So, I'm not sure how many people will see this, but I'm running Mummy's Mask and currently am in a weird spot at the start of book 3. We just had to say goodbye to another party member who had to drop, but we still have three party members:
A catfolk aasimar paladin of Bastet (fudging the LG thing, I think it makes sense to do so for that deity and in the context of Osirian religion)
A kitsune oracle (Neutral, spellscarred and god-meddled, believes himself essentially cursed by the gods and privately hates them. Very vain and concerned with wealth and beauty)
A kasatha ninja (LE assassin type of character, also wealth-motivated, has enough ties to the group that I think he'll stick with them through things, but has a very rough view of the world, believes it best to kill people before they come back to hurt you and had a lot of arguments with the cleric of sarenrae who left the group recently)
I don't really have any worries about the players, they're great (and shouldn't read this if they find it). What currently concerns me, is that after getting the mask, not fully understanding what it is yet and only that it's extremely powerful and potentially dangerous, their IC reaction is ultimately to try to sell it to the church. Which, as per the book, leads to the temple of Pharasma turning them down for political reasons. Now after hearing about Tephu, though, they plan to go there. Albeit, not to research the mask so much as to.. sell it. To the temple of Nethys. This is, uh. Problematic.
And in general, it's making me realize that I'm going to have bigger problems as this campaign starts to become more and more about stopping the cult. As it stands, the party doesn't know the whole situation about the mask. When they do, I'm sure the paladin will be on board with stopping an evil cult, but depending on how it's framed, I'm not sure the other PCs will end up caring about that plot, maybe just going on with it for the sake of money (which, to be fair, is something they care a lot about, but I can see that wearing thin, again depending how I describe Hakotep's vast wealth). And even getting there is a bit of an issue, as right now my biggest problem is motivating them to actively try to do research in Tephu in the first place, as opposed to just selling the mask and leaving for greener pastures.
That said, I suppose there <i>is</i> also always the option of allowing them to sell the mask and go off only to face the consequences of their actions. Much as that would essentially result in having to prepare a whole adventure beside the main plot and having to put aside the actual written components of the adventure, I think it's what would theoretically happen RAW and they've at least been assured by the Temple of Pharasma that the mask shouldn't get into the wrong hands. I don't see why the temple of Nethys would refuse to buy it, since they don't want knowledge of it to get out, and don't necessarily know about the cult that wants it, and then it can potentially have attempts at theft from the cult? And eventually, if actually stolen, the cult's plans could eventually come to fruition. But I'm not sure that's necessarily worth the extra work, since the timeframe of that would definitely necessitate some other adventures occurring in the meantime.
Thoughts? I'm also planning to delve more into the PCs personal backgrounds and plots which should have a significant effect on motivation, but those are more individualized and won't necessarily have much tie to the larger plot (except the paladin but he's set).