I Just got this game last weekend( I got a new computer for Christmas, Woopy). How do I communicate with people and how do I identify them also. I am running like a headless chicken trying to find the persons who can free my hands.

At the beginning you're with an Imperial fellow, follow him into the keep. He'll cut the bindings to free you.

fixed LOL

You can follow either fellow it doesn't really matter.

My first time through I didn't realize there was a choice. Followed Hadvar without even registering the other way to go.

My first playthrough i followed the legion guy but went in the same door as the stormcloak guy (Alduin was on the wall where the town gate is and i panicked and ran to the nearest door in case he killed me)

He won't kill you. I've repeatedly stood in his firebreath trying to get him to. I'd even get right up in his face to see if he'd bite. Worst he ever did was Fus me into a wall- no damage.

Pretty damn stupid, since I'm destined to kill him and he knows it. Heck, he could have just left Helgen alone for another five minutes, and the Empire would have done the job for him.

My first character, an Khajiit followed the imperial, later I tested other characters who all followed the stormcloak so I thought it was race dependent.

And no you can not talk while your hand are tied, it makes perfect sense, however Ulrich was gagged.
Other point, would love to reverse pickpocket that gag onto many people in Whiterun.

It is not race dependent. There are two doors into the Keep. One leads to Hadvar, the other to Ralof.


I found it annoying that the stormcloaks couldn't spare those 5 seconds to cut the bindings from my wrists before telling me to jump over to the tavern. They all had managed to get their own hands free already, so someone had a knife or they used that axe or whatever.

I know now, but not the first times I tried out new characters

And the stormcloaks enjoy seeing an bound lady obviously enough, they just untie you then he was alone with you and needed help.

This is odd. He grabbed one of my characters and threw her into the air, the same way other dragons do. It killed her.

I've done this enough that I just ignore Hadvar and Ralof and run. I run into the tower, wait for Alduin to open the side, jump through into the ruined building, dash through it and out, past Hadvar and Alduin, past defenders, to the Keep where I enter the first (Ralof's) door. I go in that door because if I want to make a Heavy Armor character, there's no way to get Heavy Armor in the starting dungeon if you go Imperial. The only NPCs who wear it are Imperials who only appear as enemies; if you're not enemies with the Imperials, they don't appear at all.

He CAN kill you, I tested it out just to see if it's possible and his fire breath is pretty much a one-hit kill

Just tried it again myself and got crispy fried. That's just weird.

Anyway, ignore my previous post. No idea what was going on there.

I've gotten hit by the fire breath and survived, but I haven't taken the full brunt of it and lived to tell the tale. But yes, it's possible to die before reaching the keep.