33. Wolf Skull Cave.

140 Hours 42 Minutes, 21478 Gold, Level 33, 160 Books read, 23 Bunnies

While I was in The Blue Palace in Solitude I heard about the quest at Wolf skull Cave so I got side tracked and went of to do it! It’s not that far from the city and I thought why not while I am here! When I got in a bit I come to a massive open cavern and there’s a whole fort in there with lots of Draugr and Necromancers about the place. I have to be very careful because my timer is set to only save once an hour I have to admit though I have saved a few times otherwise but I have mostly stuck to that aspect. I think after this I am going to get really hardcore and try DEAD IS DEAD.

I was really sneaky in my approach to clearing this place. When you go in you are on this ledge overlooking everything and you can see the Draugr and Necromancers going about below and up ahead of you. There was a Deathlord away in the distance and I got close to the edge of the ledge and I could hit him with Fireball but it takes ages because each time I hit him he walks back out of sight for a while then comes back. Down to the left I was able to cast Flame Atronach at the wall in front of me and he ended up fighting it out with them, it was also useful that there were puddles of petrol which I could ignite with Fireball. When I went down to face what was left there were still a few of them and some were pretty tough but Flame Rune, Atronach and lots of healing and potions later and I had the place done.

Illusion magic is not something I would use a whole lot but if you get the Muffle spell you can advance your Illusion very, very quickly through the earlier levels. I would generally have an Alteration spell in one hand and Illusion in the other and would cast them continuously as I am walking from place to place with not much else to do.

I get back to The Blue Palace and having completed the Wolf skull cave quest I was asked to bring an item to The Talos Shrine which is over Whiterun direction, you can see clearly that not fast travelling isn’t really as bad as it is taken to be, with so many things in so many places you can just do them when you’re in whatever area when you get there.

I will head back soon but first I am legally looting The Blue Palace and selling the lot before going to my next encounter. Absolutely loving this game at the moment. Fast Travel spoils the beauty of it, honestly.

32. A revelation.

133 Hours 37 Minutes, 21885 Gold, Level 33, 22 Bunnies, 0 Back stabs!

I have just made a brilliant discovery. Something which I hadn’t thought much about to the point that I just assumed it was other than it really is. You CAN ride your horse while you’re over encumbered! That is truly a revelation for me, I am so chuffed I have found this out! :)

I get back to Whiterun over encumbered but happy then I sell all my gear and also go into my storage to sell a few more of the tonne of potions I mixed up earlier. I am going to go get that Horn of Jurgan Windcaller but I am only a bit up the road from Whiterun and I have to go back, I can’t take my horse on this journey. There are times I can just ride on but sometimes, like right now, I would rather just walk, I see ingredients and butterflies and the odd potential encounter and I really don’t want to miss it all. I leave my horse back in Whiterun and begin trekking it.

I have been using the map much more than I was previously because, put simply, I had no idea where the dungeon I am heading to was situated.

I run in to quite a few Sabre Cats, Mud Crabs galore and gather a multitude of ingredients. I travel via Dragonbridge and on the road up to Solitude (may as well while I am here!) I get attacked out of the blue by a crazy Argonian, not a mage this time though! Solitude is good lots of ingredients in the city and Radiant Raiment always has the odd good Magical item. I have been finding some good stuff, I always go for apparel with Smithing, Alchemy, Archery and have now got two items for better prices.

I will spend some time gathering and exploring the area before beginning my quest…

31. Shroud Hearth Barrow.

Took me 18 minutes to get to Ivarstead by horse but this time includes slaughtering bunnies, picking flowers, killing spiders and getting lost!

From the Bridge at Ivarstead to the chest at the entrance to High Hrothgar just took me 5 minutes and one second, seriously what is all the fuss about that?

After dealing with the Greybeards and getting the Jurgan Windcaller quest line I decide to stay here for a while and do some local quests. After speaking to the Inn keeper I head for Shroud Hearth Barrow which is right beside Ivarstead. After going in I find the ghost of Wyndelins Gatharian and after he kills me twice I am close to giving up but I keep at it! I find a spot just inside one of the rooms facing into a small alove which leads to the room which he is now in (he follows you) I keep casting Flame Atronach which seems to keep him where he is, it is tedious though as he kills my Atronach nearly right away and it’s only every now and then that my Flamer gets a the odd spell of which only takes him down slightly. I start casting Familiar after a while and as with the Atronach he’s killing it quickly but it’s getting him a little bit each time.

I think I paused too long before one attack and before I know it he’s right on top of me but it’s better this way as he’s not using magic. His shock spells are very powerful and they take my magic down as well I start casting healing with one hand and Flame with the other after Conjuring an Atronach behind him and kill him pretty quickly having already taken his down by about three quarters previously! That was really tough, probably the toughest fight I have faced so far.

My real world electricity switched off just I was becoming immersed and I had to go to the shop! I was getting into the Dungeon a good bit when I realised I was going to be full up so I took a jaunt to Windhelm on my horse sold a load and came back to continue. Most of the Draugr here are really easy but a Draugr Scourge who comes out where the puzzle is and a Death Overlord at the end were pretty hard going but I got through.

I have collected a tonne of gear some of which I have dumped outside so I will travel to Windhelm again then come back for what’s left and I’ll do the other local quest which is to Slay a Dragon before heading back to Whiterun and onto The Jurgan Windcaller quest…

30. Wheeling and Dealing.

I just got my Speech Skill up to 50 and this is a much bigger deal than it appears. I can now choose the “sell any item to any merchant” perk. In Breezehome I have a serious amount of stored Potions and Poisons that I was unable to sell because previously there were only two people in Whiterun who I could sell potions to now there are six!

What I do every time is buy everything I need from the vendors such as Smithing materials, Soul Gems, Lockpicks, Arrows, magical items to disenchant or to use, ingredients and potions, this seriously ups the amount of money they have and since the potions I have stored are both expensive and abundant I am going to end up taking all the money back anyway. I won’t be going buying large amounts from them however if I am not going to sell a lot to them. This is a great way to satisfy future gold stores and to guarantee ways to increase skills.

