cementiing the pc's small town heroes

[Fumble Jack]

Hello all. I am running a 3.5 game and my players have found themselves in a rural town they have grown attached to, flavorful npc's and backdrop sort of has a western feel to it. I do want something to happen to the town but is still preventable by the players or at the very least they can come out with the town taking only minor losses. I don't want to go in the route of x monster type in cave/dungeon/underground citadel x miles nearby is threatening the town.
I kind of want more of a natural disaster. However I want it to be one that can utilize all their abilities not just solely 2 characters. My group consists of a Warforged monk..who really wants to be a drunken master, a Duskblade who talks before they think, a goblin wizard with a heavy case of amnesia, a cleric of Pelor whom feels duty bound to the group and a halfling rogue whom is sort of the bandit female version of robin hood. They're level 4 so I don't want to throw at them something they can't really handle, just something challenging. Due to this I feel a bit strained on what ideas I can think of.
For some background on the town itself, it's a small collection of homes and farms around two taverns (which have a more saloon like nature) and a handful of goods stores which includes an eccentrics shop where odd items and the occasional magic item can be found. A river runs nearby it, kind of why a flood first came to mind.
Thank you again for any and all help.

[RogueDM]

Flood sounds good to me, but you definitely want to make sure there's enough action for everyone to get their hands in. Of course the fastest way to produce a devastating flood is with the construction or destruction of a dam or levy. So during a downpour a dam could give way (with or without help) or the river could become severely and suddenly stopped down river (with or without help). Then the heroes would have to decide if they want to split the party to protect their townsfolk while/or clearing/damming the river -and- potentially dealing with some critter(s) who caused it.

Less expected could be a subterranean collapse requiring the party to delve into a newly minted dungeon to rescue trapped villagers. Again, this disaster could always come with some monster assistance if you feel it is "not enough deadlier".

[JusticeZero]

A flood would tend to erase the town rather than bring it together. What is nearby? If the town suddenly has a lot more people coming through it than normal that would put lots of stress on things. The disaster might be next door and put the town as muster and evacuation point.

[RogueDM]

A flood would tend to erase the town rather than bring it together.

The initial surge from a breaking dam, perhaps, but simply being in a bottled up valley... well, the village certainly has a limited lifespan, but that adds a sense of imperative for the players to hurry to find a way to clear the river. Waters are rising, every minute that passes more goods are ruined, more folk are drowned, more structural damage is done.

I like the idea of rescuing the nearby town with -their- town as a muster point. Let's them be heroic in their town, however it does mean they aren't really saving their town, just displaying that they -are- heroic. They'd be the other town's heroes. Could reverse the idea and have to evacuate the village before some imminent disaster. Perhaps return and reclaim the ruined village in the aftermath so the villagers can return... maybe even discover the cause of the disaster (assuming not a simple fluke) to ensure the village's future prosperity.

[Trasilor]

Hello all. I am running a 3.5 game and my players have found themselves in a rural town they have grown attached to, flavorful npc's and backdrop sort of has a western feel to it. I do want something to happen to the town but is still preventable by the players or at the very least they can come out with the town taking only minor losses. I don't want to go in the route of x monster type in cave/dungeon/underground citadel x miles nearby is threatening the town.
I kind of want more of a natural disaster. However I want it to be one that can utilize all their abilities not just solely 2 characters. My group consists of a Warforged monk..who really wants to be a drunken master, a Duskblade who talks before they think, a goblin wizard with a heavy case of amnesia, a cleric of Pelor whom feels duty bound to the group and a halfling rogue whom is sort of the bandit female version of robin hood. They're level 4 so I don't want to throw at them something they can't really handle, just something challenging. Due to this I feel a bit strained on what ideas I can think of.
For some background on the town itself, it's a small collection of homes and farms around two taverns (which have a more saloon like nature) and a handful of goods stores which includes an eccentrics shop where odd items and the occasional magic item can be found. A river runs nearby it, kind of why a flood first came to mind.
Thank you again for any and all help.

Seriously a flood? At level 4? Have you actually experienced a flood? If the flood is bad enough to destroy houses, what can 5, low level people do? You need access to permanent conjuration in the form of walls to hand that - that is like a 4-5th level spell. Think about it, the amount of energy in a flood is huge. We are not talking about a lot of rain making the river swell causing everything 3' and under to get wet - that is an annoyance not life threatening. We are talking about fast moving water that will pick up and move a town. Without someway of funneling lots and lots of water, not much PCs can do.

Conversely, more than anything, western towns had issues with bandits - that plays right into the PC's strengths - killing things. Keeping with that idea, perhaps the local sherif deputizes the group. :smallamused:

But if you want a natural disaster, why not something big - really big - like a volcano. The only way to stop it is for the PCs to find a special XYZ item to prevent the bad from happening. Perhaps the special item was stolen.

Or the PCs discover ancient texts which predicts bad things happening (one of which already has :smalleek: ).

This way, the PCs are able to play to their strength while cementing themselves as local heroes.

[Fumble Jack]

Thank you all. @RogueDm I think the subterranean collapse sounds intriguing as the town has some fiendish history. Ages ago a group of devils ruled the place. @JusticeZero the town is near low plains and mostly grasslands, to the far south of it, there are a couple twisted canyons and desert area. @Trasilor Due to my location I have experienced hurricanes and the flooding they bring on, definitely no picnic, however I do see your point as to how it may be rather difficult for a level 4 party. (if my post seems jumbled, I posted from my phone)

[JusticeZero]

As far as my comment on how a flood would erase the town, I didn't mean physically (though that would be a danger too). Rather, as described, the town doesn't have more than the bare minimum of an economy and center as it is. As a result, it has very little resilience right now. A disaster doesn't need to destroy much of the town to doom it to a ghost town future.
A surge of people would strain the supplies, create a possible crime boom, people will be tense and jumpy. The kids might be going all metropolitan and meeting lots of people they probably aught not be dealing with. Plenty of chaos to work with even without stepping out of the town.

[Fumble Jack]

JusticeZero
Re: cementiing the pc's small town heroes

As far as my comment on how a flood would erase the town, I didn't mean physically (though that would be a danger too). Rather, as described, the town doesn't have more than the bare minimum of an economy and center as it is. As a result, it has very little resilience right now. A disaster doesn't need to destroy much of the town to doom it to a ghost town future.
A surge of people would strain the supplies, create a possible crime boom, people will be tense and jumpy. The kids might be going all metropolitan and meeting lots of people they probably aught not be dealing with. Plenty of chaos to work with even without stepping out of the town.

The goal isn't to essentially destroy the town though, but sufficiently endanger it enough where it runs the risk of destruction that the pc's can hopefully prevent or minimize the damage and casualty outcome. I was thinking natural disaster and the first thing that had come to mind was a flood due to the close proximity of the river to the town. Equally with the suggestion from RogueDm about the subterranean collapse, which also endangers the town greatly but can pose an economical strain upon town should anything of value that the pc's don't consider immediately usable/equippable/spendable loot would interest and bring all sorts of people to the place. Almost like a gold rush -esque event...Hmmm and add to that the ancient script idea from Trasilor...wait Wow, Ok thanks alot to all of you for your input.