Hours 12 & 13: A Miner Inconvenience

I arrive at last in Falkreath, a place with which I'm fairly unfamiliar. I seem to remember it having something to do with Werewolves, though I could be wrong, and I only remember it as a scattering of huts, but it turns out to be much more impressive and also quite appealing:

I speak to the Jarl, who wants me to clear out some bandits from the nearby Shatterstone Mine, and to his steward, who wants me to, er, clear out some bandits from Embershard Mine. I head to Shatterstone Mine and easily clear out all the bandits I can find, but there's one section of the mine, where the bandit leader is, which remains inaccessible to me. There's simply no way to reach it, as I can't jump high enough, and I spend an inordinate amount of time running around looking for another way to get up there, even summoning hordes of skeletons and Frost Atronachs in an attempt to glitch up the wall or something, all to no avail. I look it up online, and it seems this mine is possibly part of a mod? It does seem to be totally different in design to all the other mines.

I even nip back to Whiterun and nick a spell tome out of Farengar's chest which allows me to run much faster, in case that also lets me jump up higher, to no avail. Casting the spell a few times does level up my Alteration drastically, at least.

After spending way too long trying to clear the Mine, I give up and head over to the other one (Embershard). I decide to clear it without using my skeleton horde, and instead cast my Fire spell with both hands. This proves to be more than enough and I'm able to incinerate all my foes before they can get to me. The steward gives me a paltry 100 gold for my efforts.

Feeling very put out - this is the first time I've been 'stuck' and annoyed in this manner - I decide to spend a bit more time on the mainland - Ralis can wait - and join the Mage's College in Winterhold. I really want to take a look inside the Labyrinthian. The closest place I've been to is Frostflow Lighthouse, so I travel across the ice from there:

I was wrong earlier, this terrain is a hellscape and every bit as inhospitable as the northern part of Solstheim. After a while I reach the College and pose as a new student. The fools don't realise that Tharon-Zul, soon-to-be Overlord of Tamriel and mightiest mage the world has ever known, walks amongst them! I start the quest-line and meet Tolfdir, my tutor, at the ruins of Saarthal.