SureAI

Hello. I don't want to start with a complaint, so let me first say that I think Nehrim kicks oodles and oodles of ass in all sorts of very special ways. I cannot praise it enough.

However, it's really quite frustrating having nearly 20000 xp and still being 2nd level while wandering around in areas designed for much, much higher level characters. My diary keeps telling me that I can't equip it, no extra menus pop up, and so forth. I've been through the mine, seen the ruin of my family's home, rescued the slave for the general, and explored a few ruins (stealth is my very bestest friend!), so I'm fairly sure I'm past the point at which the diary gets unlocked. I've even got my Stealth and Blade skills high enough to make Lucien Lachance glad he's not in this game...

So, how do I unlock the diary? Did I miss a conversation with somebody? My journal says precisely nothing about how to do it (which probably means precisely nothing).

TIA

Have you killed the black troll in a "nonstandard" way? (Should be impossible with 1.0.8.2 actually; did you have an older version back then?)
"set startglobal to 1" should solve the problem.

Yep, in a very nonstandard way indeed... [Edit: and yes, an elderly version.]

Anywho, setting startglobal to 1 solved the problem. Many thanks!

Unfortunately, ten levelings of +1/+1/+1 kinda sucks; should I have trained skills in between each hitting of the diary? Ah well; I can always use the console to get my PC similar to a typical Oblivion character of his level. Besides, it's kinda nice, playing a character who hasn't been properly leveled!

It actually isn't a problem that you leveled up with +1 only, because enemies in Nehrim don't level with you as in Oblivion.
So there's no need to max out your skills every level, since you can't be "too weak for your level" as it could happen in oblivion.