29. First visit to High Hrothgar.

121 Hours 54 Minutes, 16877 Gold, Level 31, Potions mixed 392, Poisons mixed 177, Potions used 267, 19 Bunnies!

I did a huge amount of Alchemy, Smithing and Enchanting and it jumped my level right up to half through 31! I then went out onto the tundra to do some Archery and getting giants to chase me into battles. I got one to come from Sleeping Tree Camp to Fort Greymoor and repeated the routine from earlier, letting him fight it out with the Bandits then I run about casting flame Atronach and Fire Rune to mop the last of them up and gathered a good amount of loot. I tend to just stay out at times like this I wait until I am absolutely full before heading back to town for some buying and selling.

I need to get a Bow with soul capture soon I am a bit miffed because I have came across them earlier and I either didn’t bother buying them or I am sure I sold one or two I had picked up on quests. After I am done with Whiterun I am going to make my first visit to High Hrothgar, I have seen so many people complain about this and using it as an excuse to Fast Travel so I am going to time the journey from Whiterun to there and then time the journey up the mountain itself just to see what all the impatient fuss is about.

I am 39 and in good health and I am not planning on dying anytime soon so I am sure I will be able to handle the horrific journey up those steps! ;)

28. Skills to focus on.

118 Hours 26 Minutes, 20272 Gold, Level 26, 47 days passed, 837 Chests Looted, 4390 Barters, 17 Bunnies!

Cleared Yngol Barrow which I thought was easy until the Draugr Death Overlord who was deadly! I used a lot of potions and ran about casting Fame Atronach and using fire runes and got him in the end. Found the Helm I was looking for but in the last room there is a gate which I couldn’t open, there’s a chest and steps behind it and there’s a button in the room which won’t activate for some reason.

I went back then to Winterhold to drop off the Helmet which made me a Thane of! I lifted everything sellable from The Jarls Longhouse and went to see Birna to buy and sell, then I went up to The College to buy soul gems and help out with a few things, Arniel needing cogs and one of the female mages wanting someone to cast spells on. I began then making my way back to Whiterun via Windhelm I have walked/run this many times now and it’s not that big a deal. I always go the same route although I have got lost a few times but this time I stick to it. Down past Snow Veil Sanctum, across the river to Windhelm, then over the Bridge and up to the Left heading to Mixwater Mill then along the river to Valtheim Towers then sometimes up the river or up the path depending on how much I feel like stopping.

I am about three quarters of the way up level 26 and I am going to stop at Whiterun to do a huge amount of Alchemy, Smithing and enchanting to see how far I can push myself. I am careful with Alchemy, I never exhaust any of my ingredients because I am aware they may make more powerful potions later as my skill increases. I am going to use all the Iron ingots and Ore I have in Whiterun and buy more and I will use up a fair few soul gems and even get a soul trap bow and go out on the Tundra to fill up more gems, over the next 2 or 3 days I am going to focus on these three skills and see how I do.

27. Documenting a walk.

I was leaving Whiterun looking up ahead of me at the Carriage and I thought about getting it to Windhelm, I even asked about it and seen it was 20 gold but I thought “No I’ll walk.” Then I thought just this once I would write down what I got from walking exactly.

On the way I came across a few animals, 1 bandit, 1 Necromancer, 1 Skeleton, 1 dead treasure hunter, 1 crazy Argonian mage and 1 Windhelm guard who wanted to arrest me who was strangely wearing a Stormcloak Cuirass and a Stormcloak Helmet.

On the walk I gathered the following:

3 healing potions, Steel armour, a refined Moonstone, Flawless Garnet, Iron Shield, 2x Iron Swords, Common Soul Gem (Filled), Black Mage Robes, Staff Of Chain Lightening, Hunting Bow, Hide Shield, Clothes, 9x Steel Arrow, 2x Boots, Iron War Axe, Fur Gauntlets, 2x Fur Armour, Fur Shoes, Fur Boots, Hide Boots, Steel Dagger, Sabre Cat Pelt, Deer Hide, Venison, Shovel, 4x Wolf Pelt, Fox Pelt, Leg Of Goat, Restore Magicka Potion, Iron Dagger, Necromancer Robes, Scroll Of Hysteria, Ancient Nord Bow, 16x Ancient Nord Arrow, Ale, Treasure Hunters Note (pointing to Quest).

6x Blue Butterfly Wing, 12x Blue Mountain Flower, 4x Butterfly Wing, 12x Lavender, 34x Purple Mountain Flower, 4x Red Mountain Flower, Sabre Cat Tooth, 18x Thistle Branches, 24x Tundra Cotton, 3x Jazbay Grapes, 7x Dragons Tongue, 7x Creep Cluster, 2x Mora Tapinella, Orange Dartwing, Fire Salts.

340 Gold and 4 skill Increases!

This is just one 20 minute walk. If you take into consideration how many Carriage Journeys you take and do the Maths not walking very obviously makes you miss a lot of stuff, granted you can find it another time but I would rather find it every time!

26. Yngol Barrow.

I am now Arch-mage and the first thing I do is go lift everything that can be sold from the Arch-mages quarters, I found an amulet which gives 10% better prices so I am now selling everything including stuff that previously couldn’t be sold such as Carrots, Inkwells, Buckets etc etc and if I have space I am grabbing all I can as it all helps in the long run to pay to learn skill increases and buy magical items. When I go into Alchemists I always buy all their stock of ingredients before I sell them anything.

I am just about to leave Winterhold when I go into the Jarls Longhouse and ask about quests he tells me about a Helmet which is in Yngol Barrow and I start heading there. I have a few encounters out in the wilds with Wolves, Ice Wraiths and the odd bandit on the way and after selling some stuff in Windhelm I start out for Yngol Barrow. I find a horse glitch at Windhelm stables, I go to buy a horse because I am not stealing one during the day and I am not in the business of waiting if I can help it only to find that he takes my money and tells me “It’s the one with the saddle” but there isn’t one with a saddle there, I had previously had two horses from here one of which died and one got lost so it must have something to do with that.

