Unbound

It serves as the opening quest and tutorial for the game.

Dragons
Just before the Imperial Headsman has the opportunity to kill you, Alduin arrives and disrupts the execution. With the execution stopped and the guard in chaos, you take the opportunity to escape custody. Running towards a nearby tower, you meet up with Ralof and Ulfric Stormcloak, who also managed to escape. Quickly you learn that your hiding place is not safe, as Alduin blasts a hole in the tower killing another Stormcloak in the process. Ralof will instruct you to jump out of the tower from the hole into a nearby inn, with the promise that he will meet up with you when he can. After jumping down and exiting the inn, you find that Helgen has become heavily damaged in quite a short time, with many buildings damaged and burning. As you run into the street, an Imperial soldier, Hadvar, will tell you to follow him to safety. Hadvar will then lead you to the Helgen Keep. At the entrance of The Keep, Ralof catches up with you.

You then have to choose to either have Hadvar or Ralof accompany you the rest of the way. Your choice will create some minor changes in the story during the Civil War questline. (This does not affect which side you are able to take in the war later in the game.)

Helgen Keep
The only main difference at the beginning of the game between following Ralof and following Hadvar is that if you follow Hadvar you get light armor and if you follow Ralof heavy armor is easily obtainable at the begining.

Following Ralof
Upon entering the keep, you and Ralof discover the body of a dead Stormcloak, Gunjar. After freeing you from your bindings, Ralof instructs you to take Gunjar's gear for your own use, as he won't be needing it. While you equip yourself, Ralof examines the doors. He discovers one door is locked, and the other can't be opened from the side you're on. Luckily,an Imperial Captain and Imperial Soldier will come through and open the door from the other side (if you are seen before the gate is open the captain will be alert and shout "Its the Stormcloak prisoners!"). Once they open the door, you are forced to kill them in order to recover the key to the other gate from their bodies, and you can gain a full set of heavy Imperial armour from the Imperial captain. Going through the now opened up path, you will discover a store room, with two more Imperial Soldiers gathering supplies.

After defeating the soldiers, Ralof advises you to go through the barrels to find potions. If you're new to The Elder Scrolls, take the time to do a thorough search of the area and all containers. This is a good opportunity to familiarize yourself with Skyrim's controls and menus.When searching you can find the barrel with the potions in it, and there is a magicka potion over near the table with bread, tankards, and a Potion of Minor Healing. In between the barrel of potions and the cabinet, there is a crate containing 5 Rock Warbler Eggs, which can be used in alchemy.

Continuing down, you arrive at a battle between an Imperial torturer and his Assistant against two Stormcloaks. After defeating the soldiers, Ralof points to a cage, there is a dead mage in the cage that wears a Novice Hood and Novice Robes. Along with this, you can loot 25 septims and two Potions of Minor Magicka. Next to him are a few septims and a Spell Tome: Sparks.. Ralof gives you 12 lockpicks, and suggests you pick the lock to get to the items. You can pick the rest of the locked cells for experience. In the armoury cage, there are two lockpicks, an Iron Shield, and a couple of books. On a table outside the cage, there is a knapsack containing 4 lockpicks and some gold. Next to it are Book of the Dragonborn and an Iron Dagger. The torturer you (or Ralof) killed, also has a Steel Dagger, the only one in the keep.

When you have finished, you go through a hallway lined with cells. One of these cells consists of a skeleton, Bone Meal, and a coin purse. After that, you enter a room with prisoners in cages. All of them are deceased, and there are 3 more skeletons, all of which also carry Bone Meal, and they usually carry septims on them as well. In one of the cages, there is a dead Stormcloak wearing Ragged Robes.

You eventually enter a natural cave, filled with soldiers guarding it for General Tullius.There are a few archers and swordsmen in the cavern, along with another soldier wearing heavy armour. The archers all are positioned dangerously close to a pool of flammable oil, which you can light using the Flames spell. After killing them, any surviving Stormcloak Soldiers will stay behind. You then find a drawbridge that connects to another part of the cave, this section not occupied by the Imperials. Shortly after arriving in this cave, Alduin will roar, destroying the bridge behind you. When following Ralof, you will find a skeleton near the hall leading towards the cavern leading towards Frostbite Spiders. Near the skeleton is an Iron Dager, Potion of Minor Healing, and Coin Purse. Shortly after you enter it, the passage behind you collapses, forcing you to find a way out through there. The next cavern consists of two-four of the smaller variety of Frostbite Spiders, and two larger ones (not to be mistaken for Giant Frostbite Spiders) will drop down from the ceiling. You can loot their bodies, each of them containing Frostbite Venom. Once you defeat the spiders, you and Ralof exit through another passageway.

In the next cave, Ralof tells you to stop, as there is a bear on the other side. He tells you to sneak by, but he also gives you a Long Bow and 12 Iron Arrows, in case you're "feeling lucky." In the cart next to you, there is a bottle of Alto Wine, and a coin purse. In front of the cart is an Iron Helmet.

Once you've dealt with the bear, you will see an exit to the cave. Exit through here. Once free, you will see Alduin fly away. Ralof will direct the player to his sister, Gerdur, who lives in Riverwood. At this point you can choose to follow Ralof to Riverwood, or split up and find your own way.

Following Hadvar
The story is the same as above, but instead of siding with the Stormcloaks, you side with the Imperials, and fight the Stormcloaks. Also, you don't fight the Torturer and his assistant when you go to the torture room. If the player allows Hadvar to escort them through the Keep, he will escort the player to their freedom. Once free, Hadvar will direct the player to his uncle, Alvor, who lives in Riverwood.

