I got stuck at the glowing stones for a bit as well, took me 10 minutes to realize "aha, that new shout I learned!", then it was easy.
Did you find the secret cave behind the waterfall (down where you learned the power word thingie)? Some gold there.
I've done a lot of running around the last two hours, managed to do the quest where I had to kill an ice wraith for the Stormcloak-guys (?) and then I got invited in after doing it.
There was also this elf-guy in Windhelm that was bothering me, apparently he became upset when I broke into his store to find valuables to take, so I ended up killing him, and stashing away his corpse in the storage-space.
Now I have his key and his house, and the neat 200 gold he had hidden away in a strongbox!
Then I went up to do the Nettlebane (?)-quest at Orphans Rock (or something) with Lydia, actually the first time I took her out for a quest, but I figured that making it slightly easier was a good thing.
Some mobs up there that did shitload of damage, but managed to get it cleared.
Also found a camp/mini dungeon nearby that I cleared, some gold but not many valuables.
A few newb-questions though:
*I have the quest now where I should infiltrate some party in Solitude I believe (the one Delphine gives), and my question is.. will it affect anything that I chose Stormcloaks instead of the Empire, because I've read about people getting attacked from different cities and such, just so the guards won't be hostile or anything.
*About the Butcher/Serial-killer in Windhelm, the things I've heard sounds really interesting, and I've read that the whole quest-line starts in the cemetery-part, but how do I actually start it? Like, when does it become available?
I read about a guy that said that he stumbled upon a secret passage in a house, that led to the murderers secret place, anyone that knows if such a place exist, and if so, where it is? :>