Christmas tree in Central Arabel when no one was looking, then watching to see who picks them up and puts them on.  

I have more, but I'd be here for awhile listing them all, and I wouldn't be able to choose which one is my favorite...

[Valimar Dragonbane]

Boy... that's a tough one!
I think one of my favorites though, was on another server when a huge group had gone to confront a lich that had turned a large swath of land into a hellish domain.  My paladin had stood in the midst of the chaos, extended her blade up into the air and called on her god to provide a beacon.  She did get one, and it painted a massive target on her back.  She died permanently that day, sacrificing herself to help put down permanently destroy the lich.

One of the first characters I met here was Jarlyn!  Vilith (me) had approached him and asked him where to get lock picks.  Because he seemed like the sort of know where to find them. XD

The Song of Good and Evil.  That was an immensely satisfying quest arc that involved a small group that had bonded like family.  They had to save the world from the Song of Evil by finding the Song of Good, eventually short-term sacrificing two of the characters because they needed to die to get the Song.  I believe that was run by either Wicked or ModronLove.

Being in the first class of the White Cloaks!  They've been a real treat.

[cherrycoke2l]

Runai turning Umbra into a chicken. That's his greatest achievement in the field of magic. *nod*

[Arya]

On my second server, my first real RP server, I had a charismatic female monk who thwarted the god of death by leading others into the Realm of the Dead and releasing his rival, who ultimately took his death portfolio away, making for a neutral deity of death and a god of murder.

I think otherwise, just finding Cormyr Dalelands and starting what was otherwise very open ended plot hooks involving an elven house, that eventually turned and evolved into the Ravenshadows through multiple DM and player initiatives.

My biggest moment yet, was running the server wide plot that involved so many characters, inspired creating new ones, and turned into something of an epic adventure. I am looking forward to doing something else that will hopefully involve different groups. I know the stories take time to conclude usually, but I like seeing the impact and development on the PCs in the server. And how they teach me something new!

Sincerely,
Arya

[Garage Trashcan]

Feb 3, 2016 12:38:32 GMT -5 cherrycoke2l said:

Runai turning Umbra into a chicken. That's his greatest achievement in the field of magic. *nod*

That's a tough one to top. Definitely up there for me as well.

Protecting the temple of the Seldarine in Velethuil with Brian during the Drow War.

Brian and Sha'lyah getting randomly stranded/lost in the King's Woods with no spells and getting rescued by Wolf-Theo (Brian didn't find out it was Theo until years later).

Algon's Funeral. I didn't actually get to be there, but I probably would have cried. A lot.

Felix and Calabask's epic thumb wrestling match.

Tharniraar/Bird's entire existence.

[Darvins]

I have a few, mostly from CD, I returned to NWN after a long gap and settled on CD very early on, it's been home since then. So here goes.

Galdern, and Sunathaer unknowingly saving Vanira from herself. What started as two people randomnly picked by a dodgy fashion concious woman and used as arm attachments for her fashion sense, turned into a friendship that saved Vanira from herself. It was filled with little moments, such as when Vanira and Galdern made a deal to punch anyone who broke the others heart. Leading to Galdern walking into the Hawks Pearch ready to punch Theadran a man he greatly respected, another friend because he'd accidently done so to Vanira. Only for Vanira to drag him out at the last second. Or the on running joke between Galdern and Suna that Suna dragged him into a Tavern room, used him and then threw him out afterwards.

All of Galdern and Talah's interactions, I used to look forward to staying up and catching Talah every night with Galdern. That is a wonderful character and likely 90% of the reason I haven't retired Galdern is the hope of just one more interaction between those two in the future.

Galdern and Gale the most self destructive relationship in the world, Galdern made a lot of bad choices in his time with ehr but he'd do it all again for the woman who was to become like a sister to him. I'll add Felix to it, as he was the third in the their stint as Kelmavors frequent visitors and uses of the revolving door, as they charged the Bandits on the hill near Halfhap, over and over again only to be cut down, and come back the next day to try again.

