thinly veiled d&d mini-campaign
Sanata the Red, a hobgoblin warlord, has amassed a large workforce of goblins, who he beats and spits on and insults so as to keep them in line. He forces the goblins to forge weapons and armor all day, of all shapes and sizes. He then ships these gifts, for free, to different kingdoms and armies and mercenaries and warbands, and has eventually gotten some degree of influence over millions of soldiers across the world.
How does he have influence? Because he gives away the weapons and armor for free, all these armies have come to rely on his services, fired their blacksmiths, and hired more soldiers. Now if they upset Sanata the Red, he would simply stop supplying them and they would have immense costs and time constraints involved with producing their own gear.
Clearly this is a problem, and most armies realize this, but they can’t *stop* using Sanata’s services, because then they have little to no blacksmithing abilities, and their armies would suffer greatly from broken or dulled swords, busted armor that can’t be repaired, and in the meantime they would be very vulnerable to takeovers from rival kingdoms.
So, the party has to step in, seeing as they have no investments in Sanata’s services, and they have to put a stop to his operation.