I get to Yngol Barrow and go all the way through only to find that I need The Coral Claw which I have luckily kept from an earlier quest, I have it stored in Whiterun. Before I left Winterhold I also got J’zargo’s falme cloak scrolls so when I find me so some undead I can use them. I also had to use the map the for the first time in ages because I had no Idea where the Barrow was.

So I have to head back to Whiterun and back here again bit of a pain but that’s the way it has to be done!

25. Selling the loot.

100 hours 52 Minutes, 16306 gold, Level 24, 2069 Ingredients Harvested, 17 Bunnies

I have been getting through Labyrinthian the very best but ended up getting killed once by a petty soul gem, what a way to go! I am using magic much more than previously and I am finding it works well even on the more powerful Draugr Deathlords. Since I now have a really good stock of magic and Health potions it’s a better option. I am carrying both Destruction robes and Restoration robes and I change them according to whatever I need at the time. I have fire in one hand and healing in the other so I just cast both while the Draugr are in front of me, it’s also great in the long run for upping both those skills.

I would have used bows and arrows much more previously but that’s not a good option at the moment since m archery skill is not very high the arrows are not travelling too far but this will obviously improve with a lot more practice out on the tundra hitting deers. I am just about to make my second journey outside to dump of an inventory full of gear, it really doesn’t bother me at all doing this when you get used to it you see it as just another part of the game and it will do me good long term to have as much gold as I possibly can so I now literally see it as an investment!

Finished The Staff Of Magnus quest it was pretty easy considering for some reason Morokei didn’t even bother attacking me, I was a bit disappointed but flamed him up none the less! I looked at my gold as I was leaving and it was at 17414 then I went back to Whiterun which is less than 5 minutes sprint/walking and sold the first load of gear. I went and got Lydia and headed back to get the next lot once again came back and sold it all and made one more trip alone as there was not that much left. I took all the gold from everyone I could sell to in Whiterun including the travelling caravan outside, then I went to Riverwood to sell more and finally onto Falkreath to get rid of the last of it. I kept a good eye on exactly what I was selling, normally at times like this I would be buying stuff like lock picks and ore and whatever else I needed as well as selling but I wanted to see how much I would gain this time. I began with 17414 and ended up with 24521 and I reckon that’s a pretty good return and worth the extra time spent, this does not include items I kept such as ingredients, ore, ingots, the odd magical item and other bits and pieces.

Walking from place to place is not that big of a deal when you get used to it there are always encounters and gathering to be done and all these things will add to your long term strength within the game. Since more or less everything you do will up your skills there really isn’t anything you do in this game that will not benefit you eventually.

24. Labyranthian.

I get myself prepared and head North out of Whiterun into the Mountains. Since I had already had a good look around over to the West in the area around Windhelm I will keep heading North and East this time. I head on into the Mountains via a large pass and as luck would have it find Labyrinthian pretty quickly. After this any time I find a location I will maybe keep a record of it because while you’re not using the map it is very easy to get lost. I am not however saying that I will never look at the map, I am sure there will come a point when I may be so lost that I will have to.

I have collected some wolf pelts and deer hides in my walk up so I decide I am going to make an item dump right here it’s a good location not that far from Whiterun and I am sure I’ll be able to pass through here on my way back from more Northern locations later in the game.

Not fast travelling has really clued me into an aspect of the game which would be lost otherwise, preparation. Today for instance before I headed out to look for Labarinthian I really had to think about what I needed. I stocked up on potions and took everything out of my inventory that I wouldn’t be absolutely needing. Fast travel takes this away, I would regularly start a dungeon then when I got full up I would go outside, fast travel, sell or store items then fast travel back to continue but I cannot do this now and though many would see it as being limiting I think it greatly enhances the gaming experience, it’s more of a challenge this way.

I am barely into the place when I come up against a gang of skeletons and a skeletal dragon I run about casting Flame Atronach and hitting them with Firebolt and I already have to start thinking about how I am going to make the most of my inventory space. I cannot take the Dragon bones right now they are far too heavy so I leave them hoping I can get them later (nearly sure I can!)

I start filling up very early so I am going outside and dumping all I have gathered so far out there so I can sell it later on. The Draugr are pretty powerful at this point in the game with me being on Level 23, not the lower ones but the Draugr Wight’s, haven’t seen any Deathlords yet but I know I will and they’re gonna be tough when I get to them!

23. Increases.

These timeouts are important. Once you have gathered enough materials take your leave of quests for a little while. Between speech increases from buying and selling, enchanting weapons and creating potions I have jumped three levels in the space of 10 or 15 minutes! I am also a bit miffed with myself because I had a circlet with 17% alchemy on it stored upstairs in Breezehome which I had forgotten about.

There is an Apothecaries satchel on the Alchemy table in Breezehome and as well as putting all my ingredients in there I also store my gear that has plus alchemy percentages so everything is right there when I need it.

I make sure to also buy any soul gems that I come across because you really do make a good return by selling weapons you enchanted especially if said weapons have been kept from looting. Depending on the enchantment obviously but since the item cost nothing and in some cases the soul gems used were simply found lying around you can make upwards of 200-300 gold or more.

Also keep anything you find that has Smithing increases because combining them while Smithing can also bring great returns at later stages in the game!

22. Alchemy and Enchanting.

85 hours 59 Minutes, 19811 gold, Level 21, 270 Animals, 17 Bunnies

I have no idea where Labyrinthian is but I know it is in a snowy region I passed by it about 5 days ago and cleared out the Snow Trolls who run about outside it. I will head for Whiterun for now to drop ingredients off and sell some gear but on the way I’ll have a good look around as Windhelm and the surrounding area is completely shrouded in snow.

Another Dark brotherhood member attacked me but he seemed much stronger than the ones I had encountered previously so I had to do a lot of dodging and with Lydia’s help got him in the end. I head out along a couple of paths from Windhelm looking but no luck so I just go to Whiterun. While I am there I go and get my Alchemy gear and ready some potions! I have Gauntlets of minor which give a 12% increase and a necklace of major which is 17%. Blue Butterfly wing and Blue Mountain Flower make a potion which gives 55 health but these same two ingredients also make an expensive damage Magicka poison which sells for over 300 gold and gets a good increase on the alchemy skill. I am being careful and only making the potions I think I’ll need and saving lots of my ingredients but I am also making a few to sell at the same time. Red Mountain Flower and Creep Cluster similarly makes a good Magicka potion which gives 55.

