FoxtrotOscar recently pointed out to me that there is a spell book of Telekinesis in Redwater Den near Riften, and that has me thinking about the lowest level a char in the Vanilla game can get in and get his hands on it.

Among other problems are a Spriggan grove real close to the target location. The place is also full of Vampires. There is a lookout that may or may not be friendly. Once you get inside, there is a guard who will let you into the further areas, but a locked gate further in that has to be picked. Beyond that gate it's VAMPIRE CITY!!!

~There is also no telling if the guard who allows you in will be so kind as to let you back out again - it fairly screams "High Sneak Skill" to begin with, but taking the time to develop sneak - well: That isn't something I want to burn game time by grinding.

I'm initially going to take a level 1 prisoner at NOVICE level through the paces and see if I can take the prize at any level at all.

* As of this update: Carl von Chaos is still a level one and I/We expect to accomplish this at ADEPT level.

As in race directly to the location before doing anything else and see if it can be done before any other development of the char at all...

The only stop on the way will be the guardian stones to pick up the Thief stone.

If I fail - I may use the Warrior stone for a second attempt.

SOME TIME LATER:

I'm on the second run-through. The first was both a success and a disaster.

* I decided that doing it at the Novice level was a waste of time. If I had to use that difficulty level it was not good enough for my own game ethos.

We made it to the location (Redwater Den) in good time, and still at level one. -That much worked out well.

It turned out to be fairly simple to run through the rivers all the way to Darkwater Crossing, and so avoid all the really tough bad guys, especially at Valthiem Towers. Once in the wastelands, we went looking for a short way over the top of the hills between Darkwater Crossing and the big lake near Ivarstead. This too went well, and we came up behind the location without having to go near the Spriggan Grove.

Got past the lookout, and the guard/bouncer at the first door.

As soon as the Guard was done for (I used Iron Maces) the people down below were alerted.

By staying to one side of the door to the stairs, i forced them to come up and meet me while I was in sneak mode.

~DUST and DOOM on both of them...

It was simple to go through the Den to the gate at the back, which I think is an Adept level lock.

Beyond there is where the problem is, there are two Vampire Thralls and a Vampire who will come right after the Char as soon as I do anything.

On the Second run - I now have Feandal with me. How this will work I dunno yet, we are just below Valhiem Towers at this point and I may sack out soon to grab some ZZZZZ's.

But the char (Carl von Chaos) is still at level one and the elapsed time is so low it seems ridiculous. The spell book is in a cell with a dead necromancer just below a set of steps - but there is no way I can see to get in there by stealth without alerting the whole bunch of them unless I had spent a lot of time grinding up the sneak skill - which I chose not to do for this.

I DID nearly kill off the Vampire on the first run through, but there is a sad lack of healing potions in the inventory as I bluntly ran through Helgen like a chicken with its feathers on fire!

In one door, and straight the way out the back. I even tried to pickpocket the Helgen Key from the Imperial Captain and run off with Ralof left to deal with whatever in the aftermath... (In fact - no sooner was the Captain done than I had the key, and was through the gate and away)

Chicken? Perhaps...

But see how long you yourself stick around when your own quills are burning.

I had to take time to kill the Torturer, because I got in a bad spot. But I like killing that bugger anyhow!

I ran right through the open area full of imperials where archers first appear.

I ran through the part of the cave where the spiders come out, and straightaway into the Bear cave.

I ran right through that as well, and out the exit - where Ralof finally caught up with me and said:

"WAIT! There he goes..."

And I thought: "DO I LOOK LIKE A WAITER, FOR GODS SAKES?"

You get the idea....

I barreled onward with only one thing in mind: REDWATER!