Looking to Start Off as NPC

I'm getting roped into Knight Realms by some of my students. Of course, I'm not exactly kicking and screaming.

I've been reading through the Core Rulebook off and on for the last few days, and while I stumbled into a half-backstoried character during discussions, I figure the better thing to do would be to start out as an NPC. I don't see a forum board for that, so I'm posting here.

Keeping in mind that the earliest I could come is November, and even that remains somewhat iffy, is there anything I should plan for? I've read up on keeping warm (and yes, the repeated warnings about socks!), and I know NPC props are normally provided and simple. What about a place to sleep for those NPCing all weekend? I've seen references to finding a place to camp, but it seems like mixing off-shift NPCs with PCs would break immersion, so I'm wondering if there's a place for NPCs?

And how does food work? So far, I haven't found a lot of detail there.

For the benefit of whatever Marshal would be handling my services:

Restrictions:
- I am handicapped. Except on really good days, I need a walking aid such as a cane or staff. I have a period-appropriate staff I can bring, but it's not as good as a cane. I can and do spar with swords OOG, but my good days and bad days are unpredictable. I'd prefer to take a role that allows me to easily sit down if necessary. (And if you want a scenery-chewing grumpy old man, I'm your guy.)
- I am allergic to tobacco. I understand that smoking is restricted at the event, but I can react to just what's carried in on clothing. (I have no reaction to vaping, as there's no tobacco.) I figured it was worth mentioning.
- I wear glasses, but can use contacts.

Abilities:
- Acting experience, including the ability to mimic various accents. These include, but are not limited to, English (London low-class, British aristocrat, Received Pronunciation, and also Midlands if I have some prep), Scottish (Edinburgh and Highlands), Irish (Dublin, Galway, and Belfast), Spanish (Castilian, not Mexican or South American), Italian (Roman accent only; if I try for another it slips back to Rome), Russian (or possibly Polish with prep), and enough French and German to get the point across but I can't pass as being from there. I've done Arabic and Mandarin Chinese as well with prep, but never for long periods of time. (I can do other accents, but they're less useful for KR.) Give me a one- or two-sentence description of an NPC, and I'll probably have a voice for him in five minutes tops.
- Over a decade of GMing experience, which includes a lot of NPCs and practice at improv within a KR-like story. This includes a range from both understated to scenery-chewing characters -- though I do have a weakness for being snarky.
- A kitchen-sink level of esoteric historical and philosophical knowledge that can be used for a wide range of NPCs.
- Speaking of kitchens: I enjoy cooking, and can volunteer for that as well. I also don't mind washing dishes, especially if that job is OOG and I can put on headphones (what I've read seems ambiguous on that point).

Hey Matt, I'm Matt one of the New Player marshals here and welcome aboard. Many people are at the game this weekend, so people will probably be coming in later. But to get some questions answered now:

1. Costuming and weapons are provided for you as an NPC. You need basic black clothing such as sweatpants/sweatshirt to npc in. They cannot have any text or image showing on them. There is no designated place you HAVE to sleep as an NPC, expecially if you have friends coming to the game. Just be discreet about your belongings. Cover them up with a black cloth, put them under your bed, whatever needs to be done, since you aren't PCing.

2. Feast is served Saturday night for dinner. Npcs are usually treated to breakfast Saturday and Sunday as well. Anything beyond that you'll have to provide. Sometimes there are people selling food at Market Faire around lunch time for either real money or in game money.

3. Walking with the cane is no problem, your best bet is to put on a green headband which indicates you are non combat. For the tobacco issue, we do have a fair amount of people that smoke. The restrictions in place are that there are designated areas to smoke in, and you can't smoke on mods where other people are present. How bad is the allergy? Our safety marshals would need to know.

4. Glasses are no big deal. Contacts are a little safer for heavy combat.

Hi Matt, im Matt one of the other new player marshals,Matt covered most of your questions but if you have any others feel free to contact me.

It's Matt-ception....

I have Matt-groupies. It's why a lot of people call me Bowman, to the point that at least one person went almost three months before realizing it wasn't my first name.

Camping with friends who aren't NPCing for the weekend doesn't sound fun unless I'm given an NPC role in their camp, because otherwise I'd be OOG and they'd have to ignore me.

I may get a more period-appropriate cane to use, assuming that it's fine to use a wooden cane in a non-combat role. I figured my eventual PC would be a caster of some kind so that I could always lean on a staff, and since I'm likely to be green-headbanded (I can and do spar with swords, but my condition is unpredictable; some days I can move around just fine, and the next I could be almost bedridden) I figured my wooden staff might be acceptable.

As I said, I stumbled into a half-backstoried character during discussions with friends who are also new to the game, and I did so before looking at the rules. Because of my mobility issues, I knew going in that I would prefer to play a caster (which is my usual preference in tabletop RPGs as well). Since my friends are playing members of the same barbarian tribe, one of them had been healed by a wilderness hermit in her backstory, and another had been partially raised by a wilderness hermit (not originally the same character), I wound up getting that role.

I started out envisioning him as a druid, but based on what I've heard about the roleplay styles (which aren't covered in the rulebook to the extent I've heard live, but I've seen elsewhere on the forum that the core rulebook is still lagging a bit behind) the healer roleplay fits the character much better. It would mean not taking barbarian as a race, but that seems to be working out, and due to factors I won't go into I was roleplaying him with a Slavic accent in the first place (suggesting he wasn't from the same tribe at the very least).

Since I can't start with two professions (as I infer from the book that even the extra build from NPCing wouldn't let me open a second profession without at-event roleplay first), I will likely start with healer, but I still like the idea of also being a druid. Is it permissible for me to roleplay a character who has druid tendencies even though it's not actually on my character sheet yet?

Further, is it permissible to learn the druid profession and skills from another new player? Someone else in our group might start as druid (the one raised by my character, which would provide an interesting back-and-forth).