It took a Skyrim newcomer 15 hours and a talking dog Barbas to understand why people love the game

A short post from a newcomer describing the moment Skyrim finally "clicked" serves as a good reminder of what makes the game so magical.

A player going by SeaInRain spent about fifteen hours in Skyrim, wandering around, talking to random NPCs and picking up side quests, and named a quest involving a random talking dog as the turning point.

The quest isn't hard to identify since there's only one talking dog in the game. It's Barbas and the "A Daedra's Best Friend" questline, which becomes available near Falkreath after reaching level ten – right in line with fifteen hours of casual play.

It all starts off pretty mundane. A guard asks if the player has seen a stray dog wandering around and points them toward a local blacksmith named Lod, who wants to catch the animal and hands over a piece of meat as bait.

The bait ends up being unnecessary, since the dog speaks up first. His response to the player's reaction became something of a calling card for the quest – Skyrim already has giant flying lizards and bipedal cat people running around, so being surprised by a talking dog specifically seems a bit much.

Players also point out his voice. Against the backdrop of northern and British accents from every other character, Barbas talks with a distinct Brooklyn accent, which makes the contrast even sharper.

Turning him down works too. If the player says they've got enough on their plate already, the dog shrugs it off, mentions the war and the dragons, and tells them to find him at the shrine whenever they're ready to be useful.

From there, the chain of events goes like this:

• a trip to the shrine of Clavicus Vile, which happens to be cleared of vampires along the way

• the prince demanding the Rueful Axe instead of a simple reunion

• a journey to the far northwest of Skyrim for the axe, ending in a fight against a mage named Sebastian Lort

• a final choice back at the same statue on the way home

The backstory of the axe adds a grim layer to the quest. Lort's daughter worshipped Hircine and turned into a werewolf, so her father wished for a way to lift the curse. Clavicus Vile granted him the axe instead, which drove the mage insane.

The ending hinges on a cruel joke. The prince offers to let the player keep the axe on the condition that they use it to kill Barbas, who is immune to every other weapon in the game and immediately starts arguing that there's another way.

The rewards are set up so that greed doesn't pay off. The Rueful Axe doesn't count as a true Daedric artifact, doesn't count toward the "Oblivion Walker" achievement, and remains the slowest melee weapon in the game, while refusing to kill Barbas nets the player the Masque of Clavicus Vile instead.

Fans consider the weak axe intentional design. Clavicus Vile is known for making deals with terrible terms for mortals, so a useless reward for killing a companion fits his style perfectly.

There's also a third path that veterans pointed out to the newcomer – simply never finishing the quest. Doing so leaves Barbas as an immortal companion for as long as the player wants, and since he doesn't take up the regular follower slot, he can tag along on every adventure without issue.

There's still a price for the company, though, since the dog occasionally blocks doorways, barks constantly, and can even shove the player off a cliff, which is why some players choose to finish the quest quickly instead of keeping him around.

As a way to keep exploring side content, the newcomer got two more recommendations. One is a drinking contest against a stranger named Sam Guevenne in Whiterun, and the other is an investigation into an abandoned wing of the Blue Palace in Solitude – both start out as small, unassuming errands too.

If only there were a pill to selectively wipe your memory for a while, just to experience Skyrim like the first time all over again.