Just a quick rant...

Escort missions *suck*
The NPC's are sooo slow, they keep getting stuck half the time you havnt got a clue where you are supposed to be going.

I just spent ages escorting a guy from the Ashlands to Koal Cave and it was a nightmare. The guy couldnt follow me over the mountains so i went north for ages till i reaced the end of the valley thinking I could follow the coast round only to find that there was no coast and we had to swim!!. Soon after the guy just vanished!!

I reloded and had to backtrack south until I found a suitable route. The guy kept reminding me that he had to be at the caves in the next day and when i finally made it he gave me 150 septims. It was the least fun Ive ever had in a game - too much like real life!

If anyone else asks me to escort them anywhere I may have to kill them.

In the beggining of the game I never took the Silt Strider because I thought I could get more quests by walking. Until I realised they were all a bunch of sucky escort quests. I once even killed a guy in frustration. Pemenic the Trader was the last straw. Now I always take the Silt Strider/ Mage Teleporter whenever possible. No point doing these quests, its not like D&D where you would get xp ponts for doing them anyway.

I managed to lose that pilgrim as well. We were in Gnisis and I was trying to find a way over to Koal cave. I go down to the river and turned around only to find he disappeared. I ran around town looking for him but he was not to be found. I decided he must be trying to stiff me for the 150 and just let him go. I have serious doubts I will ever take another escort mission as I do not need the lousy 150 drakes.

In my opinion, these are definitely the worst quests. You're right, they can never keep up with you and you have to basically stay on the road, otherwise forget it. I've had one of mine actually fall into the water. You have to constantly keep turning around to make sure they are right behind you.

One other thing that sucks is when you meet some critter and the NSC also starts to fight. It happened several times, that I hit the NPC, because he ist always standing in your way...

This is especially bad when the NPC is a powerful mage with big, area-effect lightning spells. :eek:

Have you tried them after the patch? They now keep up with my below 20th lvl character. I usually have them wait while I go over a hill or if I see lots of flying "rats" or ambushers ahead.

You are right about them getting in the way. One acidental hit from a Summoned Long sword and no more escort :( I have even been forced to enchant junk armor pieces with good stones so I did not run out of "mana" trying to heal them because one of those stinking cliff racers locked in on them and attacked from the rear. I can see my character just shaking his head and looking pained when he hears them screaming as something wails on them 50 feet astern of me...

Or just hold down the tab key. You can watch you walk towards yourself.... and see the pleb behind you. :D

I hear ya, but be careful what you wish for, I escorted someone, it was an easy escort and I got the Boots of Blinding Speed for it. It helps me cover much map really fast! Then again there was that time I was going to help the naked dude near Caldera find the witch that took his daddy's CloudCleaver Axe, but of ourse I found a horde of diseased rats (about 10) and I had just bought a Greater Fireball spell, I thought I'd take care of them, but the oaf had the stupidity to step in my line of fire, he died most regrettably. The upside is if you accidentally kill the escortee, you usually don't get punished for it. (And you get their loot!)

I love those boots of blinding speed. Such a great name and effect. I don't mind the escort missions too much (except for the fact that they are so much slower than I now that I have the boots). I get to see the country, which is part of the fun of the game. That being said, I probably won't do them very much longer. Unless I enchant something with Fort Speed on target. My enchant skill is pathetic though. I just can't seem to get it to go up (it's a Major). I think its gone up twice (I'm level 12). I have a ring of healing I use all the time, a amulet of ghost summoning and two short swords that do damage when strikes. I use these items all the time but my enchant still doesn't go up very fast. Oh well, I'll figure it out. I probably just have to actually enchant things. Better quit before I get any more off topic.