I talked to Farkas, who asked me to clear out a Forsworn camp. And by “camp,” I mean one guy living in a tent. When I returned Farkas told me he no longer wanted to be a Werewolf. We traveled back to Ysgramor's Tomb, fought his wolf spirit, and left. I returned to Whiterun and talked to Vilkas; he, too, wanted to be cleansed. I did a repeat of before, then returned to Aela. She located the last Totem.

On our way there, we came across some bears. They're even easier than before. Gotta love when enemies don't scale.

The cave the final Totem was in consisted of more bears. We killed them and returned the Totem to the Underforge.

I decided to do the quest for disembodied-voice lady, Meridia. I made it to her shrine, placed the Beacon in its receptacle, and suddenly ROCKET UP INTO THE AIR... where I have a conversation with a ball of light.

what

She tells me that a Necromancer was desecrating her Temple, and wanted me to help her restore light to it, or something. I entered the temple to find it filled with a black fog; evil was definitely afoot.

I came across a new enemy, Shades. They are spooky ghosties that apparently turn into Jell-O when they die.

I made it to the Necromancer; he had a few Shades with him. They were easy enough to kill. The Necromancer, on the other hand, killed me quite easily. Gotta love when enemies don't scale.

Eventually I beat him with my FOOLPROOF PLAN: when in doubt, Fus Roh Dah.

Meridia rewarded me with a unique weapon. It has a pretty cool effect, so I think I'll hold onto it.

I headed to a nearby Standing Stone, the Steed Stone. I left it unactivated.

I returned to a town I had previously visited to clear out the mines that were filled with spiders. It was pretty easy. There was some nice Ebony Ore, which allowed me to finish my set of Ebony Armor.

The only remaining sidequest was to go to Solitude for the Thieves and I still didn't feel like going to a new city, so I decided to do a bit more of the main quest. I stopped by Riverwood to talk with Delphine. She wanted me to gather information about the dragons from the Thalmor embassy in Solitude.

With all roads leading to Solitude, that's where I'll head next.