The courier went missing about 15-20 levels ago. No letters from "friends" and no update on the vial quest in Windhelm. I do a lot of shouting so that shouldn't be the issue.

During this time I have also had no random dragon encounters. There are dragons at the word walls but they are very weak for my level and usually go down in 2-3 powerattacks. On my previous characters I ran into dragons everywhere and I always had a vast surplus of dragon souls. Now I have more words than souls, which just doesn't seem right. I travel alot in the countryside and only use fast travel after extended dungeon crawls.

One more issue that I don't know if it has anything to do with the previous mentioned: A lot of NPC:s seem to be "stuck". It would seem that this happens when they are about to initiate dialogue with another NPC. They will just stand and stare at each other indefinitely. This behaviour has been observed in Whiterun, Riften, Windhelm, Winterhold and also on some farms in the countryside. Generally NPC:s seem very "laggy" and will often just stare at you if you go up to them.

Where I am in the game:

Level 34.
Finished the civil war and the Companion's quest lines.
Not member of any other faction.
Main quest line: Have the quest to kill Paarthy and also the quest to summon Odahving or whatever his name is.
These quests I got 3 levels ago.

Any hint on how to deal with these issues would be most welcome.