I don't think you have to marry her... IIRC she's available as a follower upon request once you've completed the main Companions questline (or maybe after you become a Companion, can't remember which). Anyway she's not available to marry until the questline is completed which means you could definitely have her as a follower without marrying her.

As long as she's your dedicated follower you should be able to ask her to train you and then "trade" the gold you paid back out of her inventory. Works with Farkas and Vilkas, anyway. You should be able to make the Companion trainers/followers follow you briefly just for that purpose - ask them to follow, ask them to train you, ask them to trade some things, take your gold back, release them from service, repeat as desired provided you have the necessary gold on hand to start with.

Although I only made a habit of this last time around with Vilkas, because I did actually marry him eventually so it made sense that he would not charge me for training. With Farkas and the others it just felt wrong somehow.

Nope, because I've already moved on and completed the several other quests (and then some) that I was on my way to when I stopped over in Dawnstar. Not giving those up either. It's not a gamebreaker if this priest stays stuck in there alone forever on a bungled side quest, so long as he doesn't turn out to be essential to something else I need or want to do. I don't think he is. But it will bug me to know that he's still in there and the thing is in my journal as an incomplete.

One of the few things I don't like is this thing where you go through a door to pursue a particular quest and suddenly your follower isn't there, with no apparent warning that it's going to happen or an explanation of why when it does. It's the second time this has happened and I don't know why. If I go back out the door, the follower is still standing there waiting but they will not pass through to help complete the quest. If it's deliberate I wish there would be some indication that I *must* continue alone, if there's a message on the screen to that effect I'm missing it.

It happened before and I spent considerable time going back and forth and fast traveling to places and back to make sure my follower was actually still following me. But he would not go through this particular door and follow me to the end location of that bit of questing. It was very annoying because I have occasionally selected the wrong thing when conversing with a follower and accidentally released him/her from service at a very critical moment and when I pass through a door and suddenly I have no follower and we were just talking, I kinda freak out. That's why I kept going in and out of the temple in the Dawnster business, and how I got separated from the priest.

I thought I had lost followers at times too. In my case they were married to me, and ended up at my house a few days later. At least she cooked me a meal and gave me money.

Good thing too. I had a few empty soul gems.:O:

You dont say.. :rotfl2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTMwjYgJsFQ

Well, yeah, spouse or housecarl follower will just go back to where they live and you can pick them up again if you are willing to go back there. However a hireling will go back to where they live or normally hang out and if too much time elapses, you have to rehire them = pay them more money. They will also leave with whatever items you gave them to carry or equip. It's not like you can't find them again if necessary. It's an inconvenience and can be a real problem if it happens accidentally when enemies are nearby and you can't fast travel to wherever your follower went AND you may suddenly be surrounded by hostiles while any support you expected to have is gone.

And there are certain places in the game where no follower can accompany you - I've found two so far, one is definitely not a bug (the Dawnstar one, the priest becomes your temporary companion with a small 'c' while you are in the temple, no other follower allowed). The other was a mine that unbeknownst to me exited into a dragon lair. My follower at the time simply would not enter the mine, and he didn't show up at the lair either, even after I waited a good long time after killing the dragon, so it's not like he came around to "find" me after I took a route he couldn't take himself.

OTOH he is an NPC who can give a quest where he wants to go to a dragon lair and help kill a dragon and maybe that lair was one from that quest, so he wasn't "allowed" to go there unless it was a part of that side quest or that side quest had already been completed.

Anyway it's still annoying to have a follower *not* follow you and not get any indication why they are staying put. Just a little message "you must enter [x] alone" or "you cannot take a follower into [x]" would be nice.

OMG I know. In my new character when I was traveling with her, everytime we came to a pressure plate trap I would just go at it running and jump clear over it and then keep moving in the hopes I would be out of the danger zone before she came up behind me and stepped right on it. Or I'd just make her wait in case I could find a deactivation lever or chain on the far side of it, but the former was more fun because sometimes I could hear the trap spring behind me and her groaning cuz she got hit with whatever it was.

To reset the Dawnstar nightmare quest:

Save game, open console, type "resetquest DA16" without quotes, cross fingers, press enter, do a barrel roll, ???, profit.

The barrel roll step is of vital importance.

Hopefully you can start the quest all over again and nothing else gets broken.

Thanks, I looked it up on the wiki and apparently it's one quest that is turning out to be very buggy. There are instructions for moving the priest character back to the player's location because losing him seems to be real problem especially if you don't enter the temple before he does, so maybe my going back in and out wasn't even the issue to begin with since I let him go in first anyway.

Also found instructions for resetting it entirely which I will probably do because it's not like I care that much about doing that one at all at the moment. I'm back in Whiterun now getting ready to start the Companions quest line. Altho I did leave a bunch of dragonswag that was too heavy to carry at a spot just south of the city so I may fast travel back there just to see if I can pick them up and sell them. Maybe I'll at least pop into the inn and see if the priest is back in his starting position.

One other little picky thing that sort of annoys me is the way a quest will get marked in your Journal as started just because of something someone says to you even if it involves them asking you to take it on and you turn them down. Seems like in those cases not accepting a quest should mean it didn't start at all. I guess it's nice to have a reminder that a quest is available, but I'm one of those people that likes to tick things off a list and sit back and say "Alrighty then, done!" and having a bunch of stuff on my 'list' that I already took a pass on and have no intention of pursuing at any time in the foreseeable future rankles my OCD nerve. :O:

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Waking_Nightmare

Bugs

This quest is extremely glitchy. It is recommended to save often but NOT overwrite previous saves. Erandur can become unresponsive, aggressive, and/or erratic, thus breaking the quest.

When you first enter the fort, Erandur may seem to disappear entirely. In fact, he is actually teleported to the past version of the temple in the dining hall. Possible workarounds include:

Loading a save from before Erandur enters the tower.

On the PC,
prid 0024280 moveto player

in the console will move him back to the entrance and the quest will then proceed correctly.

In terms of homes, I find Hjerim in Windhelm to be the best home in the game. Just make sure you finish the Blood on the Ice quest first. Otherwise you'll be suck with some bugs.

And make sure you purchase the clean-up option for the house before you furnish all the rooms. Wiki says if you furnish a... 'messy' room without paying for the clean-up first, the... 'mess' just stays there underneath all your lovely fine furnishings. :dead:

Thanks for the tips!

I'm currently kind of stuck deciding what side I want to pick.. on one side the Imperials did try to kill me... On the other, Ulfric Stormcloak and the snooty little buggers at Windhelm are racists against my race (Dunmer).

Hmmm... Can't I just kill everyone? :D

That's the downside about Hjerim. The only ways to get it are to either side with the Stormcloaks, which wouldn't make any sense for a Dunmer, or to complete the Civil War questline in favor of the Imperials, which will grant you the option to buy but now you're known as the guy who killed Ulfric so everybody in town hates you.

I don't mind if everyone hates me :DL I'm the Night Mothers Listener. If anyone angers me I can just "complete some contracts" in town :D

Edit: Will I still have access to the Housecarl Calder even if I side with the Imperials?

Yes. So long as you complete quests for the Jarl (whoever he may be at the time), you'll be named thane and will be given a housecarl. It is always Calder.

Thanks a lot Takeda!

Just wondering, what is a usefull spread of Magicka/Health/Stamina points upon levelling up? Currently I'm at 100/250/150 respectively, my player is mostly involved in using archery and sneak attacks in light armor rather than brawling in heavy armor. However, when I do use my swords I also use destruction spells (the starting fire and spark ones, I've upgraded to fireball and blizzard though). Just wondering how I should spend my points when I level up.