One of my players (the enchanter) wrote into his background that he knew (and disliked) Rolth from his time at the Acadamae. However, said player defeated both Rolth and his minion Jolistina with a single spell: Hideous Laughter. Being the merciful types they are, my players beat both into unconsciousness then took them to the Guard.
Since Rolth had an unused Dimension Door memorized, it should be an easy matter for him to escape during the events of Escape from Old Korvosa, and grab Jolistina if the urge strikes him.
Now he wants revenge.
I want to introduce grafts from Magic of Eberron and my players missed the first clue that Rolth was experimenting with them, so here's my story: Rolth managed to recover a piece of Lady Andaisin's Daughter of Urgathoa corpse and graft it onto his body. It provides him with many undead immunities, but most importantly immunity to mind-affecting effects - so that he won't fall prey to the same trick again. He also performed this same trick on Jolistina (as his guinea pig), but it didn't turn out so well with her (turned her into barely-intelligent undead).
The party is likely to spend several days in Kaer Maga, and I plan on having Rolth and Jolistina catch up to them there.
Any thoughts? I don't think it would be good if I post their new stat blocks here, since they're based on the ones published in the AP.
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I have only a few thoughts for you. My 1st group had an antagonized Rolth hunt them down, as he had escaped their grasp a couple of times and was tired of them meddling. First, while Rolth is not a nice guy and does wish to do them harm, his own safety is still his paramount concern. Therefore I see him using minions. Since his favorite minions tend to be undead and constructs, that is where I would focus his attentions. He will need some sort of force. Now Korvosa is full of bodies, so animating skeletons and zombies is easy enough, but then at this point your party could face hundreds of them and hardly work up a sweat. I think perhaps it is time to look into some more advanced golems than those carion golems. Also some higher forms of undead.
Now, I have a thought. See down the road is going to be an adventure that just screams Necromancer come here. Skeletons of Scarwall. Can you have him toss minor encounters at the party, never stick his head otu to much but remind them he is there for a while? He could be an awesome force in Scarwall and if Mithrodar discovers Rolth and/or Jolistina in the form you have described them, I am sure he could always use an extra Spirit Anchor in the event the party were to destroy/free one.
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Skeletons of Scarwall
I don't know if I'd wait so long to reintroduce them. The party may be pretty well sick of undead at this point, so their novelty may well get lost during that particular part of the adventure.
Maybe try to use them before your group heads up the plataeu. Kaer Maga might not be a bad place, but the living population doesn't seem like Rolth's style to me. Perhaps he ambushes them in the country-side or plants rumors to have the PCs come to him.
Having Rolth send minions after them does seem more like his style, although I'm not sure the party needs even more people gunning for them in Scarwall. Another idea I had was for him to kidnap Trinia and have Jolistina hold her in an effort to keep from being smote by the paladin. "Enchanter, this is a duel between the two of us. If your friends step in, this one dies!" (Of course, I imagine they will still find a way to help, but it'll keep them busy for a few rounds.)
One of my goals is to keep the *players* in Kaer Maga for a real life week - I have another player who is joining my game the session after and it would be far better to introduce him in Kaer Maga than the middle of the Cinderlands. My current plan is for Vencarlo to "send word to an acquaintance" to meet the PCs there.
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Having Rolth send minions after them does seem more like his style, although I'm not sure the party needs even more people gunning for them in Scarwall. Another idea I had was for him to kidnap Trinia and have Jolistina hold her in an effort to keep from being smote by the paladin. "Enchanter, this is a duel between the two of us. If your friends step in, this one dies!" (Of course, I imagine they will still find a way to help, but it'll keep them busy for a few rounds.)
One of my goals is to keep the *players* in Kaer Maga for a real life week - I have another player who is joining my game the session after and it would be far better to introduce him in Kaer Maga than the middle of the Cinderlands. My current plan is for Vencarlo to "send word to an acquaintance" to meet the PCs there.
A sudden heavy rainstorm has always been a good way of keeping the PCs pinned down. One on the Storval would probably be incredibly violent and keep the PCs pinned down for a time, especially if the ground is too saturated to walk on. Might take, say, a week or so for the ground to dry up enough... hehehe.
Yeah, I'm not too concerned with keeping the PCs in town long enough for Rolth to catch up - it'll take them the better part of the week just to get their shopping done - but I need to entertain the players for the better part of a session without significantly advancing the story.
I needed to kill some time during this week's session, so I ran the encounter. While the party was doing their shopping in Kaer Maga, Rolth caught up to them and captured Trinia.
After calling out the enchanter, we waited to have dominate/suggestion/whatever cast on him, then Feebleminded the enchanter. The two mages then proceeded to have a thrilling slap-fight (amazing initiate/break grapple checks on both their parts) while the rogue snuck around and tried to free Trinia. She nearly died, but once she was out of danger the rest of the party got involved and Rolth had to run away, abandoning Jolistina.
