some of my favorite "awww hell yeah!" moments come when I'm able to catapult an enemy off the side of a cliff with either a magic spell or a shout. I make it a point to attempt this when scaleing some of the higher points in skyrim.

freakin epic.

I once used the 3rd tier of unrelenting force on delphine, enbern, general tulious (spelling) his legatte to shout all 4 of them off the side of the throat of the world at the same time! lmao it was friggin awesome.

My favorite moment was when I spotted a group of stormcloaks and thalmor fighting, and all the sudden this NPC named "scavanger" jumps in, comes out on top of this three way free for all in this weird mis-match of stormcloak-elven gear.

I had to put him down when he went hostile on me but it was funny nontheless.

I was walking in the wilderness when i came upon a guy talking to himself with his fists out. he was [censored]ing because he svcked at magic so he was trying to learn. because magical skill ran in the family. (his dad was good at it.) I than intimidated him into giving me his fathers staff which he claimed "must of been broken because it didn't work, it was just a dumb piece of wood." I than proved him wrong by setting him on fire with his own family heirloom.

"Does it work now!?!?!?! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA" :flamethrower:

Oh, not a Random Encounter, but still pretty epic. I just did the Missing in Action side-quest and took the option of having some assisstance. I arrived at the designated place (could it be any further away from Whiterun?) to find not one, but three helpers waiting for me and my Follower. Just as I was about to check my spells a Blood Dragon showed up. I brought out a Flame Atronach and thought, "right, this will be simple with the six of us". And it was... until the three Thalmor guards showed up and joined in a three-way battle. Once the dragon was dead the fight continued into the nearby fort where there were even more angry Thalmor. After cleaning up the loot we ventured inside, to meet even more angry elves. Every room inside seemed to have 2-3 of the mongrels. The best part was in a large split-level room with a passage upstairs and a room downstairs. The room contained a Mage and the passage upstairs was home to about 5 more Thalmor in addition to the three in the main room and the Mage and his Frost Atronach. I had to reload a few times because I wanted all my guys to survive and one of them was a lowbie (I used a Staff of Courage on them all and he was the only one it worked on, the others were too powerful) dressed in Hide using a war hammer so he was pretty fragile. I ended up spending two-thirds of the fight healing people in between raising dead elves and throwing the occasional lightning bolt. As far as dungeons go it wasn't all that different, what made it great was that I had 6 people on my side and each fight was tough... especially when a single Chain Lightning on one of the 3+ bad guys will almost insta-kill your four followers.

And to the person that said they weren't random encounters but scripted events, you're not quite right. There are 95 different random World Encounters and all of them are "scripted". They fall into two categories of Scene where they will always happen in the same place or Moving, where they could happen anywhere in a given type of location (eg, on a road, in The Rift, in the mountains, or on a road in Whiterun). Some of these encounters have pre-requisites like having a certain Bounty, being in a certain Hold, who controls the Hold, time of day/night, or completed quests. What is random is when they will occur and, in the case of Moving encounters the precise where.

Oh, you should be very wary when you get one too, I had a mage challenge me to a dual and he repeatedly one-shot me. The only way i was able to survive was to cast Stoneskin, Steadfast Ward, drink a Resist Magicka Potion and I still only survived his first shot with a pixel-sliver of health. My Atronach and Follower took him down while he yelled "it's a dual!" "one on one!" "this isn't fair!" as I healed.

Not epic but random, I was just about to walk into a city and a dragon corpse fell on my head. I was like wtf?!

A bear? I found a dead couple and a sabre cat.

Let's see...my run-in with 3 horkers and 3 Thalmors tonight...thugs that made me lose the guy taking the cow to the giants....

My second wild dragon, perhaps? I was taking my new horse out for his first ride, and I got jumped by an assassin. I had a bit of trouble dismounting and getting into battle mode. He killed me. This surprised me, but I figured OK, I had some problems here, so yeah.

