The Dragonborn is.. Hallucinating?

[WendyGoo]

I am playing vanilla Skyrim, with the expansions (DG, DB, HF), and I think my character is hallucinating. I keep on hearing loud sniffing and metallic chopping sounds. It might be linked to the Hall of Countenace in the Mages College in Winterhold, although that seems odd to me. I feel hunted and paranoid with that sniffing coming from everywhere and nowhere, and as my character seems to be repeatedly subjected to dragon shouts, I'm feeling worried that my character is targeted by some fell creature. I have looked in my "active effects" tab. Nothing there.

[Bird Stalker]

I've experienced nothing like this, but it's an interesting concept that future titles should implement. Probably just a bug in this case. Be sure to keep us updated though.

[Cake for Mumm-Ra]

Sounds like Dragonborn has been hitting the Skooma bottle a little hard.

I dunno, Daeneth. Sounds like you've got a bug on your hands. Does the problem persist beyond loading screens, resting, etc.? If so, you might consider going back through older saves to find a time when you didn't have the problem and starting over. This sucks, obviously, but better that you do it now before you make too much progress.

I had a similar problem in Apocrypha when a certain sound effect just kept looping. It was really annoying and the only way I could get rid of it was to reload an older save file.

[Gaius Mucius Scaevola]

In the hall of countenance (when that happened to me) there was somebody training alteration spells inthe upper floor.

[WendyGoo]

I investigated a little furter, and found the chopping shound and the constant staggering to only occur when between the barrel-room and the shining pool on the lower floor of the Hall of Countenance. The sniffing as well. On the upper floor none of the sounds could be heard. Apart from the constant "spell cast" sound. Seems one of the teachers keeps on creeping around ambushing her nightstand with restoration magic... She reminds me of the stereotypical shellshocked, conspiracy-theorist/hunter type. The sounds persist between loadingscreens, but is only a problem when I'm in my room and just outside it in the Hall of Countenance. Sometimes the sniffing occurs randomly. I keep on feeling like I'm the prey of some nasty creature, but there is nothing there when I look around. Some games sure can cause paranoia.

[Initiation]

The sniffing sound is just your charcter sniffing, everyone experiences this.

[linkerz5711]

I have no clue whats going on with your character, probably got himself high on skooma or your game is glitched. I guess you could look at your sound settings.

[Valden21]

I just looked at the description of the Hall of Countenance on the UESP, and it mentions that Falralda's room, which is on the first floor, has a steel mace and a steel dagger on the shelves. Perhaps one of them fell over and got stuck in the surrounding scenery. That could be the the source of the chopping sounds you describe.

[WendyGoo]

The chopping sound is nearly identical to the sound of swinging blade traps, found in many dungeons, including Bleak Falls Barrow. And I didn't think my character even COULD sniff, especially not when running around and doing stuff. And then there is the staggering, accompanied by slightly blurry vision for a second. Either way, it is only an inexplicable issue when in the Hall of Countenance. Not an issue in the Hall of Attainment, or anywhere else in Skyrim for that matter. I'd really wish we could travel outside of Skyrim sometimes, but that's another matter entirely.