Find at least 1 of each of the 3 types of zeppelin parts (most of which are in or near wyvern nests throughout the fjords) and you will be able to go to Aleroth, where there are a couple good merchants. I stuck to level 9 enchantments (other than healing auras, which always require a malachite gem), and had plenty of malachite gems to spare (reloading at veins to get 2 or 3 from each).
If you want a spoiler for the zeppelin parts, here is a
map of the fjords, showing the rough locations (marked with an
S ). Alternately, from the
walkthrough,
-Crystal 1: on the tiny island just south of the entrance to the fjords; climb
up the ladder and retrieve it from on top of Yggdrasil
-Crystal 2: on a low cliff east of Camp Sentinel View, across the water from
Camp David
-Crystal 3: on a cliff in the middle of the bend just before the entrance to
Rivertown Gorge [EDIT on the same ledge as a boarded-up cave door]
-Rudder 1: a short ways east of the Camp Freedom teleporter
-Rudder 2: halfway between the Imps' Lair and Camp David
-Rudder 3: on a low southwest cliff near the exit to Rivertown Gorge
-Compass 1: on the cliff directly opposite Rudder 1
-Compass 2: high up above Moor's shack, just northeast of the entrance to
Keara's Flying Fortress
-Compass 3: on a cliff just before the bend on the way to Rivertown Gorge
With the Xbox version Target Lock is the left trigger; I don't know what it is for the PC version.
Outside on Sentinel island there are several chests or other loot in wyvern nests in trees that you could not reach before. The only nest you need to worry about getting is one with a dragon skill book (from the ship in the tree look at the left side of the battle tower and that nest is along that path).
You should be able to jump off the ship and transform before hitting the poison, but if not it is thin enough you shouldn't take much damage, and can transform from the water.
If you fly in the direction of the fjords you should be able to find the raft Michael was building on the beach, now caught on a rock. There is no poison gas there, so you can transform over the raft or rock and find/read his diary.
I don't think there is a huge difference in difficulty in the caves at the start of the fjords, at least not that I noticed being level 23, or so, when I took over the battle tower.
The dragon's defence and offence are determined by its level. Did you check the battle chest contents? You should have dragon equipment with a +40% offence bonus and another piece with +40% hit points (later you can find +40% to defence and mana, though offence/defence are each on a cuirass, while hit points/mana are on leggings, so you have to chose which you prefer).
Other than that, the dragon shield spell helps somewhat going into tough fights, and the summon spell gives you a wyvern which draws off some attacks that would otherwise be meant for you.
If you are having trouble with dragon combat, just focus on human combat first, and come back for the dragon sections later when you are at a higher level. In DKS I did the human portions of the flying fortresses first, except for the headquarters, then the dragon sections (in an attempt to level higher, since towers, etc, give a fixed amount of experience), then did the headquarters.
There is nothing essential in any chests that you need Lockpick for, but in general a level 4 or 5 chest should give you better random loot than a level 3 chest.