Round two, I knew he was there and saw him, so I dismounted and attacked. I killed him and suddenly got hit by a little light. I turned around to find a frostbite spider. So now I'm thinking, OK, maybe he was here before and it's one reason I died. I was just about to hit him when my screen filled with blue-white light, and the spider lay dead. "What the heck? Who killed the spider?" I said, and I looked up. ... ... O_O That was when I realized that on both occasions, I'd heard this dramatic music. *facepalm* I am melee by trade and reputation, so I didn't have much of an attack to offer it, but then I remembered my flame staff. The dragon flew down to Dragon Bridge, and I ran after it, my staff going off like it was on full automatic. I set someone's roof on fire and then set a villager on fire when she ran in front of me. The dragon was finally killed, and I was suddenly set upon by guards, who killed me just as the soul absorbed.

Round three went a little better.

Remus Draconis, Cyrodiilic Soldier-of-Fortune, was trekking from Riften to Ivarsread on one particularly clear Frost Fall's afternoon. The autumn foliage had proved more a vexing trifle than scenic wonder, as the brown and orange surrounding him gave the packs of ravenous wolves foraging the countryside a perfect environs for launching sneak assaults on weary travelers. While not so much a threat to Remus as chore (cleaning blood from the crevasses of Dwemer armor is no simple task), the Greybeards were not men to keep waiting, and he was direly desiring to return to Whiterun and Camilla, his ravishing and industrious new bride.

After realizing he had gone too far north, he checked his map and decided the best way to correct his path would be to scale the rocky cliffs to the southeast of his position, resuming his journey on the caravan road just beyond. An hour later, he found his way to said road, though sweaty and tired enough from the exertion of the scaling that even the bare straw-and-fur beds of Ivarsread's Vilemyr Inn sounded more than accommodating. But the road beckoned.

Soon the golden light of dusk had begun to fall, and to Remus' weary relief, the sun was only just peeking behind the outline of a windmill. Perhaps some kind folk can spare a meal or bed for such a handsome fellow as myself, he thought to himself. Knowing well just how suspicious the locals of the Rift could be of strangers, let alone Imperials in golden armor, he allowed himself a distraught chuckle.

His approach to the farm was greeted by a weary Dunmer woman, well in her years. "I'm the only person this side of Elsweyr who can cultivate nirnroot from seed to maturity." Seeing the way her crop glowed and seemed to make the very air around him vibrate with energy, Remus judged they must have some sort of magickal value. The farm was small, and by the way this elf looked ready to keel over from age, work, and hunger, he thought better of requesting lodging.

"As it happens, my younger sister is something of a free spirit and has wandered off into the hills east of here to admire the autumnal scenery. I've told her time and again it isn't safe and to be home by dusk, but she insists on 'paying homage to the handiwork of Azura' or some such idiocy. Should you come across her, would you send her home?'

Remus agreed, bade her farewell, and set off. He could just spy the roof of Vilemyr Inn but an hour's distance to east over the trees and decided to break from the road, trekking as the hawk flies. He could almost smell the hall's tables when he heard a scream and howling chorus to his left, Drawing his sword, he bolted off towards the clamor, hoping to find breath of the living. Amidst a meadow of purple and red flowers, a young red-haired girl was cowering behind a large stone, with a pair of slavering wolves on her either flank, toying with the thought of her supple flesh.

Without a moment's hesitation, Remus let out a roar that shook the predators' concentration, or rather attuned it towards himself. With a blast of flame from his left hand he scorched petals and fur, leaving one wimpering in the dirt, but his fellow darted to the side and lunged at Remus, locking its jaw into his left gauntlet. Remus drew back his sword arm and pierced the beast's gut, blood and bile spilling at his feet. After prying the corpse's mouth from his arm, Remus sheathed his sword, and started to ask if the elf was unharmed, but she merely let out an exasperated gasp and darted off toward the shadow of a windmill in the distance. A hero's duties so rarely are appreciated, he thought to himself. A cup of Alto had never sounded better.

