I am running a fantasy campaign (using the Ptolus setting), and the PC just looted a "conspiracy board" from the hideout of a rather unhinged creature.
I've added a bunch of elements that might or might not be relevant for the campaign. And the element with the most strings to other elements was "beer price increases".
And I'd like to mess with the minds of the players some more. Thus, I could use some ideas for sinister reasons why the beer prices in a city might have increased.
Any suggestions?
Bit mundane underlying logic which can of course be embellished by the characters you populate it with: a brewer with connections to the royal court has acquired a monopoly by lobbying for brewing to only be allowed under royal warrant. They have managed to gain regulatory capture through their connections and all the other brewers are getting raided and their inventory flushed. Now the 'royal' brewer can set much higher prices without any danger of being undercut.
Or you could work it as some variant of beer purity law