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I hadn't given it much thought, but it does sound like a nice idea.  Personally, I might throw an immature anhkheg, or bulette at them, just because. 

The bandit idea is probably the best, say a dozen or so.  A portion would attack the PCs while the rest would attack Sir Moonbrook's men.  You could probably use the Human Commoners/Berserker from D&D Next.

Everyone at my store is doing it in D&D Next. Since they'll actually need to create characters, a roleplay encounter shouldn't be strictly necessary. Instead, I'm probably going to do props, like wanted poster handouts for bounty hunter PCs, a better definition of knight PCs' relationship to the local lords, that sort of thing.

If you want to increase the eerieness and pathos, you could use the same stats but make them insane locals -- farmers and hunters, antisocial types who don't live in Hommel Lane proper, who have been overcome by nightmares of Miska. If the players try not to kill them, they go unconscious and can't be awakened. Maybe Sir Moonbrook urges they be spared so that the evil in them can be purged. He lays on hands, and they wake up free of the taint. He sends them west to refuge, with whatever foodstuffs can be spared from the carts.

Then, when the same thing happens to Sir Moonbrook, there's no one to save him. Don't know if you have particularly bloodthirsty people at your store, but here in America I have some real sociopaths. This might actually make them feel it more when they witness his fate.

For the wanted posters, I made the following:

• Enda Yate: I made her a bandit leader; she showed up Halls of Undermountain, again as a brigand leader. I pulled that info to make the poster, using a sketch of Lidda.
• Sartine Sorrowsworn: reputed witch, self-proclaimed agent of the Reaper; she was a character in P3 Assault on Nightwyrm Fortress. I used an image of a spooky shadar-kai woman.
• Josephus Blaze: murderer, suspected lycanthrope; he is also from Halls of Undermountain.
• Tiptoe: kidnapper; she's from MINI2-3 Raven Knights, a Living Forgotten Realms module.

All of these are other modules Shawn Merwin worked on. Something of an in-joke for my own amusement.