Departure Gate 3

[Fox²]

All good cooking recipes start with a long and unnecessary  life story of the author; but this isn't a food blog, so I'll keep it short.

Eight years ago I was going through a rough patch in life, and remembered a cute little game that had once brought me joy: Baldur's Gate. I picked up the enhanced edition on Steam and begun my life as Gorion's Ward before then remembering another cute little game from my childhood, except this one had spanning persistent worlds and roleplaying servers. A quick flick through google later and I found NWN 1.69's server lists, and I begun my next life in Faerun with new friends online.

My time in NWN did not begun with CD, as I passed through multiple other servers first, but I knew from the first day I lurked in CD's discord almost 5 years ago and saw the community flock to the aid of someone else who was having a rough patch in life — who had been brave enough to ask for help among internet strangers, that this server and community was something different, something special, and something I wanted to be part of.

Within a month I made my first ECL character: a half-succubus fortune reader who rolled all of her r's and who misused her tarrot readings to mislead others into owing her favors. She was immensely fun to play, yet I felt I could be bringing more to the server I had quickly fallen in love with. I just didn't know what.

A few months later and both Blackheart  and Melody , who had only joined the server a few months earlier than me, both applied for DM, and I thought to myself: "Why not?", and so I too applied. Not long later and I was accepted.... while evacuating from Australia's Black Summer Bushfires in 2019.

It was a strange feeling going from being immensely terrified of losing my house and everything I owned as I watched my town be impacted by fire on the news from a friend's house, to then checking my phone to read that I had been accepted as an aDM. Admidst the chaos of potentially losing very real and tangible material possessions, the thought that I'd have at least one thing to look forward to gave me an odd sense of calm and elation. Thankfully, I still had a home to return to after that weekend, and so begun my career as a DM, then SDM; developer; and eventually admin.

I'm immensely proud of everything I and the rest of the staff team have accomplished in the last 4 years, and I'm also equally proud of the stories I've been able to tell, both as a DM and as a player; and I'm honored to have been welcomed and included into so many other people's stories.

Unfortunately, some things come to an end, and this week will be my last on the server as both staff member and player for the foreseeable future. As much joy as NWN has brought me over the past 8 years, my mental health has still always struggled with its battle against my severe CPTSD, and my personal health and comfort on the server has recently taken a sharp downturn to where I've decided I need to prioritize my well being, and doing that requires stepping away from the server.

This does unfortunately mean the cancellation of many  projects I was working on, or had been planning to create or support. I have left what projects I had in a mature enough state to be continued with Vincent07  and Fire Wraith , as well as many instructions for how to take over and carry on operations of the server. You'll be in good hands.

Thanks for all of the stories, and thanks especially for all the cat gifs.