I really don't get why he needed to be in the story.
I feel just Orpheus being trapped in the artifact would have been enough of a twist. There didn't need to be two inhabitants.
It'd be a pretty short game with almost zero choices for players otherwise.
Er, no. The entire story would have been written around that premise.
As things stand the entire story is a mess as evidenced by the number of threads complaining about seemingly every aspect of it.
I did the Orpheus/portal fight last night.
First attempt was bugged (I later realised) as I was fighting in my camp clothes and only my character was able to make the jump from the portal rock to the next one. My bard character got slaughtered by the monks.
Second attempt I stayed in camp and let the timer play out - turned into mindflayer - game over.
Third attempt I got my entire, armour-wearing party to the Emperor but tried to side with Orpheus. Guard remained hostile, Elderbrain wins - game over.
Fourth attempt I freely chose to do exactly what Larian were forcing me to do.
