Clans/Tribes/Societies

Your character may or may not belong to some sort of faction, clan, tribe, social structure, or army. These are sometimes distinct from nations, and sometimes the same thing.

There are many possible clans, societies, etc. a PC may wish to join, or may have been born into. The affiliation can be as loose or as tight as the player wishes. The player is encouraged to invent an interesting background as to the nature of his tribal/clan/societal structure affiliation, and for the structure itself. A clan or tribe can also be a club, secret society, guild, merchant house, and so on.

In several cases, these social structures overlap with a character's family or homeland. In these cases the character's Clan/Tribe is a tighter affiliation than the homeland, but usually looser than family (this is entirely the players' decision but this is the norm). For example, in cases where a character is a citizen of a nation such as The Empire, but his Clan/Tribe ends up being Falconhand, he is probably an active member of Falconhand, and his Liege/Patron probably resides within their ranks.

Many of these Clan/Tribe structures overlap or at least have relationships with one another. The details of these relationships and benefits/hindrances of any Clan/Tribe should be worked out by Player and DM collaboration if they have not been already.

Syserian societies, guilds, clans of sellswords, smaller local armies, splinter factions, individual tribal groups, etc. etc. so forth, are far too abundant throughout the realm of the Shattered Stone to detail all but those of worldwide preeminence here. If none of these suit your fancy but you still want to be part of a society, there is more than enough room in this world to make one up.

[#_CLANTRIBE_WARRIORS]

Rogues and Roguelike Guilds

Scoundrels. Folk of ill repute. Rogue guilds are a broad category of factions that are often engaged in criminal activity—or fighting it. This more often than not takes the form of covert operations. These groups can be outlaws that are perhaps similar to a Mafia or a gang, formed for protection, profit sharing, and manipulating power structures. Others may be tasked with upholding the law or protecting their nation, such as Investigators and Spy guilds.

When thieves and outlaws band together to find or generate adventure & treasure opportunities, evade or escape capture, and sometimes pull the strings of the local government, it is called a Thieves' Guild. Most major cities throughout Syseria have the presence of a Theive's Guild. Some Guilds are organized into Franchises, and boast representation in multiple cities throughout Syseria. Groups of burglars may work together to scout, case, and acquire their next big score. It is common for members to boast; “big fish” tales and legends are always circulating throughout the organization.

There are also roguelike societies that are not law breakers but rather law enforcers. Investigators form groups of seekers that work privately or sometimes publicly, overt or covert.

Spies

Clandestine groups of rogues that band together to protect their nation covertly form spy guilds. Spying guilds have to be tied to a nation or existing power structure, there is no such thing as a freelance group of spies. These groups sometimes pull the strings of a proxy government themselves. Other times they install their own puppets and/or sleeper agents. Candidates are usually carefully identified and groomed. This process can take years.

A covert spy can take many possible identities and anyone can hypothetically be one. It's not limited to rogues—however, rogues are most predisposed to the lifestyle. But nobles, merchants, soldiers, wizards, priests, etc... these individuals all hold plenty of potential for espionage.

These groups get a spies' cant all their own. Similar to a thieve's cant, the spies cant enables covert agents to identify and communicate without arousing suspicion or anyone knowing what they were talking about. Use of common language, innuendo, and double-talk and double meanings to send a message that is in fact encoded.

Spies’ Cant

Examples might include, there's a stranger in our house. It means that we have been infiltrated by a double agent. Some nondescript small talk to introduce oneself as a spy to another. For example, it will be a nice day if it doesn't rain. The other guy responds it's always a nice day if it doesn't rain. And then you respond back as long as the sun is warm. Now the two can speak to one another as covert allies. Or if you go into a tailor shop with a secret entrance to the spy's Guild, you get in by ordering a very particular suit. What type of soup would you like today? Worcester or Tweed? Tweed. Single or double breasted? Single. Two buttons are three? Three buttons please. And then the tailor leads the would-be customer to the secret entrance to the guild.

