Well the summer completely failing to put in an appearance has contributed to this
Despite the occasional bludgeon-fest it’s quite a subtle game.
Major learning from two false starts: don’t blunder into every dungeon you find and clear it. You will screw up later missions if you do.
Minor learning: the smithing skill is important. Buff things pointlessly if necessary.
And from scrolling up to find this, it looks like Shaun pressed the self-destruct button. I wonder what happened there.