Double-post because there's something else I wanted to say which is actually somewhat relevant to the topic.
In my latest game, I entered Odemia with Remote Manipulation before getting Ariadne. I have found that as soon as you leave the zone after interrogating Antiphus, Antiphus drowns (even if I already killed him - oops) and Ariadne is returned home (unless she's in the party). Therefore, since I wanted Ariadne in my party, I had to neglect to interrogate Antiphus until later. I made a point to talk to Philinus, but he was all stressed about his wife.
I then got Ariadne and later crept into Odemia in the dead of night. The gate guard stopped me in front of the already-open gate, greeted me warmly, thanked me for rescuing Ariadne, and closed the gate in my face
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I had to remotely manipulate it -again- to get in. Philinus was in bed asleep, he did not run up to me, and even when I paraded Ariadne in front of him during the daytime, he did not open up a dialogue window or take her back. So, I'm able to hang out in Odemia without returning Ariadne. Unfortunately, I can't talk to Philinus or he'll take her back, so I still can't get his pipes.
Also, I concluded a while back that Pelagon will not disappear to the grotto until you've completed the "interview Stentor" mission, so I can't think of any way I could beat the game with Dryas present.
I did have an interesting experience with Dryas today. Although I gave him 255 HP, he managed to promptly get killed by Scylla in Tavara's fortress. Because I'm a nice person, I went back & resurrected him. Now Dryas was alive - but he was standing on his own dead body. I got Dryas back in my party and moved him off the body. I tried resurrecting the body, but I was told it wasn't dead! I tried again, and it worked... and then I noticed that the original Dryas had already died again. Now I couldn't resurrect his original body, and his secondary body didn't have any of his equipment. That was okay though, the secondary Dryas died quickly and I was able to resurrect the first one again. I decided to carry around his second body in case he ever needs a spare.