The Gothic II Story

-a translation of JoWooD's German Gothic II newsletter 01-

 

Khorinis Mine Valley. The Sleeper has been banned, the barrier destroyed. The prisoners leave the mine valley and former prison and are now swarming all over the countryside. Hunted by the denizens of the civilized areas, some of them try to survive as mercenaries or settle down as peasants. Others seek out the port to try and leave Khorinis by ship… and also leave their past behind.

Meanwhile, the war against the orcs intensifies. King Rhobar is in even greater need of magical ore for his weapons. But the ore mines in the Khorinis Mine Valley have run dry. Most prisoners have left the valley, and those few who remained have been reported missing. The Mine Valley is slowly turning into no man's land.

The king sends a unit of royal paladins under the command of his best knight Lord Hagen to Khorinis to restart the exploitation of the mines. Lord Hagen's unit lands at the port of Khorinis, occupies the town and sends a squad to recon the Mine Valley. But the squad doesn't report back.

Evil seems to have returned to the Mine Valley! Nobody wants to go there-or does return from there. The valley is declared a forbidden zone; Lord Hagen deems his mission to be bound to fail. Will he find a way to get at the ore after all?

After our hero banned the Sleeper via the dimensional portal, he finds himself trapped in the old Sleeper Temple. Half dead, all that's keeping him alive is his magical armor. Alerted by the strange situation and with the intention of finding out about the secrets of the lost Mine Valley, necromancer and mentor Xardas discovers our hero in the temple, reanimating him. Then he sends him on a suicide mission to find out who or what is at the bottom of the Mine Valley threat.

Weakened by all he's been through during his last few weeks in the temple, our hero sets out to fulfil Xardas' mission. Once again, the fate of the country is resting on his shoulders. Pretty quickly our hero is confronted with the catastrophic conditions of this seemingly civilized world. The situation between the greedy citizens of Khorinis and the exploited peasants threatens to get out of hand. Our hero has to run the gauntlet of corruption and power struggles while he's trying to become a member of a guild to improve his skills.

The choice is his- either join Lord Hagen and the paladins, join the Fire Mages at their mountain monastery to become a mage himself, or join the mercenaries who entrenched at the peasants' farms. The mercenaries and former prisoners of the Mine Valley have found a way to significantly improve their weaponry and armor so they have become, in fact, a threat to the paladins.

The situation escalates. Lord Hagen's units face a great number of heavily armed mercenaries willing to defend the peasants against the town militia's recurring raids. Even the mages feel compelled to intervene, trying to re-establish peace…if necessary, by force. The situation soon culminates in a full-fledged civil war…Our hero quickly recognizes that a hidden power is pulling the strings, playing off factions against each other. The only way to bring everything to a peaceful conclusion will be to stop whoever is behind all this.

It looks as if the hidden power was seated at the Mine Valley. So our hero sets out to purge the valley of whatever evil he'll discover there… and to look for Lord Hagen's lost recon squad.
When our hero returns to the Mine Valley, the landscape he knew has been destroyed. He nearly doesn't recognize the valley he once inhabited. Dragons have devastated the countryside and Lord Hagen's men are trapped at the Old Camp's castle. The orcs flooded the Mine Valley and are now besieging the castle. There is now way in and no way out. The castle's inhabitants are waiting for the inevitable attack of the orcs.

Dark creatures nobody has ever seen before populate the caves and plains of this dead world ruled by Dragons. They threaten to occupy all of Khorinis and destroy all life. Nobody seems to be able to put an end to the threat. Our hero will have to battle his way through this superior force to finally face the real aggressor…