A moral dilemma amidst ice and snow--what would you have done?

Last night an interesting moral situation cropped up in my campaign, and my players' response to it surprised me. I've decided to recreate the scenario here, and ask what decision other members of the community would have made, given the following information.

The campaign world is my own homebrew, which borrows heavily from Eberron Campaign Setting and A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe. The group of six is generally good-aligned, with a couple of neutrals. With the exception of the paladin and favored soul character classes, I follow the more-relaxed Eberron approach with regard to alignments. Currently the group consists of

Deacon Jebeddo Nacklethorpe, a 6th-level NG male gnome cloistered cleric of Garl and leader of the party during the current adventure. He is a dutiful clergyman.

Xaephod Snarwookins the Fantabulous, a 6th-level CN male gnome illusionist, a greedy, self-centered narcissist with two goals in life: to become fabulously wealthy and powerful.

Mrs. Snarwookins, a 6th-level N female gnome evoker, Xaephod's impish wife and confidant.

Louis, a 6th-level CG aelfborn bard. With satyr blood in his mostly-human veins, Louis revels in his hedonistic pursuits, and it is the promise of fame and adventure that keeps him on the road.

Tharon, a 6th-level NG human psychic warrior from a distant land. Tharon's determination to do the right thing tends to keep Louis more honest than he'd prefer.

Rurik the Trollborn, a 5th-level CG half-ogre fighter who can't seem to get rid of Frostmourne, a CE sword forged by frost giants for some dark purpose. Rurik is fairly unintelligent, but he generally tries to do the right and honorable thing.

In the campaign, Deacon Nacklethorpe has been tasked by the Temple of Garl with traveling to the icy north, to a place full of savage northmen, powerful giants, and massive fjords and glaciers, to find an ancient gnomish city buried under the ice. The mission is daunting and fraught with danger on all sides--there appears to be a certain faction within gnomish society that does not want the mission to succeed. Deacon Nacklethorpe has already weathered numerous delays and an assassination attempt. Undeterred, the party finally found a reputable guide willing to brave the dangers, and set out through the northern wilderness toward the glacial lands beyond. This is a challenging journey, because everything is their enemy: time, the environment, the local monsters, even the human residents--wild barbarians called vitlings, who are said to kill foreigners on sight.

They soon entered the lands of the Cold Ones, whom they believe to be some sort of undead, possibly vampires, who prey upon the living. While following their ranger guide and hoping to soon leave the Cold Ones lands' behind them, the party crosses paths with a young human boy, no older than eight, who is desperately fleeing for his life from a winter wolf. Heroes that they are, the party instantly springs into action, and savagely dispatches the wolf within seconds. The boy, it turns out, is a young vitling, offered up to a pack of winter wolves as a sacrifice. In return for the occasional firstborn child, the wolves apparently protect the villagers from the depredations of the Cold Ones--a pact forged between the vitlings and the Winter King, leader of the wolves.

The boy is injured, frost-bitten, barefoot in the snow. Deacon Nacklethorpe heals him as the party asks their questions. Are there a lot of these wolves? Yes--perhaps as many as one per adult man in the village. And you're vitlings? Yes. Will the wolves be upset that we killed one of their pack? Yes--they will soon track you down and slay you. Do you want to journey with us, they ask?

No, the boy replies miserably, if I am not sacrificed to the wolves, they will turn upon my village, or abandon it to the Cold Ones. This is my duty to my family.

The party takes stock of the situation, and makes a decision.

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Freeze frame. Before I announce what they did, let me ask you, given the information you know about the PCs, the world, and the mission, what would you have done here? I'm very curious to know.

I would child the child for running away from his duty, and then take him with me. We already killed the wolves, so we'd better get a new torch bearer out of it.

I would protect the kid, contact the wolves and find a better way for the two groups to get along without the need for sacrifices.

The fact that you said they surprised you tells me that they let the boy go and left the area. I'm guessing you had expected a fairly involved sidetrek as they took the fight to the cold ones and nipped the whole thing in the bud.