Spies’ Cant Glossary

INTRODUCTIONS: Not a specific vocabulary per se, but spies (once known) invert introductions. The parties meeting will tell each other everything they know about them. This applies to both allies and enemies. Jemenah: “Thalos Nor, 27 years of age, family of 5, two sisters one brother, trained in martial skills under Tylon Na’Sharra, rogueish skills at the Crossbow Guild.” Thalos: “You wanna look at my arse, too?”

MAIL DROP: Known also as a live letterbox, but known to the FBI as a mail drop, this is an individual who allowed their home to be used as an accommodation address for espionage,” says Nigel. “It’s an effort to circumvent likely interception of mail at the addresses more closely associated with the true correspondents.”

ACTIVE MEASURES A term for an aggressive operation or propaganda campaign, often involving disinformation, and roughly equivalent to the CIA definition of covert action, active measures embrace every component of aggressive operations,” Nigel explains.

DENIED AREA “Environments in which intelligence collection is hard, or downright impossible, such as Moscow, Havana, Beijing and Baghdad,” says Nigel. “During the Cold War, the CIA was reluctant to establish a station at the US embassy in Moscow because of the pervasive security apparatus, ubiquitous surveillance and the degree of harassment experienced by the diplomatic community.”

ROLLING MEET “A CASE officer’s rendezvous with an agent, where the ‘asset’, often in a denied territory, is picked up in a buggy or some kind of enclosed vehicle at an agreed location at a particular time,” explains Nigel.

JIB “The Jack-In-The-Box was a device which enabled a pop-up dummy to replace a passenger in a vehicle when a Rolling Car Meet was in progress,” says Nigel. “Designed for use in denied territory, the JIB was developed in 1980 by the CIA’s Office of Technical Services, from an inflatable doll purchased to deceive hostile surveillance.”

POCKET LITTER “Casual items, such as keys, photos, wallets and ticket stubs which are intended to convey a false impression, or support an alias,” explains Nigel. “A classic example is the case of ‘Major William Martin’, an entirely bogus British officer whose body was placed in the sea off the Spanish coast near Huelva in April, 1943, as part of an ingenious MI5 deception operation, code-named Mincemeat. “The cadaver was actually that of a homeless Welsh alcoholic, Glyndwr Michael. “Confident that the body would be searched by the Spanish authorities, MI5 officers went to elaborate lengths by preparing the pocket litter.” The Garden, or sometimes Uncle: HQ/homebase

STRANGER(S) IN THE HOUSE or GARDEN: We’ve been infiltrated by covert unfriendlies (“strangers”).

AGENT: As an agent, you work secretly for an intelligence service, offering secrets or operational support. While the FBI calls certain officers 'agents', most intelligence services prefer 'officers'.

AGENT HANDLER or CASE MONITOR: The mission controller. Your job is to manage (or run) an agent operation, which might include recruiting, instructing, paying, debriefing, or advising your agent.

ALIAS: Spies need an alias - a false identity - to conceal a genuine one.

ANALYST: As an expert in your field, your job is to obtain crucial insights from intelligence, then write reports and give presentations to spymasters.

ANTI-SURVEILLANCE: If you think you’re being watched, you’ll need to check without revealing your suspicions. You’ll need to conduct anti-surveillance drills to find out if people are watching you, without letting them know you know.

CHICKPEAS: Code phrases used to identify [hopefully] friendly spies. Can vary. "The birds will be flying high tomorrow." It'll be a nice day, if it doesn't rain." etc... (Sometimes also referred to as paroles.)

DRINK: An assist, intervention, or fix-it man. "I need a drink!"

MOLE-CATCHER Since the 1980s, mole-catcher has been used in relation to the lowest form of mole: the informant. In Gerald Priestland’s 1983 book At Large, he discusses “Mrs Thatcher's mole-catcher, the Mr Bingham of Epsom who is supposed to be plugging the leaks in Whitehall.” A Guardian article from 1986 mentions a downside to catching a sneak: “Prime Ministers were not necessarily overjoyed when the efforts of their mole catchers proved successful. The lurid publicity of a spy trial could be embarrassing.”

