They immediately asked what the kid's name was, and I said "Uh.
#One off npcs dnd me full
I described a small field full of struggling crops, in which a grubby teenage boy was carefully weeding the field. My group happened across a farm on the road as a random encounter. I want the world to feel like it's moving whether the PC's are in that specific area or not, otherwise it can feel like the world revolves around the players which feels unnatural. The question is are you in that province in the thick of it? Or in a neighbouring province now flooded with refugees, or are you months away and by the time you get there it's an epidemic or perhaps it's run its course and they're beginning to rebuild.
When I do a campaign I pick major events that will happen and when they will happen, if the players interact in a way that affects that outcome it can shift on the fly, but if there was going to be an outbreak of disease in the next province 5 months into the campaign that's going to always happen. The cleric convinced them to turn around afterwards and go help, but by that point the town had been savaged. One of the options they discussed was going to a nearby town to get reinforcements, another was infiltrating the other side, they chose to go hunt for a magical item they heard was on the other side of the continent. It was a town on the front line of a war being used as a military camp for one side.