College, a cold comfort

Thank the gods I'm off that mountain. It was FREEZING up there. Then again, all of Skyrim is pretty cold.

Instead of heading straight off to find this horn, I decided to go to a place called Winterhold. I'd heard mention of a college of mages there, and maybe I can get a better grasp on magic, and some more spells. This elf-lady, Faralda, wouldn't let me in until I could cast a spell for her. Suppose that's a not a bad entry test. Went in, talked to other people, apparently I get my own room. Not bad. Listened to a lecture, and then we're all supposed to go to this old Nord ruin they're excavating. Bleh.

Get out to the town, just about to leave, and a dragon lands! Gah! Stupid dragons. Manage to kill it eventually, and head off to these ruins. Thankfully not far. Not much different from the barrows I've been in. Head deeper, and guy asks me to find some small magic artifacts nearby. Go looking, and take this one amulet off a wall, and suddenly I'm trapped! Big spike barriers block off the way back. Tolfdir, the mage who was giving the lecture, and who apparently looks after all the new mages, found me, and eventually we figured out that when I put the amulet I took on, it had some kind of reaction with the wall it was on. Knocked down the wall with a spell, and the bars opened, but there was a passage behind the wall. We went deeper, killed some undead. Found this huge orb in some kind of magicka field. Wierd. Tolfdir asked me to go back to the college and report to the archmage. Archmage said I should go to the library (they have some other fancy name for it, strange people), and ask if there are any books on the ruins.

Great. All the books were stolen by some asshole apprentice who wanted to impress this circle of summoners who left the college. Stupid keep is way over by Whiterun. Full of mages and freaky fire beasties. Had to kill them all. Took forever. Don't know why I let the moron who stole the books out of his cell. Should have let him rot for making me go all this way to this dank keep full of crazy mages. Tired. Wish I had someone to share bed with. Meh. Maybe once I have a place of my own, not just a room in a mage college.