What to do with 130 abducted kids?

Figured this needed its own thread.

Context: I had nearly finished writing a plotline that entails a demon abducting a village's child population (basically a Pied Piper adaption) and tricked a living dungeon (the protagonist, or at least one of them) into absorbing their mana and entangling them to her. Meaning that they are effectialy trapped there.

The idea was basically giving what the folks at Mythcreants call "spinach" to the protags in the form of a Pyrrhic Victory while also setting up some subplots around freeing the kids both internally and externally.

However I want to ask about a few things to avoid certain pitfalls.

• the first was mentioned in the Random Questions thread (though I admittedly forgot the responses) earlier in the year, as I want the protagonist and her party to remain sympathetic. I again wanted to emphasize that she was tricked by the demon, and also that there would be a subplot about her trying to free the kids from within her. I bring that up to ask for ideas on how that would be possible for alter on. But it is not the only issue
• A related point is that a second character, an alraune, would be attempting a Heroic Sacrifice afterwards, scapegoating herself as the kidnapper in an attempt to give the village closure. This would be aided by the fact that the village already accused her of such as well as the murder of her husband and would be biased toward an outcome. I want to frame it as a misguided stopgap measure caused by a fractured state of mind (caused by most of the town's unveiled distrust of her and the demon telling her of such as part of his manipulative nature)

• the last point I know I have is the village of Hamlin itself. They are obviously victims of it, with a distrust of monsters. I want to sell the former. That said there are also some specific folk of internist
  • the Mayor is a special case as I had pants myself into having him hold a grudged against the recently deceased husband who is beloved by the town. I'm looking for ideas why that would be the case. For further context. The mayor was recently elected and motivated by connected his isolated rural village to the outside world for the sake of its future and the deceased man was beloved as one of the village's best adventurers
  • Three other characters would be privy to the truth, two are the parents of a pair of twins that had struck a rapport with the alraune's daughter (also an alraune) and the third is the alraune's sister who is also an alraune but one that passes as human. Obviously they would try to deter the alraune from her attempt at giving the village closure, but by the same token, they will fail.
  • I want to ask of potential unfortunate implications and how to mitigate those because I am aware of the potential subtext.
  • the last one concerns the murder of the deceased husband. I want to make it clear that his wife was not the guilt party, but that means I am wanting for a culprit that is responsible. I preferably want the mayor to be related to the murderer and his motives.

There are prolly some other aspects I've missed, but these are the ones i know of and want to address. So if you have any suggestions or questions, fire away.

Edited by MorningStar1337 on Dec 11th 2023 at 4:27:50 AM

You might want to proof read your post. There are some typos, but also some missing context. Are the protagonists monsters or warlocks or villagers? Also, how many characters are plants? Whose husband is dead? Or does husband here mean someone who practices husbandry? Does this actually take place in Hamlin? Did the character take all the mana of the rats too?