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Arriving from somewhere in the Feywild, or from the Ethereal Plane, the three pixies (straight from the Monster Manual) can each cast polymorph. If you run the math, making three wisdom saves in a row will likely result in a failure by a lot of PC, although a high level Cleric or Paladin will be a tough nut to crack.

The target is a pc at a level of no more than level 10 (the party is currently at level 2), so not a drastic amount of hp

If one of the other PCs can successfully engage in conversation with the pixies, they might learn where they are from and what is going on. Negotiation can then follow, with a much silly or straight play as you feel fits the circumstances.

Note that the pixies have other spells that could yield similar interesting results: confusion, sleep, phantasmal force, dispel magic. Consider a party under the effect of the confusion spell possibly attacking one another ...

But silly will probably go over far better than "kill the PC" will for most players. Pixies are able to turn invisible, which means that you can plausibly sell this excuse for them popping up: "they have been watching you for a while, since {some version of the Archfey} heard of your party and wanted to keep an eye on you."

If your players like to go hard evil now and again, simply discuss with them the hard fact that choices have consequences, and come up with consequences, even if delayed, that can be tied back to whatever evil they have engaged in.

• Example: I used this a few years back with my Wednesday group in my brother's world.
  • A divination spell revealed to an NPC just who it was that killed a particular NPC who died thanks to the monk's tendency to "kill them, who cares" attitude. Four or five sessions later, a cleric and a possee confronted the party and demanded weregild. The RP between players was quite satisfying, since not all of the players were as bloody minded. They coughed up the money/fine after some very engaging in-group discussion.

Arriving from somewhere in the Feywild, or from the Ethereal Plane, the three pixies (straight from the Monster Manual) can each cast polymorph. If you run the math, making three wisdom saves in a row will likely result in a failure by a lot of PCs, although a higher-level (6th to 10th per your criteria) Cleric or Paladin will be a tough nut to crack.

The target is a PC at a level of no more than level 10 (the party is currently at level 2), so not a drastic amount of HP

If one of the other PCs can successfully engage in conversation with the pixies, they might learn where they are from and what is going on. Negotiation can then follow, with as much silly or straight play as you feel fits the circumstances.

Note that the pixies have other spells that could yield similar interesting results: confusion, sleep, phantasmal force, dispel magic. Consider a party under the effect of the confusion spell possibly attacking one another ...

As noted in the Basic Rules:
(1) DM can, RAW, assign advantage or disadvantage where situation calls for it. (CH-1 and Ch-7)
(2) DM determines who is, or isn't, surprised. (Ch-9)

In this case, the pixies surprise the party, and the pixies have advantage on any initiative roll if you want to put this into initiative ... but that isn't necessarily required.

But silly will probably go over far better than "kill the PC" will for most players. Pixies are able to turn invisible, which means that you can plausibly sell this excuse for them popping up:

• "They have been watching you for a while, since {some version of the Archfey} heard of your party and wanted to keep an eye on you."

If your players like to go hard evil now and again, simply discuss with them the fact that choices have consequences, and come up with consequences, even if delayed, that can be tied back to whatever evil they have engaged in.

• Example: I used this a few years back with my Wednesday group in my brother's world.
  • A divination spell revealed to an NPC just who it was that killed a particular NPC who died thanks to the monk's "kill them, who cares" attitude. Four or five sessions later, a cleric and a possee confronted the party and demanded weregild. The RP between players was quite satisfying, since not all of the players were as bloody minded. They coughed up the money  / fine after some very engaging in-group discussion.

If you want something funny: the Three (fey) Stooges

(Yes, this challenges the frame of the question).

Arriving from somewhere in the Feywild, or from the Ethereal Plane, the three pixies (straight from the Monster Manual) can each cast polymorph. If you run the math, making three wisdom saves in a row will likely result in a failure by a lot of PC, although a high level Cleric or Paladin will be a tough nut to crack.

