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?
A strange new product has come onto the market at the same time that someone has bought up the stocks of beer and grain.
The new brew has wonderful effect but its flavor is odd and ends with a very deep sleep. It’s cheap and widely available.
Turns out that some mind flayers or other psionic beast have been producing and distributing a concoction made from their own milk/extract.
The effects and deep sleep makes people easy and reusable prey.
The idea of someone buying up all the grain for something else was the first thing that occurred to me too - essentially the same as with AI and all the GPUs now.
Maybe for feeding a secret group giants that the crown is using to gain the upper hand in a war.