Caine when he's working is just a hellava lot of fun to play, and Caine and Erelrae. This also includes a brief stint away from CD when they ran off to join a circus.

Valar's growth, I've enjoyed that with it's many unexpected twists, she's gone from a character who was started almost as a reaction to the ease with which Eilistraeens where accepted, to being one herself. That was not planned or expected but it happened and it's all down to the many fantastic moments over the years in her journey with so many people I couldn't name them all.

Iyanna Just Iyanna, she's trouble, she's a pain in the ass to many, and I love playing her. I love how this character was changed in moments by meeting Bird and Arita, and Vaesi and then confirmed in those changes by the people she's met since such as T'amber, and Hannah and Aera.

[onivel]

Hmm .... its been a long ride across several servers so there are many instances to choose from. I'll list a few from those that stand out the most in my addled old head.

......................

My first server was RDR.. I had this snot nosed little runt of a hin named Violent Jay (who grew up to be Jay of the Dark Hand you know here) who was named after Violent J from Insane Clown Posse. He had max ranks in pickpocket and was a complete klepto. He pick pocketed EVERYONE including his own teammates. He couldn't help himself. His lack or restraint knew no level boundaries either. At lvl 4 he pick pocketed a lvl 20 mage... and succeeded. The player was so stunned that Jay even attempted it that he gave Jay a fairly expensive item from his inventory for both having the balls to try and succeeding (back then we would make the rolls and I would just ask the player to give Jay whatever they felt comfortable with him taking.. whether it was a few coins or some small item).

Here on CD, I would have to say it was the growth and development of my now long retired PC Alluria. She has had a few incarnations and started off on MD before I migrated her here when we started CD. Her confession to her teammates at the Blue Thorns of her past was one of the most griping moments of RP I have ever had.

Speaking of griping moments, the confrontation between Cara and Calla Tentazione. Calla's madness and hallucinations had her terrified of her twin sister and at the same time ready to strike at her with all she had. I remember Calla running through the streets of Harrowdale casting spells seemingly at random as she fled her " sister " (a hallucination). The moment when Cara and Lia finally caught up to Calla, I was completely unsure how it was going to end. Could they get through to her.. would they fight.. would Calla destroy her family or would they destroy her in her madness. It was intense to say the least.

Devil's Den ... where Zoey first started... in her bio, you will read she how she and Niobe fled the Long Death... that all happened IG. Niobe, Dante and Zoey were all PCs. The depth of the emotions between the characters was incredible. The internal struggle of what one wanted for themselves weighted against wanting the other to be happy in their own choices.

On Sojourney, the great rebellion as badgers strapped with explosive gunpowder would run at adventurers as their gnomish leader would yell " We fight for FREEDOM "

Also, the moment when Bastion and Alex battled the bone golem... neither able to even scratch the creation. Bastion praying to the ancestors for power and strength, not expecting to receive it and willing to die so that Alex, could escape, only to have his prayer answered, his blade empowered and fighting off the creature.




Karloth running through the server yelling ' TAXES FOR ABBATHOR! '

[Edge]

Man this is a tough one. I've got a bunch and I'll have to split them up.

From my first server, the Realms of the Dragon Reach (same place Oni was talking about):

1. Margola's Trial. My first character on my first server was Margola Karowitz, a cleric of Bane (and great-grandmother to one of my current characters, Eden). When her mixed-blood ancestry was discovered, one of the secrets I'd brewed into her backstory and not told most anyone about, her loyalties came into question and the Banites put her on trial. I was pretty ... new to roleplaying in a lot of ways, especially what in later years I would learn to understand as the basic assumptions and expectations of behavior, so there were some embarrassing-in-hindsight things we did during the event, but everyone involved had a blast and it was one of the most tense moments for that character.

