When does Astarion say this? I've heard of it but I didn't have it in the game, can you tell me in which dialog this line is in? I remember Ulma's lines - it's when talking to her in the gur camp.
Going through these lines reminded me of another contradiction, albeit smaller than others- or maybe I misunderstood. Both in EA and the current game Astarion can talk about Cazador inviting him to dine with him, serving him a putrid rat. I assumed that he'd be in the room where Cazador is feeding. But then in Act 3 Ulma assumes -and is never corrected- that Astarion has never seen Cazador feed from his victims.
The dialog with Ulma is as follows (In this version, Gandrel is dead in the swamps):
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(Ulma): So it is you, the impossible spawn who walks among us in the blazing sun. We have been looking for you.
- (Tav): What do you want with Astarion?
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(Ulma): The last time your friend visited our camp, he stole our children. Our future.
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(Ulma): When we sent Gandrell after you, we wanted to question you. To find out how to save our children and then finish you off. (The hunters wanted to kill him anyway).
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(Ulma): But the situation has changed. You've changed.
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(Ulma): Did you really leave your master? Dispelled the spell that bound you to him? (The hunters realize that the brats are bound to their master and his orders).
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(Astarion): Well, you know... something like that. It's a long story, to be honest.
- (Tav): What business is it of yours?
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(Ulma): For those your friend stole from us, it's a matter of life and death.
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(Ulma): We already tried to rescue our children once before by attacking Casador Fence's palace at first light. But even then, it was too well defended. (Let me remind you that Castle Zarr is not only defended by spawns, but also by enchanted men who are not responsible for their actions, which means that the Gurts are not afraid of spilling the blood of innocents).
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(Ulma): But what if his own brat comes to him? Someone he can control - as he believes he can. He will open every door, inviting you in.
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(Ulma): And once inside, you'll do what we couldn't. You will save the children you yourself have condemned to death. (By order of master. If it were his will, it would be possible to appeal to conscience, but in the realized version, Astarion can not be responsible for his actions, although he can correct them).
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(Astarion): You do not know Casador as I know him. He is ruthless. You want me to enter the lion's den and save your children.... But I could swear they're already dead.
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(Tav): What makes you so sure of that?
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(Astarion): For two hundred years I've been delivering victims to him. And each one was taken to him that very night - to be fed.
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(Ulma): But you didn't see him feed, did you? He could keep captives in his possession for days before killing them. (How can the head of the Gurus, who has no access to the palace, know more than the spawn who lived in the castle?)
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(Ulma): If our children are truly dead, then we will take payment in blood. I know you are able to understand that, spawn. (Words of pure revenge, if the children are dead, we will kill you).
In the dialog about the "rotten rat", indeed, the elf says that Casador invited him to "dine" with him. But in this dialog Astarion does not mention that Casador ate people in front of Astarion, he says: "he had a little ritual, if I said yes, I was fed to the rat, and if I didn't, I was skinned". I guess it just didn't look like a real one on one dinner, but rather a "food" question followed by torture depending on the choice.
The first time we hear from the hunter about the children, we can't ask the elf that question. That dialog just isn't there. I assume the developers intended for this moment to be the first time they called him to account, but then, abandoned the idea.
And Astarion doesn't exactly brush off the fact that Casador was there that night for a reason, he says:
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(Tav): He showed up just when you needed him? What an interesting coincidence.
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(Astarion): Quite possibly. Or maybe he was just attracted by the smell of blood. The important thing is that I have a long history with these barbarians.
A couple more interesting things left in the game and testify to the past of the elf:
If you go through the game as a "Bard" and in the goblin camp choose to play the goblin battle march on the drum, Astarion comments that: "
you'd be worth a fortune on a slave ship.". So at the very least, the character sees nothing wrong with the "slave trade", if he hasn't been involved in it in the past at all.
+ Grimforge, the scene with the dwarf Distur and the two Dwagars:. Astarion says, "
That's what I call servant training." And he'll approve if you saying, "
What an interesting prisoner. Where do they get them? I want one of them.."
