IntroductionToHaven

**Preface**

Welcome to the kingdom of Haven.

Haven is a custom adult roleplay server hosted by our admin comeandsee set in the Forgotten Realms from D&D edition 3.5. Since the release of Neverwinter Nights 2 a lot of custom content has been added. A few examples of haven specific additions include but aren’t limited to new and improved classes, custom crafting system, quests and bounties, custom tailoring, housing and so on.

If you haven’t already we strongly recommend you take a moment to read over our server rules before exploring all that haven has to offer. Our DM team will happily address any questions you might still have after reading through them.

**Introduction to Haven**

The kingdom of Haven is a monarchy ruled over by its queen Eciline diLuciaNivarose and her royal house generally referred to as the “Crown”. Within her kingdom and its many lands lay two major cities named Sharessia and Kortuga, each possessing a leader handling the day to day business of the city they were assigned to by the Crown. These cities have sworn their fealty to the crown and are as a result bound by its laws.

Within the server there are only two factions that don’t fall under the rule of the crown. The first is a Thayan embassy located in the Kortuga Outskirts. They have been granted special permission to operate within the kingdom and have been allowed to enforce their own laws and policies within their embassy.

The second exception is the underground city of Mithuth which lays beyond the kingdom’s borders. It is however worth noting that while both Mithuth and the Enclave embassy are not a part of the kingdom, treaties still exist between both entities and the Crown: agreements that prevent any hostile actions toward one another.

**How to begin playing?**

The IP address of the server is 144.217.11.37. Once connected you will be prompted to create a character. Most races will be immediately available to you but some are locked behind a UBR (unusual background request) policy. These more uncommon races may only be unlocked with permission from the staff and aren’t regularly available. A race requiring a UBR will be clearly stated within its description, and will require a ticket to be submitted on the forums. It is not recommended to make your first-ever PC on Haven a UBR race.

After having gone through character creation your character will be spawned in an area called the “OOC start room”, the starting area for every new character joining the server. Follow the path downhill until you see the NPC named Captain Ukanim. Talking to him will allow you to choose which faction you wish to join the server as, along with a brief description of each.

You can also choose whether you wish to start out as a slave or a free person. It goes without saying that choosing to start out as a slave means you’ll find yourself at the bottom of the social ladder and thus with the least amount of rights. New players are advised to start out as a free person first to get a feel for the server before making a slave character given the extra rules and regulations that come with choosing the path of a slave.

Once you’ve chosen the faction you like you’ll be transported to that faction’s starting location and are free to begin to explore the server.

**IC and OOC**

The abbreviations IC and OOC you’ll come across a lot and they respectively stand for in character and out of character. You’ll be playing in a persistent roleplaying world and expected to abide by the proper etiquette that comes with that. Any plain text you type in game will be perceived as in character, thus something the character you are playing would have said. Actions, gestures or other emotes your character might perform are usually preempted and ended by a “\*” symbol.

If you specifically which to make an out of character statement. Addressing another player directly outside of the roleplay environment you have to make that clear. This is usually done by prefacing your text with brackets like these “((“.

In the “Misc” section of the custom Haven toolbar, there is an option to apply color filters to chat emotes and/or OOC comments; emotes typed with the “\*” will appear as coral-colored, while OOC comments will be colored purple.

An example IC post with an emote could be: Hi, a pleasure to meet you \*greets you with a pleasant smile\*
An example OOC post could be: ((help? Where can I find the auction house in Sharessia?

Keep these basic rules in mind when interacting with others playing on the server.

**Cites and factions**

The three major cities found within the server are Sharessia, Kortuga and Mithuth. Each city has a different setting and theme attached to them. A brief overview will be given below.

Sharessia: The capital of the kingdom. The safest city with strict laws that sees any criminal activity heavily punished.

Kortuga: Originally a pirate town the port city has since evolved to a more respectable city. Even so the laws are less strict here, opening the opportunity for more illicit dealings.

