Skyrim Secondaries- The Bards’ College: King Well Done

Once you have waited appropriately, speak to him again and he will tell you it’s time to start the celebration.  This brings you outside to the courtyard of the Bards’ College.  Several of the local vendors are here (you can gain several sweets and drinks, including two bottles of free spiced wine and a pie from two of the vendors), and an effigy is being burned by Viarmo after his reading of the verse you ‘recovered’ in the little ampitheatre.

While you putter about there, Viarmo goes about performing the ceremony itself.  He begins by indicating the large straw figure mounted on the cross-spur that has been set up in the small stage, complete with a large, crude metal crown atop its head.  The elf then proceeds to read the verse aloud in its entirety, to the applause and approval of the audience, before putting the torch to the effigy and commencing the burning.

You can speak to the various audience members, who mostly are of the opinion that the festival is great and they’re glad that it’s been allowed to happen.

When you approach Viarmo, he speaks to you without being poked- he tells you how glad he is that the celebration has been authorised and declares you now a Bard.  He also hands over pay appropriate to however it is that you completed the missing portions of the verse, and if you did an especially melodramatic job with the additions, might even inform you that Jarl Elisif has declared the Burning of King Olaf to be a weekly event rather than yearly, a great coup for the College, which gains a stipend from the throne for purposes of funding the celebration.

Now that you are a Bard, you can also pick up three quests in the College to find valuable instruments- Rjorn’s Drum for Viarmo, Finn’s Lute for Inge Six-Fingers, and Pantea’s Flute for Pantea Ateia.  Obtaining Rjorn’s Drum will gain you a rank in each of your Combat skills from Viarmo, returning Finn’s Lute to the college nets you a rank of training in all of your Stealth skills from Inge, and Pantea rewards you for the return of her flute with a rank of training in all of your Magic skills.