Way of the Wicked backstory

[paddyfool]

So, my first participation in an Evil campaign is coming up. I've got a backstory, but I was wondering if it makes sense to people who know more about, e.g., the plane of Baator and its denizens than I do:

Some people will sell anything for power. Drin Dorillon was such a man; dissatisfied with mundane things, and unwilling to simply accept whatever boons might be granted in return for grovelling worship, he sought to learn spellcasting in his youth. However, he was frustrated in this, not so much by a lack of basic acuity, as through suspicion on the part of potential teachers that he might not be a trustworthy holder of their knowledge, perceiving as they did a grasping and cruel streak in him. Turned away by three wizards from whom he sought apprenticeship, he turned to other, darker routes to power. Envious and embittered against more orthodox spellcasters, he is now bound by blood contract to do the bidding of his current fiendish teacher in the dark arts (Kalinvor, a devil [of undecided type] in the court of Asmodeus).

He plied a trade for a small time in such dark arts before being handed in to the Knights of Alerion by someone he himself scorned to train. To escape a death on the scaffold and attain the powers that had been promised to him is his major motivation, followed shortly after by revenge. He's willing (with due caution) to seek and abide by any alliances that may be made with others of like mind in the prison to enable these goals. Long term, he plans to find a route to immortality, since being a lemure in thrall to the Nine Lords holds no appeal whatsoever.

To sum up, he's got power-mad megalomania, a cruel streak, he's a servant of a cruel master, bitter and vengeful... but he's not a backstabber or other form of party-sabotager. Mechanically, he should be straightforward enough as well (we're playing it in a conversion to fantasy craft).

What I'm not sure about is how to fluff him learning dark powers from this route - what form of devil would operate in this fashion? Might they be forcing dead souls in thrall to them to actually do the teaching?

Also, as an alternative to immortality: is there any way to net himself a position as something other than a lemure in Baator after his death?

[Murg]

What I'm not sure about is how to fluff him learning dark powers from this route - what form of devil would operate in this fashion? Might they be forcing dead souls in thrall to them to actually do the teaching?

I think the Book of Vile Darkness would have some relevant info here. It has tips for making evil PCs and playing in an evil campaign.

As far as mentors go, in the Way of the Wicked campaign there are two major NPCs that immediately come to mind as potential mentors to your character. These NPCs could have met your character and started training him before the main plot of Way of the Wicked begins. I'm hesitant to say more for fear of spoilers, but your DM could, I think, easily work your backstory into the main plot.

[paddyfool]

Sorry for the late reply - thank you for the help! The final version of my character is up here, and so far, all goes pretty well with our little prison-break... although I've yet do do anything massively evil yet.

(The rest of our party consists of a disgraced soldier & his pet ogre, an entirely amoral wargolem with a permanent beatific smile, a carnivorous undead plant-woman, a priest of Asmodeus, and a necromancer who's fairly keen on torture. So far, my megalomaniac arcane student of devils has almost been the goody-two-shoes of the group).