Arthur G's page

That's an idea. There's a money changer in town. Let's say we pocket the gold and platinum and dump the rest over there to exchange it all to gold? That's 585 gp we're missing out on otherwise, minus whatever such a service costs us.

EDIT: Made a post where we do just that. Sorry. Ignore or undo if this doesn't fit somehow or you disagree, seriously. It's just that the whole money business was taking far too long.

Yeah, we are pretty beefy overall, aren't we? And I hadn't even realized that you were using an archetype. Using Bladethirst to get a keen rapier is a neat combo.

Kinda forgot the mithral daggers. You're right; with some cold iron we'd have good coverage as a group.

So why cold iron, Marcus? Any particular reason? And why a rapier, for that matter? I'd love to hear where people are going with their characters.

Also, Saving Finale was a good choice for your second level spell. Played with a bard once that saved our collective butt many, many times with that.

Woo! Level up! R0bogeisha, do you have any preference for how we gain HP? I can't recall if this was specified at any point, but would you prefer for us to roll hit dice or just to calculate average HP?

And yeah, the second option seems the most manageable.

Kade also sees no problem with killing an outright evil enemy caught in this situation, but would be reluctant here. We don't know the character of these kobolds yet.

Beating the absolute snot out of them before sending them packing, however, is very much an option.

It's not a composite bow, is it? 'Cause if not, it doesn't have any damage modifier, Dex or Str. You just roll your weapon die for damage.

Hope I'm not misunderstanding the question. Melee weapons add Str to both attack and damage, while ranged weapons use Dex for damage but have no damage modifier. There are exceptions, such as for thrown weapons or the aforementioned composite bows. A few classes also get features that let them add Dex to ranged damage.

So your current messed up Dex does indeed leave you with a -3 to your normal ranged attack. With your base attack and normal Dex modifier that should leave you at -1, yeah.

Oh I'm sure he does. The whole "I'm just a dude in his pajamas" remark was supposed to reflect how Kade sees himself. He hasn't caught onto the fact that he's anything special. Within the party he sees himself as the NPC sidekick to a quartet of PCs. Was not at all meant as a jibe against Marcus.

And I really don't know the monk very well myself. First time I'm playing one, so I guess we'll find out what role they're best suited for together.

You may be giving Kade more than his fair due. While he can do some damage his AC is less than impressive. Still, it's absolutely in his personality to go right into the fray, so I'm all for that marching order.

NO SUCH THING.

There's no such thing as too many Perception rolls.

Neat! Thanks, man. Don't overexert yourself though. I wrote the guy with a decade long gap in his life and as a willful social outcast for this reason. I'd hate to make too much extra work for you. You can assume that Kade is fairly ignorant about the goings-on of the place, even 10 years back. All the same, I'm sure everyone appreciates the background knowledge.

Oh, and good posts from everyone involved so far. Liking the crew.

@GM ROBOGEISHA: in the interest of expediency, could we say that Kade was another guard sent from Belhaim to meet the caravan at the halfway point? Makes some sense as a precautionary measure against whatever could lie ahead on the road. That would also mean that all the characters are already familiar with each other. Would that work?

Welcome all and congratulations on making it!

Thanks for having me, man. Appreciated.

1. I noticed that a few of you have Belhaim in your background. I failed to mention this in character creation, but a significant portion of the adventure involves getting acquainted to the area and its population, so it would be best if your past with the town is changed or left out entirely.

Oh boy. Am I about to be difficult. Considering that I tailored the character to Belhaim and made sure to have a connection with the place, I'm struggling to see why I was accepted. I'm hoping that you can elaborate, because if you are asking me to rewrite character motivations and whatnot I'm afraid that I'm out. Best to lay that bare immediately.

Is this an issue of not having the PCs knowing anything about the town, or that the setup requires all PCs to be caravan guards arriving at Belhaim? Because if it is the former I also wrote in the whole "decade since he's been in town" thing to justify that my character doesn't have the lay of the place anymore. If it's the latter then I wish you all a good game and apologize for wasting your time.

Fashionably late, as I am wont to be. Hope that you enjoy looking over Kade, but I understand if you dismiss him at the sight of that wall of text.

Starting gold:: 1d6 ⇒ 1 x 10 = 10 gp

Aaaand I'm officially the poorest bastard the rules will possibly allow me to be. That fits the character actually...

If you have any questions, please ask!

Since I don't see it mentioned anywhere else, what post rate are you aiming for?

