How much Silent Fist faction do you need for the Headband quests?

[Escalon]

I've done the Qeynos courier mission to the guy sleeping under the tree, and finding Tuscaloon or whatever that guy wandering around outside who has you carry his backpack is named, and I've killed tons and tons of gnolls while farming pelts, skins and fangs, and dang Phin still says I'm not trusted enough for even the White Headband quest.

Now, when I did the rescue mission for Seta, she actually said she wouldn't trust me with it, however, I checked the wiki page for the quest and just said the right things to her, and she let me do the mission. I wonder if the same would happen with Phin. If I just gave him four gnoll pup scalps, would that work? Would the quest complete?

I don't want to risk it, because it took me way longer to get those scalps than anything else so far, since pups seem pretty rare. But I'm also sitting on a lot of pre-collected quest items (gnoll skins and pelts and putrid bones) eating up my very precious "I'm brand new so I don't have a bank full of ten-slot bags" inventory space that I wanna get rid of.

Should I just bite the bullet, give Phin the scalps, and hope for the best? Since Seta claimed I was too untrusted for the quest, but let me do it anyway, I wonder if maybe the Silent Fist faction messages are bugged or something. I feel like I should absolutely be able to do the White Headband quest by now.

...

Screw it. I'll do it. If the scalps get wasted they get wasted. Who knows, maybe I can find some extras among the vendors. That's how I got my one putrid rib bone -- not a drop, but found it on a vendor in Halas.

(I'm doing a lot of experimenting like this. I should really write a newbie guide of my own, since the existing ones are just about character choice, interface, controls and power leveling, not really general mechanics or How Stuff Works.)