Okay, I've got an interesting problem I've just run into. I'm starting up a new character for the Reign of Winter game my friend is running and decided to have the character be a member of the Pathfinder Society. The GM looked at this and decided to incorporate it into an encounter he crafted for RoW (he's modifying RoW to change up the story a bit and make it more interesting to him).
I'm running a CG human (Garundi) Rogue (Scout and Counterfeit Mage archetypes) who is basically an archaeologist. She's run into undead before (and calls them the "Guardian Dead" as the ones she encountered were mummies who didn't attack because she showed respect to the tombs and did not rob them but instead was taking notes and drawing what she'd found - preserving the integrity of the tomb and honoring the dead while preserving knowledge) and isn't freaked out by them.
When she was studying in Absalom to become a Pathfinder, she ran into Verdath Cain, a NE aasimar Necromancer who was lecturing there. She had several spirited discussions with him and after her Confirmation trial she ended up going on a couple expeditions with Cain to study Thassilonian artifacts and the like. That's how she ended up in Irrisen.
She respects Cain as a scholar and while she doesn't like that he animates the dead, he's argued about this at length and as he's significantly smarter than her (she has an Intelligence of 16 while his is 22 (thanks to age bonuses and magic) she accepts his arguments. Further, he's made sure that when he commits specifically evil acts to have a legitimate reason to send her away (he left notes behind, could she go and retrieve them? Good, she's away, now to force the issue and get what he wants) so she never actually witnesses any of his darker actions... while also slowly trying to convince her that the end can justify the means in the right situation.
Cain was recently hired to help secure a ship and its cargo. Cain quickly realized that the ship was in fact a Thassilonian artifact (a flying ship), and called in my PC to help translate the Thassilonian runes on the ship. My character had just arrived shortly before the PCs were recruited by another new PC to help get the ship back after the White Witches (and Cain) confiscated the ship and its cargo (cannon) for use in the Witches' war effort.
Enter the PCs. They try to get to the ship and Cain and my PC notice them. She goes out to confront the PCs with the help of a Skeletal Champion (Harum) under the control of Cain (and who actually seems to like my PC as she's from Osirion as he is, and is always polite and inquisitive rather than using magic to control him like Cain does). After things almost get violent, Cain arrives with more undead and welcomes the group onboard while keeping control of the situation (and having several buff spells up).
He identifies the group as the Butchers of Waldsby. There are wanted posters for the PCs as soldiers working for Radosek and Nazhena murdered those people who were fleeing Waldsby for the Winter Portal to Taldor (and potentially also everyone who remained behind so there'd be no one to say otherwise if anyone goes to Waldsby). He is impressed by the PCs and that the new PC had "recruited" the Butchers of Waldsby to help her. That said, when my PC questioned one of the PCs, she easily made her Sense Motive check to see the PC was telling the truth about not murdering the town, only those people who attacked them. Another PC was so obviously an innocent (catfolk monk who is... childlike in personality) that the wanted poster seemed out of place for her.
One point of contention between my PC and Cain was my PC learning there were prisoners on the ship who had been crew. Needless to say, this was the first time my character learned of the prisoners. My PC brought the other new PC to confirm the prisoners were still alive, and after Harum refused to let them be freed without direct orders (the undead do not like Cain and thus make sure to obey to the direct letter of orders rather than the spirit of the orders) and my PC learned from the prisoners that Cain out-and-out murdered two of the sailors and then animated them as zombies. (She rolled really well with the Sense Motive so she knows the prisoners aren't lying.) And in an act of rebellion, she successfully used sleight of hand to slip the prisoners her lockpicks so they could escape.
My PC wasn't told of the prisoners. She knows the White Witches lie, so the PCs are probably not the horrible murderers the Witches claim they are. And she learned her mentor has been killing people and turning them into zombies.
So I'm trying to figure out... how does she legitimately turn against a mentor she's known for a couple years and worked closely with? What argument can she use to try and learn the truth? I've enjoyed this linking of her story with an antagonist for the group. But what I'm trying to figure out is how to have her character break away from a trusted mentor who is in fact not a good person.
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I mean, it sounds like you've done most of the work already. He's been proven to be a liar and a murderer, I would hope to your PC's satisfaction. So he's betrayed your PC, both by the lying and murder, but perhaps more importantly emotionally, also by not living up to your faith in him.
Feeling betrayed, outraged, and disappointed is a very common result of that kind of situation. It's the reason the Broken Pedestal (warning: TVTropes link) trope exists, and is common in both fiction and real life.
I've done a bit of work. But I'm not quite sure on how to go that next step from "I disapprove of the actions my mentor is doing" to "eat hot lead, I'm going to send you to Pharasma for judgment" ;) After all, she's known and worked with Cain for a couple of years. She just met the adventurers. I'm not quite sure it works yet to "try to kill him" (though I did consider holding him at gunpoint and insist on answers... but given the PCs are all there and the undead are all around.. that risks escalating matters to make combat inevitable).
She's trusted him and considers him a mentor. He has treated her well, and hidden his more avaricious tendencies from him. Taking that next step... well, that's where I'm running into the roadblock. ^^;; Though I suppose the hero pausing and allowing the villain to get that first strike in would be a traditional trope....