I am also going to get some enchanting done I am keeping certain weapons so I can disenchant them and I have been keeping the likes of daggers and cheap swords in storage this means I can just put enchantments on them and sell them for extortionate prices! When I get a good stock of soul gems I will get myself a bow with soul capture ability and spend a lot of time out in the wilds filling them but it will be a long time before I bother to do this.

After I am finished in Whiterun I will head up to the mountains to the North which are a cold region and start making my way along them looking Labyrinthian.

21. Between WIndhelm and Winterhold.

I had to fight my temptation to completely empty Mzulft and just go on ahead to keep going with the College quests. I did get a good amount of metal though, enough to make 134 Dwarven Ingots not including all the scrap I dumped outside to be got at a later date. Lydia has proved very helpful I think she may well be immortal!

I head back to Windhelm and after some buying and selling I make my way out at night time and steal a horse, I am not wasting another 1000 gold! On the way back to Winterhold I come across a Wispmother and her babbies at an open air alter then on the way down through a mountain pass I find two Mages in battle I wait until one has died then I wade in with Flames and finish the second one off, pretty easy.

I also discover a little trick, when you sprint with your horse it stops after a while and begins trotting again to get another sprint just quickly dismount and when you get back on again you can do another full sprint, I am not sure however if dismounting would make it worth while time wise but there ya go anyways.

Back at the College that old bad apple Ancano is up to no good and The Arch-mage ends up getting killed in the ensuing battle. So I must now goto Labyrinthian to find the Staff Of Magnus and although I was at Labyrinthian I for the life of me cannot recall exactly where it is. So I am off for a completely blind walk around Skyrim until I can begin to remember where I am supposed to be going!

20. Clearing Mzulft.

These ruins are a bit tricky at such a low level more often than not the Falmer are in small groups of up to four and there a Chaurus running around as well. I have got a good way of dealing with it. I tell Lydia to wait somewhere safe then scout on up ahead and when I see enemies in the distance I go towards them quietly then cast Flame Atronach then run back towards Lydia and as I am heading back I cast reanimate corpse on bodies, this is especially handy if you remember which ones had magic abilities because their zombies can still use magic I am nearly all the way through it now and I will have to leave much of this stuff behind but I have dumped the last full load that myself and Lydia were carrying outside the ruins and I may get them at some future point in the game (if still there!)

Clearing these ruins has taken even longer because I have been killed twice and since I have the save set for 1 hour this meant I had to go back and begin from a much earlier point that's why I had to start employing more sneaky methods of dispatching my enemies!

19. Dreaming?

75 Hours 26 Minutes, 17030 Gold, Level 20, 258 Animals, 17 Bunnies!

Last night as I slept in Windhelm I had the most fantastic dream. I was a Bard living in a city called Belfast! I was witnessing part of his life through his eyes. He was in what would have been that lands equivalent of Taverns where they served drinks in glasses instead of tankards. He and his friends had gone there to watch some type of game which they called Football it consisted of two groups of men kicking a ball around a field which was in a stadium, kind of like the Arena in The Imperial City but with grass. It was fascinating. They had these large screens on which they could see the game with full sound and men talking about it somewhere out of sight. During the break I was sure I could see magic happening on these screens there where all sorts of flashes and strange noises going on!

I think it best I don’t tell Lydia about this she would think me mad! I am going to have to review my plan to empty the ruins of Mzulft since I don’t have a house in Windhelm there is far too much to carry and I cannot get a house here until I have killed the Ice Wraith for the Jarl. I will clear the ruins and see how I should proceed. Once again a dark brotherhood assassin has tried to kill me. Lydia shot him clean in the head with an arrow and still he persisted but I was able to fry him good with Flames and loot the unfortunate souls corpse!

Back to Mzulft once more...

18. Mzulft.

I got it slightly wrong earlier, Mzulft is actually East of Windhelm not South. The trail that leads there and indeed the one which took me from Mix Water Mill to Windhelm are very rich areas for ingredients and if you have time you could easily spend an hour here heading off the road collecting Mountain flowers, Dragons tongue, Creep cluster and Jazbay grapes. Another one of The dark brotherhood came and tried his luck I think they’re recruiting a whole branch of that organisation just to look for me!

I keep hearing Dragons passing sometimes closer but mostly pretty distant yet I have had very few encounters with them. I get to Mzulft and go into the Dwarven Storehouse which is over to the right before you get right up top to the main entrance and I know upon entering that I am going to be here for a very long time because I simply cannot resist the urge to take all this stuff out with me. All this scrap metal can be melted down into ingots and this ruin is extensive, so Lydia and I will be back and forth to Windhelm many times before this quest is completed!

17. Good oule Lydia!

71 Hours 11 Minutes, 15101 Gold, Level 20, 17 Bunnies, 237 Animals!

After the usual wheeling and dealing in Whiterun I begin walking back to Windhelm with my trusty pack mule Lydia! I have cleared this road of ingredients so I get through the journey pretty fast and on the way run into another one of those Dark Brotherhood crowd, when I find out about that organisation I will have to find out who has it in for me and I will also have a word about the quality of the Assassins they’re taking on these days, far too easily dispatched!

The road up past Vildhelm Towers (spelt wrong) is good for bandits and the opportunity to fill up on loot that I can then sell when I get to Windhelm. The tower itself is part of a quest so at this point I only take out the bandits who are around the entrance area not venturing inside.

I get lost again heading for Windhelm but end up way down a Mix Water Mill but it’s no thang I am collecting ingredients and Lydia is taking care of bears and wolves for me! Get my bearings again and I am no far from Windhelm now where I will sell and buy and get ready for the last trek to Mzfult!

