I have it calling the API and I see the data, but it is not turning the sky bright. :(

Figured it out...there is an additional check for permissions that probably isnt needed if calling the hook and dont care about permissions:

private NVPlayerData GetNVPlayerData(BasePlayer pl)
{
_playerData[pl.userID] = _playerData.ContainsKey(pl.userID) ? _playerData[pl.userID] : new NVPlayerData();
_playerData[pl.userID].timeLocked = _playerData[pl.userID].timeLocked;

// || !permission.UserHasPermission(pl.UserIDString, PERM_ALLOWED));  --scratch this and it works great
return _playerData[pl.userID];
}