That’s strange. I was overloaded with daggers I’d just smithed and used whirlmind to get to the dragonreach enchanting altar. A guard caught up to me and told me to cut it out, which, being a good boy, I promptly did. No courier to tell me where the next dragon roost is.
Doesn’t even have to be a town:
“You caused quite a stir in Throat of the World when you demonstrated the power of your Thu’um. Not everyone is eager for the return of the Dragonborn.”
That one made me laugh. Ol’ Parthunaax feeling ambivalent, perhaps.
So far, it doesn’t look like you can abuse stealth as badly as in Morrowind and Oblivion. I used to enchant items to give me over 100% camoflage, and I was basically never seen even during combats. In Morrowind this was accomplished after a long building process. In Oblivion, it only takes four oblivion gates if you’ve got a little patience. Still, in Skyrim the amount of stealth I do enjoy I feel I’ve earned, though as I advance my Enchantment, I’ll probably look for ways to break the system a little.
Funny video I found that some of the people here may appreciate:
I take it you didn’t look too closely at what happened? The Empire, along with lots of soldiers from Skyrim, were in the Great War and lost. The Thalmor took a lot of hits as well, but it doesn’t change the fact that they were winning, probably because they have so many war mages. They already control three major regions, completely dominating Summerset Isle (their seat of power) as well as Elsweyr and Valenwood… the latter of which they purged brutally in fire and blood.
Ulfric, by the by, was completely beaten in that war. He was outright captured by the Thalmor, who view him as a useful tool for weakening the Empire. Additionally, they put him to use in other ways, and deliberately made him think some info they dragged out of him weakened the Empire’s cause. Evidently, he feels some guilt over that, and responded… by trying to gut the Empire.
The Empire isn’t rolling over for the Thalmor. They’re playing for time to rebuild. Both sides suffered terribly - the Thalmor were utterly wiped out of Cyrodil, but the Empire couldn’t fight on any more, either. Basically, right now Tamriel is locked in a cold war, the Empire on one side and the Aldermi Dominion on the other, and both are about equal.
Here’s why Ulfric is a moron as well as a mad butcher: if Skryim kicks the legs out frm under the Empire, who the hell defends Skryim? It will basically be part of Hammerfell and the Imperial provinces against the entire Aldmeri dominion and everything they’ve got. The Empire will be crushed completely. Then the Thalmor aren’t going to playa round: they will come for Skyrim, weakened by civil war and restless under Ulfric, and start the massacres.
This is why I despise Ulfric. In short, he has personally made the situation worse in every conceivable way, let himself be manipulated for years by his hated enemies, and is currently engaged in sabotaging his own defense, largely over a problem of his own creation. He’s one of the most villainous characters ever made in Elder Scrolls. King Helseth was at least cunning - he was a bastard but not a stupid one.
I have a question about dual casting alteration spells: I have the perk that makes dual casting alteration spells more powerful, but when I dual cast stoneflesh (or any protection spell) I don’t get any more armor points than when I single cast the spell. I’m not wearing armor and have the perk that doubles your protection spell when not wearing armor.
Is dual casting shield spells supposed to provide more armor points?
I think it makes it last longer. My mage armor lasts 3 minutes now.
Thanks, that must be it. I thought I had read that the perk would increase its power, but I think it just adds time.
I finished the talking dog Daedric quest last night. In hindsight I should have handled things better: [spoiler]Barbas the talking dog, despite his goofy Noo Yawk accent, is an indestructible killing machine. Well, actually, he’s more like the Chuck Wepner of Skyrim. He can’t deal much damage, but he just won’t die. I wandered into a den of ice wraiths with him, they all attacked him instead of me, and I picked off the wraiths with a weaksauce fireball spell. A few minutes later we stumbled into a guarded fortress. I started to back away, but there went our lovable mutt with his “woof woof” battle cry and took on all six of the guards at once. They could do nothing to him and I was able to knock them out one at a time. Wait, there’s a seventh guard up on that tower! No match for Barbas, who I saw running across the wooden bridge (“woof woof”) to reach him. The guard took off in fear and I was able to decapitate him with one swing of Molag Bal.
So together we killed the protector of the Rueful Axe and went back to Clavicus Vile, who gave me a choice: Kill Barbas with the axe, or give the axe back…but Barbas had to stay behind. Well I couldn’t kill Barbas after all that (and who could, with those mournful eyes?) so I handed over the axe. Clavicus Vile did give me a neat piece of head armor with bonuses to bartering and speechcraft. But I realized then…if I hadn’t gone back to Clavicus, I could have kept the axe AND Barbas the Wonder Dog.
Moral of this story: sometimes quests are NOT worth completing.[/spoiler]
He’s personally made the situation worse? The situation was an intolerable one, where Skyrim had been sold out and essentially negotiated away by the Empire. Sure, Imperial bureaucrats are all over the place, but the Aldmeri are the ones pulling their strings. The Empire thinks they’re the only thing standing between Skyrim and the Dominion, but in reality they’re just holding the Nords’ leash, preventing them from kicking out the intruders.