I am strongly tempted to stop and go picking ingredients in the hot water pools alongside the road leading from Windhelm up to Mzfult but I realise I will be completely full up from what lies ahead and I am already wondering if I should keep going in and out of the ruins and leave everything lying outside to be collected later at my leisure. The first time I cleared this same ruin I got nearly 1000 Dwarven Ingots from all the scrap metal I gathered, back then though I was using fast travel so it will be different this time and that's why I brought Lydia!

16. I hate horses!

I head on towards Windhelm going down off the trail from Winterhold to the left towards Snow Veil Sanctum and as always there are a couple of Ice Wraiths, they’re not that hard to beat at this point but they still hit hard so I cast Flame Atronach and hit them with double flames. On round a bit nearer the city I find three of the Companions are out fighting with a Mammoth, which is getting the better of them, all three are doubled over so I cast healing hands on two but when I try to help the third, a certain Miss Stonearm, she immediately begins putting me to the sword saying “You never should have came here!” or words of a similar ilk! I run pretty quick and switch spells to healing because she has gotten me down to about a third of my health with two swings. I cross the wide river and don’t notice a Cave Bear when I emerge from the water, again Flame Atronach is cast and I run on because I have not yet gotten over my battles with the not very aptly named “companions”!

At Windhelm stables I decide to buy another horse, 1000 a time, but it seems a good deal as if they don’t get killed they end up defaulting back to where they came from I then cross the bridge and head up the path in the direction of Whiterun. I get right up the trail but once again go the wrong way, I’ll get the hang of this not using the map yet! I end up going towards a fort which I can’t remember the name of and it’s then I realise I need to go back and off to the left. I have not gotten far when I see a dead Mammoth so I stop and dismount to take its tusk but I fail to see a Giant which spooks my horse who then high tails it back towards Windhelm! HORSES! I HATE HORSES!

So it’ll be a walk, sprint, walk, sprint before I get to Whiterun and on the way passed the Bandit camp I cleared much earlier I notice that the horse which kept returning to its default there didn’t this time, poor thing ;) It’s not easy this role playing lark!

15. Potion Solutions.

Got back to Winterhold to find the Orb in the Hall of Elements with Tolfdir busy admiring it and I have to go speak with him having returned the books I got back. I will continue this quest line for now as I think I am strong enough to get through it. I have to go to the ruins of Mzulft and I can kind of remember that if I head for Windhelm then go directly South along a long road which runs along side an area of hot water vents and some Giant camps I will find Mzulft.

I will head for Whiterun first and leave my Ingredients and soul gems etc off there so I will have as much space to carry as possible because Dwemer ruins are full of loot which can be sold and used. I have no horse at the moment so it’s the long trek back to Whiterun!

I am not having as much bother with the potion situation now as I have found a cheap way to make Magicka and health potions which give revitalise to the tune of 54, I have forgotten exactly what makes them and will put this in a later blog. The road out of Winterhold is always treacherous and predictably I don’t get far before I am attacked by a cave bear. I cast Fire Atronach and as I am running away Along comes Talsgar the wanderer. My Atronach gets it and I cast fire on the bear as it’s attacking me and it dies then Talsgar starts attacking me! Well he’s wandering no more! I had to roast him up as I was down on my health and he was whacking me with his sword. I am sure he will come in useful on future journeys out of Winterhold when I’ll be able to cast Raise Zombie on him to stave off a bear or a Sabre Cat.

Onward once again to Whiterun!

14. Lost in the Mountains.

62 hours 04 mins, 15404 gold, Level 19, 15 Bunnies!

I was heading to Winterhold to continue the College quest line but I ended up going all the way to Dawnstar, I am not using the map much rather I am trying to get used to finding my way around from memory. I knew I needed to head back as I didn’t want to go along the coast as I was on horseback. I headed back and ended up taking successive wrong turns until I at last was utterly lost in the mountains. Not good, I had no idea where I was and I was not going to look at the map so I just kept taking the next trail that came along and hoped for the best.

Luckily a frightened woman came along and told me she had been taken captive by bandits and escaped and she too was lost. By default I end up telling her that there’s a town nearby which she then takes off for and I of course follow her and it’s not long before I am at Sarthaal and I have my bearings again. On the way back I am attacked by Ice Wraiths and my Horse gets killed (having no luck with horses) I then find a stack of loot which I had been over encumbered with much earlier in the game so I take the lot and head down to Winterhold…

13. Swamp meet!

Walking to Solitude is not that big of a deal anymore once you get used to doing things this way you begin to see the way you used to do things as strange, I could not be bothered with all that fast travelling now it seems such a waste of time. Some one said that they have very little time in the real world and that’s why they fast travel but seriously it’s not as if we’re going to die next week or something! I mean why the rush to finish the game when you have such an expansive thing as Skyrim why not get the most of it. I honestly believe that I will be playing on this current save for a year or more from now.

Sometimes when I get up for work in the Morning and I’ll be going through my mental list of what needs to be done that day I actually say to myself “Yeah I really need to buy those Gauntlets of major Alchemy today!” and I laugh!

I found out that as default horse that you buy that get lost do return to the stable from which you bought them as mine was there at the stable outside Solitude it maybe a good long term idea to buy horses everywhere and you’ll always have one. I stay about the docks in Solitude and blast Hawks out of the sky to harvest their feathers and beaks! I decide not to take the horse this time though as the Swamp area between Solitude and Morthal is a great place for gathering ingredients. I always spend a good hour here, there are Deathbells in abundance, Fungal swamp pods, Giant Lichen, Canis root, Mudcrab Chitin, Dragonflies, butterflies and a lot of deer running around. I found a great potion to make money is the poison “damage magicka regen” this is made with a blue butterfly wing and a blue mountain flower and with gauntlets and a necklace of Alchemy I am getting 244 gold per potion so it’s well worth harvesting as many of these two as you can. If anyone knows of any other really good combinations why not post them?

12. Big Scrap!

55 hours 32 mins, 19612 gold, Level 18, 15 Bunnies!

I have mostly stayed close to Whiterun for the last few plays I done the Silent moons camp quest then the one up at Fellglow Keep which took ages because of running back and forth but it was not in vain I experienced so much in the wilderness between there and Whiterun. Fights and Giants all sorts that’s a big part of the reason I was able to gather so much gold.

