Jar-Neelius awoke bright and early, ate a light breakfast, and then returned to the barrow. This time, he picked off the bandit guards with his arrows one-by-one, and then entered for a rematch with the ringleader. Three poisoned arrows later, he was done for (note: I had taken a perk in archery, making the fight quite a bit easier). Later in the dungeon, he faced some draughr, which would have been a tough fight had he chose to fight them; instead, he relied on the dungeon's traps to do the fighting for him.
Speaking of draughr, they are considerably more varied than vanilla, thanks to Wi S; here's a female, for instance; http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/259/2012022800002.jpg/
After completing the dungeon, he returned to Whiterun with the stone tablet, and then faced his first dragon. Compared with vanilla, it took roughly twice as many hits before going down.
EDIT: As of 12:30 PM today, Jar-Neelius is dead, caught in the crossfire induced by War Zones. Incidently, that mod was a performance nightmare, and the lag was a major contributing factor in the argonian's demise. For my next character, that mod's going out the door; I've added a few new ones, including some crafting overhauls and another survival mod (this one focused on keeping warm). I'll be creating a new character tomorrow