The Empire’s “protection” has led to the worst possible situation, in which the Nords are not free to practice their own religion, or ultimately govern themselves. Skyrim needs a united government, which only Ulfric offered. The Aldmeri have made it clear that this current truce is temporary, and the Empire has made it clear that they’re willing to go to great lengths to appease them.
Ulfric represents the boiling rage of the Nords, and god help those damned elves once the Imperial leash is removed.
What’s the best way to get enough iron ingots to level up blacksmithing? Do you just buy out a blacksmith and wait a couple days for his inventory to replenish? Fast travel around to different blacksmiths in other towns? Something else?
Blacksmiths like to play a game where if you go into their house and snatch the substantial amounts of iron ingots without them seeing you, you get to keep them! Well, I like that game.
I’ve been mining every seam I come across, but it doesn’t happen as often enough to beat simply buying ingots from vendors. One advantage of iron ore v. an iron ingot is you can create a steel ingot by combining one iron ore with one corudom ore. I don’t know if the economics makes this worthwhile. I’ve heard the vendor re-stock period is 48 hours, but haven’t tested it yet. Oh, I also read that if you dual-wield pick axes and “attack” the seam, you’ll get the ore faster than simply letting the mining animation run. I haven’t verified that yet, though.
I notice you can melt down Dwemer armor into ingots, but not steel or iron - too bad.
There are two blacksmiths at the city containing Dragonsreach (sorry, can’t look up the proper name at work). One is by the city gate and the other is outside between the castle and the Companions’ hall. I’m thinking of buying the 5,000 gold house in that city cause I’m using the money-raising technique of creating, enchanting then selling iron daggers and keep running both blacksmiths out of gold. Some enchantments increase the value of the daggers dramatically. I disenchanted something to learn “turn undead” and can increase the value of an iron dagger sixtyfold. I’ve been disenchanting most of the stuff I’m finding as an investment to create lighter, stronger enchanted items later, like rings, necklaces or nice armor pieces. Still, it’s painful to see that 950 gold piece item go “poof” on the altar.
Obviously this is a compelte fiction, blah blah, but what you suggest is very unlikely within the context of the game. The Nords already couldn’t win as a united power as part of the Empire with Hammerfel. They were broken, which is why the White-Gold Concordat got signed, and why you see so many tired veterans. The thing is, nobody bothered the Nords. They kept right along worshipping Talos and as long as they didn’t make too much of a fuss, did so quite openly.
Ulfric destroyed the united government. People were more less less fine under the odl High King. Ulfric started the war by murdering him. Moreover, this is explicitly what gave the Aldmeri enough leverage to start doing nasty things in Skyrim. The Empire hates the Thalmor - hates them as much as Ulfric. They also know that for the moment they need time to rebuild to fight with more advantage. Ulfric doesn’t enough power to do more than kill the Thalmor already in Skryim - he’d be crushed like a bug. At best, he could hold onto Skyrim, but that’s unlikely. Skyrim hasn’t been independant in about a thousand years, because it can’t stand on its own. Even doing that would come only at the cost fo a lot of bloodshed on his doorstep. He might want to kill elves (and yet is still a Thalmor puppet) but he actually kills his own countrymen.
But moreover, he’s a wanted criminal. Even if you excused everything else, he’s still a murderer. But I don’t have to. ulfric is a villain. Frankly, he’s a monster.
Re: Politics. Admittedly I have been avoiding it somewhat because I don’t want to commit to one side or the other but the only politician I have meet that I like is the Jarl of Whiterun and he is basically neutral.
Don’t forget that Warmaiden’s is essentially two blacksmiths. IIRC, the man inside the building has a separate money pool. He definitely has his own supply of ingots.
Yeah, as I said yesterday, I’ve totally stayed out of the main politics…and seeing how convoluted things are I’ll probably continue down that same path. Unless it’s necessary to choose between the Empire and the SCs I’m going to take a live and let live policy…as long as stuff isn’t trying to kill me I’m going to let it live. At least until I get some of that fancy armor, better weapons and that cool fire eyed warhorse, at which point all bets will probably be off. 
-XT
Are the politics of the game revealed through dialog and action, or mostly through books? I’ve been reading more in-game books than I did in Oblivion, and am enjoying them. I thought it would be easy to side against the Empire since they were going to decapitate me, but based on the points raised above, I might have to re-think that position.
Like xtisme, I’m just trying to scratch out a living until I’m ready to make my play for Top Dog.
Question: The book Lost Legend (is that the title?) in the mage’s library in Dragonsreach start a quest to obtain three pieces of the Gauldar amulet. One of those pieces lies in a “locked” dungeon Saardur (sp?) near Winterhold.
But you have to join the mage’s guild to get that dungeon unlocked? What about us… sneaky… sneak thief types? (Did you hear Alistair’s voice?)
I honestly don’t remember, but I don’t think you have to join the college to do that quest. I seem to recall that I had 1 or 2 of the pieces before I ever went to the college. You might need to get the quest before you can do the final part though. The last part is pretty tough if you are low level btw, so go prepared…and make sure your packmule is fully armored and up to snuff (plus, save during each stage…my own pack mule tended to die a lot at that level and I really didn’t want to pack out all of her shit and find a new follower).
-XT