Not sure I qualify as a newbie, but if no one else more deserving wants in I'd love to join. Never heard anything but praise for Dragon's Demand.

I've got a situation I'm not entirely sure how to play out, would be good to get some advice.

Essentially, just finished rescuing Marquel, ended the session before delivering him to the captain. [...]
Anyone have any tips on how to react to this? What would Cassius do?

That part in bold could be what saves you. Like Shaun and Raynulf I too have played with this type before, and it can be tiresome. The only reasonable, adult thing to do is let the poor sap go through with their ill conceived plan against the NPC with several levels over him, and then get rightfully smacked upside their thin-skinned head. Actions should have consequences. However, I'm going to advice against this. The adult reaction is not appropriate here as the problem never would have arisen if the player could behave like an adult. The player will just get increasingly prissy when his frustrations find not an outlet, but yet another imagined insult when the Captain successfully defends himself. A moody player at the table will just ruin the session for everyone.

Instead, consider playing up the reunion between Marquel and the Captain the next time your play. Emphasize the Captain's worry about his lover and that he might have been in an agitated state when he tossed this mission on the PCs' shoulders. Try to elicit sympathy and maybe this player will find it in his sensitive little heart to forgive him. As GM the best thing you can do in this situation is to try and defuse the situation, not to meet force with force.

Right. So. Posted part 1 of Zheng's master plan and I don't know if I went too far. The idea is to give us something fun to do in town, but if people aren't feeling it, then no sweat. I left it as is, so that you guys have a chance to get involved if you want to. If not, then I'll just post a probably equally big part 2, Mowque will have to post some reaction from Chyou and that's that. Game is right back on track, hopefully without any disruption from my end.

Mowque, we talked about this privately, but if there's something in my post that you object to then just say the word. I'll delete the whole thing within the hour.

I feel vaguely responsible as I fell of the face of the net for a week, but I don't especially mind the pace as is. May be in the minority in this sentiment, but I vastly prefer slower games with quality posts over faster games with so-so posts.

Definitely heed Haladir and Latrecis's advice; you do not want to overemphasize Magnimar, cool as the place may be. And while we're at it, be doubly careful with Dawn of the Scarlet Sun. I considered using it for my own RotR game, but decided against it as the plot of the module is too similar to events already taking place with the Skinsaw cult in the city. Perhaps consider melding the two somehow?

As for a module recommendation I'll throw in The Harrowing. It's a really fun, very colorful and uniquely Varisian adventure. I personally used it to spice up one of the long treks across the country the party inevitably have to make. It's excellent stuff. Do note, however, that the module almost requires one to own a physical harrow deck, but boy did my players enjoy having some tangible prop to play around with.

Dang ol' nefarious page shifts.

Swift post, man.

Someone going to pick up that ball?

I'm offended.

Your metre is all over the place and the rhythm shoddy. Come back when you can pull of an iambic tetrametre.

Deadmanwalking wrote:

Iomedae has always been pronounced in my head something like this:

EYE-ohm-eh-day

Which doesn't sound that uncomfortable to me. I've always liked the way that one flowed, personally.

For me, it was always Eye-OHM-eh-day. :D

Putting the stress on the second syllable actually doesn't sound too bad, yeah. I suspect that this is more of a personal problem since we don't speak English at our table and the name just doesn't mesh with our spoken language, but still. Four syllables of which the first three all sound vowel-like? Yeesh.

I don't suppose anyone could find me a recording of 'Iomedae'? Because no matter how I try that name is sits fantastically uncomfortable on the tongue.

Actually, this entire thread should be full of Vocaroo links. Go on, people. Share your melodious voices.

Yeah, I thought we were waiting on something. Still very much aboard.

All right, so what do you decide? I know an IC debate can go on forever.

Everyone want to vote or something? Not rushing, just making sure everyone feels engaged.

Edit: Excellent maps Aruthr G.!

I say we enter Hwanggot through Po Li. I don't feel that the other route can be justified, though I could still be convinced.

All this aside, I would really like to see a decent knowledge (geography) check from Otrov first. Would be nice to know if us uneducated plebs are missing something.

This map here might be more helpful than the one above.

'nother map

So about that route; should we discuss this here? Because it seems like a big decision that going to shape the game going forward. I haven't got the faintest idea what route makes the most sense, so I'm not sure how to respond in game. Traveling by land means going through Lingshen, Po Li and maybe Quain, right? Or am I reading the map wrong? From what little I can read about those places they all seem perfectly civilized.
A journey by boat, though. Oh boy. What does that even mean? Going by those rivers all the way to Hwanggot or sailing the sea south of the entire continent and then back up to the eastern side of Hwanggot? Boy, does that latter option seem like a trek, but I'm rather liking the idea of traveling by water.

