I am, for the fun of it, turning it into a Tabletop campaign, so I rewrote Astarion's meeting. Only IF the PCs are jerks to him does he pull a knife. Otherwise, he pretends to be a noble elf from Baldur's Gate, dreadfully afraid of everything. Only after the tadpoles connect their minds does he reveal that he is a rogue who serves a Thieves' Guild under his tyrant master Cazador. Various skill checks can give players hints that there is definitely something more to him.
As for Shadowheart, she has the armor and circlet, but she lies and says she serves Melira Taralen, a minor elven goddess of bards and minstrels. Melira is a member of the Seldarine. Although she has no true foes of her own, she is opposed to the drow and goblinoid deities. She has a friendly rivalry with the god Milil due to some similarities with their portfolios. Melira Taralen is Chaotic Good, her symbol is the lute, and she dwells on the plane of Arborea. She is a lover of poetry and song, and her domains are knowledge, life and trickery. If she tells this lie, a DC 15 Religion check will tell a PC that her story doesn’t add up. Nothing about her apparel speaks of Melira, and there’s no way she could use her cleric spells and such without a proper holy symbol of Melira. An opposed Deception (Shadowheart) versus Insight (PC) could also let the PCs know that she’s lying.
And, on top of that, I allow the PCs to roll to see if they recognize the armor as Sharran. If they succeed, they can call her on it and she'll lie again and say she acquired the armor in some ruins. If they press the issue she will eventually give in and admit she's a Sharran, and it could lead to a conflict between the PCs and her right at the beginning of the game.
As for her having such tells, I wonder if that's actually going to tie into her backstory. The armor is VERY similar to the Dark Justiciar armor you find at Grymforge. Could she actually have been raised from the dead? Was she, perhaps, the Unclaimed mentioned in the book? When she awoke, was she already wearing the armor she'd died in?
Either way, I agree. Both of their intros need cleaning up. They just don't make sense, especially Astarion's. He's all alone, and dressed like a noble, but he decides to trick you and put a knife to your throat? Wouldn't he try to be more deceptive and crafty, trying to get info from you in a more subtle manner?