2. The Wedding of Viktor von Kruul. One of my other characters was Faith, a sorceress and predecessor to my CD character Faethe, and was part of the Dark Hand mercenary guild along with a couple of Oni's and Bella's characters and some of my own others. One of the other members, whose player hasn't migrated across servers with us in the years since, played a scythe Weapon Master named Von Kruul, a psychopath who believed his scythe(s) was(/were) a living entity named Deathsmaiden. In one of the few DM-run events on that server, the Dark Hand actually performed a ritual ceremony to invest part of Kruul's soul into his scythe (or was it actually something else - like THE actual Deathsmaiden? DUN DUN DUNNNNNN) in a bizarre mockery of a wedding. It was one of the most surreal, disturbing, and fascinating moments I'd ever seen prior to that in my early years of RPing.

3. Vector of Myth Drannor. Yet another of my characters on the RDR was Kendaku Doth'isheal, a distant inspiration for my current character Kendaku Leiczeira and member of the original Clan Doth'isheal along with, again, one of Oni's characters. (Seeing a few patterns here?) The Doths were pretty notorious, traveling around the server rampaging where we could, building our infamy and making enemies left and right... and one of the most surprising of these was when we caught the attention of an NPC, a sun elf commander named Vector of Myth Drannor. En route to a dungeon on what we expected to be a fairly normal adventuring night, we suddenly found ourselves surrounded by elven hunters and mages, with Vector standing directly in their midst... followed by promptly getting ourselves utterly decimated. The Doths swore to return the favor someday, but alas the server died before we got the opportunity.

4. The Battle for Shadowdale. In the server storyline of the RDR, the Banites and Zhentarim captured and took over Shadowdale, drove out Elminster and Lord Ashaba and turned the city into their newest base of operations. After almost a year of non-Banite adventurers operating out of refugee camps and slowly recovering other conquered locations such as the nearby fortress of Kendall Keep or dwarven city of Silverdelve, we finally had a unified force of Tormish knights, Dark Hand mercenaries, Elven rangers, Dwarven defenders, and miscellaneous heroes and adventurers strike against the city, defeating the Zhent occupiers, capturing most of the Banite PCs, and returning peace and freedom to Shadowdale in a massive 6-hour DM event. For a server extremely unlike CD in almost every way, with DM-run events being excessively rare, this was an AMAZING event that blew my mind at the time, and to some degree I've always looked up to it as an example of the kind of feeling I'd love to induce in players during and after my own events.

From Sojourney:

My memories of Sojourney are a bit slim. A couple of my current characters, most notably Edge Stormfall and a predecessor character to Lia Tentazione, were originally created there; however, funnily enough, I have almost no major memories regarding those versions of them. Instead, my strongest memories all involve characters who have never made a reappearance.

1. My First DM-led Campaign. Sojourney was a server/community primarily designed around the idea of using NWN to run PnP-style campaign sessions rather than be used as a persistent world. Thus, it was really unusual to me and far from what I expected (and, in the long run, what I wanted). However, I managed at one point to get involved in one of the newly-beginning campaigns and created a character named Zephyr Windor, cleric of Chauntea. While I can't remember much specifically, two things about the event still ring strong in my memory: the extent to which the DM went to integrate all the characters, including mine, into the plot... and that this was where I met FW, who was also playing a character in that campaign.

2. Swords and (sorta) Dracoliches! One of the other DMs running a camapign on Sojourney was... yeah you probably guessed it... Onivel. Specifically, he was running an early version of the Eldenser storyline that he's run on CD in the past. He had a regular cast of characters involved in his twice-weekly plot events, which were usually scheduled for around mid-morning Eastern time. Normally, I wouldn't have been able to attend due to working, which is why I hadn't signed up in the first place; otherwise, I would have been involved in his plot from the start. But my work schedule was somewhat erratic at the time, and sometimes I would have the day available. Oni graciously allowed me to be sort of a "recurring guest character" with my elven paladin Beatrice, who managed to make enough appearances that the party typically remembered her between sessions despite her absences. One of the most memorable of those opportunities involved breaking into a Cult of the Dragon compound and facing off against what we thought was a Dracolich - in hindsight I think it was some kind of Dragonbone Golem - and Beatrice and a couple of the party's fighter-types having to hold the line while the party did whatever we'd come to do. Beatrice (sometimes spelled Beatrix) has never survived any attempts at remakes since, but a lot of her character concept got post-creationally rolled into my current paladin character Kestal.

