All character classes will begin the game after being mysteriously transported away from your friends in Tarna, landing in a strange room in the cave of the Dark One. You'll have nothing more than the clothes on your back. Thieves will need to seek a new set of tools and daggers, Fighters will need to acquire more weapons and equipment, although Magic Users and Paladins will still have all their usual abilities at their disposal.
The room will start out dark and get lighter. Magic Users can light the place up with juggling lights, but what you basically need to do is search each of the corpses to acquire a dagger, some flint, and some money left on the corpses. You'll be able to take a torch from the central altar, and light it by creating a spark with the flint and dagger. The magically inclined can just use a simple flame dart spell to show off. Once you have some illumination you'll be able to force your way out of the door to the north, and arrive in a room with another large altar. Thieves will see a mark advising them on how to leave, Magic Users will find a cloth, and Fighters/Paladins will gain a rusty sword and shield and have to do battle with some badders. Try to avoid being poisoned, and if you are you'll want to move quickly from then on.
The next room will have you crossing a dangerous pit with only a rope bridge. Thieves can use their agility to walk it as a tightrope, Fighters can rely on strength to cross underneath the bridge by holding on, and magic users will have to hold up the cloth they grabbed earlier as a sail and fly across with the Levitate spell. From there it's just a dash to the exit, although you'll see a tentacled monster reaching up from below. You'll end up outside of the Dark One's cave and watch the mouth of the cave shut behind you. A young woman named Katrina will greet you with puzzlement and ask how you arrived here, then run away. You'll notice it's just turning to daylight.
Nearby is an arch with seven symbols inscribed in it, mouth, bone, blood, breath, senses, heart, and essence, with a golden six tentacled starfish at the base of the arch. Take the starfish, although you can come back for it later. Head down the path and you'll end up slipping down the slime to find yourself in front of a rock column with a Squid Stone on the top of it. Depending upon your class you can either cast Trigger on the stone, Levitate to the top, or use a rope and grapnel to pull yourself up if you want to come back later.
There will be a swamp to the west with grasping arms and some will-o-wisps if it's still nighttime. What you'll want to do know is head straight North until you can't go any farther then one screen east to reach the town of Mordavia where you'll get your bearings and conduct a good deal of your business in the game.