Originally Posted by The Red Queen
And perhaps I’m terminally naive but, while his chat-up lines are cringeworthy and it’s definitely not a good choice on his part to sleep with the PC before telling them his story,

And despite reading KR’s arguments with interest, I still find it impossible to think of him as manipulative. Perhaps that just means he’s good at it, or I’m a sucker, but while I can understand a reading of the deer stew scene as a manipulation, but it feels too clumsy to be that of a practiced player. And I think for it to be a character flaw there needs to be a pattern of such behaviour, whereas most often he will either tell the truth or at least refuse to tell an untruth when weasel words would serve him better. And once you’ve helped him stabilise his condition and he has come clean (as far as we know), if the PC judges at that point that he didn’t deserve the trust he was given and asks him to leave, he will go without argument or complaint.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to seeing how his story plays out in the full release.

And in the meantime, Shadowheart is still topping my least trusted list. I definitely do get manipulative vibes from her, though she’s not yet had to use her skills to get something from me that I don’t want to part with. I do hope she doesn’t turn out to be another Chosen of any deity though, as one is plenty. I can see why folk think she might be, and obviously it makes sense to expect some jiggery-pokery with her missing memories, but my fingers are crossed that she is just a “regular” cleric of Shar, albeit one who might have been kidnapped from a Selunite village as a youngster and brainwashed, possibly with the help of some memory spells to wipe out the fact that the Sharrans killed her family.

Interesting. I guess when I'm thinking about pattern I see from the author the cringeworthy / hamhanded nature of the manipulation is intentional just like Wyll's attempts to explain away his conversation with Mizora is a bit comic

We can either attribute the cringe to Gale's social awkwardness or a signal that something is wrong. As the very entertaining conversation between Niara and I demonstrated whether or not you think something is wrong depends on your reaction to things like cooking dinner for someone, buttering them up with compliments and then asking for a favor. If this seems like normal behavior between friends you are more likely to attribute it awkwardness but if you think that's just not a good way to treat another human you see something sinister.

I'll say it again - my friends just ask me to do things. If it's moving, it's just expected that dinner / snacks / drinks will be provided but you don't butter up, foot in the door and then ask. *shudder* creepy, so creepy. Okay. I'll stop. Stopping now. I've stopped.

At the risk of beating a dead horse - one the reasons I trust SH a bit more is that Gale says "I need you to trust me" and then he to show that he does not, in fact, trust Tav. You can call that a security blanket or a lack of trust - I'm convinced it's the latter. Shadowheart, OTH, telegraphs that she doesn't trust anyone and blind trust is foolish *but* that you must trust each other because you are in same situation. I provisionally trust her in any situation that doesn't involve Sharrans. But if one her superiors showed up? That kiss won't prevent her from siding with her clergy (at this point)

A bit more on Gale the soon to be Sharran and the Shadow Weave (all 3.5)

This is known

When a mage first discovers the shadow weave and attunes to it they lose 2 wisdom points. These ability score points can only restored by a cleric of Shar and are typically only restored after the mage completes a Sharran quest.

This is speculation

When Gale first meets Shadowheart he comments on her dark eyes - now it possible to read this as Gale being a lech but I think it's more likely that someone had told him to look out for a Sharran who fits her description.

Perhaps finding the orb (mythallar?) was the quest and he now needs a Sharran to restore the lost ability points? But asking for that would reveal his true nature to the group.