Arastoph is actually really interesting to me. If I may put it in DnD terms, he seems like a character who put a lot of points into Intelligence and Charisma, but used Wisdom as a dump stat.

Because he's brilliant, right? That much is clear. Dude's brain is going a mile a minute, trying to weasel as much as he can out of any given situation or even conversation. I think that aspect of his character ties in really well with his backstory, But... he doesn't seem to have much of a sense for picking his battles. Like, sure, he's smart enough to con the paladin and profiteer off the oracle and lie and swindle and steal and trick, but at the same time he's not smart enough not to. I think a truly clever person would look at the situation he's in (isolated, away from his wealth, traveling with a group of sort of volatile people through enemy territory), and decided that he could hold off on the lying and conning for a day or two until he got back to civilization.

All said, I really like Arastoph and how you're playing him. (I mean, I sort of like him. I think he's interesting, but he [i]is[/i] a goddamn dickass). I think it'll be interesting to see how his dynamic with the party evolves, particularly with Vis and Carver.