Having done a search & not got any hits on this I am wondering am I suffering a buggy event?

3. Tailing the Thief:

"You steal an item. After a day or two, three thugs track you when you're in the wilderness, tell you they're here to punish you for stealing, and attack you. Search them for a note from the owner of the property you stole."

Rerequisites:

"You must steal an item and not get caught"


Now the impact - tried to set up & run a stealth type. So far have been overwhelemed by this event between levels 4 & 6 in Riverwood! They are so heavily armoured & well armed & good that I can't even run from them & ply snipe & back shoot. Stand up fighting is just a slaughter!

Tried several runs & going back to earlier saves plus starting over IT ALWAYS OCCURS! Done this forget how many times now!

What gives?

No stealling until you are level ?? & a Tank?!!

Either the Thugs are stupidly miss matched & not leveled OR the probability of the event is obsencely wrong!!

Me I suspect ALL of the above!

Any way to deal with this? Turn it off? Or do I have to "sleep for 2 days" after nicking anything to aviod wasted play if this/when thing triggers?


HELP!!

PS the section on these PART 1 has the following:

"These Interactions may comence any time you add an item to your inventory"

For the above does that mean "Steal" or just any add to inventory? The latter foul up might explain my issues?!

Jump on a rock, take out twohanded weapon with long reach. Hit them. Jump down to lure them back if they run away. Repeat.

Thanks but I keep getting bounced IN Town! All ways with them on 2 sides of me! Normally comming out of one of the buildings. At low level I don't even get to make a break for the hills!

As an aside the team that bounces me is 1 Archer & 2 guys with 2 handed weapons?

Odd, I steal from everyone, all the time, and rarely get mercs after me, and the reason was not stealing...

Happened to me last night at the College of Winterhold, and I'm level 9. I took a hit and then kided them into the courtyard for all the mages to zap with UNLIMITED POWER! It was actually kinda funny. Figured out they were sent by some guy in the Ratway....

Most epic fight I've had yet. If it happens in Riverwood at low level (assuming melee), try this ...

If you stand at the intersection of the two roads in the town, one leads onto a wooden bridge to the island. Walk onto the bridge and jump to the riverbank on the town side. This will cause your three assailants to have pathing problems.

You can now lead them around and split them up allowing you to get shots in at one without the others coming in too. Move to the island and they come over the bridge. Move to the townside main bank and they head to the nearest town wall to get around it. Keep doing this until they separate enough that you can meet one on the bridge for melee. Once you've done some damage, and before the other two catch up, jump into the water and move to the townside main bank again. Rinse, lather, repeat.

Doing this gives you time for your health to heal, and your stamina to recover for more power attacks. If one of them get's into the area your sheltering in, they will have problems with the terrain. So you do the same and concentrate on that one. It appears that they will not follow you into the water.

odd never hapened to me tho it shoulden't be a problem either lower the dificulty or just or you know where they are bouncing you so you are ready to take them out kill the ranged one first cuse that is probably the hardest one then just get arround does swords fool them to swing slash repeate

If you have any amount of time to get away from them before you are engaged in dialog, then you should be able to lead them around, as they will always know where you are. If not yet engaged in combat, they will not run after you, which gives you a small advantage.

If you have not yet been to Bleak Falls Barrows, you should be able to kite them up there, trying not to engage the enemies on the way (except the one wolf). Once you get past the tower, keep to the right side of the path and sneak up the side of the barrows. The hard part here would be in not aggroing the Bandits here, but it can be done if you stick to the shadows and move slowly. The Thugs should engage the Bandits at the tower and at the barrows. Even if they survive, they will all have taken a good amount of damage, allowing you to finish them off a bit easier.

If you have been to the barrows, then you will need to lead them into an active outdoor bandit group elsewhere. The closest other groups that I can think of would be on the North side of Whiterun.