The Ravings of Demented Rabbits

Nordic Nationalism

I shall also direct your attention to the post below this one, just so nobody misses it.

You may remember the Nordic Nationalist character concept from long ago. Hrolf has actually been played some, not that I ever talked about it. In fact, he even made it all the way to level 7, when last we checked in on June 30 of last year. So it's been a while.

But I kept a journal, which I will now relate to you, because it amuses me.

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Hrolf the Ganger, Nordic Nationalist

Woke up on the boat, made fun of the chargen sequence a lot (hey, I've done it 20 times before, I'm allowed), then tried to fall off into the ocean but couldn't. Drat. Looted all the stuff in the Census Office, gave Fargoth the ring back, did Hrisskar's quest without giving Hrisskar the cash back, went and found Tarhiel and looted his stuff, and did the Proccy quest. And sold a bunch of stuff to Arielle. All the usual stuff.

(What, you were expecting roleplaying? Not quite. We 'ere've been through the game like 5 times. Did the roleplaying. This 'ere's pure test of skills)

I also did some pearl diving. Now, the thing to realize here is that pearl diving at level 1 for anybody but Argonians is about the hardest thing in the world, simply because grottos can be very very deep, and you can't hold your breath very long. Nevertheless, it was worth 5 pearls and a half suit of Nordic Fur. We're in business.

And while doing the pearl diving, I decided to randomly explore a bit. I usually don't, but did this time anyway. Hit the Thelas Ancestral Tomb. Now, most people would, upon realizing they had 10 hp left, were wearing crap armor, and were slightly undergunned compared to ancestral ghosts, run like mad back to town. But Hrolf here is the Nord Nationalist! He must raid this tomb! So he walks in and gets ambushed by a pair of ancestral ghosts. Which he beats off, sort of.

There's an old joke from Dragon Magazine I once had, where a gamer is holding the character sheet of his dead character, and he says "Let me get this straight. My character went off alone, with 1 hit point, through a skeleton filled tomb to open the coffin of the Archmage Lich-King of Doom?" Well, I had TWO hit points. I was invincible! Ambush another ghost, backstab it to death with one blow of the iron shardaxe. Ambush a skeleton archer, knock it down, kill it without taking a hit. Deciding that even Nords need naps, I sack out for a bit, only to wake up back at 10 hp with the first of the Dark Brotherhood assassins in front of me. But no worries! and he's down, and I'm in possession of megabucks armor. Loot the rest of the tomb, go back to town.

A 4,138 gold piece-richer Hrolf the Ganger left Sedya Neen bound for Ebonheart a bit later, this time with a Nordic ringmail curiass and a few armorer's hammers.

Ebonheart, you ask? Yes. Need to go talk to Matius about getting the Dark Brotherhood off my case. They have silver daggers NOW, but when they show up with jinkblades, it's going to get ugly.

On a whim, I randomly stop by Addamasartus. I emerge a little while later with a couple of skooma, ten moon sugars or so, and the bonanza - five scrolls of Ondolusi's Unhinging. Nords in the drug trade? Why not. Also, the Iron Shardaxe from the tree stump by the lighthouse is the God of level 1 weapons, hands down.

Also, Khajit rule. "What Khajit do for you?"

After a rather rainy but boring trip to Ebonheart, I run over and talk to Matius. No intention of doing Tribunal NOW, but at least I've talked to the guy. And then the little imps in my mind say to me "self, you can get the Lord's Mail! You can be the only level 1 ever to get the Lord's Mail!" And I listened. The trio of diseased rats that almost slaughtered me at the beginning almost had me convinced, but no, I could do this. A couple of spectacular beatdowns convinced me that no, I couldn't do this.

A much humbler Hrolf then made his way to Vivec. Shopping day had arrived.

Sort of, anyway. Hlaalu had jack. Redoran had a bit of Nordic fur. Jeanne over in the Foreign Quarter had a trollbone shield, though. Ooo. Everyone else was pretty low in stock on Nordic stuff. On the other hand, the Telvanni enchanter had...equalizers. Soon after, I was the first level 1 Nord in all history to have acquired the Lord's Mail and shoved it in his backpack, and also to have explored the random hideout in Ebonheart's underground caves I never knew was there.

