I finally got in after doing a full reinstall and using Dux's wonderful all-in-one installer (which comes with a great UI as well!) and immediately went and made...
... A barbarian rogue
[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] I couldn't help myself. The need for the old nostalgia hit was too much, and I enjoyed spending a good amount of time wandering around Everfrost, trying to avoid the Vengeful skeletons (which wrecked me a few times), and eventually working my way into Blackburrow.
A big shout out to the Barbarian Shaman 'Durteh' for helping me with a great starting kit of fine steel weapons and some rawhide, so I wasn't completely demolished from the get-go, as well as some super buffs which helped me get through the first few levels nicely.
One down-side was I made my Barb rogue Agnostic, and so I couldn't do as many quests as there are available in Halas that you might if you were a follower of "The Tribunal", which was a pain. I am only barely "Indifferent" after doing a few of the other quests and handing in some Gnoll Fangs. I will keep going at it, but by the time I am amiable, I am betting that the quests I would want to do are going to be trivial, so not worth the bother. All that Woolly Fungus saved for nothing...
Apart from being able to eat it, that is.