Having had enough of narrow paths and caves for awhile, I headed to Stone's flying fortress.
Approaching the first fortification, the first demon I killed brought me up to level 26. The rest of that area was relatively easy to clear, since the opponents were mostly spread out, though the level 29 beholder took awhile to kill. The chest near him was where I found a level 8 fighter head.
Flying up to the next higher level, there was an increase in difficulty. That combined with the creature's behaviour means I'm not sure how long it will last as a warrior. Using a fighter head seemed like it helped if the creature actually attacked the opponent I was attacking, but after finishing off the skeleton archers and mages on one of the wall sections, I moved back down to the ground level. I attacked a Black Ring mage, and the creature ran over to attack him after a few seconds (I would have preferred it use Rush Attack), but then got distracted, and veered off to attack someone else, drawing them into the fight. Even if the creature changed targets because it was attacked, I think that might just render the Ranger Stealth skill useless. Anyway, the creature seemed to change targets again (my view was mostly blocked), and then ran back to me, bringing at least 4 Black Ring members with it, one of whom Rush Attacked me as soon as he came into view, as an archer fired off a Stun Arrow through a gap in one of the ramps, so I never saw him, just the arrow coming at me. I (barely) survived the initial group attack and withdrew a bit, then after healing turned to attack those who followed me. I had to let them get closer that I would have liked since I couldn't target the first two, just the farthest one (I had a similar problem in the well cave with Zagan, where only some opponents showed when trying to cycle through targets, even if the one you wanted was close enough and in front of you). Once they were a couple seconds closer I could target them, and a volley of Splitting Arrows finished them both off. After that I targeted the third Black Ring member, but unfortunately didn't realize another had taken the long way around an obstruction until he was almost up to me, at which point it was too late to do anything.
Next time I play I'll keep the fighter creature, but if it becomes distracted again and gets me killed, I'm going back to using a mage head.
My second attempt on the higher level in Stone's fortress was much, much easier. After loading my latest save and re-killing the last skeleton on the wall, I walked down the ramp so my creature could follow, and then turned left and continued along the wall around the next corner (same direction I went before). The next two opponents I fought together, but they were not terribly difficult, even with a skeleton archer on the wall above me (that I had passed), who I mostly couldn't target and barely came into view (though he didn't seem to have too much trouble getting a few shots off at me). Once I killed the two on the ground I turned to focus on the one on the wall, and moved around a bit until I could see and target him. The creature didn't draw anyone else into the fight... when I walked down the ramp and turned left, it walked or fell off the right side, and then apparently got stuck trying to run through the ramp, only coming around when I went back to look for it.
After finishing off that section of the fortress, I took a quick flight over to another rock (with the entrance to the Inner Passage). I wasn't too far from level 27 when I finished off the opponents in the vicinity of where I entered that fortification, so left to check merchants.
I returned to the fortress and cleared the rest of that rock, then took the teleporter to the Inner Passage. Due to a slight error in tactics, the fight with Xanlosch and Isabelle didn't go quite as well as I would have hoped. I got off a shot after the conversation ended and then headed out and off to the right a bit to get some room; when I turned, Xanlosch was attacking my creature and Isabelle was coming after me, but not terribly close. I fired an explosive arrow at Xanlosch, figuring as long as he didn't react right away, I would be able to follow with a close range Splitting Arrow for Isabelle and then move for another attack. He reacted right away. I don't know what my creature did after that, but it wasn't helping me, and I didn't last long with both of them focusing on me. I reloaded my save in the Inner Passage and left the way I came in; I want to take out the generator to get Xanlosch to summon a couple flying demons, but I have not cleared any of the anti-dragon defences yet in the fortress or taken out any flying opponents, which I should probably do first.
After finishing off the ground opponents in the rest of the fortresses, I returned to Stone's fortress and cleared the dragon defences, which brought me up to level 33. Even then the fight with Xanlosch could still be a bit of a challenge, primarily due to my character's Indomitable Will rating of 2. If I got hit with a stun arrow it would end up hurting, but usually not too bad. The main danger was getting stunned after destroying the generator, before being able to move away. Approaching the fortification from the front, after flying above the anti-dragon zone and transforming, I found the best way to take out the generator was to fire an arrow through the gap in the barrier around it, after moving over to the right inside the fortification; moving to the larger break in the barriers would put me much closer to Xanlosch and make it harder to avoid the Stun Arrow after the summoning cutscene. It is possible to survive after being stunned, but not if all 4 opponents target you at once (in one try I was hit with simultaneous attacks from both demons about a half second after being stunned, with an attack by Isabelle and then an exploding arrow about a half second after that, killing me). Keeping close to the right wall, the conversation with Xanlosch would be triggered at the entrance, but he would not fight right away afterwards, making it much easier to destroy the generator and get outside to where there was enough room to transform.
