So, I wanted to ask how other GMs handled the discovery of the Mantis Blade. Even if you haven't run the adventure, but have read it, or have any suggestions, I'd greatly appreciate hearing them.
Here's my situation:
I have a party of all good characters, two of whom are chaotic good. They all knew that the Red Mantis faction was going to Saventh-Yhi to find some important religious item, and for that reason they had not been deeply troubled by them. My players figured the Mantis were only there for one reason and didn't really reflect much of a threat. Even though the Mantis faction proved to be the greatest threat during the "race to the ruins" (I played up the "race" part of this and the Mantis were the fastest and came closest to beating the PCs to the city), they never really worried about having to compete with them for discovery. They were not pleased by the Mantis being there, but they were far more concerned by the Aspis, who were making more regular efforts to sabotage and undermine their Pathfinder faction.
So, as they were exploring the city, my players mostly avoided any confrontation with the Mantis - I played them as being more of a secretive, sneaky, surgical-strike operation that wasn't as actively trying to loot the city or interfere with the other factions, the way the Aspis were. Anyway, as a result my players figured that if they came across this "religious item" that the Mantis wanted, they'd give it to them in order to maintain the peace, figuring that once they had the item the Mantis would just leave Saventh-Yhi.
Their plans changed, however, when they found the Mantis Blade and realized what it was. They are all horrified by the arrogance of the item, the fact that it is a lawful-evil weapon for "slaying all" things. I may have really aroused their fears by playing up the Mantis Blade's personality. I figured that an artifact like this might enjoy slaying things, but that it was probably tired of killing off measly boggards, vegepygmies, and the occasional human savage. I thought it might be tired of having been stuck in this backwater and so I played it as really desiring to get out into the larger world where it could be used to slay more significant figures and thus play a role in bringing major change to entire kingdoms. I played up this attitude and megalomaniac desire when it interacted with them and they didn't like it. Now, they really don't know what to do with this evil artifact and want to destroy it (not easy for a group of good characters, based on the rules for how to destroy it, although they don't know this yet). They steadfastly don't want to allow this item to fall into the hands of a group of assassins who will happily use it to go slay people. They are also worried that if the Mantis ever realizes that they have it that they'll be under constant assault by them (true) and they worry that it's telepathic ability will allow it to draw people who want to use it to kill. Essentially, they see this as the equivalent of being Sauron's "One Ring" (an artifact that will give great powers to evil beings and which is actively seeking to fall into the hands of such an evil being) and they see it as their mission to do whatever is necessary to destroy it. I've searched the forums and seen that other parties chose to negotiate to sell the item, but that is not going to work for my players and their good characters.
My dilemma is that this seems to have the potential to derail the entire adventure. As far as they're concerned, dealing with this artifact is the job of great (good) heroes and they can't ignore this burden. As a result, they're less inclined to continue exploring Saventh-Yhi (they have not yet encountered Sozothala, which might give them yet another great evil to deal with). So, what advice do you have for how to deal with this and keep my players interested in Saventh-Yhi and its underground caverns? Any advice on how I might combine the tasks of the remaining adventures in the AP with the goal of trying to destroy this evil artifact? At this point I've told them that they're going to need to do some research about the artifact before they can proceed. This has bought me some time to figure out how I should run things from here, by getting them to continue to explore the city, but with their researches more directed toward learning more about the Blade than about the secrets of the city itself.
I know this is perhaps a long post, but any advice would be great. I know that working the blade into the storyline would have great potential to make this a really memorable AP from here on out, but I figured that the collective efforts of the boards might have more ideas than I can come up with on my own.
I look forward to your ideas!