Mithuth: As the only city not under the crowns rule it is also the most dangerous: an underground city close to the underdark with next to no laws to protect your character.

As mentioned in the introduction there is also a Thayan presence within the kingdom, located at their Enclave in the Kortuga Outskirts and with mentioning them we’ve touched on the 4 possible factions your character could join. A character’s allegiance to any faction can be made note of by inspecting them or through their level’s color on the PC Scry Tool.

Yellow: Sharessia
Purple: Kortuga
Blue: Mithuth
Red: Thayan Enclave
Green: not assigned to a specific faction.
**Travel between cities and areas**

Each area has a harbor NPC who can be talked to. Talking to this NPC will allow you to choose to which area you wish to travel and thus traverse between cities. Traveling comes at no cost though some areas can only be accessed by walking there and won’t be visible on the harbor NPC’s list of destinations.

**How to start gaining experience and gold?**

The maximum level your character can achieve is level 30 and there are several ways to reach it.

Hunting: The first and most obvious method is to tackle the many hunting areas the server has to offer. The two areas most suited for either new or low-level characters are Syl’s Refuge and Goblin Isle. Spawns dynamically scale on this server. Their difficulty, numbers and levels change based on your own level, the average level of the party you are in, and your party’s size. Killing an enemy will yield a small number of experience points and gold.

Questing: Every hunting area has NPCs that hand out quests. These NPCs can be identified thanks to a bright red skull floating above their head. Quests are a good way to gain both experience and useful items. To see which quests you have currently active and your progress in each, you can press the “J” key on your keyboard at any given time. Once you’ve completed the tasks of a quest you can collect your reward from the NPC that handed it out.

Crafting: Our custom crafting system yields a small bit of XP for every successful item you make or enchant.

Gathering: While crafting materials drop from killing monsters, some recipes require you to preform specific gathering tasks to collect the correct materials. Prospecting ore veins, fishing for fish or gathering herbs will also offer a small portion of XP. The collected materials can then later be sold for gold to NPC merchants or to one of the PC-led merchant houses, who may not always be active but tend to offer more coin than the NPCs do.

Rping: While not the fastest way to level you can also gain experience by just being active in the server, by talking and emoting. Bronze tokens are earned through interaction, and can be traded in for special items that allow you to earn experience from conversations, or other flavor based RP items from the bronze token shop found in the OOC room.

The city of Sharessia has a starter quest chain handed out by the haven greeter NPC found just across the bridge leading to and from the harbor. If you are a new player it is advised you pick up this quest to get a general feel of the city and its layout. Similar quests are also available in Kortuga and Mithuth; you can begin these by finding an NPC near the start point with the floating red skull above their heads.

A full list of all the hunting areas available on the server and the appropriate levels to challenge them:

Those marked with an asterisk (\*) have questgivers. Some areas also have a “Hard Mode” available, which requires a minimum number of players in the party and will appear as an option when you enter the area. Hard Mode will cause all enemies to be more powerful versions, along with occasional Legendary enemies.

Goblin Island\*, Vermin Cave, and Goblin Caves (0-12)
Syl’s Refuge\* (0-12)
Kortuga sewers (lvl 5-15)
Chauntea’s Hold (10-20)
Kortuga Caves\* (10-20)
Kortuga Wilds\*, Bandit Hideout (15-20), and Lake Ruins (15-30)
Volcano Island\* and Dragon Graveyard (15-30)
Northern Cove\*, Crystal Caves, and Underdark Cavern (15-30)
Valley of Death\* (15-30)
Duinmeere Crypts\* (15-30)
**Death and respawn**

Dying on the server is not the end of your character. When your hit points reach 0 you can be raised or resurrected by other PCs, or be given the chance to respawn either in your home city or rest and return to the place you died with an experience and gold penalty. A higher penalty applies for returning to the spot of your death. At very low levels, there is no penalty applied.

In some areas on the server like Arena island, respawning comes at no cost. This enables friendly sparring matches or tournaments to be held without having to worry about respawning costs.

