Ok, so as nobody on this forum seems to have tried this, I've tested it myself. And it maybe the worst part of Act 3 and the ending itself:
Yes, you can successfully persuade Gale to sacrifice himself. Both Emperor and Orpheus admit it may work. But then the absurdity starts. Both of them demand some "guarantees" from us and both ignore everything. Emperor still leaves for the Absolut and Orpheus still demands somebody to transform to illithid. Just for shits and giggles.
And the most hilarious part of all this nonsense:
This is the ONLY option to have adequate transformation of Orpheus to illithid. It doesn't happen by some unexplained Deus ex machina magic. Somehow, only via dialogue options related to Gale we get the transforming tadpole from Emperor, BUT we may not use it at once. Instead, we give it on screen to Orpheus and in this scenario he uses the same tadpole from Emperor for transformation.
