The World of Aenea - A Persistent Neverwinter Nights World


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The Athenaeum (Library):

In order to assist new and experienced players in Aenea, this page contains useful information on a large variety of topics, kind of like a collection of knowledge.

More information is available within the forum's FAQs & Helpful Info section, but this page should serve as a library for information that has not changed recently.

Aenean Background
- Aenean Calendar
- Coins of Aenea
- Orcish Words & Phrases

Companions
- Animals
- Dragons
- Familiars
- Hirelings

Teleportation
- Wanderer's Portals (location)
- Contract of Translocation (item)
- Teleport (spell)
- Summon Ally (spell)
- Magehound (spell)
- Word of Recall (spell)
- Potion of Escape (item)
- Bind Points (location)
Creatures
- Trolls
- Drow
- Demonspawn (subrace)

Items
- Cestus
- Spectra's Color Items
- Tradeskills
- Item Enchantment
- Weapon Changes
- Reward Items

Locations
- Player Houses
- Plainscross
Player Tools
- Voice Chat (software)
- Select
- Select Location
- Follow
- Counterspell
- Flight

Character Management
- Retirement
- Reincarnation/Ascension



Animal Companions

Druids can summon animal companions of different sorts to aid them in combat or exploration, or just to serve as companions.

An animal companion can be summoned once per day (once after each sleep session), staying around as long as it survives and is not sent away by the druid.
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Dragon Companions (Pets)

Each PC is able to gain a single companion dragon. Starting out as a large egg, it can be hatched and raised as a constant companion for your character. This dragon should be a constant companion, rather than just some "meatshield" summon. Kind of like how familiars and animal companions should be treated.

The Egg: You need to go out and find your dragon egg, since they should not be for sale. The egg is an item in your inventory, which stays until you decide to use it's power to hatch it.

Flight: Your dragon has the ability to land next to you when called with the ;;dragon call VC command. You can send it back up into the sky by talking to it or using the ;;dragon fly command. This can be done outdoors, above ground.

Advancement: Your dragon campanion grows and matures as years pass in-game (whether your are logged in or not).

Death: If your dragon dies, you cannot restore it to life. You will have to wait until after the next server reset to call it to your again.

Healing: You can heal your dragon with healing spells and healing kits. Your dragon also slowly regenerates from wounds while it is near you.

Enhancement:
- Gold: You can give 100 gp to your dragon for its personal hoard, and it will gain +10% HP for 3 game hours.
- Spells: You can cast enhancing spells on your dragon, such as bull's strength or mage armor.
- Items: You can permanently give up to one ring, one amulet, and one belt to your dragon to wear. You won't get this item back, but can replace it with another at a later time.
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Familiars

Wizards and sorcerers can summon familiars of different sorts to aid them in combat or exploration, or just to serve as companions.

A familiar can be summoned once per day (once after each sleep session), staying around as long as it survives and is not sent away by the spellcaster.

Spells: Wizards and sorcerers casting certain defensive spells will have the spell affect his or her familiar at the same time, without casting those spells an additional time.

Additional Familiars: Casters can pick a mouse or housecat as an option when picking their familiars.
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Hired Companions (Hirelings)

You can hire adventurers from the League of Extraordinary Adventurers in Mountainholm Castle. Hired adventurers are paid by the game day. It's not based on resting/sleeping. If you run out of money, they will stick around for a little bit, but continual non-payment leads to them leaving and spreading word in the League that you're a lousy boss (which means you have to pay higher wages next time).

Hirelings are touchy. They like it if you raise them from the dead if they die (if you don't, word spreads that you treat your hirelings like the meat shields they are...they don't appreciate that). They like it if you bring them back to Mountainholm Castle before you fire them (they know you're more powerful than they are and would appreciate not being left out in the wilderness). They like it if you have the cash to pay them on time (hey, doesn't every employee like this?).
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Wanderer's Portal

Created centuries ago by powerful clerics of Gort, The Wanderer (God of Travel). You need to be wearing a certain item to activate the control found near each portal. Each control has 7 different colored gemstones to press. Each portal has a unique "combination" (found somewhere in the vicinity of that portal). Random punching in of a combination will activate the portal, but usually just send you to Limbo with 1 hit point. Anybody with the proper item can activate these portals (and anybody can use a Wanderer's Portal that has been activated by someone else). To start the search for this item, talk to the old man at the top of the hill in Valorian's Vale.
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Contract of Translocation (item)

You can purchase one of these from the cleric at the shrine to Mystara beyond the Wanderer's Portal above Valorian's Vale. It is a rechargeable 2-use item. The first use binds the contract to your current location. The second use teleports you to that bound location. It can be recharged at any altar to Mystara. Anybody can buy and use this.
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Teleport (spell)

This spell can be cast by wizards and sorcerers in Aenea. It can be used to instantly move to a location you have visited before (and magically attuned to a "teleport location slot").