Not content, the party pulled the lame scry-and-teleport trick, murdering Rolth in his home. Rolth *should* have had some scrying defenses up, but I don't have the spells well-enough memorized to know the options available, and I'm terrible at thinking on my feet.
However, I noticed there's a Clone spell available... it's a bit too high for Rolth to memorize, but he's well-enough off (even after being looted multiple times) that he should be able to afford it. The body is still growing, but depending how long the party spends on the next two adventures, he might be back for more.
The party's paladin (aka "soon to be fighter-without-bonus-feats unless he atones") willingly participated in this murder, so we'll have to have some fallout from that. He also had no qualms about hiring an evil cleric to fix the mage, so we've got a strike against both Law and Good.
Building off my previous post, where the paladin has been a naughty boy:
The party's paladin worships Cayden Cailean (a divisive issue on these boards, so let's not debate that choice), whose general attitude towards his paladin is "Whatever works for you, but I'm going to hold you to the paladin code." There have a been a few moments where I've had to point out "Cayden approves of that behavior, but it's not something a paladin should do."
After reading through the article on Cayden Cailean in the Second Darkness adventure path, I decided that while Cayden Cailean has okayed the paladin, some of his servants don't agree that the arrangement is appropriate. His herald, Thais, decides to arrange a situation that will pull the paladin toward Chaotic Good.
Approaching the paladin (preferable while he's alone) in the guise of a damsel in distress, she will set up a situation where he has to choose between being Lawful or being Good. If he chooses Lawful (not her goal), Cayden is pissed at him - at minimum he'll have to seek out an Atonement spell. If he chooses Good, Cayden will be pissed at Thais, but accept the paladin's new alignment. I'm also working off the assumption that no matter how hard I try to prevent it, my players will find a way to keep the paladin Lawful Good while executing their plan.
My goal here is not to screw the paladin, but to make him think more about his choice to pick a god with whom he has some major philosophical differences. That being said, there's a very real chance the character's action will put him irrevocably on the path of NG or CG (or maybe even LN). I don't want to leave him as a fighter-without-bonus-feats in this case. My thought was that since gods are directly involved in this scenario, Cayden Cailean could replace his Paladin class levels with Cleric levels (which would also prevent him from wandering back to LG).
What do people think?
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I am always reluctant to pull the paladin rug out from under their feet with out a chance that the player can pull off the atonement/change back to LG. That being said, you seem to have a good handle on how you want to run this and it sounds like the player has a chance to keep his paladin hood and/or earn it back if it is lost.
There is a holy warrior class (and I am blanking on which book it is in) that is in the back of one of the paizo books. It is essentially a Fighter BAB with a single domain instead of 2. I had several players mention that they would prefer to play that to a paladin (3E). Of course with the new book and the sweet new paladin everyone is getting in line for the paladin. I would look into that if the paladin can't regain Paladin hood.
There is a holy warrior class (and I am blanking on which book it is in) that is in the back of one of the paizo books. It is essentially a Fighter BAB with a single domain instead of 2. I had several players mention that they would prefer to play that to a paladin (3E).
Campaign Setting I believe. I'm hoping they reprint/update that class in one of their future splat books.
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I agree with Brutesquad07 said, but I would definitely be careful that you aren't entraping the player into making a lose/lose choice. Even LG will realize that sometimes the rules/laws must be broken for the greater good, but that should be AFTER he tries the legal solution... then a blind-eye might be required.
What alignment is Thais? CN? He sounds like a bit of a jerk, LOL! No offense meant of course, love the whole "greek god interfere with mortals" thing you have going on.
The party's paladin (aka "soon to be fighter-without-bonus-feats unless he atones") willingly participated in this murder, so we'll have to have some fallout from that. He also had no qualms about hiring an evil cleric to fix the mage, so we've got a strike against both Law and Good.First off Paladin does not mean lawful stupid. Rolth is a necromancer who has murdered for his trade and willingly worked to spread a plague that is going to kill thousands. He has also demonstrated at least once his ability to escape when his defeat seems emminent. To call his death a "murder" because the party refused to take him prisoner when they got the drop on him is completely disingenuous and sounds more like sour grapes from you for them killing Rolth. The fact that you are deciding to retcon his...
It doesn't seem like the guy's out to get his paladin, it's more like trying to get the player to think more about the sacrifices necessary to be a paladin. Lawful Good inclines mostly toward what would be best in contribution toward a benevolent society. Even America's laws have use-of-force guidelines that allow for a change of heart through imprisonment and atonement. Lawful Good won't sneak up on someone and kill them right out. It's hard to be Lawful Good, and it should be, especially given the new strengths of the PF Paladin.