All based on an actual in-game event, with obvious alterations made for fiction's sake. I guess my point is even the most banol of occurrences in Skyrim can be epic, given the right roleplaying mindset.

And for the record: Who has two thumbs and is the MOST EPIC RANDOM ENCOUNTER? :goodjob: :goodjob: This guy.

As much as I usually dislike bumping, I really like this thread. Please don't let it die! :poke:

I agree with you.... :tes:

Was it just me or did others worry what was going to happen if they took the drink but just drank it anyway?

I thought it was Sanguine all over again or worse!

I contracted vampirism and it was me vs solitude..very fun fight

I was heading to a camp near Whiterun when I heard the tell-tale signs of a dragon overhead. But it wasn't attacking me. It was systematically taking out all the bandits outside my target camp. I watched with glee. When it had wiped them out, I thought, "Uh oh," and readied my bow. But it flew away from me and started frost-breathing a location that looked to be near a large pond. I couldn't see what it was fighting, so I ran over and almost fell out of my chair laughing.

With the epic music rising and falling in the background, a valiant army of mighty mud crabs was bearing down on the dragon. No fear. No hesitation. They were determined to take this dragon out.I decided to help them and unleashed my arrows as quickly as I could, but the brave mud crabs fell one by one. I was soon the only one left standing. Determined to avenge the dead army that now lay scattered around me, I moved in for the kill and took down the mighty dragon.

May those valiant mud crabs never be forgotten.

Lucky. I've been playing for over a hundred hours and I still haven't been offered any skooma. :sadvaultboy:

I need to get out more.

When I was a lower level, there was this tough group of bandits in a camp that I'd tried and failed to kill many times. After reloading several saves, I decided to circle the camp and look for vulnerabilities when I noticed a lone giant walking up the path to the bandit camp. I knew this was going to be fun, so I followed it and waited for all hell to break loose. It was raining bandits left, right and center. The giant killed all the bandits for me, except for the leader who had a really powerful lightning enchanted 2 hander. The leader actually took down the giant.

I then had a really close battle with the leader, that I only won because of Berserker Rage. I've never met such a tough bandit leader. His just about halved my health with each hit.

My first run in with the headless horseman nearly made me crap my pants. I was walking along a mountain pass on the way to Ivarstead, it was snowing heavily. I came around a blind bend and the instant I came around it he was right there in my face. I actually gasped, it scared me.

Two dragons, a dozen or so bandits, 3 giants and a mammoth, a bear, some mudcrabs, Stendarr vigilants and vampires, and some city guards.

By the end of it it was down to me and a deer (I dunno where it came from).

(I burnt the deer and ate it, as that goes)

A random dragon encounter at Riften:
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b148/ActionDragon/Skyrim/SkyrimWTF1.jpg
Leave something for Dragonborn! Khajiit girl there finishing the dragon with her knife...

That's what's supposed to happen I think, happened to me anyways.

Definitely one of the most epic parts of the game.

OP: That is a really chance encounter. lol. Glad you enjoyed it. I keep getting a guy that runs up to me and gives me a crappy weapon and tells me to hold on to it for him. He never comes back.



I would say my most epic encounter was a bunch of bandits, but the way it happened was awesome.

I was heading into a dwemer ruin either for the MQ or theives guild. I was on a cliff overlooking it and used become ethereal and jumped off. It was a huge fall. Before I hit the ground the epic fight music came on and I landed with my bow out right in the middle of a bandit camp. Bandits came at me from all sides. I felt like legolas; I was one shotting them left and right in close quarters. I used numerous bear traps on the ground to my advantage to help thin their numbers but eventually had to gain higher ground or be overwelmed. They chased me up a spiral walkway and I ran out of arrows. Out came the daggers and killed the last three all with executions.

Jeez, that is epic.