Indeed. He loaded it from the start. The news of the big bad was brought to us by an NPC whom we had previously saved from being bound into a magic item - he would have died bringing us the news, if a critical roll from one of the party hadn't pulled off a bit of divine intervention.

As a character, you can't not go when someone whose life you value is willing to die to bring you the news. (I'm not sure that anything else would have got me to go. My character had spent his entire game career trying to get to the point where he was at that moment).