The Stranger

The Stranger is a mysterious figure who appears to operate in opposition to the Blessed Nine.

Fine-featured, tall and slender, the Stranger first appeared out of nowhere in the Mephistopheles dungeon, shortly after it began looking like our heroes might not survive the encounter. He then casually bitch-slapped several people to death, wiped people's memories, and left them for dead.

Though this has not been confirmed, given Sam's relationship to the Stranger — he is Sam's husband — it seems likely that the Stranger played some part in the mysterious resurrection of our heroes.

According to Aleida, the Stranger has been responsible for the senseless slaughter of many of the worshippers of the Nine over the years. He is such a feared enemy that alarms are set up to alert the nearest temples whenever he appears in Ki.

However, he did not seem so terrifying the second time our heroes encountered him. During an encounter with a suicidal ghost, Gulo began wildly waving around a mysterious key given to him by an equally mysterious monk. Shortly after the danger subsided, the Stranger appeared seemingly out of nowhere. He seemed to have been drawn by the key, and was quite perplexed to see who was holding it. Out of all our heroes, only Rorrik remembered the Stranger from the dungeon, and informed the rest of the group who had come to their aid.

The Stranger was evasive regarding why he had been drawn there — he did not seem surprised to learn the key had come from a monk, but he did seem concerned about how Gulo had come into possession of it. Once he established that no one was in immediate danger, he left as mysteriously as he'd arrived.

A moment later, Rorrik used Sending to ask the Stranger if he had any advice re: finding the Ethereal Plane. The Stranger responded that when our heroes were meant to find it, they would.

According to Sam, her husband likes art.