Gaming

One of the bandits stands outside on the path and demands that you pay 200 gold to walk past. If you intimidate her she lets you go and hopes that her friends don't notice but if you refuse then the big fight starts and the whole bandit gang gets involved.
I usually just intimidate her but Arissa doesn't like it when I do that so this time I tried a sneaky attack on her instead and... it obviously didn't work.

Also, just before this, I got ambushed by four cultists. Wait- Four??
There's usually only three.
Never mind. Attack them all with a big shout!
Upon closer examination the "extra one" turned out to be M'aiq who unfortunately spawned in the same place.
Thankfully he ran away in the middle of the fight and then afterwards told me, "M'aiq thinks you are dangerous to be around."

I told you M'aiq always shows up when there's trouble...

and I never realised you could bribe the person on the road... I always sneak attack before passing through there (whether I'm crossing the river or not)

M'aiq must be protected at all costs, any who threaten his safety will know my wrath 

I haven't touched a hair on his furry head. *steps further away from Val*

Meh. Been fiddling with Skyrim almost all day. Even if I disable almost all mods, I get a CTD within 3 seconds of starting it up. I HAVE managed to get rid of all the error messages. But obviously it's still not working, anyway. *sigh*

Edit: And NexusMods is CONSTANTLY verifying that I am human.  

Edit2: I think I fixed it!  
At least it hasn't crashed in like... 10 seconds. Yet.  

Here I've made a snug little hideaway with a bedroll, a lantern and a sack for my belongings in an old ruined guard tower and what happens? The GUARDS start using it to take naps while on duty!

I would have killed the guards first 

And get an unnecessary bounty??? This is right outside the walls of Whiterun. (My once again new character is a bosmer hunter, she doesn't wanna buy a house in town.)

Kill the bandits round the corner and store your stuff in their chests and barrels 

Those chests and barrels might respawn so that I lose my stuff.