Well I have finished all my faction quests and have been roaming around trying to find all the side quests I can by clearing all the caves etc that have yet to be cleared.

I stumbled on the quest for the 24 unusual gems and now have 23 of them and am not far enough along in the main quest for the last one.

I am now looking for Treasure maps and have obtained 8 of them. Once I get them all then I will proceed to go after the treasures. I probably won't be wild about the treasures but at least it is an accomplishment that I can say I finished.

Having a lot of fun Skyriming.

Oldman, I have 14 of those stones and I found one treasure map piece. I didn't even know there was a treasure map in this game. That reminds me of the treasure map hunt in Divine Divinity. The smithing in this game reminds me of the Gothic games. It seems a lot of good ideas from other games were adopted into this game. The other thing I'm religiously collecting is nirnroot. I already finished the nirnroot quest but after hunting it forever in Oblivion it has become almost obsessive/compulsive in this game. The one collecting item that I am having difficulty finding are the jazbay grapes.

Wooohoooo Kazz...glad you got it.

Oldman, I didn't know those treasure maps were something we needed to keep. I think mine is in a trunk at my house.

Rowan, I pick everthing cos I never know what I'll be a able to use. But I haven't found much nirnroot.

I'm doing a quest puzzle I just can't solve: The quest is called Revealing the Unseen for the College of Winterhold. I'm in the ruin called Mzulft and I have to focus some lenses with some spells. I'm really not good at spells. To make matters worse, I'm not even sure at what I should be projecting my spells. Can anyone help me with this? Otherwise I will be stuck in this ruin forever.

Rowan, I haven't done that one yet.

Does this video help at all?

L4L those maps are not necessary and I don't think you get any credit for them. I guess the game makers just through them in for kicks. I've gotten all the maps and have found 3 of the treasures and to tell you the truth the treasures are not any better than what you find in normal chests around the game. I was just finding things to do to prolong the game etc.

I'm also finding additional side quests by visiting all the caves and sites that I haven't cleared yet. Doing all this before I continue with the main quest because this is my second go around.

Looney4labs, thank you very much. That video did help. But I have to confess that my brain was fried with all those mage spells. I can hit a fly with an arrow but my spellcasting can't hit a wall. One of the spells I was using was the wrong kind. Duh!

Rowan I'm still struggling to hit the broadside of a barn with my arrows but I'm decent with spells......we would make a good team.

I just made Archmage without ever wearing a robe and only using spells when it was part of a quest. What I wore and what I did in the various dungeons just wasn't any mage's business. My trusty bow did almost all of the work. My spellcasting is really embarrassing. I'm close to being in charge of the thieves but I just want to hang on to that unbreakable lockpick a little while longer.

Rowan, sounds as though you're blazing ahead.

I'm not even close to finishing a guild at this point. Though I'm done with the Thieves main quests, I still have some redecorating to do, apparently. And the Assassin's Guild goes on forever, it seems. Mages? Don't get me started.

I'm currently on a walkabout of the entire map. Found a couple of shouts way up in them thar hills, some very nasty undead that fill a black soul gem very nicely, and a whole lotta loot. I spend a lot of time crafting and enchanting, determined to get up to 100 in those skills in this game.

Level 52 and sticking - and not needing to advance any to keep the game engaging.

I finally settled on using the house in Solitude as my base of operations. I think it's the nicest house and I really like that it's three levels. The porch overlooking the water is a nice touch too.

I had to save up a fair amount to get it, which was a bit of a pain at 25,000 gold + all the upgrades on top of that.

I don't have any speech perks, so shops have limited gold and that took a bit of time to do.

I used the time to max my smithing to 100, as well as my enchanting to 100 though. I find the loot you get from various quests and just looking around to be somewhat lacking, so smithing + enchanting seems to be the way to go.

I also finally landed myself a wife. I only had to murder two people to win her favor too!

Sounds like you're having fun Templeton! I have to confess, I wanted that house in Solitude so much that I used the console to get a big amount of gold so I could buy it right away. I forced myself to not do that again for the others though, and oddly enough, i seem to like them better because I actually "earned" the money to get them! Although, I do think the Solutide one is gorgeous and I wish I could climb into the monitor and live there for real. SIGH!

btw--to all, I just had to share this. I went back to Riverwood for the first time in ages and the guy at Riverwood Traders said, "You and I are the only people around here that aren't complete fools". LOL! I just died laughing and now I'm wandering around other towns to see if anyone else says that to me.

Tracy

Tracy -- That awful Erikur says something similiar. Gives me the creeps everytime. I don't want to share anything with Erikur.

I've heard the occasional person complain that I have bad breath. Must be Namira's Ring that I am wearing.

Bad breath! I haven't had that one, but people have asked if that is fur coming out of my ears! And I'm no longer a werewolf!