This first episode will demonstrate the tone and nature of the series; gritty, edgy dark fantasy, and ancient world sword and sorcery.
At the beginning of the pilot, Rayden Valkyrie and a band of warriors engage in battle with a larger number of raiders. The scene swirls with chaos and bloodletting.
The raiders are intent upon only one thing; captives, and especially female captives.
When the course of the battle tilts in the favor of the warriors with Rayden, a number of the brigands escape the battle, seizing a couple of female captives and fleeing into the depths of a forest.
At first, the warriors with Rayden give pause when learning the woodlands the brigands fled into are rumored to be filled with nightmarish dangers. As the others hesitate, Rayden prepares to go after the brigands herself. .
Her determination to bring the brigands to a just end and get the captives freed prevails over the reticence of many of the other warriors. While a few stay behind to accompany the freed captives, most, including the famed Ragnar Stormbringer, decide to accompany Rayden into the woodlands.
Picking up the trail of the brigands through the skill of an experienced tracker with them named Hallad, Rayden’s band of warriors begins the pursuit. It is not long before they discover a couple of children following them; one whose mother has been taken by the brigands and the other who has lost both of his parents in the opening battle. The warriors do not wish to take the children with them, but Rayden accepts them as her responsibility.
The dangers of the woods soon begin manifesting. From a shadowy and lethal race of forest creatures to a hulking, undead creature called a Draugr, Rayden, Ragnar and the other warriors are sorely pressed. Many fall in the harrowing series of events that follow.
The pale, sinewy forest beings are evaded, but squarely block any chance of returning the way they have come. The only way is forward, and a Draugr now hunts them, even as they continue after the brigands.
Even after they catch up to the brigands and lure the Draugr into attacking them while the remaining captives are rescued, their fate appears doomed. The Draugr on their trail appears unstoppable with its supernatural qualities. Only one chance remains, when one of the freed captives tells Rayden of the existence of a pair of forest witches steeped in darker arts. Ragnar volunteers to seek them them out when it is learned they will speak with men only.
The ages-old witches appear young and voluptuous when they are found, and the manner in which they have maintained their youth is soon revealed when a price is asked of Ragnar in return for a way to counter the Draugr.
Understanding the ultimate intention of the witches, Rayden intervenes when they begin to exact their price from Ragnar using sexual magic. Fortunately, the means of stopping the Draugr is revealed before the witches are slain. After helping the weakened Ragnar, Rayden goes back to the others.
A final confrontation ensues, in which the Draugr is overcome and destroyed using the knowledge gained from the witches. Only a few survivors, captives, and Rayden stand at the end of the episode.
After all they have been through, a daunting challenge lies ahead; a long return home through dangerous lands and across turbulent oceans.