A dark and stormy night

Overview

Wreathed in Night magic, conspiracy abounds in the city of Apulian. Last season, the Empire were able to pentrate an outpost of the Grendel espionage ring, after they successfully rescued Victo von Temeschwar and helped him regain his senses after he managed to successfully infiltrate the Grendel operation in the territory. Once he was fully debriefed, the Empire were in a position to either shut down the outpost in Apulian, or attempt to subvert the network at the risk of letting the spies get away.

While this has been happening, followers of Berechiah have been searching Redoubt for enemies of the Empire. This season, their search was complicated by the surprise attack of the Grendel. While the invaders are certainly enemies, that threat is better dealt with by armies than individuals hunting cultists, spies and saboteurs. Thus far their work had been largely unsuccessful - which is to say that they were all set to report back that there were very few, if any, real threats in the territory beyond the obvious.

Then, at the very last moment they have a stroke of good luck. Fortune, it seems, favours the vigilant.

Black Iron Blade

The Military Council have shut down the outpost of the Grendel espionage ring in Spiral

After due consideration, the Imperial Military Council opted to shut down the Grendel operations in Spiral. Perhaps the benefits of trying to subvert the network were too intangible, perhaps the risks of letting the spies get away were simply too great. Only those who were present for the discussion will know for sure what was discussed, but the decision is not in any doubt. Orders go out to the Imperial magistrates, who gather together groups of League bravos, hastily recruited as militia and supplemented with a handful of sentinels and magicians from the spires outside the city. They move decisively to arrest the ringleaders - with a series of dawn raids the perpetrators are quickly taken into custody.

Those involved are a motley collection. Around half are Apulian orcs, most of whom never become League citizens when the territory switched sides under the leadership of Salt Lord Kaliact. A third are League citizens, whose loyalties have been bought with coin and promises of more. The remainder are a sorry mix of malcontents and ne'er do wells, mostly disgruntled Urizeni unhappy with the new regieme.

Their arrest marks the end of Grendel operations in Spiral. There's no doubt some informants will have got away, you never catch everyone, but under questioning it is clear that the hard-headed choice of the Council has ensured that all the key people have been caught. The ones that refuse to cooperate are swiftly tried and executed, the handful that wisely chose to spill their guts and tell everything they now get off "lightly" - allowed to board ship and set sail never to return to the Empire. A chance to escape with their lives is too much for some of them to resist and the magistrates are able to gather a trove of invaluable information.

The first thing they discover is that the Grendel are operating "jewels" in Sarvos and another in Trivento as well, despite the work done to root them out from here two years ago. There were apparently plans to establish a new outpost in the Black City in Necropolis after the last one was rooted out by the Empire, but thus far the Grendel were unable to spare the resources needed. However, there is one in Cargo in Redoubt - based out of the old embassy building.

These spies have no information on other territories, but it's likely that there are jewels in Madruga and Feroz. Certainly the actions of Commander Gallum Fiersach in response to the Wrecker attack on Feroz strongly suggest that must be the case in that territory.

However, the Empire can be confident that the Grendel espionage ring does not extend beyond this. The interrogation of the captured Grendel agents reveals that the Grendel use their navies to set up these espionage rings. A single navy is all it takes, and any of the forces can accomplish it. All it takes is for the navy to spend a season in the waters off the coast and the scouts and spies go to work infilitrating the coast and suborning those whose loyalties are for sale. It's not cheap, it costs the Grendel a heavy purse to set a new jewel in their ring and crucially the navy can't do anything else that season. Worse, if the navy is driven off or intercepted by another navy then the efforts are wasted.

The only other way they can set up an espionage ring is if they control the territory itself. Based on that information, the only places the Grendel could have outpouts of their espionage ring is in Feroz, Madruga, Sarvos, Necropolis, Redoubt, Spiral and Maraeve. Of those, the Empire can be certain they are not in Spiral or Necropolis, but the others are all suspect, and Sarvos and Redoubt are a certainty.

And that it turns out, was all the followers of Berechiah needed to spring into action.

