Which quest is it that makes the dragons start spawning?

In Oblivion, if you never rescued Martin from Kvatch, the Oblivion gates would never spawn. And you didn't have to deal with them, if you didn't want to.

Some other post mentioned that the dragon spawning is started by finishing a quest in the main quest line (not finishing the tutorial, one of the ones in Whiterun).

Dragons are annoying (for me) on master level. I'd rather play the other parts of the game without dragons randomly spawning. They fly around screwing up fast travel, but almost never landing, and when they do land they one shot you. And they'll just come flying along when you are hunting, and breath on you and one shot you, without you ever actually seeing it because you were focused on that bandit you were trying to kill...

I'd just rather not start that part of the game, if there was a way to avoid it. For now.

The first quest with a dragon triggers dragons appearing, my advice is don't retrieve the dragonstone from the burrow, so the quest dragon rising never begins.

they start to spawn after you had the fight with the dragon at the tower near whiterun

The name of the quest is Dragon Rising which is pretty much initiated when you complete Bleak falls barrow and returning the stone.

Ok, can you retrieve the Dragonstone, but not go to the western tower with Irileth to kill the dragon?

Or is bringing the Dragonstone to Farygar the trigger that causes all the dragons to spawn?

Although I've never tried, im assuming avoiding her and the watch tower could avoid spawning them. The trigger point for the first dragon to appear at the tower is the little ramp up to the entrance of the tower. A man will come out and warn you then it starts. You could hold on to the stone im assuming to be sure it doesn't spawn any.

i don't think you can do that. maybe yes, if you stay away form the tower forever, but that's probably kinda annoying.

actually, if you don't do the quest irileth is going to be annoying enough, because she will always go to tell you that balgruuf doesn't want to be disturbed... even if you are heading straight to the enchanter.

I'm not sure exactly when, but I skipped Bleak Falls barrow on one character and never got dragons.
I kind of missed them, the cheerful pups.

The best place I've found to stop dragons is when you are supposed to meet Irileth at the tower to fight your first dragon. If you don't step inside the Western Watchtower, the dragon won't show up, and it is very easy to walk right past the tower without going inside. You can also easily avoid even getting the tower to be "visited" on your world map, as you have to get pretty close.

Doing it this way, the Court wizard in whiterun is not always pestering you to visit Bleak Falls Barrow, and you can trade just fine with him and use the enchanter's table without any fuss. Also, skipping Bleak Falls Barrow svcks, because it's a fun dungeon crawl for a low-level character, and can help you get a head-start on creating some bankroll for buying expensive spells or enchanted equipment (to use or disenchant).

-Loth

Yes, it's possible. I did that in my first playthrough. Not that I wanted to prevent the dragons from spawning, I just didn't feel quite ready for dragon hunting ...

However, hours later, while I had completely forgotten this quest, I triggered the dragon appareance by walking too close of the Rendez vous Point. Dragon was weak, so it was easy even if I was completely unprepared.


I don't remember how I triggered it accidentally, but I don't think it's as easy to avoid as you make it to be. I never go too close of ruins that aren't my current goal, yet, I triggered the dragon spawn.
I think I probably triggered Irileth (whom I hadn't even yet spotted) who in turn triggered the dragon, but my memory is cloudy.

lmao

Turning in Before the Storm - Notify the Jarl of Whiterun that Riverwood is in danger triggers the Bleak Falls Barrow part of the quest to retrieve the stone. If you don't want to start the Dragonborn chain I'd recommend that you assume that Riverwood will send another runner and you can skip Whiterun, or that you can pick up the quest after warning the Jarl and not finish it by not turning the stone in.

