Wwwwwhat about something like Astarion is fleeing this demigod into a village and the demigod creature (tbc on design, maybe something Spooky) starts wrecking things, the village tries to turn on both of them like 'hey you assholes not HERE' and Gale turns up JUST late enough to not know which bits were misunderstandings and 'solves the problem' (begins nuking everything that isn't Astarion). (Fireballllllllll)

His Dark Urge would have approved of this approach?? He's been taught nuking is good sometimes!

Also Yes! Happy to have Astarion wade into awakening stuff if you want. Do you want Astarion to be actively trying to fish Gale out once he's awakened, or just stumbling on this that happen to trigger Gale's existential crisis (one of many in his life).