ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

My Doomed is following my conventional path: clear Daikara, go elsewhere to level, return for Temporal Rift. When I returned, lo and behold, a Loremaster spawned in need of my assistance.

1. Is this a bug? Would it be cheating if I accepted the Loremaster's reward? Would appreciate dev feedback on this as I do not want to feel like my character won through cheating.
2. Since Mindstars now use mindpower for accuracy, will my Doomed be able to hit anything with Disarm if I take it? (I already have Mind Sear).

I don't know about Disarm.

However, that's not a bug. You see, if there is, for whatever reason, a place targetted for the portal's placement that is not possible to path to(Door in the way is the usual problem), one of your nine Escorts will spawn there, but not actually have the quest until you create an open path to the spot.

So if you've seen less than nine Escorts, go check older areas. The downside is that you don't get the escort ASAP unless you go through the area randomly, but the upside is that you get an escort that's quite easy.