Complete spell description available on the New Spells page.
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Magehound (spell)

This one can be cast by wizards and sorcerers. It teleports the caster to another Player Character's location.

Complete spell description available on the New Spells page.
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Summon Ally (spell)

This one can be cast by wizards and sorcerers. The caster sends a magical summons to that other Player Character (as long as he/she is not in combat), then the target PC gets the choice to be teleported to the caster or not.

Complete spell description available on the New Spells page.
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Word of Recall (spell)

This one can be cast by clerics. It teleports the caster and surrounding allies to a safe spot in Valorian's Vale, even from the midst of battle.

Complete spell description available on the New Spells page.
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Potion of Escape (item)

Anybody can use this for a quick teleport back to Valorian's Vale. Smitty (and several other merchants) sell this one for around 500 gp.
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Bind Points (location)

Scattered around the lands are small circles of stones on the ground, usually found tucked away in out of the way places. When stepped into, the person that did so is "bound" to that location. The next time he or she enters the world through the swirling portal in the Astral Conjunction, said person will find themselves at the location of that circle of stones (a bind point).

Stepping into another such circle will change the binding location, and the binding can be broken at any time (by using the VC command ;;option clearbind). For the forgetful, they can get a quick reminder of a current bind point's location (by using the VC command ;;info bind).

If a person is wearing binding boots of bellaruska when exiting the Astral Conjunction, he or she will instead find themselves at the last lcoation the boots were bound to.
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Cestus

A new weapon type for Aenea, the cestus is loosely based on the ancient real-world weapon of gladiators and brawlers (wikipedia link for those interested in a starting point on learning more).

Damage: 1d4
Critical: 19-20/x2
Damage Type: Bludgeoning
Weight: 1 pound
Equipment Slot: Right hand
Proficiency Needed: Simple, Monk, Rogue, Wizard (and a few more...aka, anybody can use it)

Feats such as Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization, Weapon of Choice (for weapon masters), etc. are hardcoded by BioWare. While new types of weapons can be added, the feats that go along with them cannot.

Because of weapon scaling issues, these items are actually two different item types, one for males, one for females. On acquiring a cestus, if the gender for the item doesn't match your PC's gender, the item will automatically be swapped for one of the appropriate type.


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Spectra's Color Items

Spectra owns a rainbow-themed shop in the city of Calithia, where she sells a variety of color-based magical items, useful for customizing the appearance of a character.

Spectra's Marvelous Hair Dye: Used for changing the color of a PC's hair. See the color chart to get th "color codes" needed.

Spectra's Super Skin Colorant: Used for changing the color of a PC's skin. See the color chart to get th "color codes" needed.

Spectra's Terrific Tattoo Ink: Used for changing the color of a PC's tattoo1 and tattoo2 channels. See the color chart to get th "color codes" needed.

Spectra's Aurashift Powder: Used for adding/changing the "visible aura" that may surround a melee weapon.

Magical Dye Pot: Used for changing the color of a PC's equipped armor, helm, and cloak.
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Troll

All forms of trolls have some nasty regeneration happening.

Normal damage from a weapon can knock a troll down, but it will soon get back up. That normal damage will never lead to the death of a troll...it isn't a "knock them down, then hit them with a little fire" situation...it is cumulative acid/fire damage that will lead to their death. They have to suffer their total healthy hitpoints in acid/fire damage to actually be killed.

Hope this clears things up...and instills a healthy respect for trolls...sometimes it's just better to run away.
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Drow

Drow are an evil subrace of elves that lives deep underground, away from the burning light of the sun.

Drow in Aenea are close followers of Sorgath, the god of lies, murder, corruption, and foul play. They use the snake as a symbol (rather than a typical FR/Greyhawke spider), and will often be garbed in the greys and greens favored by the priesthood of Sorgath.
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Plainscross

The village is basically southeast of Valorian's Vale (once you get out of the town)...follow the roads...

