The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is home to many memorable and popular factions for players to join. The Companions, Thieves Guild, Dark Brotherhood and College of Winterhold are all prominent questlines that nearly every player will end up coming across. However, one that's rarely brought up during discussions of Skyrim's factions is the Bard's College.

Located in Solitude, the Bard's College is a much smaller-scale faction. Membership can be gained by entering the college and speaking to Viarmo, head of the school. He will offer the player a place if they can enter Dead Men's Respite and recover the lost verse of King Olaf. Most copies of the book were destroyed, but Viarmo believes one remains buried with the bard who wrote it, Svaknir. Viarmo hopes that by recovering the verse, he can state the case for the Burning of King Olaf festival to Jarl Elisif and allow it to continue.

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The Dead Men's Respite dungeon involves the Dragonborn actively meeting with the ghost of Svaknir and battling Olaf One-Eye himself. Obtaining the verse and returning to Viarmo reveals that much of the book is illegible, so the player must help Viarmo re-write the verse before presenting it to Elisif. She enjoys the performance and agrees to allow the festival to go ahead. Attending the Burning of King Olaf, Viarmo names the player an official member of the college. Additionally, the festival becomes a weekly occurrence in Solitude.

At this point, the player can gain three distinct side-quests by speaking with other members of the college. Pantea tasks the player with recovering her lost flute from Hob's Fall Cave, Inge requests the recovery of the lute once belonging to Finn from Stony Creek Cave and Giraud asks for the retrieval of Rjorn's Drum from Halldir's Cairn. These three fetch quests are rather run-of-the-mill Skyrim dungeon crawls, but the rewards they yield truly stand out.

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Each of the quests rewards the Dragonborn not with gold or a typical enchanted weapon, but with skill level-ups. The three quest-givers together will raise all of the player's statistics by one. Pantea will increase every magic skill (Alteration, Conjuration, Destruction, Enchanting, Illusion and Restoration), Inge will increase all of the stealth skills (Alchemy, Light Armor, Lockpicking, Pickpocket, Sneak and Speech) and Giraud will do the same for the combat skills (One-Handed, Two-Handed, Smithing, Heavy Armor, Block and Archery).

These plentiful free stat increases are incredibly useful, especially considering the ability to make skills Legendary to continue leveling indefinitely. Players should attempt to complete these quests when the associated skills are at mostly high levels to maximize the usefulness of the reward. While not actually allowing players to play any instruments whatoever, the Bard's College is well worth a look for any Skyrim player. It takes very little effort required beyond the initial quest, and the rewards available from this forgotten faction are beyond one would expect of this unassuming school of entertainers.

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