Skyrim Secondaries- College of Winterhold: The Old Man and Go See

On entering the building and passing through the gate, you will find yourself in a room with a beacon pool and a number of sigils on the floor- Tolfdir is here as well with three other new apprentices, already in the process of holding a starting class.  The man is gently lecturing a bit when one of the other students, Brelyna, interrupts his opening cautions to point out that some degree of control over magic is necessary for any of the apprentices to be here in the first place.

The elder mage sustains the objection calmly and proceeds with what he was saying anyways.  J'zargo, the khajit apprentice, urges the man to get on into the practical part of the lesson, but Tolfdir wants to slow down a touch.  Onmund, the third apprentice, points out that Tolfdir hasn't found out what the new arrivals can do anyways, and should probably start out more practically.

Noting that he's heard from everyone but you, Tolfdir turns to you and asks your opinion.  Although your response prompts the tone of the next bit of conversation, what choice you make doesn't change that you are into a practical lesson soon enough.  Tolfdir first ensures that everything is safe, then asks for your help with a demonstration of a Ward spell.  You may respond that you don't know one, don't know how to use the one you have got, or have and know how to use one.

If you don't know a Ward spell, he immediately teaches you Lesser Ward.  If you don't know (or claim you don't know) how to use one or he had to teach you Lesser Ward, he will also explain how Ward spells work.  He then has you position yourself and prepare a Ward for use.

Tolfdir will throw a low-end Fire spell at you, which you must use your Ward to protect yourself from.  Once this is done, Tolfdir thanks you for your assistance and encourages the four of you to get more practice with wards.  This first lesson done, he opts to move on to a more historically-oriented subject next, and explains that the College has been excavating the nearby ruins of Saarthal for some time now.

He tells the class to head there, and meet up in a few hours, and then dismisses everyone.

If you like, you can follow Tolfdir or one of the other apprentices to get to the ruins, but it will be marked on your map and you can go there independently as well- heading there on your own usually results in your arriving well before anyone else and getting an opportunity to poke around the dig site for anything useful.

As the ruins of Saarthal are absolutely vital to the Forbidden Legend quests and to the College of Winterhold quests, this portion of the guide will be linked to via 'Related Articles', so that it can be reached from both article series.  It will then have the continuance of both the College of Winterhold quests and the Forbidden Legend quests listed as Related Articles from the final article in its own series.