Main Quest Walkthrough

Imperial Prison

Those Rats just knocked down a wall! They're super-Rats! Get the hell out of there!

You begin your journey through the land of Oblivion as a prisoner. Although your origins are humble, you'll be hobnobbing with Emperors soon enough...just let the initial conversations take their course, and be ready for a fight when it comes your way.

After the Emperor arrives with his guards, follow them down the steps until they get ambushed by a group of Mythic Dawn assassins. There isn't much you can do to help the Blades here, but feel free to get punchy with your fists if you like. Captain Renault goes down no matter what you do, leaving behing a shortsword on her body and Renault's Akaviri Katana. Pick this latter weapon up and equip it; it'll be a fine weapon for the bulk of the upcoming dungeon. (If you're more skillful at Blunt weapons, be sure to check the attributes of the other weapons that you find as you proceed and equip one of them.)

When the Emperor and the Blades move on, you'll get your first taste of combat, as some Rats burrow out of a wall and attack you. From here on, you're going to have a long trip to reach the end of this first dungeon, with plenty of tutorials to guide you. We're not going to walk you through every single thing that occurs, but we will point out interesting events that will occur.

In the first rat-infested room, you'll find a number of chests, as well as a skeletal body with a bow, a shield, and some leather armor. Equip the armor and grab anything else of interest to you. There'll still be rats in the area, so a shield will help you block their attacks and counter with your own. If you're looking to be a marksman, then of course the bow will be right up your alley; be sure to equip the arrows as well, though!

Grab everything you possibly can, and try your hand at the lockpicking game to improve your Security skill. The Goblin Shaman by the door has a number of items, including the key that will let you into the Imperial Substructure. He also likely drops a magical staff, which anyone can use. You'll likely drain the charges on it pretty quickly if you make heavy use of it, though, so you may be better off just holding onto it and selling it later on.

Imperial Substructure

You'll be taught how to hotbind spells and cast them in this section. Even warriors need spells on occasion, so bind both your Flare and Heal Minor Wounds spells for easy access and make use of them when necessary. Pure melee characters won't have much Magicka to rely on, but they'll still be able to make use of Heal Minor Wounds.

Continue on the path until you come to the scattered debris underneath the sewer grate. The skeleton here possesses an Iron Warhammer, which'll be handy if you're looking for a large blunt weapon. There's also an iron helmet in the debris, along with a bunch of vegetables. Feel free to eat all of it if you're looking to increase your Alchemy score. You can also attempt to harvest the mushrooms near the exit from this area.

Natural Caverns

The Sneak tutorial is first up here. Activate sneak mode and wait for the Goblin in front of you to reach the fireplace. He'll have his back turned, so if you want some easy skill points, just stay in sneak mode and walk around behind his back. These probably get erased at the end of the dungeon, though, so don't spend too long feeling good about yourself.

He'll never see it coming....

Since the goblin can't hear you, though, feel free to stay in sneak mode and get behind it before whacking it with your weapon or bow. Sneak mode attacks get damage multipliers. Be sure to grab the Mortar and Pestle near the goblin if you intend to work on your Alchemy skill. Feel free to select it in your inventory and use it to try and make some rudimentary potions or poisons. Not everything you make will be all that great, but you'll eventually be capable of creating some powerful potions if you hone your skills.

There are a few traps in this area, including a log trap that you can use to kill a couple of goblins at the bottom of a ramp. After that, you'll come out to a larger cavern with multiple Goblins in it, including a Goblin Shaman. Kill everything in sight, and poke around for chests. The Shaman's staff is a particularly noteworthy prize, as it's worth almost twenty times its weight.

Imperial Subterrane

You'll meet the Emperor again here, and be tasked with choosing a birthsign. Don't sweat over this choice overmuch at the moment; you'll be able to change your mind again in the future if you don't like what you selected.

D'oh!.

The Sanctum

Your primary goal here is to just stick with the Emperor. There's nothing you can actually do to protect him here; although you're backed up into a corner with him, someone will walk out of the wall behind him and stab him in the back before you can even move. Fun! Before he gets axed, though, Septim will hand you the Amulet of Kings and give you your first major storyline quest: Deliver the Amulet.

After grabbing the Amulet of Kings, talk to Baurus to get more details on the quest. He'll unfortunately take the Akaviri Katana from you, but hopefully you have another weapon on you regardless.

The Sewers

Kill you way through the sewers until you reach the sewer gate. But it is VERY IMPORTANT that you save your game before you hit the gate leading outside. (It's in a cylindrical pipe with a little bit of light at the end of it.) Since you get the chance to re-choose your race, class, and birthsign here, you can load a save at this point, make an entirely new character each time, and be able to skip all the tutorial stuff without worry. If you like playing through the tutorials, then by all means feel free to start over from the beginning, but if you intend to play through the game for a little while before deciding your permanent character archetype, then a savegame here will be all you need to do so.