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Crimson Mechanical Railroad Company

Crimson Mechanical is a company run by Advanced Goblins. They build and run rail lines to ship freight and passengers deep underground. Their network of rail lines are known as The Subway.

Oddly enough, Crimson Mechanical is the tie that binds many, many Goblin cities together. Normally Goblins would be too busy warring among themselves to trade. However, the success of the company has brought about a semi-stable cease-fire and has allowed the Goblins to direct their energies elsewhere. This was only brought about through the iron willed determination of the company's owner.

Individually, the Goblins still murder each other in a never-ending struggle for power, but it's no longer a matter to war over, because that's bad for profits.

Crimson Mechanical has somewhat become a de-facto government for Goblin-kind. It wields more power than any of the individual city-states within it's borders and an army that could crush any of them. It's also the main means of support for several of the out-lying regions, for they make their living by exporting crops and other important goods, while many of the more central cities have now begun to specialize and no longer farm for themselves. Each city-state can no longer afford to survive on it's own.

The owner has but to make a demand and most, if not all, of the city-states will bend at the knee, for fear of losing the trade that's become so integral to their lives.

The fact of the matter is that Crimson Mechanical has also brought the Goblins within it's borders unprecedented safety from outside attack. There are Drow Elf cities that would attack the Goblins (and have in the past), but they don't dare, because the result is always the same: the Goblins stop in-fighting and face their opponent as a unified force.

In one case, the owner ordered the destruction of an entire Drow city, in order to make an example of them. This was a large city, in fact, one of the largest. The siege lasted about five days and the city was wiped off the map, largely using explosives. The Drow no longer harass Crimson Mechanical.

The Owner

Gebs Darkmuck is a very old Goblin, at least 200 years old. Rumor has it that he has repeatedly extended his life through magic, alchemy and even science.

His political skills are such that he's normally three or four steps ahead of his enemies. Furthermore, he uses just about any means available to him to ensure that his enemies need him alive, no matter how much they may wish him dead. This is what has allowed him to survive, above and beyond the life extending processes he's used. The unusual part of this is that he rarely uses clumsy tools such as blackmail. Instead, he simply arranges matters so that his enemies find life more bearable with him around or would find life without him less bearable.

The final result of this is that his enemies will fight to prevent his death.

There have been assassination attempts in the past, but Gebs uses so many decoys, stand-ins and even remotely-controlled Simulacra, that no one has any idea where he actually may be at any given moment. Some wonder whether the original still exists or not. It's impossible to tell.

The Truth

Gebs made a deal with an infernal entity, many, many years ago, in order to gain true immortality. The deal was that if he constructed a train network under the Archipelago in the shape of a particular infernal symbol, he would be given true, permanent immortality. Gebs has made this his obsession ever since. The project is roughly 90% complete.

Thus, Crimson Mechanical's rail lines course with slight magic and nearly palpable evil. The magic has been noticed before, but never identified by anyone, for it's so widespread that no one has been able to analyze it in full. It would take nearly a year of travel and study to properly understand how that magic works. Even Gebs is unaware of how and what it's doing. He simply doesn't care, so long as he gets what he wants.

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