From Myth Drannor:

1. The Plague of Teshwave. Speaking of Kestal, she was one of the characters I originally created on Myth Drannor - along with the original version of Lia and a few others - and the only one to remain unretired (even temporarily) to this day twelve years later. Back when she was barely level 10(ish), she got involved in her first and only event on MD - dealing with a plague in the city of Teshwave. As you might have guessed, there was a cult of Talona involved and an extremely nasty, terrifying undead priestess at the helm. It wasn't a long plot - only three or four events - but it was the only open-call plotline I'd gotten the opportunity to participate in on MD and it shaped my expectations for such a great deal for the future to come.

2. "We put the Fun in Dysfunctional." For those few who remember the insanity of the MD Tentaziones on full overdrive, this night was the one that displayed it in SPADES. For the vast majority of everyone else who doesn't, here's the basics: a group of twelve CN and CE tieflings, plus a small handful of "normal" allies and friends, stomping about the server with an average of five to eight of the group online at any time. That insanity culminated in one night where an ad-hoc DM event led to everything going absolutely wrong at once. In-party disagreements led to arguments which led to blows being traded, spells being flung, and weapons being drawn. Without going into too much detail, my character Lia left the room to check on her brother, and came back to a room full of shattered chests, destroyed treasure, and four fresh family corpses. The infamous quote was spoken OOCly by Unholy, a former DM and Admin here who played one of the family at the time, and has stuck with us ever since along with the memory of that insane moment.

3. The Mines of Beshaba. The last major event the Tentz got involved in. Following the lead of a bizarre star led the Tentz (specifically Lia, Cara, Cara's then-husband Aestivalis, Desson, Draco, and occasionally Calla, Demas, and/or Demonia) into an uncharted section of mountains that housed some cursed and haunted mines. We never actually got anything USEFUL out of the mines themselves, but the DM was EXCELENT at setting up the eerie atmosphere and keeping us guessing with the events and monsters therein. And that led almost immediately to....

4. The Birth of Cara's Triplets. To be quite honest, none of this was planned. Cara definitely wasn't planning - OOCly or ICly - on having more than one kid, but the DM running the event spontaneously decided that nope, you're having triplets instead! And one of them's stillborn! I couldn't tell you how many Heal checks and spells Lia was throwing down that night just to make sure every single one of those children got out alive. And then the Beshaban priestess we met in the mines steals one of the newborns, leading the family to go charging out - with Cara freshly stitched-up off her Caesarian courtesy of Lia's healing spells - to recover the lost child. We ended up leaving MD very shortly after that event to come help with founding CD, and these last two events were major players in the characters' backstories, becoming strongly written into their history as their reason for leaving the Harrowdale area to come to Cormyr in the first place.

----

It's past midnight now so I'm going to have to pause it there, but I'll be back sometime tomorrow to pick up where I left off and continue on to CD's early years and make my way toward the most recent events =)

[Deleted]

Feb 4, 2016 0:09:07 GMT -5 Edge said:

4. The Birth of Cara's Triplets. To be quite honest, none of this was planned. Cara definitely wasn't planning - OOCly or ICly - on having more than one kid, but the DM running the event spontaneously decided that nope, you're having triplets instead! And one of them's stillborn! I couldn't tell you how many Heal checks and spells Lia was throwing down that night just to make sure every single one of those children got out alive. And then the Beshaban priestess we met in the mines steals one of the newborns, leading the family to go charging out - with Cara freshly stitched-up off her Caesarian courtesy of Lia's healing spells - to recover the lost child. We ended up leaving MD very shortly after that event to come help with founding CD, and these last two events were major players in the characters' backstories, becoming strongly written into their history as their reason for leaving the Harrowdale area to come to Cormyr in the first place.

