I then got to the orc fight, and despite having the guards at my side, promptly got my butt handed to me. With my assassin doing ~5 dmg per hit and missing most of his attacks, and my magic user simply being unable to dish any reasonable damage compared to the orc hit points, or even having an effective means of disabling opponents, I got pasted thoroughly despite repeated attempts.
So, how are people getting into this game?
When you explore everything in the starting area you can actually level up to level 2 before getting to the first Orc fight on the beach - this would make it easier. Then, try to stay away and let the guards manage the orc fighters. There is an oil barrel in the middle of a fight - if you still have a fire spell/scroll then try to incinerate it (which creates a burning surface and does pretty damage to all the Orc standing in it).
