We left off yesterday with my mage about to fight the first dragon you encounter in the game. I didn't really want to fight the dragon yet because I wanted to avoid being attacked everywhere I went by random dragons falling out of the sky.
Needless to say, I ran off to the western tower and killed the dragon. It did end up working out for me though, since I got the first shout which pushes people away, which comes in handy when you are a mage trying to burn people with two handfuls of fire. I became Thane of Whiterun, as per usual, and got Lydia, my housecarl.
My next step was to head towards Winterhold in order to join the mage's college. I walked the whole way, rather than take a carriage or fast travel. I wanted to see what I had missed in my first playthrough. Apparently, what I had actually missed was a cave full of trolls between Whiterun and Windhelm.
My past experience with trolls and Lydia did not end well; Lydia was killed fighting a frost troll on the 7000 steps while I was busy running away. This playthrough however, I had fire on my side. Trolls don't like fire. Lydia and I dispatched with them quickly and I only set fire to her once. You'd think she would learn the first time that I shoot fire from my hands and that you shouldn't run in front of me.
After the troll cave, we ventured up to Windhelm, took a wrong turn while leaving, and ended up having to walk around and go through a large river, fighting several Mudcrabs and Horkers on the way. However, after navigating through the wind and snow, finding a cave house thingy built for alchemists, and wandering past that, I made it Winterhold and the college.
I signed up immediately and took my first lesson, passing it easily. Of course it wasn't that hard; I merely had to deflect a spell. The second quest was much harder.
The apprentice mages were told to go to Saarthal and check out some ruins. It never ends the way it should however, and I stumbled into some closed off passage, got contacted by people who aren't supposed to exist, learned another shout, and killed off a large draugar protecting some even larger round ball thingy that looked like a globe. After talking to the arch mage, he and I both had no idea what the sphere was, but he said he was gonna go have a look at it.
My playthrough ended with him leaving and me stealing all the herbs and goods in his room while he was gone. I'm sure he can replac
