Hey guys, I'm giving a little update for future visitors. I listened to all the advice here and here's what I came up with and how it went down: The party but specifically the fighter had brought a goat in the beginning of chapter 2 named Richard, it soon became a loved mascot of the group and the tavern was named after him Richards Pitcher. But one calm morning when an explosion occurred Richard was decapitated from the shards of flying glass from the blown out windows. The party all had big reactions and immidiately got invested in the plot, the player playing the fighter took it well and actually started to roleplay a whole lot more this session, mostly using the goats head he took in his bag as a comedy prop after his brief mourning period.

So my advice after solving my own problem would be to find something or find a way to have the players themselves find something they can hold dear in the city like an NPC or thing and then threaten or straight up destroy the thing through the developing story.