**Equipment and where to get it?**

The NPC Dwarf named Harl in Sharessia offers basic equipment suited for your first adventures. As you gain experience and level you’ll need better equipment to tackle the increasingly difficult monster spawns. As mentioned, completing quests is a good way to begin equipping your character. Beyond that there are several ways to gather better gear for your character and increase your survivability.

Adventure tokens: Quests taken on Goblin Island, Syl’s Refuge or the Kortuga Caves can yield adventure tokens as a reward. This system was put in place to help ease new characters into more difficult encounters. These tokens act as a separate currency from gold and can be spent in the similarly named adventure token shop. This shop can be found in the OOC room and enables you to purchase scaling equipment; the bonuses and abilities of this equipment will grow more powerful as you level. A bonus of +2 in armor class could as a result become +3 when you level up.

Auction house: Each city has an auction house where anyone can post materials, equipment and weapons for a price of their choosing. Merchant guilds often sell a plethora of goods on this platform so it is always worth checking to see if there is something on sale that you can use.

Crafting: By gathering or purchasing the correct ingredients, you can also craft and enchant your own equipment. The details of the custom crafting system will be briefly touched upon later in this guide. For a more comprehensive overview follow the link at the bottom.

Trade: Merchant guilds or individual characters often sell their wares out on the streets. Bartering between players or even asking a more veteran player for advice is encouraged. A player opening a shop of some kind can be identified through the scry. The tag “open” will be assigned to them in the shop column.

Token shops: Some equipment can only be purchased with a different currency called tokens.

DM events: our DM staff hosts regular events through which special items can also be gained. Occasionally, special gift boxes are given out to all players who log in during the week of a holiday or momentous server event.

**Currency and tokens**

The main currency is gold with which most anything can be bought. Aside from gold there are four different tokens that act as an alternate currency on the server. Each token has a similarly named shop from which you can purchase items with the appropriate token. The token shops can be found in the OOC room; the Gold, Silver, and Bronze stores may also be found in Sharessia, while Adventure Token stores exist on Syl’s Refuge and Goblin Isle.

Adventure tokens: As mentioned before, these tokens allow you to purchasing scaling equipment and are gained from low level quests. The bonuses on this equipment scale with your level but will eventually be outperformed by higher end gear. Their purpose is to bridge the gap in difficulty when transitioning from low level hunting areas to high level hunting areas. This usually is around level 15.

Bronze tokens: These tokens are only gained through RP. These tokens are also not tradeable. They are meant to encourage players to rp and provide them with mostly flavor items such as an umbrella, experience tokens, or teleport stones – quality of life items that won’t give you an edge in combat.

Silver tokens: These middle tier tokens are gained by completing quest chains and defeating the appropriate boss attached to them, through DM events, or by completing multiple daily quests. With silver tokens you can buy items and equipment which are slightly better than their craftable counterparts.

Gold tokens: The highest tier token which give access to the highest-grade equipment on the server. These tokens are only obtainable by time spent on the server, although other characters will often be looking to sell theirs.

**Fishing and experience tokens**

Cooked fish acts like an experience token on this server, temporarily boosting your experience gain for a total amount of experience or for a certain number of kills depending on the kind of fish that is consumed. This is another mechanic in place to help with the level process and is often used by the community. Fish can be purchased in the auction house or from other PCs. To make your own you’ll first have to catch fish at specific fishing spots using a fishing rod. A raw fish can then be cooked with the correct ingredients to be turned into an experience token.

**Banking and storage**

Every major city has a bank where you can store items, gold and crafting materials. There are three different NPCs depending on what you wish to store. It is worth keeping in mind that these bank accounts are tied to your character and not your account and will not allow you to pool gold together into one account across various characters. This is in line with the self-gifting rules better detailed in the server rules.