Correction:  Cara stayed behind while the other 8 or so folks there charged after.  She was still too drained from near-death.

[Theorem of Neutrality]

I played on a server some years ago with a custom setting - and to avoid getting into a long explanation of cosmology, the Shadow Plane in this setting was a living, entropic force of destruction. Shadowdancers were tied to the shadows and could act as, basically, living portals for the energy it contained. So, Shadowdancers were hated and feared and hunted.

I played a monk/shadowdancer who made contact with an aspect of the shadows that had split off from the whole, and my character convinced this spirit to become the goddess of the night. He, basically, become the prophet for her cult - and totally blasted open the secrecy surrounding Shadowdancers. All the RP surrounding this - and my character's descent and recovery from madness as he became the Saint of Beggars, Whores and Thieves stands out to me still as a unique RP experience.

The other experience that stands out to me the most was on a Ravenloft server. I played a templar of an in-setting goddess named Ezra (basically, a Divine Champion). The character was a direct allusion to Byronic heroes (he even had an iron mask bolted into his skull). He was deeply flawed - a Machiavellian manipulator with little concept for the value of life, but ultimately, a man who craved deeply to be forgiven for the sins he had committed and be a "good person". This culminated one dark evening in Barovia with a close friend of his being stabbed through her stomach by a vampire - the kicker was that she was seven or eight months pregnant. What made matters worse was that the child was sired by his best friend (who had fallen from Ezra's grace and been killed by the church).

My templar dragged the woman into an abandoned house in the slums and proceeded to cut her open, and lay his hands directly onto her uterus itself in some attempt to salvage the pregnancy. It was a vast divergence from the character's norm - a compassionate act without much benefit to himself, and suggested a turn in the right direction for his ultimate goal. Of course, things in the Demiplane of Dread rarely end happily - and the child was born as a caliban (basically, a twisted freak a la Quasimodo).

[Myv]

These are some pretty good stories. I'll toss another one up to keep it going:

This one is also in City of Arabel (I played there for many years before my multi-year hiatus that is a story all its own), back when I first started and had no idea what this D&D thing was and my mother (I was younger then) bought me NWN on a whim because our internet was out for a while. It was a little awkward learning about all of the gods, cities and monsters in-character with my first character, an elf rogue with 6 constitution. It was really bad, and a bad concept that I cry about evry tiem, but it was fun anyway.

Anywho, the story: my character was focused on stealth and information gathering, and I frequently spied on Team Evil in the sewers and forgotten places of the world that good folks like me that had more sense than me avoided. Of course I was a fearless newbie and, in doing so, accidentally interrupted a big meeting between all of the evil people in the server conspiring and they took measures against stealthy infiltration that I didn't know anything about. But damned if it wasn't fun running away from that being hounded by half a dozen level 13 necromancers as a really squishy level 5 rogue.

I survived, of course, dodging skeletons through sheer dumb luck and tumble checks and keeping just out of range of spells.

That character was a large number of blunders all rolled in to one character and was the token magnet for trouble. Of course I did a lot of really dumb RP stuff back then, since I was 14 or so, and looking back on it fills me with so much embarrassment, but it had its moments.

[darthweasel]

Got this game about 10 years back. I had no idea how the D&D system worked, but understood the basics of the game from having played through KOTOR.

So I ended up playing the single player campaign and generated my first NWN character. Feyed Lanniset. Half elf Silver haired Pally with stats something like.

14 str
12 dex
16 con
10 int
14 wis
10 char.

Odd thing is she worked. Aside from Lay on hands being a joke she basically moved like a fighter with no fear what so ever and self buffing.  Sadly the machine she was tied to has died and I doubt I saved her data.