Watchers' Flute

The Grendel were using the embassy building in Cargo to spy on the Empire The followers of Berechiah have used the information from Spiral to shut this operation down

With a tip-off from the ongoing investigations in Spiral, the followers of Berechiah searching Redoubt for spies leap into action. It's one thing to search a whole territory, it's another to know that the thing you're looking for is in one city. If Cargo were a city of the League that might still leave a lot of rocks to look under, but Cargo is much smaller than even Apulian, the smallest of the five League cities. Moreover, the open planning preferred by the Urizen leaves fewer hiding places for cockroches than the Grendel might have liked.

The information provided by the informants the magistrates have captured isn't enough to pin down the location of the Grendel operations - here or elsewhere, but it's enough to get them started. Spurred on the need to act quickly, before the information becomes stale, the Vigilant run down every lead and to their astonishment discover the Grendel have been hiding in plain sight.

The old Grendel embassy building was commissioned by the Senate in Redoubt in Spring 384YE and the work was completed two seasons later. The Grendel quickly settled into the new building but when the treaty came to an end, it seems that not all of them moved out. There had been clear signs of trouble - odd reports of Grendel activity in and around the embassy as the end of the treaty grew closer. The Ambassador to the Grendel at the time wrote to them reminding their counterpart that they would need to depart the embassy if war began. The Grendel protested the issue - claiming that as civilised people they should keep the channels of communication open - even during the war. However there were no instructions to the contrary by the Senate and so the ambassador's instructions were carried out and the embassy was closed and the occupants offered free passage out of the territory.

Now it seems that not all of them may have left. In fact, it transpires that the Grendel were using the embassy building to spy on the Empire at the time, with spies coming and going at all hours of the day. The diplomatic staff duly left when the embassy was closed, sadly the spies did not, it appears. Rather than get on a boat with their colleagues they chose to hide in the city and have been operating clandestinely ever since. Incredibly, the spies have actually been hiding out in the old embassy building itself, using a secret tunnel to come and go unobserved.

The Vigilant place the embassy building under close scrutiny, being careful not to tip off the enemy. Once they've gathered enough information, they call in the magistrates who move swiftly to arrest and execute the spies. A handful of corrupt merchants are rounded up with them, it seems that more than a few Urizeni captains have been paid handsomly for reports of what they've learned while sailing the Bay. Sadly there's no new information beyond what had already been discovered in Apulian, but the magistrates are able to confirm what those in Spiral discovered. Each espionage ring requires a navy taking special orders to sit in the waters off a territory for a season to set one up. They're expensive, not just to set up but to run. Paying informants is costly business it seems.

All-in-all it has been a surprisingly effective process - for all that it has been mostly good luck. If the followers of Berechiah hadn't been here at just the right moment, then it's likely that the Grendel spies would have got away with it. As it is, they've been able to capitalise on the success in Spiral to clear Redoubt - and in doing so clear the entire Eastern half of the Bay.

That just leaves Sarvos, Feroz, and Madruga to deal with...

Countering the Grendel

The Grendel espionage ring has offices in Sarvos and Madruga and is suspected of having offices in Feroz The Imperial Spymaster and the Shuttered Lantern could be empowered to go after these operations

Removing the remaining "jewels" of the Grendel espionage ring will not be easy. The Vigilant might favour the use of the Silent Bell, it's certainly within their remit, but their focus is currently in the east on the Druj where they are suffering heavy losses. Much more of that and there won't be a Silent Bell to send.

There are three options that the Empire could employ, all of which would work. The first is to empower the Imperial Spymaster, recently granted responsibilties for counter-espionage, the power to set up and coordinate counter-espionage efforts. An alternative would be to empower the Shuttered Lantern by building them a Grand Lodge. Finally, the Empire could ask one or Imperial generals with scouting armies, the Seventh Wave or potentially the Wolves of War to scout the territory. The last requires the least upfront investment, but it does mean having an entire Imperial army unable to fight that season.

