Pamflet – mit alter ego, del 1
// February 25th, 2009 // Beretninger
Jeg har jo spillet WoW i mange år, men kun de sidste par år, er jeg begyndt at roleplaye – dvs. lade som om jeg faktisk ER en lille gnom, der bor i Ironforge, bærer rundt på et stort sværd og fifler med ingeniør-arbejde i min fritid, når jeg spiller og møder andre spillere. Det vil sige, hvis jeg møder nogen i spillet, der spørger hvad jeg hedder, så siger jeg ikke Lea, men Pamflet, for det hedder min karakter, nemlig. Det er simpelthen så mega sjovt, og nu er jeg også kommet med i et guild, der dyrker RP’ing også.
Roleplaying kan lidt sammenlignes med dukketeater. Man har en lille figur som man flytter rundt med og som siger og gør en masse ting, fordi sådan er HUN nu engang. Min lille gnom er fx ordensmenneske og meget lattermild. Enhver god roleplayer har derfor en baggrundshistorie til sin karakter, så man ligesom har en komplet personlighed at øffe rundt med på scenen. Jeg har brugt en del krudt på at skrive Pamflets historie og haft det rigtig sjovt med det. Det er ikke altid lige let, fordi man også er nødt til at kende den historie, som spillet baserer sig på – fx er gnomer først voksne, når de er 40 år gamle. Til gengæld kan de blive noget ældre end mennesker omend ikke ligeså gamle som dværge og elvere. Gnomerne er dværgenes nærmeste allierede og de elsker mekanik. Og så har der været en hel del krige i WoW’s univers. Alt det skal man jo lige huske, når man skrive sin karakters historie, for ellers bliver det jo bare noget sludder 
Jeg vil poste Pamflets historie her på alabast i bidder, så jeg kan gemme den og hygge mig med den om mange år, når jeg spiller noget helt helt andet 
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Just a short letter to let you know, how I am doing. We arrived at Menethil harbour last night. It was a long walk over the mountains and our sergeant really made us work for it. I think we got but two hours of sleep in 48 hours. And the snow was so high, I had trouble moving forward. Luckily I had with me the ultra light flexible snow shoes we crafted before I went away, and I can tell you right now that they are a great success! In our short breaks I used the build in heat to toast a few pieces of bread with out the use of fire! It was a smashing hit among my fellow soldiers. The toothpaste dispenser however, was a bad idea. It freezes solid and is only making the shoes heavier. I have already made alterations in the blueprints for a new pair. I will have to tinker a bit with them, when I get home.
We are at the inn now. It is great to finally be inside in some lose clothes and with a hot cup of tea. Tomorrow is the first day of the actual training exercise. There are troops everywhere here. Dwarves, gnomes, humans and elves. The elves and the humans have formed a large group who are all wearing red stribes on their sleeves. They play one side of the conflict – we are the other side. They are just moving out in to the marsh now. My group’s mission is to scout them out first thing tomorrow. It’s a very important role, since everybody else will be acting on our information. I think the sergeant is a bit nervous, but I have every faith in my newly invented spyglass and your transmission device. We will surely succeed.
There is a bit of tension here though. I mean, we know it is a drill, but everybody feels the growing darkness. We know it will not be long before war is upon us. It seems inevitable. If it comes, I am ready though. I will make you proud, father.
Your loving daughter
Pamflet
PS I send to you an imprint of me and Dolfi. Isn’t it amazing?! I met a gnome here yesterday, who had build the image shooting device himself. I saw the blueprints too. Very inspiring!
PPS: Try not to make too much of a mess with the blueprints and give Knap a big hug from her sister!
Balta Boomstick puts down the letter from his daughter with a sigh and takes off his glasses. He gets out a handkerchief from his pocket, blows his nose and quickly dries his eyes as if the hanky was going that way anyway, before putting it back in his pocket.
He sits in a chair by the fire in a small circular living room. Close by is a lifting device to the 1st floor and at the other end is a large drawing table covered in blueprints. He is a middle-aged gnome with thin hair and a well kept moustache. His hands are rough and bear witness to his hard work in the shop. The visibly burdened gnome gets up from his chair and makes his way to the drawing table. The blueprints are everywhere. On the table, on the chair even on the floor. He starts moving them around without actually sorting anything out. Then he gives up and sits in the chair with a thump.
“Ach, it is no use,” he mutters to himself. “Without my little Pamflet everything is a mess.”
He smiles at the nickname, his daughter has had for so many years now. They both tend to forget that her name is actually Tók. He started calling her Pamflet because she very early on demonstrated a nag for order. Even before she started helping out for real in the shop, she made herself useful by sorting his blueprints out and writing small recaps arranged in little books. The shop is filled with them now, since she never stopped doing it. He chuckles at the thought.
It seems like only yesterday he build this little house just outside Gnomeregan and took over his father’s shop inside their beloved city. His wife, Thelma. had arranged it all and they had just about settled in and started a good business crating Boomsticks for the dwarves, when Pamflet was born. Nothing was the same after that. She came and lit up his world and quite early started tidying it up too. He chuckles to himself. She became his apprentice in the shop from the beginning and helped out with everything from bringing home the ore to actually designing new products. She was such a fast learner and much more structured than him. Also her strength was amazing! That girl had the strength of a dwarf! He never understood where it came from. Nevertheless he wouldn’t let her partake in the actual mining at first, but then she just kept busy in other ways.
