My character, a female Breton and a brand newbie at level 2 was in Embershard MIne sneaking about and trying fora little improvemnet in the wonderful art of sneaking about. Things were going well, but then RL reared it's ugly head, as my wifey informed me I had to go to town.

In order to talk to her, I paused the game, got my impromptu shopping list (did you ever notice that some people LOVE making lists? My wifey is one of them) gathered my stuff and headed out the door into 100 degree heat. "Town" is 15 miles away, so I was gone about an hour and a half, then another 10 minutes or so unloading the stuff I'd bought.

Finally, I walked back over to my computer, and got a shock. No pause menu awaited me, instead there was my character with her nose in a dark corner sneaking along like she had good sense or something!

"What are you DOING?!?" I cried, and she quietly indicated she'd gotten bored waiting for me, and decided to go for a stroll... Well, what could I say to that? We were quiet while we watched a bandit pass by perhaps five feet away on his patrol, as I presume he had been doing the entire time I was gone.

I popped up the "Skills" menu, and when I was finished leveling her up she had gone from level 2 to level 10. Her sneak had been about level 21 when I left, it was now level 64. I looked at her and said "Just look what you've done! This is quite embarrassing, you're not a thief, you're a mage, you know! With the sweetest little smile, she answered back "But... I don't WANT to be a mage! I want to be a burglar, an international jewel thief, or an assassin! A spy, perhaps.... (she almost was jumping with excitement at that point, and I looked to see how close the bandit was) Stealing state secrets from the Thalmor and living a life of danger and intrigue...

Finally, I promised her I'd take her to the Thalmor embassy for a party, on the condition that she concentrate more on magic. She's got a lovely smile... but devilish, you know? I wonder what the little imp will do next...

In the end, I'm not sure what to make of it. All of her skills except sneak are still sitting at level 2 averages (between 15 and 25) but here she is going up against level 10 opponents, and she just can't fight worth a dang. It worries me..

This is not the first time I've paused the game to do this or that and returned to find it running. Does that happen to anyone else, or is the cat perhaps playing with my keyboard?