PHYLACTOLOGY This word for counterespionage was coined by novelist Kingsley Amis in 1966’s The Anti-Death League: “Apparently what's called the philosophy of phylactology—spy-catching to you—has been transformed.” Amis also coined the rare words phylactological and phylactologist. Given their obscurity, these are perfect words for the spy game. You could put phylactologist on a business card, and no one would blink.

QUIET CITIZEN An active, infiltrated asset.

SPIERY The The fact or condition of being a spy; the action of spying; espionage. A mention in the awkwardly titled 1588 book The Troubles of Our Catholic Forefathers Related by Themselves puts the word in disreputable company: “examinations, confessions, fictions, accusations, slanders, spiery, recantation and the like.”

PLAY MATERIAL or CHICKEN FEED: “‘Play material’ is the jargon phrase used to describe the low-grade classified information fed back to the enemy through double agents.”

CUT-OUT While cut-out sounds like more childlike play material, it’s a crucial cog in the machinery of spycraft. In his 1963 book They Call it Intelligence: Spies and Spy Techniques Since World War II, Joachim Joesten describes a cutout as “a trusted middleman.” The idea is compartmentalization, cutting out the spy from some of the risk and the cut-out from too much potentially dangerous information.

DISCOVERER This is one of the most honest and dishonest words for a spy, who does often discover information, though not by the most straightforward means. This term has been describing spies and scouts since the mid-1400s, and it appears in Shakespeare’s Henry IV Part 2: “Here ... send discoverers forth, To know the numbers of our enemies.”

WORMING It’s not unusual to hear someone engaged in slippery, ingratiating behavior described as worming their way into the hearts and minds of their dupes. You don’t often hear worming as meaning the work of spies, but it has occasionally had just this meaning. In Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher’s 1607 play The Woman Hater, spying is referred to as “this worming trade.”

SWALLOW The honey trap or honey pot is one of the most famous espionage strategies: seducing someone as part of a ruse. Hardly an episode of The Americans goes by without one or both of the Jennings honey-trapping some lonely, gullible citizen. In the 1972 book Any Number Can Play, the awesomely named Dennis Bloodworth mentions a related term in a passage trimmed by the OED: “You have doubtless read about the ... ‘swallows’ of the KGB, the young ladies trained ... to bed down intelligence targets, so that they can be comfortably and conveniently bugged and photographed in compromising ... positions?”

CRYPTONYM There are so many -nyms in the vocabulary of names. A pseudonym is an author’s fake name, while an eponym is a word derived from a name. But a cryptonym is far more sly: Since the mid-1800s, it’s been a code name, especially for a spy. An 1862 use in St. James’ Magazine mentions a common feature of spy life: “For a short time he assumed several unobtrusive civilian cryptonyms.”

LURCHER No offense to Frankenstein, but lurching has never had the best reputation. The OED definition explains how this word found itself in the espionage lexicon: “One who loiters or lies hidden in a suspicious manner; a spy.” Other disreputable meanings of lurcher include a cross-bred dog and a swindler. So if a labradoodle ever wants to sell you real estate, beware.

Asset A secret source of information or operational assistance, usually an agent, but occasionally someone totally unaware they’re aiding an intelligence service.

Backstop You can’t expect the world to take you at face value. People are going to check. Thoroughly. So you need backstops: the names and addresses of front companies that support your legend.

BANG-AND-BURN: Sabotage and demolition and operations.

BIRDWATCHER: Trust the British to come up with such an eccentric, understated nickname for an intelligence officer.

BLACK BAG OPERATION: In a black bag operation, you break into a building to collect intelligence. You might have to pick locks, clone keys, crack safes. Survey and photograph. Plant listening devices. The name comes from the black bags burglars often use to carry their tools.

