The Kings Of Feierland and other horrible NPCs.

It is not without precedent that town-dwelling NPCs are crueler and more horrid than the things from beyond the dark. Even a small injection of the selfishness, pettiness or cowardice you can bring with a squirrelly, unvirtuous or conniving NPC can be valuable, and might escalate into something seriously fun. It may even be a relatively unwretched trait that the PCs end up describing as wretched.

But the maiden said, "Rather than marry him, dear father, I will go away into
the world as far as my legs can carry me." But the king said that if
she would not marry him she should take off her royal garments and
wear peasant's clothing, and go forth, and that she should go to a
potter, and begin a trade in earthen vessels...