Then I went to Suran in the hopes of getting some actual Nordic equipment. Which I didn't actually do, of course. However, I've decided that I rather like Suran. It's a flyspeck little village, of course, and nothing much happens there, but it's a NICE flyspeck little village.

And of course, just for thinking that, I go download Your Suran Residence and set it up the way I want it before going back to playing. Houses are cool. Even for non-RP characters.

Wandering around the Ascadian Isles somewhere, I hit level 2. Whee.

To cut a long story short, I wandered the Ascadian Isles for a while, stopped by Pelagiad to hit the stores, and hit some random dungeons on the way to Balmora.

The main excitement of Balmora? Meldor has a trollbone helmet. But nobody's got Nordic weapons I can use. Argh. Well, we're working on that. Stopped by Caius' and picked up the first Blades quest, while I was there. Then off to Caldera.

In Caldera, it became apparent that Hodlismod has a Nordic battleaxe. Worse than my Shardaxe, but da rules is da rules... Then off to Ald-ruhn. I shall find the location of all bits of Nordic eq yet.

Ald-ruhn, of course, had jack. Buckmoth had jack. The random Daedric ruin... had a lot of buff people who in the end did not kill me and gave me level 3. Thus proving that with the right preperations, you can take on anybody, anywhere, pretty much.

Mar Gaan is a depressing little pit. A pit like Suran's a pit, but Suran has the advantage of looking nice. Mar Gaan looks like the literal ass end of the world. Plus it hasn't got any Nordic stuff, so on we go.

Thirty or so cliff racers and twenty odd nix hounds later, Ald Velothi is browsed, Gnisis is wandered, and we complete our walking tour of the western island by taking the boat from Khuul over to Solthsheim. Why? Nordic silver weapons.

So the first thing I draw is some Nordic mail boots off a Fryse Hag. The sad thing here is that those boots single-handedly have better AR than my entire getup right now. And I can't wear them. Aeeyah.

Salvation is the bottom of Lake Fjalding. A Nordic Silver War Axe. One handed, so works with my trollbone shield. 1-35, which is better than my 1-30 two-handed Nordic battleaxe. And, uh, I can hit damaged-only-by-magic stuff now. No more running from scamps!

Better yet is the custom armor dude at Thirsk. A mismatched suit of bear/wolf armor, which blows my Nordic fur away. And he had a Nordic silver battleaxe and a Nordic silver mace. I'm in the weaponry now, baby.

Somewhere in all of the carnage and slaughter of assorted wildlife, I hit level 6. Still totally unable to find any snow bears, but level 6 nonetheless.

Then I found the snow bears. And it turns out I need 22 snow bear pelts for a full suit of snow bear armor. 2...4...6...8...need more snow bears. But I found the pirate captain with the key for the 5,000 gold treasure chest. Well. 5,000 gold and a bunch of gems, but who's counting? I was suddenly a very rich Nord. Also a level 7 rich Nord, after assorted wildlife slaughtering.

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Fast forward to last night. Prompted by Marechal's helplessness in the face of daedra, I decided to fire up Hrolf and see how he was doing. And, as it turns out, he did fine, although the start was a little rocky - the smugglers in the cave near Frostmoth are not friendly people, and neither are their jinkweapons, so Hrolf was forced to run away. This did not please Hrolf, who proceeded to wander up north, thrash some wildlife, complete the airship quest, wander back down, loot some barrows, and thrash Ibar-dad's Daedroth, Golden Saint, and pair of Dremora Lords for a whole bunch of Daedric equipment and an artifact shield that went straight on the shelves in the house in Suran.

That having been done, Hrolf wandered down past Vivec, pausing to help an old man and a guar cross the street, then wandered into Ald Sotha and killed everything that was moving in there, emerging with 6 or so Sanguine items. Not yet done with Daedric shrines, he wandered over to Bal Fell and killed everything in there, then wandered over to dwarven Mzahnch and cleared that out too. Then he wandered back up to Solthsheim and thrashed those smugglers.

During this whole time he jumped all the way to level 13. As it happens, when you have as main skills lots of armor and weapon skills, you tend to get in fights and gain lots of levels. And this is what happens. Kill another cliff racer, gain another level. Kill a plague wolf, gain a level. Because we're Nordic Nationalists. This is what we do. Us and our snow bear armor and our large axe.

Posted by Dwip at December 24, 2004 2:02 PM