Cindl will give you a random piece of tattered armor for a polar bear skin or you can save them and sell them for 30pp each in EC to people who make the:
https://wiki.project1999.com/Leather...aider_Skullcap.
Rather than worry about the starting area which is a short term issue, you may want to think more about racial benefits. Most min/maxers for end game pick Barbarian as the worst choice behind Ogre, Troll and Iksar. Mine is Barbarian as that's what I had back in live. The benefit of Barbarian is you aren't kos everywhere in the beginning and you level faster (the other races get larger racial penalties). Once you get to Velious, everyone starts non-kos with Thurgadin so it's not as big a deal as it was pre-expansion.
Some call Ogre's frontal stun immunity as the best racial asset while others call it meh. Innate regen is hard to pass up. Troll gets that, can use a JBB (Iksar can't) and can do a snare necklace quest. Iksar get regen and higher AC but have more limited armor choices and are hated everywhere but their starting city until Velious.