The “banker” is where you may store your gold. Because dying on the server comes with a penalty of a percentage of the gold currently in your character’s possession, it is in your benefit to store large sums of gold in the bank before you go hunting should your character happen to die.
The second account a character possesses is called the “deposit bank”. Here you can store any item you might have in your inventory so that you can retrieve it at a later date.
The third account is your “crafting bank”. Here any and all crafting materials can be neatly stored and easily retrieved thanks to an organized category system. This is very useful for those who wish to dabble in crafting and enchanting.

**Biography and portraits**

For every character, you can write a biography which other players can read by right clicking your character. A physical description of your character, a brief history or other things of note are good things to put in your biography and can add an extra layer of depth to your character. To start writing your own biography simply hold right click on your character until a menu appears. From the menu select the “Edit Bio” option.

If you’ve followed these steps correctly a second window should have popped up aptly named KEMO character biography. In the left side of the window you can begin typing your biography which you can save with the save button below. The right side of the window represents the portrait people would get to see along with your biography as a visual representation of your character.

We currently have a large pool of portraits to choose from but if you wished to add a more personal touch to your character, we also allow for custom portraits to be uploaded. It is worth noting that the admin must add these portraits to the server files first before they can be used. The process as a result takes some time and is more clearly explained on the forum.

To view preexisting portraits, you can choose from visit our online gallery found on the forum. If you find one to your liking simply write the corresponding name of the picture in the top right corner of the KEMO character biography window using underscores in place of spaces and your chosen picture should appear.

**Crafting**

Haven employs a custom crafting system. A brief overview of how it works and the various fields it is comprised of will be given here. If you’d like a more in-depth explanation you are encouraged to visit the online wiki on our forum instead. The custom Kemo crafting system can be accessed through the custom Haven toolbar atop your screen. Along with buttons that send you to the OOC room, allow you to view the scry, and other custom features, there is a button called “KEMO Crafting”.

Clicking it will pop open a second window through which all the crafts can be accessed. Before you attempt any recipe however it is important that you level up the corresponding skills. These secondary skills are separate from the standard NWN2 skill system and a level 30 character will have 80 points to spend, while additional points can be earned by selecting certain feats and class options during the course of leveling up your character. The number of points currently available to be assigned can be viewed in the top right corner.

It is next to impossible to become proficient in every skill so you’ll have to pick and choose the areas in which you’ll want to specialize. The more points you put in a skill, the higher your skill level for that specific skill becomes and the higher your chance of success.

Each recipe has a difficulty modifier attached to it; more difficult recipes will require a higher skill level. To manage your points you’ll have to click the skill points panel button within the KEMO crafting window.

KEMO crafting points can be reset up to 5 times using the “>spreset” command. After 5 resets you’ll have to rebuild your character from scratch to change the allocation of your skills again.
What follows is a brief overview of every KEMO crafting skill:

Alchemy: primarily used to split and combine essences, also offers the ability to make various potions.
Armoury body armor: crafting metal armors and equipment including armored bracers.
Armoury: melee weapons: forging melee weapons.
Armoury: ranged weapons: making bows and crossbows.
Cooking: Various cooked fish recipes that act as experience tokens.
Engineer: mechanical contraptions with various purposes such as providing a heal or a raise dead spell when used.
Herb lore: required for the gathering of herbs and used to make potions.
Jeweler: necklaces, rings and other trinkets.
Leatherworking: belts, boots, leather armors.
Musical composition: sheet music.
Poisons: required to manufacture poisons.
Sewing: cloaks and robes are the bulk of the recipes in this field.
Traps: to make traps.
Woodworking: fishing poles, arrows, spears.
Farming: required to make use of the farming plots on Syl’s Refuge and Harts Isle.
Fishing: required to fish.
Gardening: required to make use of the farming plots on Syl’s Refuge and Harts Isle.
Prospecting: required to mine ore veins with a prospector’s pick.
Thaumatology: required to add arcane enchantments to equipment.
Theology: required to add divine enchantments to equipment.[/list]

**Final words**

This guide doesn’t nearly cover all Haven has to offer but is meant to give you a quick overview to help you get started. Further questions can always be asked of the staff or our more veteran players.