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You know what this LP needs before we go do something fun? ALL THE DIALOGUE IN THE WORLD.
Welcome to River
Personal judgments about stones aside, let's hit the road.
Remember, this isn't Stormcloak territory.
All the more reason to keep my bow ready, if you ask me.
Because you demanded it, I'm using SkyUI! Simply put, it's a more traditional set of menus for Skyrim.
If we're ahead of the news from Helgen, we should be fine...as long as we don't do anything stupid. If we run into any Imperials, just let me do the talking, all right?
Hey, fine by me. You're the only one on the Empire's to-kill list; I'm just an innocent, traveling alchemist!
I'm glad you decided to come with me. We're almost to Riverwood.
And I don't regret going with you all that much!
Uh-oh, we got company.
I got this.
Hang in there, Ralof. Just gotta draw a bead annnnnd....
And to the victor go the luxuriant furs.
Riverwood, I presume?
Looks like nobody here knows what happened yet. C'mon. Gerdur's probably working at her lumber mill.
What a nice little village. 
Gerdur!
Brother! Mara's mercy, it's good to see you. 
But is it safe for you to be here? I heard Ulfric had been captured.
Gerdur, I'm fine. At least now I am.
Are you hurt? What's happened?
And who's this? One of your comrades?
Not a comrade yet - but a friend. I owe him my life, in fact.
(Well, not really, but I think I can let that bit of misinformation slide.)
Is there somewhere we can talk? There's no telling when the news from Helgen will reach the Imperials.
Helgen? Has something happened?
Ralof offers a fatigued, minimalist shrug in response.
Hod! Come here a minute.. I need your help with something.
What is it, woman? Sven drunk on the job again?
Hod, just come here.
Ralof! What are you doing here? I'll be right down!
Uncle Ralof! Can I see your axe? How many Imperials have you killed? Do you really know Ulfric Stormcloak?
Hush, Frodnar. This is no time for your games. Go and watch the south road. Come find us if you see any Imperial soldiers coming.
Aw, mama. I wanna stay and talk with Uncle Ralof.
Look at you...almost a grown man. Won't belong before you'll be joining the fight yourself.
That's right! Don't worry, Uncle Ralof. I won't let those soldiers sneak up on you.
Now, Ralof...what's going on? You two look pretty well done in.
I can't remember when I last slept. Mm, where to start...well, the news you heard about Ulfric was true.
The Imperials ambushed us outside Darkwater Crossing. Like they knew exactly where we'd be. That was...er...two days ago now. We stopped in Helgen this morning, and I thought it was all over. I was lined up to the headsman's block and ready to start chopping.
The cowards!
Uh, hi Hod. Don't look at me like that.
They wouldn't dare give Ulfric a fair trial. Treason for fighting for your own people? All of Skyrim would've seen the truth then.
Seriously, quit staring.
But then, out of nowhere, a dragon attacked.
You don't mean a real, live... 
I can hardly believe it myself. And I was there. As strange as it sounds, we'd be dead if not for that dragon. In the confusion, we managed to slip away. Are we really the first to make it to Riverwood?
Nobody else has come up the south road today, as far as I know.
Good. Maybe we can lay up for a while. I hate to put your family in danger, Gerdur.
Nonsense. You and your friend are welcome to stay here as long as you need. Let me worry about the Imperials. Any friend of Ralof's is a friend of mine.
I'll happily take a few healing potions.
There is something you could do for me. For all of us here.
Aw crap.
The Jarl needs to know if there's a dragon on the loose. Riverwood is defenseless...we need to get word to Jarl Balgruuf in Whiterun to send whatever troops he can. If you'll do that for me, I'll be in your debt.
Meet with the Jarl-guy in Whiterun about that dragon. Okay, I think I can pencil that in.
I ought to get back to work before I'm missed...but, did anyone else escape? Did Ulfric...
Don't worry. I'm sure he made it out. It'll take more than a dragon to stop Ulfric Stormcloak.
That optimism of yours is borderline stupid sometimes, Ralof.
I'll let them into the house and, y'know, show them where everything is.
Mm...help them drink up our mead, you mean. 
Good luck, brother. I'll see you later.
Don't worry about me. I *unintelligble due to me talking to Hod straightaway*
Maybe you'll see one yourself soon. Helgen isn't that far from here.
Don't even say such things! I hope that dragon stays away from Riverwood. We don't need that kind of trouble.
Hey, I'm just sayin' is all.
