Gothic II/The Valley of Mines

After Lord Hagen has given you the key, and you exhausted all dialog options, chapter 2 starts and you can return to the colony. But before you do that, if you're a fire magician, you may want to return to the monastery. Because chapter 2 has been triggered, you can now learn the second circle of magic, provided you have some learning points left. Also talk to Pyrokar. He'll tell you Sergio can take you to the valley of mines. He's not much use, he doesn't have the balls to go through the door so take him if you like the company, but he won't help with the orcs.

As you approach the door of the colony, the guards will warn you about the many orcs behind that door. They're not wrong. There are many orcs behind that door. If you chose to be a fire magician, you now have a Fire Arrow rune. Sadly, Fire Arrow is completely and utterly useless against orcs, so don't try that. You'll have to rely on whatever else you've got. Melee weapons, bows, spell scrolls or avoid the orcs altogether. There are two ways to avoid the orcs:


 * After going through the door, stick to the left. You'll find a tunnel with some giant rats in it that leads up. Keep going forward/left and you'll find a little camp with some goblins and loot. There's also a stone bridge to the other side of the canyon. Cross it and you'll find some young wolves and a mine tunnel. If you go into the tunnel, you'll enter a loading zone and come out of a mine tunnel in the colony. Follow the path to the left.
 * Take a speed potion and run past everything in your path. When you reach the end of the canyon, you walk into a loading zone that brings you to the colony to a point far before the mine tunnel above, close to where you started in Gothic 1. Here you'll find.. more orcs.

If you can actually defeat them and want the XP, you can take the path full of orcs. Otherwise, take the mine tunnel. If you played Gothic 1, the environment is going to look very familiar, but not everything is the same. Shortly after the mine tunnel exit you'll find a little field with a dragon snapper and in that field is also a fallen Paladin. Loot his body to find a free light rune. Go further down the path and you'll meet Jergan. Talk to him. He'll suggest you swim through the river and climb into the castle from the back. Do that. Sneaking doesn't seem to help with orcs, so just make a run for it.