Tumtuak, Chernevog (original owner of Stormzand I believe?) and Sithr let me (a newbie and stranger to EQ in comparison) tag along with them in a semi-static group and see some of the most interesting corners of Norrath. Hell, they went out of their way to make it happen and include me, and Tum always brought an ineffable positive energy and sense of humor to the group that made him a pleasure to be around. He never got frustrated once during our (mis)adventures as we ended up going from low 30s into the 50s. This was in 2016 or 2017 and the only one of them I ended up staying in touch with Tum. The last time I spoke to him was late spring or early summer 2020 I believe. We would send each other tells about our groups or guild or whatever was going on in-game and chat about random IRL stuff. We both eventually hit 60 at our own pace and went to different guilds, where we made respective attempts to recruit each other. His attempts started before I even had a desire to join one though and he always made me feel welcome when he was around. He was distinctly warm and welcoming, sending me tells out of nowhere asking me how or what I am doing.
We never linked up outside of EQ but he indeed touched my life, definitely through times he talked to me about being a dad. I remember a conversation I had with him when I was idling at the VP medal ground spawn in Kaesora; I randomly brought up how I wanted a Suzuki sports bike, which eventually got him to coolly tell me about his current bike and how he had mostly reined in the hobby in favor of spending the money on his children. It was a conversation that made me self-conscious and a little reverent. Not that I usually mystify rearing children, and nor did he outwardly, who took the jabs a child-less bachelor would make at a father of multiple children in stride, with a grin even. His humility was admirable though and I had to respect a father's devotion to his children where it was due. He worked a lot to support them and this tragedy deprived him of his deserved reward of that work: to see them grow into adults.
I wish I had turned on logs more in the past so that I could distill his kind words from them. It was always a treat to see him and I will cherish our times together despite how brief, pixelated or textual they were; from the bottom of Guk to the top of ToFS. He will be missed by me and surely by those that knew him better, outside of the game. Seeing the responses in this thread and knowing he is in other elves' thoughts is heartening. I could tell merely through the game client he was a stand up guy; a friendly, positive and responsible man-- very good-natured and level-headed. In all our talks he never had a single negative word to say about anyone, his passing truly deserves to be grieved.
Goodbye bro. I will keep the Blood Point you gave me sharp. Thank you for the memories.
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