Skyrim- The Standing Stones (Part Two)

[b]The Shadow:[/b] The Shadow Stone is of some degree of use to all characters.  Most stealthy characters can use it to generate another sneak attack attempt, and anyone else can use it to hide from combat briefly and recover, or just reorient themselves.  By granting you a full minute (sixty seconds) of invisibility once per day, the Shadow Stone can even enable you to simply bypass enemies you don’t want to wind up fighting.  That said, invisibility is automatically broken by attacking, casting a spell, or using a Thu’um.  What’s more, there is an Illusion spell you can gain access to that does the same thing as this- and with the fact that that spell can be used multiple times per day and doesn’t even have a cooldown, it’s quite likely that the spell’s duration is enough to recover to the point where you can simply cast the spell again- so while the Shadow Stone isn’t perfect, it can make a decent backup plan if you can’t afford to invest in Illusion, or for whatever reason simply don’t find yourself wanting the benefits of any of the other Stones.  The Shadow Stone is located Southeast of Snow-Shod Farm and Southwest of Nightingale Hall, very close to the Lost Tongue Pass Dragon Mound (so keep an eye out for dragons while you’re there).

[b]The Apprentice:[/b] This stone is of some use to those desperate for more Magicka points, but holds a drawback that can easily hurt more than the benefit helps.  While you are under the sign of the Apprentice, you regenerate your Magicka twice as fast, but you suffer double effect from spells cast on you.  There are a number of reasons this stone is just bad- but a very large one that it is flat-out good.  On the downside, you will be taking double damage and double effects from enemy spells.  No dice about it, this will get you near-instantly murdered by Hagravens and Briarhearts, and is exceedingly dangerous when dealing with other forms of enemy spellcaster.  Supposedly, the effect is intended to let an armored spellcaster make up for not wearing robes, but having any Enchanting skill at all lets you copy those enchantments (though often in a somewhat weaker form) onto any piece of gear you are wearing, easily making up the discrepancy.  Being affected for longer by spells that don’t deal damage is very harmful as well, leaving you highly vulnerable to Illusionist enemies, and having doubled secondary effects from Frost spells is terribly unpleasant.  Just to cap things off, many enemy casters will come at you with Lightning spells which will, as a result of this Sign, drain your Magicka twice as fast as they otherwise would, virtually completely offsetting the benefit of the stone.  All of that said, the effect is invaluable to a spell-using sniper or long-ranged combatant, particularly one with a Follower to draw off the majority of enemy attention.  Hailing twice as many long-range damage spells into your opponents after your initial burst of casting is a huge improvement in your damage, so the effect can be completely worth the drawback if you’re fighting at a distance.  Just... don’t go into any dungeons using this, you’ll get flambe’d.  The Apprentice Stone can be found in Hjallmarch, South of the Swamp Pond Massacre and North of Fort Snowhawk.  If you try to run from Morthal to the Solitude stables, you’ll likely find yourself walking right past it.