At level 18 and not far into the main quest line, the Embassy mission was the hardest thus far. I'm a decent sneak and have Hide Boots of Sneaking, but I hadn't practiced sneaking past guards in tight quarters. This led to me being killed and reloading my save maybe 30 times.

Finally, I got to the prison cell, freed the waitress who kindly caused the distraction allowing me to slip away, freed the informant, and saw my Wood Elf friend escorted in by guards. When the guards quickly killed the prisoners in a pathetic unfair fight, I decided that I had to get them all to safety. Little did I realize just how hard this would be.

It only took a few save reloads before I managed to kill the guards without them killing my three companions. That waitress always wanted to jump into the fight, so ultimately I FUS-ROH her into the cell and closed the door to hold her back. Elvric (or whatever his name is) was lucky he didn't have to tangle with her.

Then we entered the escape cave only to find a Frost Troll waiting to eat us. Again, my foolishly brave escapees thought they could punch the troll to death. Countless save reloads ensued while I tried to usher them the short 30 feet to the cave exit without being killed. I tried killing the troll before they rushed in, tried scaring it away from them, I even used Kyne's Peace to calm it, but the prisoners (especially that waitress) kept provoking it with puny punches. Finally, on the the peoples' AI glitched, causing them to wait on the ledge as I killed the troll.

Phew, we finally saw daylight. But the waitresses question of "What will I do now?" was quickly answered by red dots on my compass. We fight for our survival, of course. I heard an Argonian jeering at me while I frantically checked on my companions, seeing them running in all directions. Decideding the Wood Elf was most important to the story, I began chasing after him. With him 30 feet ahead I assumed he was safe... until a fireball shot from the sky and incinerated him.

The guards weren't kidding when they said "darn dragons could swoop down at any time." Amazed by my bad luck, I watched my three companions being burned and eaten, along with the bandits, by a surprisingly ill-placed random dragon attack. It took yet another 10 save reloads before I finally beat the dragon without it killing any of my companions. At least that's what I hoped. I didn't see their dead, burnt bodies lying about, so they must have escaped safely. I can only wish them the best, that they don't encounter a bear, sabre cat, or those surprisingly offensive mud crabs.

As I caught my breath standing near my slain dragon (lying near slain bandits, by a cave with a slain frost troll, below a jail with slain guards), wouldn't you believe that a lone mercenary approached me. After exclaiming that he "wouldn't have believed a dragon attack if he hadn't seen it", he told me he was off to take care of some "trouble ahead". When I intimidated him for the information, you think he'd realize I was not to be messed with considering the heap of dead bodies I was standing on top of. Nope, he had to make my bad day even worse by brandishing his great sword, which soon was lying on the ground next to his lifeless body. After what I'd been through, you don't pick a fight with me.