I headed over towards the Western Watchtower mainly to look for fights and ingredients and was attacked by a dragon but it ended up being another jamboree of a fight with a couple of Sabre Cats, three Mudcrabs, a group of Bandits and even the Mammoths getting in on it I got a tonne of loot and plenty of experience.

I have decided that nice long walk up to Solitude will be my next aim. I am not going to start heavily into quests until y experience is well up, maybe to about level 25. I was using a horse for a while but was getting frustrated having to stop and pick ingredients as I just cannot abide leaving them there and running on so for now I will be walking and taking in all that this brilliant game has to offer…

11. Autosaved!

42 hrs, 20 mins, 10132 gold, Level 16, 15 Bunnies

I did a couple of missions which I knew would get me plenty of loot to speed things up a bit. The first at Silent Moons Camp were I had to kill the bandit leader for the Whiterun Jarl. I brought Lydia with me but it was a very easy quest. Having spoken with my nephew who’s also mad for RPG’s he was telling me about the autosave function. I now have put that up to 1 hour so if I die between saves I have to go right back to the last one, thankfully that hasn’t happened yet. I also found out that when you steal horses and they wander off they actually go back to the place where you found them, I am wondering if that means that horses you buy that run off maybe go back to where you bought them.

Started the quest “Hitting the Books” Fellglow Keep is near Whiterun so I have been running back and forth due to the fact that there is so much loot there. Got attacked by Thalmor again they are up just outside Fellglow Keep and by the time I got back from Whiterun they were fighting with Bandits so I went and got two Giants complete with a mammoth to follow me up to get in on the battle. There is a bandit camp just under the very back of Whiterun and after I had cleared it I have been using the horse to get back up to Fellglow. By the end of the battle there was only one Giant left but he ended up killing me and since I have autosave set to 1 hour I have to go way back by about half an hour or so and start again!

10. Winding up Giants!

38 hrs 07 mins, 7835 gold, Level 14

I got back from Solitude having done the Pelagius quest and getting a raise in my carrying capacity from The Steed Stone and I headed for Whiterun to drop all my stuff off and sell. I bought two magical items to raise the quality of my alchemy which will not only help me with my potion drought it will also raise much needed funds. I decided to stay around Whiterun for a while and I headed out to get some experience and sellable goods.

Fort Greymoor is just North a bit from The Western Watchtower and there is a Giant camp not far from the fort to the East. I ran into the Giants camp and got them chasing me then lead them into the fort. They can get in through the main entrance but are unable to get through smaller doors, they can also get up onto the Battlements. There are 5 or 6 bandits guarding the outside of the fort and I just ran about dodging arrows and let the bandits and Giants fight it out. The giants wipe out the bandits then I cast flame atronach and stay inside the tower with the smaller opening that the giants can’t get through and fire arrows. This proves to be a great way to get a tonne of loot nearly 2000 golds worth for 10-15 mins, not bad!

Went back to Riverwood after and there was a Dragon attacking. This is only actually the second Dragon I have been in combat with and only the forth I have seen so far. Seems it is true that fast travel has a massive impact on the number of dragons that randomly turn up. Dragon done but I have lost my horse in the battle it got breathed on and has done a runner and I really need another so that’ll be another thousand gold!

9. The Steed stone.

24 hrs 57 mins, Level 10.99, 3936 gold

I have not bee doing any quests in favour of gaining experience along the roads and gathering ingredients and goods to sell but I keep hitting that old snag of encumbrance so I have decided that for my long term financial gain I will need to travel up to Solitude as The Steed Stone is up there and it will give me 100 extra carry weight and negate my armour weight. I will travel by horse and time the journey.

So the perils of no fast travel are ever evident! I started heading towards Winterhold and I decided to go around the coast way that I went earlier and I through Dawnstar and half way up the coast before I realised that I was supposed to be going to Windhelm and get my horse before going to The Steed Stone!

Many an encounter ensued though bandits galore, wolves and I even snagged myself a giant in a desperate fight of fire arrows and run, fire arrows and run! I also took on a load of Horkers and used raise Zombie on one which was great craic and found a pair of +25 carry weight boots at the traveling caravan parked at Dawnstar but now I am heading to Windhelm to get my Steed!

8. Horses for courses.

Heading up the road from Windhelm back to Winterhold and I spot a cut through the mountains so I decide to take it. On up ahead I spy a horse and beside it lies a Peddler and two 2 bandits I missed one hell of a fight. I loot the bodies and have a moment of madness and decide to take the horse back to Whiterun so I can bring all my Smithing and Alchemy materials and consolidate them at Breezehome.

First time properly using a horse and it’s a great jaunt which I time without interruption to 10 minutes good to know I am not completely stuck for a mode of “fast” travel. I go into Whiterun leave off my ingredients etc and when I come back the horse has done a runner! DAMMMMNNNN!

I will have to stock up on supplies and walk back to Winterhold again but not via Dawnstar this time I’ll go round Windhelm direction it’s a bit longer but there’s plenty going on! I end up buying a horse and start out there’s a fight going on between some bandits and Whiterun guards at a watchtower just North of Whiterun so I dismount and loot the bodies then off again along the way I run through Giant camps so I’ll get a map marker for them and find the horse is handy for outrunning just about anything but I haven’t witnessed any Sabre Cats or bears as yet. I take my horse right up to the college and leave it in the courtyard area hopefully it’ll still be there when I get back from Sarthaal.

I have been messing about too much I think running about like a mad man not doing a lot on the quest side of things but once I start I’ll remedy that.

Sarthaal is easy enough but I manage to get killed twice by one of the stronger Drugr. A lack of potions is becoming a real problem. I get back to the College to find my horse is still there and since I have took all Birnas money I will take a jaunt to Windhelm once I have this part of the quest completed to get and sell supplies. There’s an Ice Wraith I have to kill for the Stormcloaks which I may well have a look at doing while I am up this way I am nearly sure it’s close by. I am not looking at the map unless it’s absolutely essential. Wish I had enough money to buy apparel with magical effects! L

7. Potion problems.

Game time 14 hrs 33 Mins, 4159 Gold, Level 9.