Lowther's Gaze

The Imperial Senate could commission offices for the Imperial Spymaster to give them the power to set up a counter-espionage operation in a territory Each operation would cost 10 thrones and require the support of military units with a combined strength of two thousand to be successful

The Imperial Senate could use a Senate motion to build substantial offices for the Imperial Spymaster. The best place for such offices would be in one of the great cities of the Empire, it wouldn't have to be one of the League cities but it would need to be a large settlement.

Once the offices were complete, the Spymaster could use them to coordinate counter-espionage efforts in the Empire. These efforts wouldn't be cheap, but they would be flexible, the Spymaster could choose any Imperial territory (that is a territory eligible to elect a senator). All they would need to do is use an announcement in a Military Council session to issue the orders. It wouldn't be cheap - each use of this power would cost the Imperial treasury 10 thrones that season, reflecting the expenses of setting up and coordinating scores of independent scouts.

That latter part is crucial - the Spymaster would need significant support from Imperial military units. The announcement would create a scouting venture that military units from the nation in question could choose to support the venture. If the venture had the support of military units with a combined strength of a thousand or more, then the Spymaster would get a full report on any covert activities by spies in the area and might discover illicit activities by cults or similar. With a strength of two thousand or more, the Empire would gain an opportunity to shut down any covert activity, if there was any.

One drawback of this approach is that the military units would need to be drawn from the nation where the action was taking place. Marcher bounders would be highly effective in counter-espionage efforts in Mitwold or similar - but they couldn't help in the League or the Brass Coast, or other nations.

Cartographer's Eye

The Imperial Conclave could use a declaration of concord to look into establishing a grand lodge for the Shuttered Lantern in one of the afflicted territories The presence of the Shuttered Lantern grand lodge in a territory would make it impossible for an enemy to establish a spy network or an espionage ring there

With the grand lodge of the Golden Pyramid in Mareave completed, the Conclave could use a declaration of concord to identify which order ought to benefit from such prestigious quarters next. There is considerable competition for this honour, but if the Conclave chose to honour the Shuttered Lantern it would give them an opportunity to base themselves in a territory. Any grand lodge is bound to provide an array of benefits - assessing those options is part of what the declaration is for. It's not possible to know what the exact benefits might be.

However, one thing is clear - once a grand lodge of the Shuttered Lantern was complete in a territory, it would not be possible for the Grendel to set up a new office of an espionage ring there, nor for any enemy power to build a spy network there. With so many wizards dedicated to the detection and monitoring of threats in the territory, it would be impossible for a new network to be created.

The obvious drawback is the costs - a grand lodge is a huge edifice that require a massive investment of time and resources from the Empire. And if it did provide opportunities for the order to engage in counter-espionage, there is no reason to think they would be any cheaper than those potentially available to the Imperial Spymaster. As such it is impossible to tell at this time which route would be the best, although given he scale of the problem, there is no reason the Empire couldn't pursue both avenues.

Radiant Orb

Spies have not been able to locate the missing prognosticator Eilian Sweetwater

One matter that comes to light not long before the Autumn Equinox is that of Eilian Sweetwater, the Navarr Imperial Prognosticator. It seems that the prognosticator left Elos literally a day before the Grendel armada swept into Naris and laid siege to the town. Unfortunately, he left on a boat chartered to bring him and his fellows to the site of the old Lighthouse of Nikopheros. There has been no further news of either the well-loved Navarr researcher, nor those who travelled with him, and fears are growing that he has fallen into the hands of the Grendel. There is some concern that Eilian is well-acquainted with any number of Imperial projects and plans, and has a wealth of knowledge about the history of the Empire to boot. If he is in the hands of Grendel spymasters... well they are unlikely to be gentle in trying to pry open the lid of his knowledge.

ParticipationAny character who was involved in Eilian's work - he was on sabbatical exploring historic lighthouses - is welcome to create a story as to why they were not with the prognosticator when he set sail. These stories might involve unlikely coincidences, the intervention of odd and enigmatic strangers, weird presentiments of doom, or just a plan to follow on later once some pressing business was concluded. They might also involve a desperate flight from the island on the chartered boat, moments ahead of the Grendel attackers, and the discovery once it was too late that the prognosticator is not aboard. In the end, it appears to be only Eilian and Fotismos who are unaccounted for.