Town under active attack - moral/emotional random events

[HoboKnight]

Hey guys,
I have a chapter ready in my campaign, where party will be teleported into a town under attack by besieging forces. There is no place for extended plots (ghouls spawning due to corpses lying around, a convoluted intrigue involving mayor and others...). Sh** has hit the fan two hours ago, parts of town are on fire, women and children are being coralled into safer parts of the town, wounded are gathered in a local temple, while town militia is holding off the attackers who have breeched the walls in a few places and are being pushed back by militia. Very active, very short term.

Party will get their fair share of fighting, but among all the battle and chaos, and while traversing from one to another part of town, I want to present them with a few moral conundrums (quality ones, not just haha-the-orphan-actually-dies-bc-forced-drama) and those, where they may significantly affect the outcome of the siege by inspiration. I have a few things set up, but am not very satisfied with them, since they seem to lack the duality, that is, for an example, found in Witcher 3.

- a group of townsfolk wants to lynch a few possible thieves. There is no time for court procedures, and townsfolk are bent of dishing out quick justice

- Old merchant is supposedly collaborating with attackers - townsfolk want to set his house, him and his family on fire

- militia members, maddened by fear are deserting en-masse and fleeing next to PCs

- there is a heated exchange between mayor and militia commander: one thinks entombing women and children into an old tomb under town is a good solution and will keep them safe, other one adamantly disagrees simce this may lure whatever may lurk deeper within the dungeon

- another heated exchange between two commanders: one would send more men to put out the fires, the other to the walls to prevent further invasion

- there is a limited amount of potions of healing and a few clerics in town - should these assets be diverted toward the wounded or for healing up the defenders

- Town baker wants to flee with his family with a goal of bribing the attackers - if he is allowed to flee, he and his family will be slaughtered

This is what I have so far. They are more general mini quests, IMHO still lacking the moral consequences and emotional charge of a mishandled(not failed!) mini quest.

Can I reshape them to make them a bit more impactful?

Thanks!

[JonBeowulf]

You can never go wrong with the crying child in the middle of the road with something barreling toward it. Add fire and make running through the crowd difficult terrain for even more fun.

If there are NPCs that the party has befriended (local barkeep, the smith, etc.) have something horrible happen at their home/business... while something truly awful is happening nearby.

[emyrion]

I assume the PCs are under some sort of time/resource constraint, otherwise most moral quandaries become "we'll just fix everything".

- A variation on the thieves idea is coming across looters robbing damaged/burning buildings and deciding whether it is worth the time and resources to stop them.

- Group of non-combatant NPCs ask the party to escort them to a safe part of town, somewhere out of the way, or requiring backtracking. Maybe somewhere the PCs know is dangerous, but the NPCs insist is safer.

- Guard commander is cut off from a unit and wants the PCs to reach them and deliver new orders. When they arrive the unit is already engaged in a vital task. PCs help decide whether they stay there or follow the new orders.

- The circus is in town, exotic animals and rare monsters are escaping from their cages! Circus Master wants you to help, but don't kill them, that's my livelihood! (Can justify a completely left-field monster encounter).

- Hospital is being threatened by attackers. Doctor says stay here and fight them off, too dangerous to move the patients. Guard says move to a safer location, too dangerous to stay here and fight.

[Sigreid]

A group of defenders needs to be asked to hold off an overwhelming force long enough for a counter force to be gathered; despite the fact everyone knows this is asking them to die.

[XmonkTad]

- Guard commander is cut off from a unit and wants the PCs to reach them and deliver new orders. When they arrive the unit is already engaged in a vital task. PCs help decide whether they stay there or follow the new orders.

I really like thus suggestion. As long as it doesn't seem like a "damned if you do/damned if you don't" scenario where the PCs don't have any agency, this would help them shape the battlefield the way they want. Would you have the "vital task" be something that's acutely important to the towns defense, or something more humanitarian?

[emyrion]

It depends on the group. My party always like to to be the "solve everything" type heroes, so I would have them engaged in a humanitarian task, with the orders being a combat task. The party could choose which challenge they want to take on, with the humanitarian task working as a skill challenge/puzzle.