The target is a pc at a level of no more than level 10 (the party is currently at level 2), so not a drastic amount of hp

Polymorph into a snail. One of the pixies - Larry, Curly, or Moe - picks it up and off they fly, giggling and shouting out "DBAD" (pronounced "Dee Bad) to any questions asked by the rest of the party. (Yes, this is a reference to Wheaton's Law).

Is this silly? Yes!

But silly will probably go over far better than "kill the PC" will for most players. Pixies are able to turn invisible, which means that you can plausibly sell this excuse for them popping up: "they have been watching you for a while, since the {some version of Archfey} heard of your party and wanted to keep an eye on you."

There are better OOC approaches to this problem

If your players like to go hard evil now and again, simply discuss with them the hard fact that choices have consequences, and come up with consequences, even if delayed, that can be tied back to whatever evil they have engaged in.

• Example: I used this a few years back with my Wednesday group in my brother's world.
  • A divination spell revealed to an NPC just who it was that killed a particular NPC who died thanks to the monk's tendency to "kill them, who cares" attitude. Four or five sessions later, a cleric and a possee confronted the party and demanded weregild. The RP between players was quite satisfying, since not all of the players were as bloody minded. They coughed up the money/fine after some very engaging in-group discussion.

Why this frame challenge?

There are many better ways to get your message across than killing the PC. You are aware of this, as your distaste for "rocks fall, everyone dies" demonstrates.

Don't kill the PC. If you feel that "punishment" is required, any punishment needs to be tied to "choices made have consequences" which is a common shared value among TTRPG players.

Discuss with your players before the next session the issue of choices and actions having consequences, and an in-world fact that some NPCs have divination spells.

If you want something funny: the Three (fey) Stooges

(Yes, this challenges the frame of the question).

Arriving from somewhere in the Feywild, or from the Ethereal Plane, the three pixies (straight from the Monster Manual) can each cast polymorph. If you run the math, making three wisdom saves in a row will likely result in a failure by a lot of PC, although a high level Cleric or Paladin will be a tough nut to crack.

The target is a pc at a level of no more than level 10 (the party is currently at level 2), so not a drastic amount of hp

Polymorph into a snail. One of the pixies - Larry, Curly, or Moe - picks it up and off they fly, giggling and shouting out "DBAD" (pronounced "Dee Bad) to any questions asked by the rest of the party. (Yes, this is a reference to Wheaton's Law).

If one of the other PCs can successfully engage in conversation with the pixies, they might learn where they are from and what is going on. Negotiation can then follow, with a much silly or straight play as you feel fits the circumstances.

Note that the pixies have other spells that could yield similar interesting results: confusion, sleep, phantasmal force, dispel magic. Consider a party under the effect of the confusion spell possibly attacking one another ...

Is this silly? Yes!

But silly will probably go over far better than "kill the PC" will for most players. Pixies are able to turn invisible, which means that you can plausibly sell this excuse for them popping up: "they have been watching you for a while, since {some version of the Archfey} heard of your party and wanted to keep an eye on you."

There are better OOC approaches to this problem

If your players like to go hard evil now and again, simply discuss with them the hard fact that choices have consequences, and come up with consequences, even if delayed, that can be tied back to whatever evil they have engaged in.

• Example: I used this a few years back with my Wednesday group in my brother's world.
  • A divination spell revealed to an NPC just who it was that killed a particular NPC who died thanks to the monk's tendency to "kill them, who cares" attitude. Four or five sessions later, a cleric and a possee confronted the party and demanded weregild. The RP between players was quite satisfying, since not all of the players were as bloody minded. They coughed up the money/fine after some very engaging in-group discussion.

Why this frame challenge?

There are many better ways to get your message across than killing the PC. You are aware of this, as your distaste for "rocks fall, everyone dies" demonstrates.

Don't kill the PC. If you feel that "punishment" is required, any punishment needs to be tied to "choices made have consequences" which is a common shared value among TTRPG players.

Discuss with your players before the next session the issue of choices and actions having consequences, and an in-world fact that some NPCs have divination spells.