You can go to Bleak Falls Barrow for Lucan at the Riverwind Trader and complete the Golden Claw, learn the word on the wall (it'll sit there and wait for the first dragon soul you absorb) and pick up the dragonstone from the draugr and carry it forever if you choose to. As soon as you bring it to Farengar at Whiterun it will trigger the Dragonborn quest chain by bringing Irileth into the room with the report of the Western Tower having been attacked by a dragon. From there you're pretty well locked in or obviously "on the run" from this chain. LOL

Hmpf... well I'm sorry to hear this, but my experience in this has been pretty solid. You must have gotten really close to the tower, because you can meet with Irileth and the troops at the rendezvous, listen to her speech about how she sees that the dragon has been there, etc., and as long as you don't get close enough to the tower to trigger the one guard inside to say "Get back! It's not gone yet!", then you won't have to worry about Mirmulnir flying up to roast everybody. The guards and Irileth will just stand around the tower grounds and scratch themselves.

I'm playing on PC, so maybe that's it. Maybe the scripting for the consoles is different than the version I'm playing? (PC v.1.3)
-Loth

i think its called the dragonstarter quest

i think there are many quests that start dragons

I am on the PC too. That was with v1.1

Anyways, it's not like it bothered me. I overrated the dragon, I had bad runs into giants and I expected the dragons to be much worse. I waited more than needed.

it's really that easy. no dragonstone to the mage and no dragonborn discovered by the Nords.

there are no other quests that will begin this chain.

I have two characters carrying the stone and another who has never even been to the whiterun gates, only ever to the stables where she rapidly headed another direction. my boyfriend also has a number of characters not on the main quest. I'm PC he's 360. no difference.

This works, too... but if you solve Bleak Falls Barrow, then you can't talk to Farengar ever again, and he's got some neat stuff for sale. Or, as stated previously, you can just skip out on ever fighting the Draugr Overlord in Bleak Falls Barrow in the first place. No finding Dragon Stone = No Dragonborn.

-Loth

there are other court wizards with the same awesome sauce stuffs

I know, pumpkin... but this one is just SO convenient!
-Loth

When you get back, they are all in an uproar about the dragon attacking nearby. I don't know if the dragons start spawning then or after the dragon attacking the west tower is dead.... but the best idea (what I do to every character who isn't doing the main quest) is to just get the quest for bleak falls borrow or whatever it's called and just not go.

The last umpteen toons, I've left the Dragonstone on the draugr. I go into Whiterun, but don't bother with Farengar - there are other wizards, and in fact, Wylandriah in Riften is infinitely preferable to Farengar. The rest of Whiterun works just fine....

Just to be clearer: the random dragon spawning is triggered by fighting Mirmulnir (with Irileth and pals) at the Western Watchtower. Whatever you can do to avoid this battle will prevent dragons from spawning in the rest of the world, and there are several reliable ways to do this. But as soon as you absorb your first dragon soul, you will be harrassed by dragons for the rest of the game.

Note that there is one other scripted dragon encounter that you can have, regardless of whether or not you have fought Mirmulnir... a certain guild questline draws you into a dragon's lair at some point, and you will have to get past it to continue. Destroying this particular dragon will not yield you a dragon soul, and will not trigger random dragons -- it is okay to kill this one, if you don't want dragons spawning.

-Loth

You can also temporarily stop the random dragons from appearing by starting the next quest and not completing it.


I killed the dragon at West Tower at level 15 then paused the randoms so I could run all over Skyrim from levels 15-46 without the townspeople getting killed off by random dragon spawns. I've run into a few dragons, but in every case I was intentionally going to a dragonwall to pick up another word. This is my third play through, and I'm enjoying the relatively dragon-free game.

What about just not going to see the Greybeards - does that prevent them from spawning? I completed the MQ on my first character and intend to do so on the current one, but after that I am making a naughty, self-serving character to do the thief and assassin guild quest lines and probably won't bother with the rest.

<sub>i just did the quest at whiterun and got random dragons all over the place.. i had over 20 dragon souls before i went to the greybeards


i did not on my first run thru</sub>

really really... no lies... no exaggerations... just this.

how you go about it and how you RP the going to Whiterun or not going to Whiterun, going to Bleak Falls Barrow or not going, carrying the stone around with you or never picking it up... if Farengar doesn't have the stone there will be no dragons.