Well that was forced.
Aye, but now the player knows they can chop wood for some easy coin.
Fair enough.
Man, it's getting late. I should probably go grab a nap.
Riiiiight after I grab some more alchemy ingredients.
Okay, off we go. Single-file.
I told you my sister would help us out.
Yeah, yeah...
Lucan down at the Riverwood Trader says thieves broke into his store. Strange, he says they hardly took anything.
(Strange indeed! Well, more for me then.)
Cozy.
Make yourself at home.
Which means we can mostly loot this house with impunity!
Never know when you'll run into a Wariovampire.
Ooh, fun!
I still remember some old recipes...
Cooking: wherein you turn food into better food. More often than not, cooked food gives you a shot in the arm with regards to stamina and health.
Some of the recipes are great. You KNOW some poor hung-over kitty just put booze and crackmoon sugar into his supper one day.
Others, though...
Yeah, largely unimpressive.
I'm glad to help in any way I can.
Well, in that case...
Leek...
Free egg...
Arrows...
Note the red hand indicator on that item. That means if we take it, it counts as theft! I guess they really want to hang on to that scroll.
I might need horse skin, right? Right?
There we are. The final ingredient.
Now to sleep with soft vegetables in my pockets.
.....
Well, that was refreshing.
And we got a buff of some kind. Yay!
I'll just grab a bottle of soup to go, then hit the town.
Ooh, a smithy.
Smelter courtesy of the Detailed Cities mod.
How-do, blacksmith?
Ain't every day we get visitors in Riverwood.
Well, I'm not your everyday lizard. Need any help around the forge?
Yes, actually. How about you smith me an iron dagger? Here's everything you need to make one. Go ahead.
Forging, I should hope, is self-explanatory. If you have the ingredients and perks you can smith weapons and armor. Needless to say, we craft up a dagger.
Look at me, I'm a blacksmith! I'm gonna need so many ingots to finish up this sword shipment!
The forge is not a toy, Lizard Wizard.
Here's that iron dagger you wanted.
Not bad, but it's a little dull. How about you sharpen it up? Just need a bit of metal and the grindstone over there.
Tempering is also pretty simple. Use materials to turn your gear into an improved version.
I've sharpened the iron dagger.
This looks good. You put time into your blades, they'll serve you well when you need them. You want to keep helping? How about you make some armor? Let's start by tanning some leather on the rack.
Hey, so remember the bear pelt, wolf pelt and horse hides (and if I'm not mistaken, a deer hide from somewhere) we picked up? In Skyrim, they're not just for selling. We can convert them to leather for crafting! Wolf pelts yield one leather, deer pelts yield two, horse hides yield three, and our bear pelt yields a whopping four. We're walking away with, well, not an insignificant amount of leather. We can also turn leather into leather strips, which is needed for lots of recipes -- like we saw with the iron dagger.
All right, I've processed a veritable heap of animal skin.
Ah, good. A lot of weapons and armor need leather for straps, fittings, that kind of thing.
Like I said. 
Let's see if you can make a hide helmet. Here's the rest of what you need.
Back to the forge! A bit odd to be dealing with leather here, but you can't blame Bethesda for keeping their crafting stations consistent. Anyway, same thing, different recipe.
And here's that helmet you wanted.
Heh. I should hire you to be my assistant at this rate. Let's improve the fit. Take this leather to the workbench over there.
Temper armor at workbenches.
There, does that look good?
You have talent. Keep working at your craft, and you'll be a fine smith one day. Why don't you keep that dagger and helmet? Maybe you'll remember me when you're making Skyforge Steel, huh?
Speaking of making things, you don't mind if I drop by and make use of the facilities now and then, right?
I see no harm in it.
Then if you'll excuse me...
7 LEATHER STRIPS LATER...
Proper.
Proper and custom-fitted!
Just offload some of this old gear here...
...and head off to the lumber mill to make up the cost from accidentally selling my bracers and buying them back.
Ssh!
Good workout.
Here's some logs, old man.
Honest gold for honest work. 120 Gold added
Now, it's time to get down to some nightblade business.
Keep workin', Alvor.
Nice place.
Got us some gold...
Some moolah over here...
What's in the downstairs area?
Blacksmith's Potion? My potion now.
Ooh, free leather!
Well, that was productive.
Hey Alvor. I'm just gonna stand here and memorize your schedulewatch you work for a bit.
...
Time for bed, I think.
Bye, Alvor.
