Red Mantis (Book 3 spoilers)

[Sloanzilla]

I'm not too familiar with this world, so would the Red Mantis Assassins be more apt to lawfully make a bargain to get the blade or set up a trap to try to get it w/o paying.

I had Chivane and a few other priests go rogue and more or less kill off most of their faction. They sort of went underground and spied on the PCs and other groups.

When the PCs were battling the trogs, Chivane and a few priests struck. They went in and got the blade in the middle of the battle. I expected her to get away and use her in book 4.

The PCs got really lucky and played really smart. Using a combination of glitterdust, detect evil, dimension door and unlucky DM rolling, they managed to stop Chivane's escape plan and now have the blade.

Using messengers, they've offered the main Red Mantis folks (on the island) to sell them the blade for 30K and a signed pacts to never attack the PCs, their faction or the Muse's tribe.

I'm considering the following options.
1. Roleplay a meeting with the Red Mantis mayor. He offers 30K but refuses the lifelong contract. Maybe agrees to a one year moratorium.

2. Some sort of trap where they agree to the 30K but try to kill the PC's. Keep in mind they did take the blade off of the body of a dead Red Mantis agent.

3. Use the Aspis plotline from Book 4 but have it be Mantis.

4. Some sort of bargain loophole, like the money they receive comes with its own curse.

Anyhow, I usually like the idea of lawful evil people keeping their bargains, because it always seems smoother. Any suggesitons or background on how the Red Mantis would act in this situation would be appreciated. Right now, the party has proposed some sort of neutral mediation in Absalom (they have teleport).

[martryn]

My first impulse is a Red Mantis hit squad in an attempt to kill the PCs and take the blade by force. Failing that, the Red Mantis would agree to pay for the blade, as it is pretty important to them, I'd think. I get the general impression that the Red Mantis wouldn't renege on a fair deal, though they're certainly not making friends, and your 3rd option could still be used despite the "deal" due to the mind control.

[tbug]

These NPCs don't have the authority to promise that no Red Mantis will ever attack the PCs. If they get the sword they'll be in such a great position back in Ilizmagorti that they can have a much larger power base than Mwangi.

If I were Chivane and thinking selfishly (rather than about what makes a fun adventure) I'd offer the PCs my personal promise not to attach them for a hundred years, give them all of the cash I had on hand, and swear by my god to give them the rest of the money in one year's time. I'd be completely sincere.

It's an artifact and will give her power in the Red Mantis authority structure. Who cares about petty revenge against some weird explorers in a ruin?

[Sloanzilla]

Chivane is dead, as are most of the more powerful agents in the city.

Party paid a third party wizard to make contact with the power base in Ilizmagorti to offer to sell the item. Actually, that's not true. Most of the party members wanted to get rid of it and not involve the Red Mantis, but the party's fighter tried to broker a deal.

I'm kinda split. I don't want to do something too similar to the Aspis attack.

[DM_aka_Dudemeister]

Is Sasha still around (from book 1)?

Maybe they could give her the sword, and she could take authority of the Mantis.

[Sloanzilla]

Sasha became a PC, who later stopped playing.

They've already paid a wizard several grand to teleport to Absalom to try to find some neutral deal broker, and if that does not work to teleport to Mantis island to try to broker a deal himself.

Right now my plan is an ambush knockout after they leave the first vault. The ideal is that they will wake up with the blade gone and a bag containing 1/2 of what they asked for, the head of the wizard and a note saying it was a counter offer. Oh, and the character who had the blade will be missing a finger.

The annoying thing is the party's absurdly high fort. save. They've got the anti poison spear active, so if I hit all 5 of them with some sort of knockout poison the most likely option is that 4 of them will make their saves. Guess I need to do a camping ambush.

[Jenner2057]

The way I always saw it, the PCs only chance to keep their hands on the Mantis Blade was to keep it quiet. Chivane wants to keep below the radar of her superiors so SHE can get the glory of finding it. If her superiors found out she was after a Mantis ARTIFACT, you can bet they'd send some SERIOUS heavy-hitters after it.

And I would think that would go for any PC that tipped the senior Mantis leadership off that they had it. They would send a retrieval team after it quicker than you can say "Badly CR'd Encounter."

If you want the blade gone; it'll be gone.

[Sloanzilla]

I gave them a chance to sell it for 10K with no strings attached, but one player kept holding out because the blade kept telling him it was worth much more than that. hah.

I've got a pretty good plan, but I want to make sure it feels like a real encounter and not a hand wave. I do want to reward them for the smart playing in getting the weapon, but remind them that there are always bigger fish.

The blade is currently in the backpack of the party's dwarven fighter.

[Sloanzilla]

It went fairly well. I beat the party up pretty badly with the slug, golem and firestorm, so they staggered out of the first vault with all their healing gone at maybe 65% hp.

The moment they all walked out of the first vault, they noticed a bag sitting in the woods a few feet away. Surprise round was a sneak attack arrow on the druid (low damage 24)- and a create pit on the fighter (12 damage).

Round 1 was a mess. I had a Wizard, an Assassin and a group of L6 monks I decided were some sort of Red Mantis elite guard. Wizard (standing above vault) casts improved invis. on assassin, who (also above vault) rolls a bloody 1 and 2 on his arrows fired at the paladin.

Then the Bard bluffs a mother trucking 38 roll that they no longer have the blade. I gave him partial credit and had some of the people pull their attacks to negotiate.

Anyhow, all the players followed the bard's cue and began attempting to negotiate, some well, some poorly, and eventually they traded the blade in exchange for a bag of gold w/ about 1/2 what they'd asked for and the head of the wizard they'd hired to negotiate.