I'm aware @ the timeout method being dumb, the only reason I used that is because I wanted it to be constantly running for testing purposes. I wouldn't use it in an actual NPC. The attribute idea is pretty great, I actually didn't think of that.
And yeah, I know in most situations you can just use a DB Npc to handle all level NPC trigger needs -- that's why I opened the thread by saying that it's probably not all that useful. I just thought it was neat that I got triggerserver to work and figured I'd share.