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Oh ho ho ho ho
I set him up as a recurring villain. Played him a bit like a less clownish/more sane version of Mark Hamill's Joker, very darkly comical. Really tried to set him up as someone the players would love to hate. Ran Jolistina as a bit of a cross between Harley Quinn and Cheryl Tunt from Archer. She actually wound up being a PC's blind date before the plague outbreak(long story). That seemed to click with the players.
After Rolth's survival, he broke Jolistina out of jail and eventually became a wild card throughout the campaign, basically being a thorn in the PCs' side and an annoyance to the Queen's forces(he was a loose cannon and a loose thread in the Queen's eyes, useless as a tool and a destabilizing element to be put down).
Reached it's climax during Crown of Fangs, where just before the assault on Castle Korvosa, Rolth, Jolistina, and their derro gang launched an attack on the PCs once they realized they were back in town, during an already running battle between the PCs(and their followers) and the Queen's forces(consisting of Gray Maidens, loyalist guards, an Eidolon-style summoning of one of the PC's old dead enemies plucked out of Hell, and Ileosa's horned devil servant) in Marbledome Theater. Rolth busted through the skylight halfway through the battle in a huge "golem-suit" made of stone giant bones.(imagine a skeletal version of the power loader from Aliens or the mechsuits from Avatar and you have the idea).
After that it all ended with a wagon chase through Korvosa. Rolth found out after their wagon was set ablaze that it was one Jolistina had stolen from an alchemist's shop, with all the merchandise still in the back after the tarp flew off. Wagon exploded, killing them both.(Rolth was choking Jolistina at the time, so she died happy at least).
Then the use of the Harrow Deck of Many Things brought them back. Due to circumstances during and after the explosion, Rolth is now both a malicious undead crawling hand and a very angry but entirely impotent ghost bound to a bit of femur currently in possession of Jolistina, who is now some sort of bizarre "pesh vampire" who moves around like a broken jester marionette on acount of her body stitching itself back together and healing incorrectly. Rolth hates his situation, Jolistina loves it. They're now knocked back down to being a threat for low level parties if we ever have a Korvosa-oriented game again. :)
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In my campaign I intend to use Rolth as a "Necro-terrorist", with him runing a guerilla war against the ruling forces in korvosa by employing methods similar to modern days terrorist group - unleashing all sorts of inventive undead horrors to kill and terrify civilians.
Because of his increased importance, Rolth will not be encountered in the temple of pharasma. Instead, by the end of "Seven days to the grave", Ileosa's government will come up will all sorts of fabricated evidance blaming the entire plague conspiracy on Rolth, presenting HIM as the architect of this biological warfare. Rolth, on his part, will be content to take the credit for a plague he did actualy helo design.
In the weeks following "Seven days" and during "Escape from Old Korvosa", Rolth's attacks will become an increasingly real menace on the city. Ileosa is actualy delighted at that - at allowes her to use the struggle against him as an excuse to enforce he new martial law. I hope to use this development to present the Gray Maidens as even more of a moraly grey (pun intended) issue - they are victims themselves, but also over violent and most of the time quite insane, but (and this is my new touch to the situation) the force they use is directed at fighting a real, evil force (Rolth).
In my campaign, Juju zombies are a new sort of undead created by Rolth during the plague (and Jolistina's invasion of the manor was actualy a test run, where a handful of Juju zombies were created along with the usual zombies to see how they work out), and after the plauge Rolth is reanimating it's victims as Juju plague zombies that carry on and perpetuate the blood veil.
When the PCs return to Korvosa in "Crown of Fangs", they find that Rolth has only grown stronger over the time of their absence, and he became an actual, tengible threat to the throne. Ileosa still makes use of him by presenting him as public enemy number one. If Korvosa is now a totalitatrian regieme, then Rolth is the communist/capitalist/jew/american... you get the idea. Ileosa is controling the population by presenting herself as the only defence against the unspeakable evil of Rolth.
Meanwhile, Rolth is entering the final stages of his personal path to becoming a lich. I am shifting the final confrontaion with Ileosa to be somewhere in Korvosa (probably in the depth of the pyramid, though I might go for something more public - I'll see about that), and the Sunken Queen is the location where Rolth is planning to finish his attempt at becoming a lich by doing what Ileosa planned in the original module - that is, siphoning the blood of thousands of Korvosans. Hopefuly the PCs can stop that. After killing Rolth, the other major threats remaining are Ileosa and the Arkonas (in my campaign the head of the Arkona family is an Mahraja Rakshasa, making him into yet another epic fight. As a side note, my "Crown of Fangs" module will be much longer the original one :P).
Another fun quirk with Rolth I'm planning is him continualy bringing back NPCs the PCs got rid of - Vreeg, Jolistina, Geadren etc, each as a unique undead creature (for example, Geadren is a Revenant). A great way to get the PCs to hate Rolth, IMO.
Oh ho ho ho ho
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Played him a bit like a less clownish/more sane version of Mark Hamill's Joker, very darkly comical. Really tried to set him up as someone the players would love to hate. Ran Jolistina as a bit of a cross between Harley Quinn and Cheryl Tunt from Archer.
...
Rolth busted through the skylight halfway through the battle in a huge "golem-suit" made of stone giant bones.
...
After that it all ended with a wagon chase through Korvosa. Rolth found out after their wagon was set ablaze that it was one Jolistina had stolen from an alchemist's shop, with all the merchandise still in the back after the tarp flew off.
STOLEN. STOLEN. STOLEN.
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STOLEN. STOLEN. STOLEN.Oh ho ho ho ho
...
Played him a bit like a less clownish/more sane version of Mark Hamill's Joker, very darkly comical. Really tried to set him up as someone the players would love to hate. Ran Jolistina as a bit of a cross between Harley Quinn and Cheryl Tunt from Archer.
...
Rolth busted through the skylight halfway through the battle in a huge "golem-suit" made of stone giant bones.
...
After that it all ended with a wagon chase through Korvosa. Rolth found out after their wagon was set ablaze that it was one Jolistina had stolen from an alchemist's shop, with all the merchandise still in the back after the tarp flew off.
Good god, AGREED!