Hours 38 & 39: Here Be Dragons

Time for a tinker. I've decided that, since the Mage Armour perks just aren't stopping archers from one-shotting me, Alteration seems to have been a bit of a waste of time. I'd like to level up my Block and invest some skill points into that, and I've also discovered that one of the mid-level Illusion perks can increase the damage caused by Fire spells, so I'd like to level that up a bit too. Apparently, if I defeat Miraak I'll be able to get the perk points from one of my skill trees refunded, so I'll take a break from the Dawnguard quest for now and start the main quest, as this should unlock the Solstheim main quest quite early on.

I visit the Companions in Whiterun to try and get some cheap Block training, but it looks like I'll have to start their quest-line to unlock this. I may do this, but I doubt I'll do their whole quest-line (which I've never done before, actually) with Tharon-Zul - doesn't seem right.

Jorrvaskr, the home of the Companions, looks pretty awesome.

I spend longer than I'm prepared to admit jumping around on the mountains that separate Riverwood from Whiterun (do the mountain ranges have names?) to get good views, before picking up the Golden Claw quest from Riverwood and the Dragonstone quest from Farengar in Whiterun, both of which require me to head to Bleak Falls Barrow.

I head into the barrow after a difficult struggle against some bandits outside, where I quicksaved and then got taken out by an arrow immediately, so every time I reloaded I died straight away again before I could even raise my shield. After a number of reloads, the bandit missed and I was able to take him out.

I remember this dungeon being pretty epic, but it turns out that when you're level 33 with 10 summoned Dremora Lords and the Spellbreaker shield, it's actually pretty quick, and the whole thing's a breeze compared to other dungeons I've battled through like Mzulft or Labyrinthian.

Once I get back to Whiterun with the Dragonstone (after dropping the Golden Claw back to the Riverwood Trader and earning a nice 1000 gold - much appreciated, in fact, because my coffers are nearly completely drained after eye-wateringly expensive Enchanting training with Neloth - I was down to only about 250 gold at one point), I'm rewarded with this shield from the Jarl:

Is this some kind of sick joke? A shield worth 202 gold? I make a mental note to visit wrath and ruination upon Whiterun as soon as possible.

We're interrupted, of course (Tharon-Zul has forseen this) by news of a dragon attack near the city. I head out with Irileth, one of the Jarl's housecarls, and as the dragon keeps flying round and round and refusing to land I just summon a bunch of Flame Atronachs, who make short work of it. I absorb the soul and hear a booming voice on the wind. The Jarl tells me it must be the Greybeards calling me to visit them (okay?) - once I've popped up to see them in their mountain abode, I'll hopefully be able to start the Miraak quest.