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So the PCs haven't killed anyone since the game started. They've been capturing bad guys and sending them to prison.
They're going to finish the second book tonight and Rolth escaped. He'll come back in book three as the advisor for Piltis.
What I want to happen is when they meet Behor he'll send them on a mission to take down the emperor of Old Korvosa put Devargo in his place. The PCs and Devargo hate each other so I think it'll be fun to have them work together. And it'll be neat to see Devargo and the party cooperate to take down Rolth and the double crosses that will happen. But should I throw Lamm into the mix as well or will his involvement be to much?
I do think, that adding Lamm in to the mix, is to much. Lamm maybe is cool starting villain, but he's just a common criminal. Adding him at this level and time, in my opinion, will just make him a comic cliche-villain from cartoons. Rolth and Devargo work better.
I agree with Ashkar, adding Rolth to the emperor's entourage should definitely be a bonus, but don't overdo it and keep Lamm out of it.
I don't know what you've done with Lamm in your campaign, but if he was sent to prison, he should still be there. You might want to consider giving the PCs some closure on the Lamm chapter as well, but in a different way. It could be as simple as having the PCs witness some prison guards carrying out Lamm' dead body, the most recent plague victim in the Longacre building.
Having bad guys who were sent to prison by the PCs resurface, is something you should be careful with. Having prisoners escape undermines the PCs' admirable attitude of taking enemies alive and sending them off to prison.
A nice alternative approach to such a situation could be to have the PCs break out someone from prison themselves. Perhaps they need Lamm's help in taking down the emperor or Devargo will only cooperate with them if they get his good uncle Lamm out of jail. Now the PCs have to stage a prison break or use their diplomatic network to get the man free. Another fun approach could be to stage a trial of someone the PCs sent to prison and have the bad guy's lawyer bend the law or use typical lawyer tricks to get his client out, recreating an opening for a recurring villain.
My PCs are doing the same. You never realize how hard it is to actually kill someone until PCs start running around stabilizing defeated bosses.
Ironically, one of the few bosses they actually killed was Verik Vancaskerkin - the one guy who had a price on his head for being captured alive. He got one-shot by an utterly nasty longbow crit. Ironic indeed for an archer.
It's becoming part of the Party identity. The Wizard took the Merciful Spell feat, the monk is awesome at dealing non-lethal damage to just about anyone. The rest of the party often just takes the penalty for making nonlethal attacks. I made this the reason why Eries Yelloweyes approached them - she'd heard of their reputation for solving problems without people getting killed. Two wererats got themselves killed in that encounter, although the party captured Girrigz. (Who was later executed by Commandant Endrin, which allowed me to demonstrate how deadly he is with a crossbow. Bwa ha hah aha ha ha hahahaha heh heheh).
Next session the party goes diving and is going to run into Yvicca. Somehow I can't picture her being captured, but the PCs are quite resourceful and have surprised me in the past.
Anyway, I haven't been bringing any of these guys back as recurring villains. Balko and Giggles are still in jail, as is Devargo. Vendra Loaggri escaped, and I haven't figured out if she still has a role to play. Right now my default is that she left Korvosa with all of her loot (which was her plan anyway).
But I don't want to discourage the party from actually acting like good guys. If the jails just become a revolving door of escaped criminals, the party is going to stop bringing people to jail.
It seems that players, in this AP, tend to take people alive. Mine are doing it too, although it's more like 50-50. Only big fish like Lamm, Verik or Devargo is given such priority. Henchmen usually are slain. Currently Devargo is dead - party put him in a crate with a fellow criminal, to transport to citadel on barge by river. When Cressida saw him there, she silently ordered crate to be shut and thrown in to the water (yeah, its not the lawful way, but she's fed up with guys like Devargo, evading the justice by loophole with vice taxes). Lamm, Verik and some of his men are awaiting trial (Verik with others will be hanged, Lamm will be jailed for 20 years, which is essentially a death sentence for him, in his age). So, no recurring role for these guys in my games, but they played their parts.
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Verik had a happier ending in out game. I ran RotR a few months back and Orik ended up sticking around after the party spared his life. He became a guard in Sandpoint. After the caught Verik and found out he knew nothing of the killings he was released into Oriks custody who came all the way from Sandpoint to get his brother.
Lamm was taken into custody and I want some closure.
Devargo and the party have beef. They negotiated but then pissed him off when they asked for mpre info and a fight broke out. They nearly killed him however traded him to his guards for their lives after they were surrounded. Devargo was embarrased and now wants revenge. But knows he's no match for the party. Hense forcing an alliance between he and the party and see who takes advantage of the situation.
They've only killed two humanioids since the start of the game. And those were on accident. The first was one of Devargo's thugs. He was pushed into the spider pit where he was double critted on by a spider. The second was Yvicca who was under Hold Person. The oracle in the party used murderess command on her shark who coup de gras her. He didnt realize that was going to happen.