If you want something funny: the Three (fey) Stooges

(Yes, this challenges the frame of the question).

Arriving from somewhere in the Feywild, or from the Ethereal Plane, the three pixies (straight from the Monster Manual) can each cast polymorph. If you run the math, making three wisdom saves in a row will likely result in a failure by a lot of PC, although a high level Cleric or Paladin will be a tough nut to crack.

The target is a pc at a level of no more than level 10 (the party is currently at level 2), so not a drastic amount of hp

Polymorph into a snail. One of the pixies - Larry, Curly, or Moe - picks it up and off they fly, giggling and shouting out "DBAD" (pronounced "Dee Bad) to any questions asked by the rest of the party. (Yes, this is a reference to Wheaton's Law).

Is this silly? Yes!

But silly will probably go over far better than "kill the PC" will for most players. Pixies are able to turn invisible, which means that you can plausibly sell this excuse for them popping up: "they have been watching you for a while, since the {some version of Archfey} heard of your party and wanted to keep an eye on you."

There are better OOC approaches to this problem

If your players like to go hard evil now and again, simply discuss with them the hard fact that choices have consequences, and come up with consequences, even if delayed, that can be tied back to whatever evil they have engaged in.

• Example: I used this a few years back with my Wednesday group in my brother's world.
  • A divination spell revealed to an NPC just who it was that killed a particular NPC who died thanks to the monk's tendency to "kill them, who cares" attitude. Four or five sessions later, a cleric and a possee confronted the party and demanded weregild. The RP between players was quite satisfying, since not all of the players were as bloody minded. They coughed up the money/fine after some very engaging in-group discussion.

Why this frame challenge?

There are many better ways to get your message across than killing the PC. You are aware of this, as your distaste for "rocks fall, everyone dies" demonstrates.

Don't kill the PC. If you feel that "punishment" is required, any punishment needs to be tied to "choices made have consequences" which is a common shared value among TTRPG players.

Discuss with your players.

If you want something funny: the Three (fey) Stooges

(Yes, this challenges the frame of the question).

Arriving from somewhere in the Feywild, or from the Ethereal Plane, the three pixies (straight from the Monster Manual) can each cast polymorph. If you run the math, making three wisdom saves in a row will likely result in a failure by a lot of PC, although a high level Cleric or Paladin will be a tough nut to crack.

The target is a pc at a level of no more than level 10 (the party is currently at level 2), so not a drastic amount of hp

Polymorph into a snail. One of the pixies - Larry, Curly, or Moe - picks it up and off they fly, giggling and shouting out "DBAD" (pronounced "Dee Bad) to any questions asked by the rest of the party. (Yes, this is a reference to Wheaton's Law).

Is this silly? Yes!

But silly will probably go over far better than "kill the PC" will for most players. Pixies are able to turn invisible, which means that you can plausibly sell this excuse for them popping up: "they have been watching you for a while, since the {some version of Archfey} heard of your party and wanted to keep an eye on you."

There are better OOC approaches to this problem

If your players like to go hard evil now and again, simply discuss with them the hard fact that choices have consequences, and come up with consequences, even if delayed, that can be tied back to whatever evil they have engaged in.

• Example: I used this a few years back with my Wednesday group in my brother's world.
  • A divination spell revealed to an NPC just who it was that killed a particular NPC who died thanks to the monk's tendency to "kill them, who cares" attitude. Four or five sessions later, a cleric and a possee confronted the party and demanded weregild. The RP between players was quite satisfying, since not all of the players were as bloody minded. They coughed up the money/fine after some very engaging in-group discussion.

Why this frame challenge?

There are many better ways to get your message across than killing the PC. You are aware of this, as your distaste for "rocks fall, everyone dies" demonstrates.

Don't kill the PC. If you feel that "punishment" is required, any punishment needs to be tied to "choices made have consequences" which is a common shared value among TTRPG players.

Discuss with your players before the next session the issue of choices and actions having consequences, and an in-world fact that some NPCs have divination spells.