I am in Winterhold now and I reckon I am going to stay here for quite a while having started the College quest line. I have left a lot of ingredients and other stuff back in Whiterun and it will take a long time to go back and get them so I’ll just leave them there for now and since Whiterun is pretty central I will base most of my operations there. Already at this early stage I am having a lot of logistical problems that wouldn’t arise if I were fast travelling. Potions as well are a bit of a nightmare I used all of them up while I was questing to get to level 9 and normally I could fast travel and buy a load as my gold is up to a reasonable level again but I am sure I’ll get some at the College and at Sarthaal. Before doing Sarthaal I decide to go down to Windhelm to sell some stuff and to check for useful things to buy selling in Winterhold has taken all Birnas money, I just hope she doesn’t get involved in any Dragon attacks as she’s the only real buyer there, although when I up levels and speech skills anything goes.

On the way to Windhelm there are the usual shenanigans including another attack by the Dark Brotherhood they’re a bad lot them Dark Brotherhood ones and they have notes with my name on it I would like to know who’s been shooting their mouth off about me! I do a good bit of trade in Windhelm buying potions and selling a good amount but can’t resist getting speech training which takes me to level 10 and I use my perk on the speech tree because it pays off in the long run.

I shouldn’t have come to Windhelm I have been roped into Joining the Stormcloaks but I am going to go back up and do the Sarthaal quest before I start getting completely side tracked. I will have to start keeping a good eye on these quests and doing the ones that are relevant to the place I am in at the time. I am loving this whole way of playing though where I have to give a lot of thought to what I am doing and it’s amazing that I haven’t died yet, I don’t know I think I am more cautious now and I haven’t even started Alchemy or Smithing yet so when I get onto those my levels should start to raise pretty rapidly.

I would recommend this way of doing it though it’s much more of challenge and adds so much depth to a game which already has an incredible amount of depth. Off to rest then Sarthaal it is!

6. It's a kind of magic.

This is a time when fast travel would be really handy and I would have used it regularly for moments like this. I am stuck in Winterhold and I can’t get into the college until I can conjure a Flame Atronach, I don’t even know what I need to do it and I am not going to go looking. I have 110 magic at the moment and I am still on level 6 so I am going to find something to do so I can up my levels. I am stuck here see so I will just make the most of it.

I break into Birnas shop after dark hoping that one of those potions I spied behind her when I was bartering will temporarily raise my magic since she’s only selling one potion, but no such luck. I have heard from Birna and the Jarl about Yngvild which is back along the coast towards Dawnstar so I decide to give that a go but first I go up the path to look for that body from earlier. No body there just ferocious Ice Wolves! I have to run back healing myself then sneak up on them and get them one at a time, 2 of them! I can’t find the body either I have misplaced him or he didn’t die strange though as there are no Ice Wolf corpses either just some goat carcasses. I see a path leading up the mountain on the other side of the trail and start heading up there when I get attacked by a Dark Brotherhood Assassin, easy kill then I quit with getting side tracked and set out for Yngvild. First back to Winterhold then down along the coast swimming occasionally to avoid hunters.

I realise when I am changing spells that I need 132 magic to cast Flame Atronach so that means when I get to level 9 I’ll be good for that. Yngvald is pretty easy with ghosts and Drugrs although I get a scare at the end as Arondil takes me right to the limit but I somehow survive with a tiny bit of red on my health bar. Having a long restoration cast will go some way to upping me toward level 9. So it’s back to Winterhold once again and on the way I find a ship wreck which I wouldn’t have otherwise discovered but most of it is under water and my lungs are not so great yet so I’ll come back another time!

I head off up the road out of Winterhold once again with flames at my hands looking for encounters with which I can get myself up to level 9 and I end up walking all the way to Fort Kastav where I see a skeleton coming down from an observation tower towards me. Easy kill but then along come 2 pretty powerful mages casting spells on me and I have to start running as I don’t have many potions and my life bar is vanishing fast! That was lucky, once again I have been taken close to death and survived. This is great fun this surviving alone in the wilderness with no method of teleportation! On the way back I get attacked by a crazed Wood Elf who turns out to be a Skooma addict, so like real life sometimes, and I head off down a path which leads me to a ruin and eventually Snow Veil Sanctum not before once again going close to death while fighting with two Ice Wraiths and the odd Ice Wolf.

Two more pushes of my level bar should do it but I head back to Winterhold as it has been close out here a couple of times and I have used up all my potions with those close calls. I decide that if I go down towards the sea again I will be able to cast flame on some Horkers to get the needed experience and that turns out to be just so LEVEL 9 it is and one Flame Atronach later I am admitted to the college!

5. Legal Thievery.

I bought the House and since that left me with only 660 gold I went upstairs in Dragonsreach for some legal theft you can take more or less everything except for a mammoth tusk, jewellery and certain potions and strangely fine clothes can now also be taken, some ingredients up there too, well worth a visit and I waited for the guard who was doing archery practice to fire away and ended up getting 50 steel arrows. I don’t mind taking my time in this way it’s all part of the gaming experience for me.

I was tempted to leave going to Winterhold for a journey to the Grey beards since that quest line is now active but I will do as I said I would, I am a bit worried though as those big snow cats on the way up the path to Winterhold are fierce and I am only at level 6. I decide just after leaving Whiterun that I’ll travel via Dawnstar and begin making my way there quickly. Along the way I encounter 3 bandits who come from a fort which I don’t get close enough to to identify I take them out, loot them and move on. Further North I find a giants camp, Red Road Pass and I watch as a Giant is fighting with three bandits, I sneak while he’s occupied and rob the two he has killed in his camp and his chest then as he’s moving away I go round and find the 3rd body and loot it as well. Onward to Dawnstar! I stop again at the Windward ruins and kill some skeevers and find a chest and once again move quickly on. I make it to Dawnstar in just over 19 minutes, I won’t always be going that fast I was just seeing how quick I could do it on this occasion.