She became his self proclaimed bodyguard. He remembered laughing when he bought her the little sword, she requested, and she started following him around on mining trips with a grim look on her face, striking out at every rabbit that came too close. But eventually she became something of a swordsman and they got more daring, fighting off both wolves and trolls to get to the good ore in caves. Before she was 25 Pamflet’s sword had grown to be bigger than her and she too was mining. She started going mining alone in the years that followed. She was both stronger and more efficient than him because of her fighting skills, so he could concentrate on the work in the shop. It was a great help.
Pamflet literally had an arsenal of swords and axes by then. She had struck up a strong friendship with a young dwarven weaponsmith, Dolfi. They were always together. When they were not testing blades, they were testing elaborate fishing equipment – Pamflet’s first solo inventions were all related to fishing.
The old man bursts out in loud laughter at the thought of the enormous device, the pair headed out with one morning. It was a fishing pole of such elaborate scale; the damn thing was on wheels. It had everything. Chair with cousins, cup holder, tea maker, sandwich builder-add on – complete with live chicken for the eggs, automated line casting, a self cast net and of course…a distillery. The latter was Dolfi’s idea. On their first trip the brewing beer-bottles exploded and left the fishing device in an irreparable state. Balta Boomsticks laughs to himself and mutters: “ah well, that’s what happens when you let a dwarf in on the engineering.”
A few good years pasted like this, but then war was upon them. The second war. Pamflet and him got busy in the shop when the demand for boomsticks rocketed – so busy they forgot to be careful…
Balta Boomstick gets up from his chair and reaches out for a photograph on the table before sitting down again. Thelma. He would never forgive himself. But worse, neither would Pamflet. And really it could never be her responsibility – she was just a large child of 31 when it happened. But she never could let it go.
The shop was so busy that day. The dwarves were heading out the following morning and 200 boomsticks were still missing from the order. It was going to be an all nighter. Thelma was home alone with dear little Knap, when a close dwarven friend, Vandar Hammertoe, came by with a special request. He was off to war the next day and he wanted to do the right thing and marry his girlfriend, before he went away. He needed a ring, and Thelma was an excellent jewel smith. Also she was a sucker for romance, so his story hit home right away.
Unfortunately there was no more gold ore on stock, and Thelma didn’t want to disturb. She was always so considerate. So she ended up putting on her warmest clothes to go out mining alone. She only needed a little bit of gold, and there was an ore near by.
When Thelma didn’t come back and Vandar had waited two hours, he took the little one by the hand and came to the shop. Balta Boomstick still remembered Pamflet’s face, when the dwarf came through the door. It grew pale white, and before Vandar had even finished the story, she grabbed her sword and ran out of the shop. She knew.
The gold ore was close to the yeti cave and thus very dangerous to mine, which is why Pamflet was always the one mining that. She just hadn’t had the time to do so in a while. Thelma probably thought it would be ok, since it was growing dark when she left and the yetis usually retreat to their cave for the night. But this day, they must have been late.
Balta strokes his moustache as he recalls the next few hours. He got together a few friends with guns and blades and headed out after Pamflet. When they got to the cave it was pitch dark, but in front of it was a bonfire and beside that, Thelma lay dead in the snow. Pamflet had wrapped her up in her own wolf fur cape, and as Thelma lay there in the night, the orange light from the fire, made her look like an angel.
They found Pamflet further into the cave. She was in a trance, killing every single yeti, she came across. Noone was spared and the yetis’ roars could be heard from far away. He could not stop her. Noone could. She had painted her face with blood and had a determination and hatred in her eyes that scared him and the others. So they left her. The others took Knap home, but he sat down at the bonfire with his dead wife by his side and waited for their first born. She didn’t come out till the next morning, covered in blood. When she saw him, she burst into tears and they stood there holding each other, sobbing for a long time.
Balta Boomstick sits glaring aimlessly at the same spot overwhelmed by the memories. After a while, he snaps out of it and gets up from the chair.
“Ai, and then came the war and we lost so much more. And now it seems, dark times are upon us again.” He glances at The Gnomeregan Times, which has a large article on the front page regarding the scourge and the looming threat to all mortals in this world.
If this business does not die out, the mortals of this world will have to act, and Pamflet now a fully educated soldier will be sure to see battle. He knows this. Even if she is very young. Too young in his opinion. A battlefield is no place for a 48 year old gnome. No sir! He shakes his head.
He has moved to the middle of the room when the door flies open and a small brown eyed gnome girl runs in, waving an envelope.
“Dad! There is a letter from Pamflet!” The young one yells in an exited tone of voice.
“What?” ”But I just read….” Balta points at the opened letter behind him as if to explain, but gives up and grabs the new letter from his bouncing child. He opens it with a sense of ill omen, his hands shaking.
Dear father
I know, I just sent a letter yesterday, but so much has happened since. I don’t have a lot of time. Just to tell you that my group has been chosen for a recon-unit, heading out on a real mission immediately! It’s this undead plague. It seems unstoppable, spreading ever more rapidly. Prince Arthas himself has sent word that it is time for the alliance to act. My unit is to be send out first to scout the infected areas and possibly find the source. I fear war is eminent. You better start mining for the boomsticks right away. I am very proud to have been chosen, and I have Dolfi with me, so don’t worry! We will be fine! And we will make you proud. Give my love to Knap.
Your daughter Pamflet
