Skyrim player stumbles on unfortunate alternate ending before leaving Helgen

Another day, another thing I didn’t know about Skyrim. I could start a book at this rate. To be fair, I’ve only played it once, I really should go back for another playthrough.

Well, today’s Skyrim adventure ends rather abruptly, before this player even left Helgen, in fact.

I wonder what the record number of playthroughs of Skyrim is

It turns out you can die in the tutorial, which is a horrible way for your journey to end.

This was brought to our attention on Reddit, when RealPokeMikey reported, “So, I just started my 17th playthrough, and thought it would be fun to just not follow Hadvar or Ralof, and Alduin just bit me to death. Fun.”

Not an ideal start. Though at least they tried something new.

17th playthrough, by the way, that’s some achievement. I’d love to know what that is in hours played.

This sparked several players telling their own versions of this story with NoTheOtherAC saying, “My first playthrough was even worse. I missed the jump from the tower, landed in a fire, and burned to death before I could figure out how to jump out of it.”

This being a Bethesda game, sometimes other things get in the way and one Redditor tells the story, “And you can actually die in chopping block too. Couple times, Alduin never spawned.”

I love the innocence in this anecdote from Highwayman42069 who describes, “My coworker couldn't get past the tutorial a few years ago. Apparently she didn't realize she was supposed to run away and not fight Alduin.”

Who knew the story could be over so quickly and the famed Dragonborn would stumble at the first hurdle?

Of course, if you just wait around you’re going to get gobbled by a dragon, changes the game a bit, as explained by BoxiDoingThingz who comments, “Alduin realizing he killed the Dragonborn: "...wait, what? No way. Well, my job just got easier."