During this sequence the player's companion (Hadvar or Ralof) will not fight back if attacked and will regain health immediately after taking damage. Your companion cannot be pickpocketed at all, and only falls to the ground to rise shortly after, if reduced to 0 hitpoints.

Loot
Some notable loot found includes:


 * 3 Potion of Minor Magicka
 * 9 Potion of Minor Healing
 * Potion of Minor Stamina
 * Spell Tome: Sparks
 * Novice Hood and Novice Robes
 * Bear Pelt
 * Iron Warhammer
 * Iron Helmet

Object Values: 685 Searching Values Estimate: 3059 Total Area Value: 3744

Following Ralof does grant slightly better heavy armor as one of the guards you must kill is an Imperial Captain, which means you can pick up the Imperial Armor, which gives very helpful protection in the early part of the game. After continuing to Riverwood, Gerdur will give you her house key.

If you side with Hadvar you are free to take the pile of iron and steel ingots which spawn next to the workbench outside Alvor and Sigrid's House, giving your character a better weapon from the start if you have steel smithing. You can also take some armor and weapons next to the grindstone and in the basement of his house.

You can however steal from Alvor if you followed Ralof to get the weapons and ingots by his forge, but you may be caught if you're not careful.

Trivia
-This level is the only time you can customize your character's name and race, so be careful and take your time.
 * Interestingly enough, Alduin roars before the executions and are heard when General Tullius and the Imperial Captain unknowingly mention the events that would see to Alduin's return and demise.
 * "You started this war! Plunged Skyrim into chaos! And now the Empire is going to put you down, and restore the peace!" (Alduin roars) - It is foretold in the Elder Scrolls that when the Civil War breaks out, Alduin will return.
 * "Next, the [player's selected race]!" (Alduin roars) - The player's character is the Dovahkiin, who would defeat Alduin and save Tamriel, foretold in the Elder Scrolls. And this also, shows that the peace has been restored.
 * When the player is forced to decide whether to follow Hadvar or Ralof, If the player waits too long, Alduin will land in the courtyard or the tower upon the Ralof's location and attack the player with either his Thu'um or his bite.
 * Hadvar is seen behind your cart on the way to Helgen.
 * During Hadvar and Ralof's "quarrel", Alduin grabs an Imperial with his talons and throws him into the air.
 * If the player stands around in Helgen, Alduin will speak in Draconic (The tongue of the Dovah). Such lines include:
 * "Daar Lein los dii!" - "This World is mine!"
 * '"Fen du hin sille ko Sovngarde!" - "I will devour your souls in Sovngarde!" (This line also points to an event following the fight on the Throat of the World.)
 * "Zu'u Alduin, zok sahrot do naan ko Lein!" - "I am Alduin, most mighty of any in the World!"
 * When the player is following Hadvar through the burning buildings, shortly after Alduin has landed upon the wall and spewed fire at an Imperial soldier, the player must go through a group of Imperials. If the player stays for a few seconds, General Tullius will shout "Run, you idiot!"

The reason why this happens is if the previous prisoner's head rolls off the box and not stay inside of it the bug will happen Tested on PS3: Once the quest starts, the player can go into the quest journal, select show on map, and then fast travel to Helgen, this makes you appear outside the gates, but your hands are still bound and you cannot do anything. The sky will be gray from Alduin's storm call. Nothing can be achieved from this and reloading is the only way to get back into Helgen.
 * Throughout the entire sequence, up to the point when you make it to the keep and are cut free, you are bound. Without the use of your hands you are unable to defend yourself and unable to perform almost all actions, but you can still level here. If you do not feel rushed to progress through the story, sneaking around the buildings with Alduin soaring above can easily level your Sneak to 30 or more, depending on how patient you are. What this means is that by the time you make it to the keep you have several levels and perks available as soon as you are cut free. (Just make sure Alduin doesn't Shout at you.)
 * In Helgen Keep, shortly after being Unbound by Hadvar, he will offer the Stormcloaks mercy. Unfortunately, they refuse to take it.
 * If you start to sneak after heading away from the chopping block, the sneak indicator will be partially opened, this signifies that Alduin is searching for the Dragonborn or that someone else can see your movements and are searching for you.
 * If during character creation, you don't know what to name your player, you may go to: http://tamriel-rebuilt.org/?p=modding_data/ngen. It is a name generator made for Oblivion, but the races are generally the same from Oblivion.
 * ==Bugs==
 * After following Ralof into the first tower, there is a chance that the wall of the tower will not collapse after you follow Ralof up, but that the quest will continue as normal as if the wall had a hole in it.
 * Sometimes when following Hadvar, he will disappear yet you can still hear his voice.
 * There is a possibility that Alduin will just fly around without attacking and the headsman will not try to behead you, causing a never ending stance.
 * Under certain ambiguous circumstances* the player may not be able to speak with Gerdur about Ralof or escaping Helgen, making the misc follow-up quest 'Speak with Gerdur' impossible to finish without the use of console commands. She will, however, still provide free supplies, as that conversation option is still available for some reason. It is possible that this bug may always occur since update 1.4 (as this is when it was first noted), but this is unconfirmed.
 * Sometimes when the first Stormcloak is beheaded there will be no box and the head will roll around (Note: seeing this is actually quite funny)


 * If you decide to follow Ralof into the tower, after killing the two Imperial soldiers you can hack away at Ralof instead of "unlocking that door" and get you one handed or destruction up past 30 or so. this also helps with early leveling and getting a few perks before you're even into the game.

Achievements
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