So what is Rolth's motivation? What are his goals? I have some ideas of what to do with Rolth, some pretty good ones, I think. I just want to find out what others have done with him and what they think he's really trying to achieve.
He managed to escape my party. I've had him keep his head down except for one botched assassination attempt on a pair of PCs.
I am basically having his conclude some experiments begun in Seven Days, and once Ileosa has been defeated, he begins testing his creation on unwilling subjects.
So what is Rolth's motivation? What are his goals? I have some ideas of what to do with Rolth, some pretty good ones, I think. I just want to find out what others have done with him and what they think he's really trying to achieve.
He managed to escape my party. I've had him keep his head down except for one botched assassination attempt on a pair of PCs.
I am basically having his conclude some experiments begun in Seven Days, and once Ileosa has been defeated, he begins testing his creation on unwilling subjects.
In case my player's don't manage to kill him early on I had some thoughts about his motivations and long term plans.
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Given Korvosa's London-as-a-colonial-city vibe, and the Oliver Twist-esque opening chapter, CotCT continues the pround dickensian tradition of seriously nasty villains with very little motivation to be villainous.
Why was Sikes so evil? Why was David Copperfield's stepfather so abusive? Did he just go around finding widowed mothers and marrying them to abuse their children, ship the kid off to work for 3 pennies a day, drive the woman to some unspecified, vague death, then snag the inheritance and do it over again?
There is a tradition of tragic, sympathetic villains. Villains who are real human beings, who have been so screwed over by life that their current villainous state is quite understandable. A good portrayal by a skilled writer or talented actor often helps. (Redcloak, Nualia, Davey Jones)
Then, there are villains so pointlessly nasty, with next to no background. Often, they have particular quirks that make them entertaining, or even crazy-awesome. They do horrible things for s!$~s and giggles. Some might call them shallow, but they serve an important function. they are someone the hero can punch, in the face, over and over, until their arm gets tired, without feeling bad. (Xykon, Barbosa, Rolth)
Sorry couldnt come up with more examples, I'm short on time.
What I've basically decided to with Rolth is, while the party is in the Cinderlands playing with the Shoanti, Rolth is finally finishing his flesh golem. And while he lost most of his notes on the plague when the party chased him off, he still has something to work with.
So, a few months after Ileosa is defeated, assuming that actually happens, Rolth finally finishes a necromantic disease. Now, I was inspired by movies like Night of the Living Dead and the like, but I also discovered that the last version of Castle Ravenloft had an actual necromantic disease in it.
So, he creates a more powerful, faster zombie (able to make one move action and one standard action, instead of either/or) that is infected with this disease. One becomes infected from attacks by these zombies. The effect in Castle Ravenloft is, Fort save DC 13, effect is instant, target becomes sickened. The disease can't be cured naturally, it can only be cured magically. If the target dies while infected, they rise in 1d4 rounds as a new zombie.
So, he infects a small tribe of goblins, then sicks them on a hamlet as a test run. Once he's satisfied that the disease works, he becomes paranoid that the party will interfere (they've done it twice, after all) and decides to move against them. He also decides that taking out the clergy of Pharasma would be a good ideas as well. So, with the derro helping, he uses the tunnels under the city to invade Korvosa and orchestrates an attack on the Church of Pharasma as well as the PCs.
So, in addition to the zombies, he has his derro allies. I was also considering giving him a group of ogrekin allies. Maybe goblins, though I don't know if goblins have the right feel to them.
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Wow, I'm really liking this idea of making Rolth this continually persistent villain! I'm getting the image of a bunch of zombies running through Korvosa, much like 28 Days Later or Left 4 Dead. I wonder if it's possible to make the plague in Seven Days to the Grave some sort of virus that turns you into one of these undead creatures, instead of "just" blood veil. That way, not only do the PCs have to stop the spread of the plague, but also stop waves of fast-moving (and infectious) zombies! Might get a little too out of control, though...
I'm planning on having Rolth offer the PCs his services (probably in exchange for his life) by which means I will introduce the PCs to undead grafts from "The Magic of Eberron." I plan on having the Shoanti offer the PCs elemental grafts during later adventures.