How big do you want it, boss? Use photobucket's own 'View image' feature. Don't just right-click. It's pretty big.

And BoB? I think it's time for that Knowledge (geography) of yours to shine.

I still can't quite believe that there still isn't a rogue archetype geared around throwing daggers. Or is there? My system mastery is less than perfect so correct me if I'm wrong, but acrobatic rogues throwing multiple daggers as if they are projectiles is such a classic fantasy staple of the character type that it's baffling it isn't better supported. There's even plenty of official Paizo art depicting just such a rogue, and yet to my knowledge this idea can't be realized without some rule bending or expensive equipment and even then it's not particulary effective.

Don't you worry your pretty little head, dude. I can guarantee that there will be times I'll take longer to post. It's happened before. You write well, btw.

Ready as I'll ever be, he said still convinced that he shouldn't be here.

Aaand that should just about do it. Shout at me if you need anything more.

I'm writing this from work so I can't add anything more to Zheng right here and now, but yeah. Done. His character sheet is finished, although I haven't added it to his profile yet. Will do as soon as possible. Not sure whether to allocate these last two skill points into Sense Motive or Use Magic Device.

Are you guys ok with a fourth, unknown player? If so, I can work with it.

Everyone involved here is practically an unknown as far as I'm concerned, so I defer to you on this. I have no problem with BoB joining in.

Sorry to see you go, Fabian. Have fun with your other games, yeah? And have a nice Easter too, man. That goes for the rest of you lot as well.

I also like game outline as provided. Shari, I'm usually the type to pick whatever sort of character I think can round out the party, so any character I propose here is subject to change. But that being said, I'll be damned before I play a game in Tian Xia without a ninja. Gotta have a ninja. Anything else would be obscene.
So you may assume that on my part for now. But seriously, if anyone else really wants to play the sneaky, roguish type I'm more than happy to find something else to play. Just say the word.

Yup. I like having some direction too.

But there are some ways around it. For one thing 'pages' of exposition can be handled in PbP very well, if you ask me. It can flow from the character's actions and own investigations...

All very fair points. But how about that Tian Xia, eh? I'm cool with the setting (and with the idea of blending a bit of Kyonin in there too), especially if the GM favors that suggestion. A more engaged GM leads to a better game, 9 out of 10 dentists agree.

And yeah, I am far more comfortable with posting every other day. I'll admit right here and now that I will not be able to keep up with a daily schedule of posts, much as I'd like to. I regret not being able to do so in Mummy's Mask.

'I really shouldn't be here' is what I'm telling myself. I've got enough on my plate as is, but it's very hard to say no to a GM offering to run a custom game for you. So here's my take on the generous offers at hand:

Osirion - I'm leery about the idea of reusing characters or plot, but from playing that small sampling of Mummy's Mask I found that I actually like the setting. Didn't expect the Egyptian theme to appeal to me, but for whatever reason it really does.

Cheliax - Hot dang, do I love Cheliax. The decadence, the tyranny, the pride, the undercurrent of desperation; I love it all. Would absolutely be up for both a goodly or nefarious game there.

Kyonin - Never been much for elves, but plane-hopping games? Adooore it. Yes please.

Tian Xia - I'm with Drogeney. Tian Xia is so underutilized and has huge potential. Like the east-asian flavor of it too.

Arcadia - and here's the one game I'm downright not interested in... The reason behind this is twofold: for one, selfishly, it just does not mesh with how I like to write characters. I prefer working within some constraints, using the setting and lore to write something that seems workable as per the established parameters. There are several reasons for this, but the problem with Arcadia is that there are so few of said parameters. We know so little about the place that we're free to do whatever we want. Which is lovely and all, but when you tell me to write whatever I want, I find myself incapable of writing anything at all.
Now, this problem could be mitigated almost entirely by saying that all the PCs are newcomers to the continent themselves and thusly are as ignorant about the place as the players themselves. But this leads right into the second reason I'm not for this setting: this would require the GM to explain every single facet and detail of the locale at every turn. The players could never rely on their own knowledge of the setting. I can't see how the game wouldn't just devolve into pages and pages of exposition.

Dwarven - Yeah, sure. Dwarves are fackin' cool.

