Hour 3: The Road to Cheydinhal

Now that I'm back in Cyrodiil I have the feeling once more of being lost in a vast continent. Skyrim feels small to me now because I've been everywhere countless times, but Cyrodiil is still fairly foreign to me. I'm right outside the Imperial City but it feels wrong to go there right away - I'd prefer to head somewhere smaller first and save that for later. Cheydinhal's pretty close - I set my marker and head off across the hills (seems more fun than fast travelling there - perhaps I'll have an adventure on the way!)

Within moments I kill my first wolf. The wolves here are quite disappointing, looking and sounding more like dogs. They even look friendly as they bound up to you.

I break into Roland Jenseric's cabin but he's not there and it's just full of rags and mutton, so I set off again. Further along the road is Barren Cave, so I sneak inside to have a gander. A little way inside I see two wizardy-looking types talking to each other, but one of them turns invisible and shoots a lightning bolt in my direction. In blind panic I run back out and continue to Cheydinhal.

I arrive at 10:30pm to my favourite city full of Tudor-esque houses and green leafy trees. As it's quite late and there's not much doing, I check in to the Inn, which turns out to be a Dark Elf drinking place. I love that the innkeeper gives me directions to my room. It's one of the irksome little things about Skyrim that they never did this - in a couple of places I think they show you to your room, but in the rest you just have to stumble into every room until you find a bed which will let you sleep in it. Little touches like being given directions create much more immersion in the world, in my opinion.

When I awake in the morning and leave my room, a guy called Guilbert Jemane comes up and just stands there in front of me. What the hell do you want? He has a baby face but the voice of a much older man. Check him out:

You'd better watch yourself, Guilbert Jemane.

I head into The March Rider, the blacksmiths shop, to offload some of my gear, managing to turn 36 gold into a tidy sum of 171 gold. I sell the bow I picked up in the dungeons, as it's so much clumsier and less effective than my fireball spell, or at least seems to be.

After wandering around and talking to people for a bit, I decide it's time to start questing, and head into the Mages Guild. I talk to the staggeringly rude Falcar and get started on his Recommendation quest. That brings me up to 3 hours. It's incredible how absorbing exploring this world and its characters can be!