Skyrim- The Standing Stones (Part One)
There are thirteen stones throughout Skyrim that you can visit which are landmarked on the map. These stones each grant you a different bonus in a slot that is not occupied by anything other than a stone bonus. The benefits of these stones will be somewhat familiar to those who have played previous Elder Scrolls games, as they are essentially identical to the Birth Signs used in prior games. The main difference here is that if you find the one you are using to be inadequate, you can simply go to a different stone and ‘use’ the stone to change which Sign you are acting under.
The various Signs of the stones are not all equal in value to most characters, so I will list them from least generally meaningful to most.
[b]The Tower:[/b] This stone grants you the ability to automatically unlock one Expert or lower level lock per day. This is the least useful of all the stones for several reasons. First of all, failing to unlock a lock, unless you are trying to break into someone’s house while using Stealth to hide, only costs you a lockpick. If you are facing humanoid enemies with any sort of regularity, you should never run out of lockpicks, no matter how bad you are at the lock-opening ‘minigame’ used in The Elder Scrolls V. Most players will find that they wind up with well over a hundred spare lockpicks anyways, just jingling around in their pockets. Second of all, it only works on Expert-level or lower locks. Even Expert-level locks are supremely unlockable in Skyrim, meaning that Master grade locks are the only ones you really want help getting past- and this effect simply doesn’t work on them to begin with. In the end, that makes this Sign basically meaningless, so you probably shouldn’t bother considering it. If you absolutely must go find it, it is waiting for you on the peninsula due East of Winterhold.
[b]The Lady:[/b] This stone beats out The Tower by a long shot, by actually being useful. While you are under the sign of The Lady, you regenerate health and stamina 25% faster. This benefit is most noticeable in an extended combat, which sadly doesn’t happen terribly often. It’s not a huge boost, and the effects can be easily mimicked by simply having the appropriate foods for stamina and health recovery over time on hand and eating one of each just before entering battle. Potions will easily outstrip the benefit of the Sign of The Lady once you reach about the 30 skill rank and can start mixing potions that not only boost your recovery but also give you a secondary benefit at the same time. The Lady Stone can be located on the island in the middle of Lake Illinata.