So taking a cue from Drogeney and ranking these I guess my preference would look something like this?

1: Cheliax
2: Osirion, Kyonin, Tian Xia, Dwarves (no, seriously, I'm game for all of these)
3: Arcadia

Hope this helps and, of course, feel free to tell me how I'm wrong about Arcadia. I'm seriously up for just about anything with a dedicated GM; thanks for having me.

Your first link there leads to the wizard school Evocation, Nohwear. I don't really have much to contribute otherwise, as I have no familiarity with the hunter, but will echo Shaun in saying that the Urban Ranger is a fantastic choice for HR. Despite the 5 year gap in publication the archetype feels like it was designed for the path.

Do return in some months time to tell us how your hunter and ram handled the Ruby Masquerade though. I want to hear what expensive custom designed mask you bought for your sheep. I suggest dressing it in wolf's clothing.

Someone does indeed see your point, but I don't think you have too much to worry about. As written, Barzillai fully expects the Ravens to smell his figurative cooking because the Ruby Masquerade stinks to high heavens. That's his design. He wants them to suspect foul play and to be there when whatever's-going-down goes down. The Ravens are expected to be there because of sheer suspicion and because this is what they do: take every opportunity to get close to Barzillai and wreck his schemes.
I also imagine that it's a rare group of players who wouldn't want to check this stuff out. Even if you somehow can't justify the PCs knowing that the masquerade is a trap, just about any player is going to know something's up the second they hear about the event.

But if you still intend to have the masquerade take place in Vyre, Dryder, there are more than a few questions you have to answer; more, I think, than if you simply let it play out as written. Why does Barzillai intend to kill citizens of Vyre? Does he know that the Ravens are there? Why would he organize a massacre in the house of such a powerful witch (more powerful than himself, in fact...) if he's trying to garner her support? How are his devil allies even going to get around Manticce's security and how are her own guards going to impact the event?
I'm sure that your idea can be executed, but I think you're going to have to jump some logic hurdles to do so.

You know what? Yeah. I'm totally incorporating this into my own game. One of the few problems I have with HR (and I wish to preface this with saying that it really is a great path) is that it doesn't spend enough pages on the Lawful vs Chaotic dichotomy. Much has been said about how this is Paizo's quintessential CG path, but I see no reason why the Lawful types should feel uncomfortable here. Barzillai is working within the law only in the sense that he's rewriting it as he's breaking it. His regime is a perversion of rules that even the LN crowd should be utterly disgusted by. Never mind having a party of Han Solos; I could easily see myself GMing a group of Judge Dredds here.

Introducing a lone member of the Glorious Reclamation early on would be a good way to emphasize the difference in philosophy between the GR and... well, Kintargo as a whole. It's mentioned more than once throughout the path that even worshipers of Iomedae in the city are not on board with the GR, but no specific reason is ever given. Having a just, disciplined and just a bit too headstrong NPC trying to steer the revolution in a certain direction could be an alright way to emphasize the character of Kintargo; heck, probably the characters of the PCs too (because let's face it: in a path centered around a revolution the PCs are more than likely going to be even more chaotically inclined than the two-legged escapism vehicles we usually make are).

Mr Lone Glorious Reclamation shouldn't be played as being wholly negative; his purpose should just be to give a different perspective. He would probably work best as an ally, maybe even a leader of one of the rebellion teams. This would all come to a head during the final negotiations for Ravounel, because Gorbacz observation earlier seems spot on. In making peace with Cheliax, you are (in part) dooming the GR. Put the party in a difficult position. Be the principled paladin type and let the whole ship sink, or make the figurative deal with the devil, save your own people and let honor be damned.
Hell, with the right group this could practically play out like the ending of Watchmen, with Mr Lone GR taking the role of Rorschach.

And yeah, replacing the kukri-wielding assassin with a VERY misguided member of the GR, desperate to save his own flagging rebellion could be a real nice twist. I realize that this runs the risk of painting the entire GR as being the very worst Lawful Stupid has to offer, and may give the players a wrong impression of them, but honestly? Nothing I've read about the GR has given me reason to think otherwise of the guys.
Now, obviously, changes such as these are wholly inappropriate if your group isn't interested in some moral quandaries and the ethics of rebelling. There's nothing wrong with simply wanting to play the plucky young rebels out to kick the despot of his throne.

Thanks for the inspiration, Axial. I'll be incorporating something along these lines in my own game.