BLACK or SILENT OPERATION: “It wasn’t us.” That’s the official line on black ops. These are missions so sensitive they have to be deniable. The people at the top must be able to say they never knew. So if you’re discovered, it’ll look like you were working for some private group or organization. You’re on your own.

BLOWBACK: If something goes wrong with your covert operation, the consequences for those responsible may be disastrous. That’s blowback. A term coined by the CIA.

BLOWN: You need to move fast. Get out now, while you can. Why? Your mission or identity has been fully discovered. You’re blown.

BONA FIDES: Good faith? No thanks. This is espionage. If you want me to believe you are who you say you are, or that you have the clearance you claim, I’ll need cold, hard proof. I’ll need credentials. I’ll need your bona fides.

BRUSH: contact Some of the most important meetings in espionage last less than a second. A brush contact is barely contact at all: a moment’s jostle on a busy platform, two strangers passing on the street. Just enough to exchange something - a word, an envelope, a key. It’s so swift and subtle, even a trained surveillance team can miss it.

BURNED: You’ve slipped up. Or someone else has. Either way, your identity has been compromised.

CIPHER: A cipher scrambles your message into nonsense by substituting (and adding to) the letters in it. For someone to read it, they’ll either need the key or to be skilled at cryptanalysis.

Clandestine operation

An operation so secretive that the whole thing is designed to remain unknown and deniable.

Clandestine premises

See safe house.

Classified

Classified information is protected by law from public view, because a government feels it’s too sensitive to reveal. To get to it you’ll either need the right security clearance or another, less official way in.

Clean

You’re always aiming to stay clean: undetected, unsuspected. That way, you’re able to acquire and pass on information free from surveillance.

Cobbler

A forger of identity documents. “You’ll need a passport for your next assignment,” says one of your superiors. “Go and see the cobbler.”

Code

You’re in a tight spot and don’t know who might be listening in. Luckily, you and your colleagues have a predefined code - a system of words that represent other words - to protect your communication and yourselves.

Compromised

Uh oh. Some aspect of your operation, asset, or cover has been uncovered - compromised. You'd better think fast.

Concealment device

Need to hide secrets? Put them in something that looks ordinary: a suitcase with a false bottom, a hollowed-out coin, a USB flash drive. The best concealment devices are things that you carry with you every day.

Conscious

You’re not part of an intelligence service, but you are knowingly talking to someone who is. They describe you as conscious - in on what they really do.

Counterintelligence

Everyone knows everyone else is spying on them. So intelligence services devote a lot of energy to counterintelligence: thwarting foreign spying operations (which includes flushing out traitors).

Counter-surveillance

This is the use of teams to watch for followers. Think of it as surveillance on surveillance.

Cover

You need a cover to mask the fact that you work for an intelligence service. Sometimes it’s just a false name. Other times you might need to carry business cards. In extreme cases, you’ll need a full-on legend.

Covert operation

The last domino falls - but no one saw the first one go. A covert operation is a hidden operation designed to influence events in a foreign, probably hostile, place. Everyone sees the result. But no one knows you created it.

Cryptanalysis

The art of deciphering coded messages without being told the key.

Cryptologist

You are a mathematical master of making and breaking codes.

‍Spyscape Glossary of Spy terms including cryptologist

Cultivation

The development of a relationship with an intelligence target (prior to recruitment) during which an intelligence officer explores the target's motivations to spy.

Cut-out

You need to get vital information to someone. But if they’re seen with you, their cover will be blown. So how do you get from A to B? You use C: a cut-out. A third party both of you trust, but whose presence won’t alert the enemy.

Dangle

One way to catch fish involves dangling bait in the water. And one way to collect intelligence involves dangling an officer in front of the enemy. If the enemy bites, you’ve got a double agent on the inside, someone to gather secrets or spread disinformation. You may also use a dangle to identify enemy officers with the intent of removing them from your country.

Dead drop

How to pass something to someone who it’s not safe to meet? How about a dead drop site? A secret location where you can leave it for them to pick up later.

Decryption

Breaking a code, with or without a key.

