He would have been a whipping boy/slave assistant for a Dwarven siege mercenary company. They would have all sorts of cool exploding things, and they would have used him to put the stuff together, because if he explodes horribly, oh well, orcs are dumn. (As opposed to a dwarf killing himself through a tragic explosion, then the dwarf was a victim of fate)
He would get kicked out after a while, and then wind up with the company.