Open-ended Non-combat Interlude during Combat-Heavy Arc

[bombtrady]

In my homebrew campaign, we've spent the last 3/4 sessions doing a lot of combat and both myself and my players are needing a break before the final battle. With the use of a MacGuffin that will help in the finale, I'm hoping to get the players out of the rural warzone to a city where there are more opportunities to do some intrigue (and also show off an evil-aligned slaver city that I'm building right now). With this, I'm hoping to present them with a situation that violence wouldn't work well (perhaps because of a powerful and cruel police force within the city) with and also give them a couple puzzles to figure out. I'm somewhat of a rookie DM just trying out homebrew right now and could definitely use some input and suggestions from veteran DM's. My players are also looking a problem that is very, very sandbox and I'm pretty hit or miss in that department. If you've got any suggestions, intrigue or puzzle ideas, I'd love to hear them!

[Wartex1]

This thread should go to the DnD3.5/D20/Pathfinder forum, as the Homebrew section is for the homebrewing of material, not discussion of homebrew campaigns. Just PM a moderator and they can move it for you.

As for ideas, present them with some moral dilemmas (though don't punish any party paladins for them). Perhaps have them encounter an orphanage in the evil city that actively raises children well, but grooms them into becoming powerful (and evil) Blackguards or something. Destroying it would place a large amount of orphans into an extremely dangerous environment (said evil city) where they would not receive any care, but allowing it to continue its existence would mean that there may be many powerful Blackguards later on.

And if the party chooses to destroy the orphanage and shelter them on their own, then some of the orphans may have already been too far into the training process to easily rehabilitate through better care and ethical teachings, meaning that players will have to personally interact with said orphans in order to help them become better.

This situation could be twisted towards more violent solutions or less violent solutions (the orphanage itself could be guarded by said Blackguards, or it just functions as a largely defenseless school which ships off its graduates to a proper Blackguard training facility).