Northwest Road (go east)
Northwest Crossroads (go south)
Mountainholm Crossroads (go south)
Central Prairie Crossroads (go southeast)
Central Prairie Crossroads East (go south)
Plainscross :) (wander in the big open plains here)
Get lost for a while, figure out your way and find your reward :)
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Character Retirement

If you tire of a character and no longer wish to use him or her for adventuring, you can "officially" retire that PC from the game. To do this, just visit Arkon's Storage in Valorian's Vale. When you retire a character, 1/2 of that character's earned XP is stored in the database, which you can apply toward another of your characters by speaking with Arkon again after the retirement.

Retirement does not remove your character from your servervault folder (and list of PCs when logging in). To have your retired PC's file removed completely, just post a message in the Character Deletion Thread.

Some database entries are tied to your character's name, so please do not reuse a character name for a later PC.
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Coins of Aenea

While NWN only really uses the generic "gold piece", there are in-game references to Aenean currency. Most currency features the face or crest of the leadership of the nation that minted a particular coin, while by centuries of tradition, the other side features a symbol specific to the coin's metal and value.

Common copper coins carry the image of a lantern and are known by the populace as "lanterns" or "copper lanterns".

Silver coins carry the image of a single star on one side and are called "stars" or "silver stars". The silver coin is the holy symbol of Lysis (goddess of fortune, fate, luck, and rogues).

Gold coins carry the image of a dragon and are called "dragons" or "gold dragons".

Platinum coins, the most valuable and rare, carry the image of the two moons of Aenea. They are called "moons" or "platinum moons".

The people of Aenea might look at you funny if you talk of "gold pieces", "copper pieces", "silver pieces", or "platinum pieces". They might think you are talking about pieces of jewelry or art.
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Aenean Calendar

Time constantly advances in Aenea, and certain events take place during different parts of the year. The Aenean calandar is based on both the seasons and the phases of the two moons, Sharlo (the silver moon) and Naka (the green moon).

Each month is 28 days long, and Sharlo is full the first night of each month. The months are named for the seasons: Springdawn, Midspring, Springdusk, Summerdawn, Midsummer, Summerdusk, Autumndawn, Midautumn, Autumndusk, Winterdawn, Midwinter, and Winterdusk (which ends the year).

Each season lasts 3 months. The start of each season is marked by both moons being full on the same night (the first nights of Springdawn, Summerdawn, Autumndawn, and Winterdawn).

During winter, it's wise to wear some sort of cloak when outdoors to avoid being harmed by the cold weather.
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Character Reincarnation/Ascension

After reaching the highest levels of advancements (40th level), a character may choose to reincarnate into a younger form. This carries several benefits and costs.

Loss of Levels: Reincarnation involves the loss of all levels gains, returning the PC to 1st level.
Loss of Gold: All of the reincarnating PC's gold is lost.
Loss of Items: All possessions of the reincarnating PC are lost. A single item can be saved for later recovery by using the ;;tool itemstore / ;;tool itemrestore VC commands.
Restarting Gold: 2,000 gp
Restarting XP: 6,000 xp
Bonuses: +5 to skill checks, +1 to saving throws
Regeneration: 1/round
Spell Resistance: 1/level if no subrace SR
Gift of Flight: fly like a winged being for 3 hp/flight
Gift of Travel: teleport 2/day
Gift of Time: a semi-timestop in an area for 1d6 rounds 1/day...enemies get a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 reincarnated's new levels) but no immunity/spell resistance

After reaching 40th level again, a reincarnated character can choose to ascend to a newer form. This is just like reincarnation except an ascended PC also gains the following:

Resistance: 10 points of fire and cold resistance
Immunities: An ascended PC gains immunity to death magic, disease, poison, and critical hits
Bonuses: These increase to +10 to skill checks, +3 to saving throws
Levitation: An ascended PC can use the "levitate" combat style normally allowed only to epic level sorcerers and wizards. The VC command is ;;style levitate.

To reincarnate and/or ascend, a character needs to find a boat in Watertown and head to the Isle of Mists.
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Tradeskills

In Aenea, there are several skills, called tradeskills, that can be used by anyone for affecting or creating various items. The tradeskills work off a percentage/difficulty check, rather than a d20 check. Success indicates getting the desired result, while failure generally means using up any necessary materials without any other effect.

These skills improve with use, rather than during the level-up process. Each successful use of a tradeskill means a 10% chance that the PC's ability in that tradeskill improves by +1%.

Most tradeskills involve the use of a specialized tool (or tools) in combination with other objects and/or VC commands (see the ;;ts xxxxxx section of this page). These tools can be purchased from various merchants around the lands.

