There wasn't much in the way of treasure in the mine, so I left via another entrance and tromped down the mountain to a small fishing village, name of Riverwood. There I met a blacksmith who was awfully welcoming—"Sure, you can use my forge, orc stranger!"—and spoke a gentleman about a rival, elven suitor who was wooing his paramour. The lover suggested I deliver a nasty fake letter to his object of affection, signed with the name of his elven competition. A dick move, for sure (and one you can choose to give a twist, by alerting the innocent elf to the plot), but also a testament to the progressive race relations of Skyrim's culture. (If you think I'm poking fun, I'm not. There's something distinct about the way The Elder Scrolls series seems to ignore the issue of race that feels at once mature and perhaps over idealized.)
Even better, the fix to one of my (and everyone's) big irks from Oblivion—the sameness of the voice acting—was made apparent in town. There were 14 different voice actors for all the characters in Oblivion; in Skyrim, there are 70.
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