An article in the Voice of Breland, dated 13th Eyre, 998 YK.
Earlier this week the warforged workers in the Cogs led a riot against their employers, refusing to work and causing a great deal of property damage. The rioters claimed to be protesting, with the goal of obtaining better pay and treatment.
Why is it, then, that they chose to accomplish this via wholesale looting and destruction of property? We fully support the peoples right to peaceful protest, but a line has to be drawn at widespread disruption, and we definitely cannot condone the destruction of property. Those buildings are owned by someone, no doubt proud Brelish patriots, who will now be out of pocket dealing with repairs.
Warforged don't require food, drink, or sleep. Most people are paid as they are because of necessary expenses, we need these things to survive and the 'forged don't. These "protests" were led by greed, as evidenced by the looting. Indeed, what interest do goblins and other monsters have in the rights of the warforged? They saw a group looting local businesses and they joined in.
According to our sources, the rioters were also joined by members of the Clifftop Adventurer's Guild, several of whom were also members of the Dragonmarked Houses. Clifftop are a gang of trumped up mercenaries, so we have to ask, who paid them to do this? Follow the money, people of Breland, and you'll likely discover that it's all connected. Are the houses funding these protests, to starve their competition of necessary labour? Many of the workshops in the Cogs are independently owned and operated, could this have been a scheme by House Cannith to force those businesses to get licensed with them?
One business owner, who has chosen to remain anonymous, was subjected to a humiliating "diss track" that damaged their reputation, and then was threatened by a two-headed representative of Daask! Not content to simply loot and pillage, these "protesters" also resorted to character assassination and violent extortion. Where will it end?
Several of the businesses in the Cogs have bent to the pressure and capitulated to these thugs' demands. Clearly they believe it will somehow assuage the crowd, but we all know this will only encourage further rioting. The greedy always want more, and now they've been shown that bullying honest business owners just trying to get by will get what they want. Disgusting.