More information can be found in this section of the forum.
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Player Item Enchantment

Spellcasters have the ability to create and permanently enhance magical items, ranging from scrolls and potions to magical weapons and armor. Using special feats, specific spells, and the proper base materials, a player character can create a wide range of magic items, many specific to Aenea.

Brew Potion - Spellcasters with this feat can distill spells into drinkable liquid form that anybody can use.
Enchant Arms & Armor - Spellcasters with this feat are able to make many different types of magical weapons and armor, plus enhance existing pieces.
Enchant Item - A spellcaster with this feat can make many miscellaneous types of magical items.
Forge Jewelry - Spellcasters with this feat are able to make many most types of magical amulets and rings.
Imbue Focus - This allows a spellcaster to enchant staves and rods in addition to wands.
Scribe Scroll - This enables spellcaster to create spell scrolls.

More information can be found in this section of the forum.
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Weapon Changes

Several changes have been made to various weapons in Aenea, which may affect how they are used by individual characters.

Quarterstaff: This is now a double weapon, used for making an extra "off-hand" attack each round (as with a double sword or double axe). In addition, each quarterstaff now automatically grants the use of the Two-Weapon Fighting feat to the wielder while holding the staff (this is a temporary item property, so it does not affect the value of such weapons).

Short Spear: This is now a 1-handed weapon, allowing the wielder to also use a shield.

Shuriken: These weapons are now smaller and more easily concealed, and they allow the thrower to add his or her Strength modifier (up to +3) to the damage they inflict.

Whip: This weapon can now be used in the left hand, allowing it to be dual-wielded with another weapon.
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Reward Items

As time is spent in Aenea playing a single character, that character can earn various rewards, ranging from basic magic weapons and armor to experience to some of the most prized items in the game (custom items). The rewards appear in a special treasure chest, and are based on number of actual hours played, increasing in value with each doubling of time (up to 256 hours, and PCs can pick only 1 item from the chest).

With custom items, players can use the toolset to create one or more personalized items for their character, selecting both appearance and magical properties. There are some rules and guidelines, but otherwise the player is free to tailor such items to exactly complement or strengthen their character. Once created, such items are emailed to The Amethyst Dragon for inclusion in the game.
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Player Housing

Any character with 500,000 gp to spare can hire the dwarven Firehair clan to build them a house in Aenea. Most houses are located in the kingdoms of Nektaria and Macedonia, and houses take many forms (houses, towers, caves, etc.).

Players can design an area (of up to 100 tiles in size), export it from the toolset, and send it to The Amethyst Dragon via email. If the player's character has purchased a home from the Fenar Firehair (who has a tent just to the west of the main part of Valorian's Vale), the character will get the location (and possible password to the door) once it has been approved and added to the game.
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Voice Chat

Want to chat live with other players as you are adventuring? Thanks to daveyeisley, Aenea has a nice, clear chat server that works through the Ventrilo software. For complete information, including how to get everything working properly, check this tutorial.
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Select (tool/feat)

In-game, the Tool: Select instant feat can be used for selecting an object for various actions, which can range from marking another PC for later casting of summon ally to picking which food to eat next time the character goes to sleep. Using the tool on your own character will clear any current selections.
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Select Location (tool/feat)

In-game, the Tool: Select Location instant feat can be used for selecting a location on the ground for various actions. Using the tool on your own character will clear any current selections.
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Follow (tool/feat)

In-game, the Tool: Follow instant feat can be used on another creature, and your character will begin to automatically follow that creature until you initiate another action. This one is useful for following a guide or keeping a party together on a long journey.
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Counterspell (tool/feat)

In-game, the Tool: Counterspell instant feat can be used on another creature, and your spellcasting character will enter "counterspell mode", automatically casting counterspells against the selected creature in order to block it's magic from functioning.
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Flight (tool/feat)

In-game, the Tool: Flight instant feat can be used on a location within the same area. If your character meets one of the requirements for flying (winged subrace, reincarnated/ascended, paladin level 20+, demonspawn subrace (with wings)) and he or she is outdoors and above ground, that character will take off into the air, descending at the chosen location. Doing so takes effort, draining 1 or more hitpoints per flight.
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Demonspawn (subrace)

One of the subraces available to many characters is Demonspawn. These offspring of demons and mortals inherit some traits from their demonic parents, including a bit of a chaotic form. Each time the demonspawn sleeps, he or she may or may not wake with large wings and horns. The horns change over time (levels), and the wings allow flight while they are present.
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