There were not "big editorial shears" involved in the adventure's development, and in fact, as with all of the adventures (and particularly with Hell's Rebels overall, which I put a VERY heavy development hand into in order to tie the adventures together more than I've ever done before), I added quite a lot of additional material...

Huh. Yeah, I can see that. Funnily enough, the Bastion is actually my favorite location within the Bone Tower. The idea of power hungry Barzillai hating his own lack of power as a child makes perfect sense, as does the punishment of infantilizing the petitioners there.

Thanks for the swift reply and for the little view into the editorial process, and while I have you here, thanks for the whole path, man. Looking forward to GMing it for my group. Will drop a review sooner rather than later.
Do apologize if my original post somehow painted the editorial staff as Asmodean redactors. Was certainly not intended. I know enough about the editorial process to see that this is not the case.

Wow. I just finished reading Hell's Rebels all the way through (finally), and am writing just to express how impressed I am by this final installment. Credit needs to be given where credit is due and BtBoH just might be the best final installment of a Paizo AP I've read yet. Granted, I haven't read all of them, but I still feel the need to voice just how good this part is, especially so since I'm not seeing a whole lot of buzz around this final part. Although it has some odd leaps in logic here and there, everything presented here, from the engaging social encounter of negotiating for your country's rights to delving almost literally into the main antagonist's psyche is just top-notch stuff.
Ms Scott, if you ever read this, kudos to you because BtBoH is fantastic.

That said, one of the primary reasons I love this part is its finale and that it doesn't shy away from depicting the horrors of both hell itself and the minds of the sort of people that end up there. Those glimpses into Barzillai's mindscape are so tantalizing and evocative. In my own mind, they solidify Barzillai as the best developed antagonist Paizo has featured yet, a sentiment I know others share.
That's why it kills me that the introduction hints that some details might have been removed for the same reason a content warning was added. I'm not sure if this is somehow a sensitive subject, but Ms Scott? Mr Jacobs? Is there any chance that you could reveal a few sordid details about what was? Or simply lay my fears about great big editorial shears to rest?

Don't worry, I'm a big boy who's been wearing his big-boy pants for a while now, and my table is no different. We can take it.

It would be neat to see the Anaphexia or Asmodean redactors used as the "good guys" at some point in the game. Knowledge so dire that it tears people's sanity apart is a cornerstone of Lovecraft, so having the normally antagonistic organizations usually maligned for hoarding knowledge and keeping the masses ignorant take on the role of guarding man's fragile psyche would be interesting.

CorvusMask wrote:

Eh never called it a good thing, I don't know for sure what kind of group CCG is, but if they are conservative patriots, old fashioned in inapporiate ways is kinda fitting. Or maybe I just have had bad experiences regarding patriotism and nationalism...

The argument is that unlike Earth, Golarion never had an issue with sexism in its past, therefore presenting exclusionary language as "old-fashioned" is inaccurate. Golarionites don't apparently have a history of sexism to harken back to.

It doesn't change my position on this topic; "Queenspersons" or any of the other suggested alternatives don't get at what I'm looking for. But, that's the argument against this as I understand it.

It is also worth mentioning that linguistically there is nothing sexist or exclusionary about the word. "Man" does in fact refer to humanity as a whole and comes from a wholly different source separate from "woman", however unlikely that may seem today. Their etymologies are not the same. "Man" is not a root word from which "woman" was derived. Heck, if one were so inclined the argument could easily be made that it is one of the most inclusive word in the English language, doing double duty referring not just to those with a Y chromosome but to all people.

And more on topic, I like your contributions to the path so far, Shaun, both in this thread and elsewhere. I'm going to be changing Vyre slightly, even though it really is neat; the place doesn't quite seem sustainable as presented, and I play with a major sociology nerd whose outcries would be too disruptive to gameplay if I let the place be. Chief among the changes is going to be a tighter border control. The 'no name' policy will stay intact, but not just anyone is going to get in. Once you are in it's still all debauchery, but the "government" is wary of elements that could disrupt the status quo.

And the skum are out, replaced by sahuagin. For no other reason than that I don't like skum and do like sahuagin.

Open gob or not, these look absolutely fantastic. I'm especially impressed by the seemingly effortless transition from 2d artwork to 3d print. The models are easily recognizable as individual runelords and I can only imagine that a fair few hours of scrutinizing official portraits went into that. Great stuff.

And to answer the actual question: I always imagined the heads as being more stylized, yeah. Almost caricatures, with the exaggerated features that we know from political cartoons, except that the effect here was not to amuse but rather to frighten.

