My key for early survival in sunken crypts is to bring my bow, fire arrows (not cuz they are great but because they light up what they hit, or don't hit) & bonecrusher. I mine 1st half of muddy pile then stand at far right and make a narrowish channel thru the rest of the pile. From there I can see what's on the other side and plink with bow. If you hear buzzing, then there is always a body pile in there, or two. Now that I am half way through the mud pile I just whack the ground a couple times, watch the numbers until they are zeroes. No buzzing, no piles, no grunting, no blobs. Look through my peephole and there might be something there but not usually. Mine out the rest and pick up loot. Easy squeezy. I also make the fire at entry. If there are big problems at entry, exit, prep and re-enter w your shield up. Never let your food run down or your rest bonus expire. Always have stam & health meads on bar and poison mead up until you are more comfortable. 2 health, one stam foods.

Parrying is vital to figure out and even us oldsters with poor reflexes, bad vision and otherwise nonspiffy gaming skills can do it. It just takes longer to learn, but what we have is time. Do start a new toon and do as noted above. Greylings are a gift. Beware the 2* piggy though until you aren't nekked. And you can miss the parry and survive nicely once you get the hang of it and geared up for that area. I miss golems every so often but with top silver gear and wolf armor it has almost no effect at shield level 30. Muscle memory can happen, even for us. And parrying is actually fun times. Just holding up the shield also works just fine, as you will quickly figure out. The game is actually quite kind. You are given all sorts of visual cues along with the auditory ones so you quickly will see what works, or what doesn't.