Quest Cragslane Cavern keeps killing me

[Spryte]

Hi there. Saw this question appear once when I searched for it, but it wasn't answered, so much as the person asking was provided with a list of different quests to help them progress in Riften without needing to beat Cragslane Cavern, whereas I do actually want to beat it.

So, anyways, it's my first time playing through Skyrim, and I'm doing the Skooma Trade quest, and Cragslane Cavern keeps killing me, though from what I've seen I should be sufficiently leveled enough to get through it.

A swift Google search seems to be suggesting it can be beaten easily enough at level 6, but at this point I'm level 16, and the enemies of the main room are still surrounding me and tearing chunks out of my health bar faster than I can take them down (i.e. once they start swarming they reduce my health bar from full to nothing in about 3 seconds).

I've tried a number of ways of beating them--power attacks, playing defensive with my shield and shouting whenever possible, stealthy archery tactics, and whatnot, and got closest to clearing things out by going werewolf on them (at which point after killing all the weaker ones, the enemy I assume was the boss of the area killed me in two swings of his weapon).

So... I don't know exactly. Is there's something I'm missing here, or am I perhaps still too low level to take on Cragslane Cavern? Any tips from folks who've done this before?

(I'm playing a sword & shield wood elf with light armor and lots of stealth, and am accompanied by Aela, if that helps anything.)

 

[Toytown Assassin]

You should be able to do it with stealth + bow. The trick, such as it is, is relocating as soon as you fire a shot that hits so that when they all look for you where the shot came from you are gone. Just back away fast towards the entrance and wait till they all calm down and go back to their positions and then repeat. The last guy is a somewhat tougher than the rest but you can line up a shot from near the ramp leading to the exit and bug out fast before he finds you. 5 or 6 hits on him should do the trick at that level.

Oh and leave the companion outside or at the entrance. Nothing like a follower for ruining stealth attacks.

 

[MagicBlade]

But Aela is stealthy. Just get Marcurio and run in, run back out, and let him take the brunt of the force. If you're on PC download UFO mod ( Ultimate Follower Overhaul ) and get 15 followers. That should do.

Or just change the difficulty.

 

[AS88]

How about buying a Fury spell from the court wizard and trying that? Or, a summon? Or, use your Command Animal power to try and get the 3 wolves on your side to give you some more time and take the attention away from you. I'd say keep Aela, and let her take the brunt of some attacks.

 

[MagicBlade]

Or just Fus Ro Dah Aela into them, and let her kill them. Just run in after a while.

 

[Spryte]

Got through.

Left, progressed the main story a bit further (to the point of having all three words of Fus Ro Dah) and managed to win by sniping several of them before they could start a fight, then shout-blasting the leader off the ledge and into the wolf pit once the survivors arrived to try to kill me (from which he had to cover a fairly long distance to get back to me). By the time he'd returned to fight me some more, I'd killed most of the rest of his flunkies, Aela was still on her feet, and I managed to level up partway through the fight and undo all the damage I'd taken.

Still came very close to death, but actually managed to win it this time. A number of these suggestions got me fairly close, too; or sounded quite good in the case of the ones I couldn't actually try.