I then begin along the coast toward Winterhold. The journey is mostly uneventful but near Winterhold I realise I don’t know where the path which leads up to the entrance of The College is. I go back and forth looking for it but can’t find it, thank the nine Ice Wolves can’t swim! I am completely lost and I feel a bit worried at this point and frustrated I end up chancing upon a shrine of Talos where a dead mage is lying having been killed Skeevers, LOOT! Then I continue on and realise I am on island off the coast as I can see the College in the distance. I head closer until the college is right above me but still cannot find the path up and I am still feeling that concerned feeling, that’s why I quit with the fast travel, that’s what you want to feel, the game completely has me, I am consumed with the need to find that path! I end up going right around and finding flatter ground and eventually the path down to Winterhold where someone is being attacked by 3 Ice Wolves, then they start attacking me! I keep casting restoration and run like hell deciding I will come back and loot his body when it’s safer.

I won’t always be timing myself either but with getting lost it took me nearly an hour from when I left Dawnstar to get to Winterhold only to find that I am not strong enough magically to cast The Flame Atronach spell which is required to gain entry! DAMMMNNNNN!

4. Giant attack!

On the way to Whiterun just as I was beginning to go down the hill I seen a giant up ahead on the path fighting with a wolf which he quickly killed. I didn’t realise Giants ventured this far away from the tundra. I fired a few arrows then sprinted back and continued stopping and firing at him he followed me all the way back to Riverwood and I took refuge in the closed overhead veranda type thingy! He couldn’t get in due to his size and I just continued firing arrows until he was dead, it took about 30 Ancient Nord Arrows and I only got 7 back from his corpse!

I so I start out for Whiterun once again! Once there after a bit of selling I go straight to the Jarl to tell him about the Dragon attack on Helgan then when I am in his favour I can lift most anything apart from potions, fine clothes and stuff in his Wizards room, this legal looting get me up just over 5000 in gold which after I go and help with the Dragon at the Western Watchtower I will use to buy the house in Whiterun. I was of course planning on going to Winterhold VIA Whiterun but the ability to be sidetracked and change your mind is as ever a beautiful aspect of this game.

Dragon DONE! Pretty easy just kept my distance and fired many an arrow so I’ll go see the Jarl again and hopefully get that house which I desperately need and THEN I’ll go to Winterhold. I am probably gonna pull an all nighter tonight so I may write a third blog for Day Two…

3. Homeless in Skyrim.

Starting at my last save in Bleak Falls Barrow and I decide straight away that I won’t be coming back up here after I get back to Riverwood. I have already gotten well into this ruin on my last go and killed quite a few Drugr and taken most of their stuff. It’s very easy at this point but towards the end of the Dungeon I start getting over encumbered and have to continually sort through my inventory to lighten my load according to value and weight.

Since I come out the back entrance I walk back along the river and I am so full that even collecting the odd ingredient causes me to be over encumbered, again I find myself dropping stuff and start moving a bit quicker else I’ll get side tracked!

I get back and sell some stuff then go up to the back of the Inn to find that my Iron Ingots and Iron Ore have either been taken or have just vanished. I had left them by a trough which I put my ingredients in I also left what food I had and 2 books close by and despite a search everywhere the Smithing materials are gone. I need that house in Whiterun as soon as possible to store my goods this sleeping in the Inn and storing my valuables outside is costing me!

After a rest and some trade, which leaves me with nearly 3500 gold, I decide to go hunting, fishing and exploring up along the river towards Half-Moon Mill. I always pack a Pickaxe and on the way have a good look round for ingredients. Walked there and back with a few confrontations and lots of ingredients and stuff to sell. I am taking my ingredients with me because one of the books I left at the back of the Inn has vanished just like my smithing gear did! Now I am going to walk to Winterhold Via Whiterun and since I am only level 4 that should be a challenge!

2. Bleak Falls Barrow.

I went and started clearing Bleak Falls Barrow but did something stupid I forgot to drop all my Ingredients and Smithing supplies at Riverwood so I can’t carry back half as much stuff as I would have been able to. I always did the same with Oblivion as well take everything back and sell it but even at this early stage of not using fast travel I can see that this is not going to be something I can rely on to make money because running back and forth to ruins is so time consuming that is bound to lose it’s appeal eventually.

I took all I could and went and sold it and dropped all my Ingredients and Smithing stuff behind the Inn in Riverwood. I have to admit even at this early stage for a fraction of second the fast travel thought came but was quickly dispelled. Then back to Bleak Falls found the thief, killed a spider and some Drugar after they fought the thief and brought back another load of loot. As I am doing all this running back and forth I have a word with myself but it seems my character is bit OCD, well I have to blame him don’t I!?

SO since I have real world tasks that need tending to I have saved just inside Bleak Falls Barrow on my last run back to solve the mystery therein and bring the claw back to Lucan, I tried to give him it when I was selling him stuff but the quest has not ended so he wouldn’t accept!

1. The Beginning.

I had thought about doing this many times with Oblivion but never bothered. I got Skyrim about 3 or 4 days after it came out and between then and yesterday (9th January) I clocked 380 something hours, 68 levels and about half a Million gold. Today the 10th of January I have started again and I intend not to use fast travel , at all, never!

On the way to Riverwood from Helgan after the opening scene I passed by Embershard Mine and I wasn’t going to bother but since the bandit at the entrance was doing a bit of slobberin’ I got stuck in and cleared the place. Now I am bad for lifting everything that’s worth anything so I grabbed all I could and went to Riverwood sold a most of it then went back to Embershard twice more to lift as much loot as I could. I sold what I could to Lucan and Alvor then “dumped” the rest at the back of one of the buildings in Riverwood.

At this point in the game no fast travel is not that big a deal as you have to do a lot of walking anyway but we’ll see how I feel about that in a couple of weeks. Lucan is looking me to go get the Claw the bandits stole from him so I’ll do that then ask around Riverwood for local quests. I am going to have to do things on a very local basis for now until I can afford to buy a house in Whiterun.

No major pains just yet I tend to take everything in anyway with these games and do a lot of collecting of ingredients and anything that’s worth a few Septim! I’ll just stay about for now and get my level up before embarking on the main quest…