That party has neither the HP, AC or damage output to deal with a whole clan of frost wolves. I hope they left the humans to thier neutral practices.

Now if they had a military mindset, they would kidnap the boy, leave the frost wolf pelt where it would be found by the wolves and see to it the wolves did attack the barbarian villiage, softening up both sides.

The boy tells you he must be sacrificed but he was running away from the one he would be sacrificed to.

Winter Wolves are able to protect the village from the Cold Ones. How? what power do they have that is not available to the fierce warriors of the village?

The only one that all seem to agree are an enemy would be the Cold Ones. Can the party find out something about them? That would be the first thing to try. Next would be finding out the truth about the winter wolves - are they protectors of the village or are they minions of the Cold Ones?

Touchy situation. I like it!

I have a feeling most PC's would've left the kid to the wolves. Better to keep the tribe together and sacrifice some brat than to take on a whole clan of wovles when your goal is the Cold Ones. The price of one for the good of the whole kind of thing....(a very Lawful attitude, btw).

....there is the question of why the child was *running* if he wanted to be a sacrifice....

A more surprising strategy would be to say to the kid "We're going to protect you from the wolves, and from the Cold Ones. You needn't sacrificed your loved ones anymore." Or knock the kid out and take him with them (which means that the wolves will hunt them, taking the attention away from the tribe, while the tribe believes the kid to be sacrificed as normal). That's almost suicide, but very Heroic (and kind of Chaotic). The party leans more to chaos, so I would kind of expect them to do this...they're under no obligation to respect tribe's customs and laws if they are harmful, and the wolves are just biding time until the wovles can wipe out the tribe themselves. So they take the kid, the wolves chase them, they pick off the clan one by one. Change the focus from the barbarian tribe to the PC party. Maybe get wherever they're going to help fight the wolves when they get there.

What would I do if I were playing a Good character?

I'd probably lean more to being recklessly heroic. After all, I'm a HERO! I can't stop every evil, but I'm morally obligated to stopping that which crosses my path. I cannot let a child be sacrificed for safety. I would tell the kid that I would be the sacrifice in his place, and then take out as many of those wolves going down as I could. Because THAT is heroism.

Well, they can't talk to the vitlings or the winter wolves. The vitlings attack on sight (presumably) and the winter wolves are probably no better, having, you know, the scent of their recently dead on you and their Evil algnment. A tribe of vitlings can't take the Cold Ones, apparently, though the wolves can hold them back, and if there's a wolf for every villiager, then that makes sense, its a lot of wolves.

That leaves the PCs in a hard situation, though. The boy obviously doesn't want to be sacrificed, but he knows that he needs to be for the good of his villiage. The good of the many, and all that, says that his loss is necessary to ensure the survival of the larger group.

But, I see noone of Lawful alignment in your group, and in fact, many chaotics. Generally speaking, not to straightjacket - but generaly, that means that they wouldn't think that this is an acceptable deal. No one boy should have to lose their life just so a group of privalaged others can live. If the tribesmen truly deserve to live their lives, then they should fight for it. Especially to a chaotic neutral mindset, I would imagine.

The boy is not going to die for the townspeople, but they do deserve to live as well. In the end, I'm not sure the exact outcome, but the boy would be coming with us. I would like to warn the villiagers that their sacrifice has been stopped, and they should prepare themselves accordingly. I'm sure this could be done through some kind of magic, illusion or message or something (or both). Then its off to find the gnomish city with our new sidekick.

I'd try to arrange things so that it looks like the Cold Ones killed the winter wolves and kidnapped the kid. I'd have to act fast and smart - winter wolves aren't too bright but they do have Scent. Maybe the Illusionist could help - stay on the top of a nearby tree, invisible, and use a major image to cover up the smell of the party and yourself, and make the whole scene more believable.

Then I'd hope that the wolves don't take it out on the villagers. I hope the bard has plenty of social skills, because they may come in handy. The best case would be the wolves attacking the Cold Ones, which is a big win-win.

I smell a side quest. Keep the boy wipe out the monsters. Job done.