akr71
Hero
Oh yes, this whole arc is a big grey area where they are just trying to do the 'less wrong' thing. The mayor is a vampire (and the party knows it) who has some long standing grudge against the hag. The dire treant was the hag's curse on the village in an attempt to erode faith in the mayor. The priest is an unwitting pawn of the hag, but wants to do right by the townsfolk.I've done similar things with custom swarms. Consider knock down and grapple/ restrain attacks. Since these are townsfolk it depends on how familiar they are with casters. If they know what to do they can throw a sack over a caster's head, bind their hands, gag them.
Also consider some rudimentary tactics while talking into consideration morale. Even if the commoners flee, it doesn't mean the PCs are safe, it just means they proved that the priest is right.
In a weird twist, the party made a deal with a vampire spawn who wants her freedom from the mayor. She needs to feed from the mayor, but can't do that unless the party subdues him first. She aided in their fight against the treant. They could have just left after defeating the dire treant, but they decided to go back to town. They talked about bringing the head of the treant with them (its as big as a small car), but that's where we ended the session. Which is also why I came up with the mob -> they just killed this town's god and they think they can just parade it about town? Nope. Consequences.