So, for those of you that have been to Solitude in the game, you know the first time you go in there, right near the main gate, there is a little scene going on, the eventual beheading of an alleged traitor to Solitude and all that. On my newest character, I had been adventuring around and came in a different entrance, but I could hear the ruckus, so I walked over to the main gate area.

Without thinking, I thought maybe I could talk to the guard or something... anywhoooo, I jumped up on the platform where Rognar was about to lose his head. Well. Apparently that is NOT the thing to do. The guards went beserk, Rognar leaps up from the chopping block and runs away and suddenly I am public enemy number one.

So I bolted, ran out the main gate, used whirlwind sprint to blast through the guards running up the hill and kept running until the battle music stopped.

After I stopped laughing, since that was a completely unexpected turn of events to me, I figured I would come here and see if anyone else had done that, and if so, how did you work things out with being able to get back into Solitude without the guards wanting your head on the end of their swords? Or should I just reload that convenient save I had just before I leapt onto the execution platform.

I always reload after I ruin things there by trying to save him lol. Even if you jump up on the far side of the platform where no one can see you (because of max sneak and darkness/rain), they'll still go crazy and try to find you even though nothing should have alerted them. And guards always kill him while he's running for his life ><

I did that, reloaded a save. I then tried to kill the traitor myself and got attacked once more. I then thought to kill everyone but I was low level and was unable to take on the guards. I finally let them behead the guy...

Hmmm, well I made it safely out of town. I want to be able to go back, I would even pay a bounty - but I didn't actually free him or ever even draw my weapon! I was kind of hoping maybe after a week, they might forget me.

That's awesome! Next thing to try is spamming Calm spells on the guards while you disturb the action. See if you can get the poor choppy-headed gentlemen free! And then see where he goes...

I did that on accident, fought for a good hour against the entire effing town

Eventually I got the eff outta there....when I went back in they were all "You're a wanted criminal, your bounty is 8000 septims"

So I was like "Hell no!" And proceeded to resist arrest...and fought for about 20 minutes until some essential guy came and started fighting against me too...at which point I knew I wasn't winning and I restarted from the save I had about 10 minutes before originally entering Solitude and did not do that again

So,here is the upshot. I first tried walking back after the combat aggro seemed to have calmed down. Nope. Red dots appeared all over my compass.

So I ran back out of range and hit the wait button - waited three in-game days, and am now back in Solitude. Guards obviously didn't catch a good look at me. Heh. I don't know if Ragnar died or not though, I'll have to see if any of the dialog changed. But that was a very entertaining unexpected result of what I thought was just me jumping around, waiting for all the talkiness to stop.

I did, they insta-gibbed me. I wanted to see if I could talk to the condemned. Kind of surprised I couldn't.

I *think* Roggvir always dies. It's an "essential" death....

Yup, seems to be the case. The townsfolk talk about his execution. Well, he probably couldn't run far with his hands bound.

Still, I found the whole event to be pretty hilarious, and yay for whirlwind shout helping me out. I literally shouted through a flock of guards. Heeee

I tried to talk to them also and got clobbered.
I'm glad you found your way back in.