

Skyrim: Rags to Riches - Part 5 of our quest for fame and fortune

Days 17-20: Olaf gets married, eats some mammoth cheese, and is tempted by the dark side

PART 1 / PART 2 / PART 3 / PART 4

Skyrim: Rags to Riches is an ongoing series in which we attempt to earn 25,000 gold in Skyrim with a character who can't go on adventures, cast spells, or kill dragons. He's just a regular guy, and has to somehow earn enough money to buy Proudspire Manor in Solitude before he dies.

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Day 17 - Middas, 2nd of Hearthfire

So Olaf met a lady. Her name is Gilfre, and her turn-ons include chopping wood and, er, not much else. The perfect match for Olaf, then. Our wedding is to be held at the Temple of Mara in Riften. We consider buying some nice clothes for the event from the Radiant Raiment in Solitude, but decide it's a waste of money. Olaf doesn't have time for romance.

We head to Riften. Maramal, the priest who'll be overseeing the wedding, says to turn up any time between dawn and dusk. That's pretty vague, but we don't mind. It gives us some spare time to chop a few blocks of firewood and hawk them at the general store.


The wedding ceremony is depressingly empty. Because Gilfre works on her own at the Mixwater Mill, no one turns up to wish her well. On our side there are only two guests: a homeless guy we gave a gold coin to in Solitude, and Faendal, the elf we hired to kill some bandits a few days ago.

We say 'I do', and Gilfre and Olaf are officially a couple. Because we don't have our own house, we get to use Gilfre's. We head back to Mixwater Mill and check out our new digs. Not bad. Better than a hay pile, and it'll save us spending 10 gold at a night to rent a bed.

Gold 2191


Day 18 - Turdas, 3rd of Hearthfire

Now that we're married, everything in Gilfre's house is now considered ours. We take everything that isn't nailed down to sell. This might seem harsh, but she'll be moving into Proudspire Manor with us, so it's a temporary sacrifice. Gilfre isn't considered a follower, so we can't take her with us. We can, however, still sell her any firewood we chop.

We leave the wife at home and head to Dawnstar, a small village in Skyrim's frozen northern reaches. We heard there were two mines there: one for iron, and one for the much rarer quicksilver. We arrive at the snow-caked hamlet and get to work. After exhausting every vein in the mine and a quick visit to the smelter, we have a pile of ingots to sell.


With the quicksilver mine cleared out, we trek across town to the iron mine. Suddenly we remember hearing about a mysterious hidden chest buried between two rocks near the smelter here, and investigate. Sure enough, we find the buried booty and end up with a small fortune in gems and enchanted armour, as well as 750 gold. Incredible!

We sell the loot and end up with over 6,000 gold. An incredible haul, and Olaf's biggest profit yet. We're still nowhere near the 25,000 gold we need to buy Proudspire Manor, but that distant dream has never felt closer. We head to bed, our pockets bulging with coin.

Gold 6434

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