I'll share some thoughts.

Dakkon and his sword:
It's not much but maybe try introducing the alara'hai, or the seven swords of sin, early on. He could find vague clues on them in one of the many ruins your party will be exploring. Set the swords up as fantastically powerful cursed blades, analogue to his own. They all have really neat backstories in Artifacts & Legends that you could sprinkle through your game as your party researches Thassilon, culminating with the discovery that there is another 'cursed blade' wielder walking around. Let them hear about Viorian Dekanti and how she apparently went crazy a few years ago, killing her own mercenary group with an odd golden sword, only to then go missing.
At best your player will gain an end goal in finding and defeating this worthy opponent. At worst he will hopefully take an interest in Thassilon.

Kira and her lost memory:
She's a rogue who grew up in a big city. Of course she's gotten into some sort of trouble. Maybe try reading up on the different gangs of Magnimar; there are quite a few of them. Maybe she was once involved with one such Sczarni gang and saw something she wasn't supposed to. Maybe she's been mind wiped; there are plenty of spells capable of that. Maybe her being in Sandpoint is a sort of forced retirement, and the local Sczarni gang, headed by Vhiski, are supposed to look out for her and make sure she stays put, discreetly. Maybe the reason she got her memory erased rather than simply being killed is because there's someone influential in the Sczarni who cares about her. Maybe she get's approached by strangers saying things like "You weren't supposed to return" and "How dare you show your face here" the minute she sets foot in Magnimar again.

Jolrael and her hunt:
I'm not sure, but you might have misunderstood something about the Mwangi. Not all Mwangi have to be kill-happy, devil worshiping maniacs. Heck, I don't think they even have to be tribal. They can be as varied as people from any other region. Regardles, I think setting the player up with a hunt for the Sandpoint Devil is a great idea. Gives her something to strive for. The easy way to do something more with this would be to simply escalate the challenge. Go auroch hunting with the Shoanti, go mastadon hunting with the stone giants. Varisia is a big place with plenty of game to kill. Maybe introduce the legend of Black Magga early on. Now there's a trophy. Hell, let's go dragon hunting; Freezemaw's head would look good over a mantelpiece.

Marlowe and the horses I can't think up anything for:
I got nothing long term here, but maybe try getting her invested in the plight of Tsuto and Nualia? All three are members of long lived races who have grown up among races with significantly shorter lifespans. Does Marlowe have happy memories of her parents? Because Tsuto and Nualia sure don't. Maybe Marlowe can learn to understand why the two antagonists are the way they are. If your players are into investigation game-play you can easily spend a session questioning the reluctant citizens of Sandpoint about the two's past. Maybe redeeming the two even becomes a long term goal for Marlowe.

Deckard and his goblin buddy:
Got nothin' to add here. Your thoughts on Gapbelch (fantastic name) are great.

Tacticslion's wall of awesome

Dang, Tacticslion. You put some thought and time into that. Appreciate it, man.

I'm especially grateful for the insight on how to balance the player's potential buffs and nerfs, although the suggestions for other penalties to apply are great. I think I'm going to create a little table of select deformities, curses and the like, and then have the player roll maybe two of them himself. This guy loves random tables, so much so that I expect simply having the chance to roll for random effects is going to soften the blow for him.

Right, so for those curious this is what I'm thinking so far storywise: the 'slinger is damned to the Abyss and rightfully so. However, once there a demon lord intercedes on his behalf. Nocticula, being the ruler of succubi, knows about the affairs of Delvahine and has learned of the impending world-shattering threat of Mhar. How? I dunno, she's a demon lord; she has people.
Being a patron of assassins and a fan of subtlety she sees an opportunity here to send a mortal to unknowingly do her bidding: make sure that this one foolish adventurer reaches his destination, the Spires of Xin-Shalast, and once there stops the Leng Device. Delvahine is given a soul gem containing the unfortunate 'slinger and sets to work resurrecting the guy with the help of the wrath wing, all the while implanting some hefty charms in his head.
Some days later the 'slinger wakes up at the frozen gates of Xin-Shalast, not quite himself and with no memory of what brought him here. Except he feels a burning need to reach Karzoug's crib and do... something. Kill the bastard? Yeah, that's probably it. But no, there's something more... some purpose he has to fulfill. If only he could remember...
And for reasons he can't quite fathom he now speaks Abyssal.

Something along those lines.

Thanks for the back and forth, guys. Seriously, this has helped.