Skyrim- The Standing Stones (Part Four)

[b]The Ritual Stone:[/b] The Ritual Stone is in Whiterun Hold, located on a small spur of rock that overlooks the road from Whiterun to Ivarstead around the North side of the Throat of the World.  If you follow the road, you are likely to incite the wrath of the novice necromancer who likes to lurk up there (and -will- be replaced if killed, so expect to always have to deal with that necromancer on this road) and their pair of corpses- one draugr melee warrior and one archer skeleton.  As is implied by the actions of the necromancer when you pass, the Ritual Stone grants you an ability that is useful in nearly any situation: a once-per-day power that animates all the corpses near to you as your allies and sets them to attacking your foes.  This effect is of the most use in the large-group battles that happen at the end of Nord Dungeons with Dragon Priests or other notable quest entities as their final fight, as these tend to have multiple minions that rise to attack you during the battle.  For all that it is great in such circumstances, though, it is by nature a situational effect, and often of no value when you are out in the wild and facing down only one or two foes.  This is the only reason it is not the most useful of the available Standing Stones.

[b]The Warrior Stone, The Mage Stone, and The Thief Stone:[/b] These three stones are located in Falkreath Hold, along the road from the ruins of Helgen to Riverwood.  This path is the one that your companion on escape from Helgen follows, and the stones are on a bluff overlooking the river.  Each of these stones relates directly to a category of skills- Warrior for combat (including Smithing), Mage for magic (and Enchanting), and Thief for Stealth-type skills (and Light Armor and Alchemy).  While under the sign of one of these three stones, your experience in the related skills will accrue 20% faster.  This is a direct increase to the experience gained, rather than a reduction of the amount needed to advance a rank, so you need not worry losing any ground in your skill advancement by changing signs with a skill partway from one rank to the next.  While the experience benefit from each stone is quite large, very few characters will only use skills from a single category, which prevents these stone benefits from being as useful as one might wish.  All of that said, the stones appear early on in the game and provide a choice of three solid benefits that come quite in handy, especially in the later levels when making further gains becomes more difficult and time-consuming.