Help for a new player

[Skodkim]

Hi

Started playing LoX last week and so far its a kind of lova and hate relationship. I've played a lot of RPG games for the last ~20 years or so and have always loved it - especially the part based ones. I started a game on Old School veteran with a party of six: Gaulen, a soldier, a paladin, a cleric, a thief and a mage. Read some guides about party development and have made it to level six so far. Problem is I seem to be stuck right now. So far I've_

Cleared the Rat cave
Cleared Velegarn Beach
Gathered 20 spores on Sporia Forest
Killed all guards around Velegarn
Wandered around in Sporia/Meadow and cleared all but the large mushrooms in the meadow
Made it through the Golden Woods and talked to Odred
Cleared Tower of melancholy
Wandered around in Nabros
Killed all "fixed " encouters on the map (save the one mentioned beneath)
Took some fights in the arena

I have not:

Killed the guards at the cross roads in Sorrentia (and therefore not collected the Yoranwa's head)
Killed guards on the roads of Nabros
Entered Nabros Castle (and therefore not entered Febret Temple)
Killed the Ogre north of Velegarn

I tried battling with the guards at the cross roads in Sorrentia but even though I took several blessings and bought the equipment I could with the money I have available I always end up getting beaten (even though I'm not that far from beating them).

Would be grateful for any advice!

And one last word: The battles of this game are really, really hard! I've never seen anything like this before in any game and I do actually feel it needs rather a lot of adjustment (yes I should probably try lowering the difficulty level but I'm hesitant since the game says you can't increase it again later on...)

Now the question is what do I do next..?

\Skodkim

[ValadursErbe]

Entering Nabros Castle would be the next step, you can avoid the huge encounters with the soldiers by taking the paths through the forest. You have to sneak up to the north and then cross the smokey hills. This will deal some damage to you but you will easily make it to the far left without dieing. Then you find a portal and a back entrance to the castle.

Lowering the difficulty would be a possible solution if the battles are too hard. However keep in mind that some fights are not supposed to be won (the hordes of soldiers in Nabros, for example). Still, there are people who can deal with them even on hardcore difficulty. Max. level Song of Stunning and Flames spell are very useful here, spell scrolls can make a lot of difference...

[Skodkim]

Thanks for the reply. Just went to the Smokey Hills but found no portal. Could you be a bit more specific on the location?

\Skodkim

[ValadursErbe]

You start east of the smokey hills. Then you cross them to the west (taking some damage). from there you can go to the south to reach the castle back entrance. But before that, there is also a small path to the west (without a road) where you will find the portal.

You can also check the world map. There you can see the small portal northwest to the Nabros castle. Once you activated it, traveling back and forth will be very easy.