Down into darkness. Einar's saga chapter seven.

Einar, Fafnir and Rialto are travelling East, deep into the land of the Orcs, avoiding the evil Dark Elves and towards the Border Kingdoms. They travel keeping low profile and avoiding all contact with the Orcs, but as they cross the border and progress into the country of the Orcs, Rialto becomes restless, and when Einar inquiries about the matter, he confesses that he joined him as a mean to travel safe and retrieve a very important arcane tome lost in the hands of an Orc raiding party. He then asks Einar for help to find it as he feels it is near.

Einar feels a bit treasoned but also feels in debt with Rialto for helping him to get his sword, so he decides to help him in the end. They start to search the area and soon discover a hidden corridor that goes down into darkness.

As usual all pictures are clickable.

As soon as they entered they sprung a trap, but they managed to avoid any harm. Then the corridor turned right and they spotted a door at the end of it. The door was locked but Rialto, a resourceful magician, picked the lock easily.

Beyond the entrance they could see what it looked like a sentry room, but it was empty. The chamber had another trap and three closed doors. Rialto quickly pointed at the central one, a thick door made of stone. This one was also locked and proved to be more difficult to open, but again Rialto picked the lock without much effort.

Then they entered in a new corridor wich also had another door at the end. As they advanced towards the new door, Einar wondered in surprise why they had not met anyone so far; where the hell were the Orcs?

The group commenced to relax as nobody appeared; with a bored expression on his face, Rialto started to pick the lock of the new door once again. But Alas! Suddenly they met face to face with a huge band of Orcs, and with some Trolls too! They were waiting for them, it was a trap!

Einar reacted faster than anyone and led a charge against the brutes. He engaged with one Black Orc whereas Fafnir charged the Troll to his left. Rialto casted a domination spell on the Troll to the right, and convinced him to attack one Black Orc next to him. Pushing back and forward and exchanging blows fiercely they tried to kill each other, but the lack of room avoided any serious injuring.

One Orc close to the door tried to escape and sound the alarm, but Rialto spotted him and swiftly kill him with a "Steel Wind" spell. Another Orc joined the enraged Troll of the left to help him killing Fafnir, who managed to slain him in return but at the cost of losing all his Hardiness.

A new Orc tried to sound the alarm and this time Rialto could not stop him. Then the Troll engaged with Fafnir, released a devastating blow that almost ripped off Fafnir's head, smashing him against the wall instantly dead! Rialto, shocked in horror, tried to dominate the Troll, but he was not concentrated enough and suffered a backlash, falling to the ground out of combat.
Einar killed another Orc but then he was totally surrendered, outnumbered and outmatched.

A tremendous hit on his head left him unconscious and out of combat. Einar and Rialto were taken prisoners then and locked up in a deep and dark chamber.

Well, what can I say? This was totally unexpected. I painted a whole dungeon with lots of furniture and I have not been able to use it properly because the suckers fell in ambush too soon. Now what? All these months of Einar travelling distant lands, fighting fearsome enemies, losing dear friends and comrades, and finally getting the sword of his prophecy, for nothing?
We will see it in the next chapter ;-)