And hello, lucre! 
What a STEEL of a deal!
IRONIC that the skills you taught me would lead me to see the value in robbing you blind!
I ZINC I'll COPPER FEEL off your forge while I'm at it!
Though I'd much LEATHER a lusty argonian maid!
Hope you don't LOSE YOUR TEMPER over this!
I- ...hold on.
That was resourceful of me, WOODN'T YOU SAY?
You won't be able to take me to court with just IMPERIAL EVIDENCE! Ahahahahaha!
...okay, I'm done now.
I think I fancy an adventure, after that burgling. Maestro, some sunlight, if you please!
Thank you.
What manner of beast is that?
Well, whatever it was, it's clearly suicidal.
But I think exploring the other bank of yon river is a fine idea!
The perfect quarry.
Just hold still, now.
GAH FUCK.
GET BACK HERE.
YOU STOP FLEEING THIS INSTANT.
WHAT THIS IS SO OUTRAGEOUS.
ARGH FINE, NEXT TIME. If you can't tell what's going on here, look under the bridge.
There. Dispatching stupider prey has put me in a better mood, and netted me some more leather to boot.
Though I admit, I've arrived at a nice view. I think I'll investigate those buildings down there.
And there's only one acceptable way to get there.
Whee!
Huh. It appears there's a whole city down there. But first thing's first. Time to investigate that-
...MUDCRAB. 
That's better. Now, back to the task at hand.
Ooh. If I'm not mistaken, that's Nord for Honeybrew Meadery.
That'd sure make worting a bit more pleasant.
Whoa, okay. Yeah, I'm robbing this place.
The storehouse is open for touring, though. Let's see what we can dig up here.
Eegh.
Too many eyes on me here. Let's check upstairs.
I'll take that, thank you!
I'll be cracking that lock, thank you!
Ding! We'll spend that level at the end of the update.
What a nice little tale of espionage. It gave me a few ideas about alchemy, but I'll spare you the details as I'm not the kind of bore who would give you a whole book to read.
I'll just take one of these for the road.
Silly door. I'm a nightblade.
Such riches!
Those are silver ingots, incidentally, in case you thought they were steel.
And out I slip.
That was a good haul, but I think I can do bette- ooh, butterfly.
They're prized alchemical reagents, don't you know!
Now...
Time for the mead heist of the century.
I'll take this one,
and that one,
and those two, and
Can't a man have a bit of privacy? Get out of here!
Hhhhhhhow much of that did you see?
How much of what?
Nothingbye!
Honningbrew Mead count: 85
Time to level up! Each level, the game asks you to increase Magicka, Health and Stamina. This time, I'm investing in more spell juice, but feel free to tell me what I should increase next level.
Better deals both ways at shops! This will open the Speech tree, which notably will eventually let us pay off guards to ignore crimes.
No Alchemy perks before we've brewed anything, sorry.
In addition to being our first step into the Destruction tree, this would make Flames and Sparks half-price, allowing us to sear and zap things respectively longer and more often.
Likewise, dipping our toe into the Restoration perks will make its low-level spells cheap. Seems handy!
There's perks for the other kinds of magic we could take, but we haven't used those, so that would be silly.
We could gain access to the ability to forge steel equipment, which could be nice, and it'd open the door to a whole world of Smithing!
Some more blocking ability might help keep us alive at such time as we're not dual-wielding. And hey, it could be the first of many Block perks!
Heavy Armor is for nerdsNords. 
Hit harder! I think investing in One-Handed is rather inevitable, really. As is the question of whether to specialize in axes, maces, swords or daggers. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Shoot harder! Among Archery's more temtping perks is Eagle Eye, which would let us zoom in with bows.
Get the most out of that leather armor! We're going to be using Light Armor a lot, so this too seems like a tree that's going to be explored one way or another.
Being harder to see and hear is kind of a no-brainer if we intend to Sneak around Skyrim. Note Backstab, which would make one-handed sneak attacks far more effective.
I don't think we need any help picking Novice locks, but there are a few interesting perks within the Lockpicking tree, such as finding more gold in chests.
Pickpocketing could be lucrative. At peak Pickpocket, we'll even be able to steal the armor off unsuspecting rubes.
Bear in mind that the perks listed here are just starters -- those perks higher in the trees have skill prerequisites we'll have to meet. I only get one for each level, so what'll it be this time?
Hmm...report back to Riverwood, or investigate that city? Decisions, decisions!