Deep cover

Your diplomatic cover is so complete that even your colleagues in the embassy don’t know that you’re an intelligence officer.

Defector

If you want to get out of your country, you could defect to an opposing one. Defectors sometimes gain entry to their new country by offering valuable intelligence.

Deniable

The operation is extremely sensitive and those in government don’t want it linked back to them. So you make it deniable. You set it up in a way that if a higher-up is ever asked, they can plausibly say they knew nothing.

Diplomatic cover

You’re both an intelligence officer and a diplomat. The cover gives you a reason for being in the target country as well as diplomatic immunity, including safe passage home, if you get made.

Disinformation

One way to disrupt the activities of an enemy intelligence service is to spread disinformation: falsehoods, rumors, and fake stories. (Not to be confused with misinformation, which is unintentionally false.)

Double agent

A very risky position. You’re pretending to work for one intelligence service, while secretly working against it for another one. Covert agents are not always in this position by choice; many are blackmailed into it.

Dry clean

Dry cleaning gets rid of spots. So if you think you’ve been spotted, that’s what you do: carry out measures to see if you’re being surveilled. (See also anti-surveillance and counter-surveillance.)

Ears only

You’re dealing with material so sensitive it must not be committed to writing.

Eavesdrop

A hidden mic. A bugged phone. There are many ways to eavesdrop - to listen in to (supposedly) private conversations.

Eyes only

Information that may be read but not discussed, or that can only be shown to specific people.

Elicitation

As an intelligence officer, you need to master the subtle art of elicitation: drawing out valuable information from a target.

Encryption

How do you protect your data? Encrypt it with a cipher. If you want to read it again you’ll need to decrypt it with a key.

Exfiltration

A secret rescue operation to bring an agent, defector or intelligence officer (and sometimes his or her family) out of immediate danger and into a safe zone.

False flag operations

Operations designed to look like the work of another nation. Pirates flew the original 'false flags' to fool the ships they were about to attack into believing they were friendly.

FRONT [ORGANIZATIONS]: The best smokescreens make no smoke. One way to keep your operations secret is to act through a front organization, usually a business, that no one knows you control.

GOING GRAY: How do you get into a building you don’t have clearance for? Or catch conversations you’re not meant to hear? By going gray: looking and acting in a way that blends you into your surroundings.

HANDLE: This is information or means that an agent handler can use to control an agent.

HONEYPOTS or SWALLOWS: The attractive stranger giving you the twinkly eyes: romantic interest, or a trap wanting your secrets? Could be friendly (to test your loyalty) or unfriendly (to collect your intelligence). The women are referred to as “Honeypots” and the men are referred to as “Swallows.”

HUMAN INTELLIGENCE: Spying is often about personality not physicality. HUMINT is intelligence gathered through personal contact with agents.

INFILTRATION: Most soldiers are stationed on the front line or behind their own lines. Not you. As an intelligence officer you infiltrate behind enemy lines, usually to gather intelligence for your spymasters or to help an agent escape danger.

Intelligence

This is your bread and butter. Intelligence is valuable, often secret information. And countries will go to great lengths to protect or steal it. (The word can also refer to the world of espionage as a whole.)

Intelligence cycle

Intelligence goes around in a cycle:

Planning: Politicians decide what they need to know in discussion with spymasters.

Collection: Intelligence officers collect the target information through a range of operations.

Analysis: Analysts pore over what’s been collected, connect the key details with what they already know, and create useful intelligence.

Dissemination: Spymasters discuss the new intelligence with the politicians. They plan future operations to collect more, if that’s what’s needed. And the cycle begins again.

Intelligence officer

You work for an intelligence service, gathering or analyzing intelligence with the ultimate goal of helping your government and nation.

Intelligence operative

The heart of an intelligence organization, you’re involved in an array of operations, from servicing dead drops to setting up safe houses.

Jailbreak

Often used in relation to the iPhone, the term jailbreaking is circumventing the security of a device to remove a manufacturer's restrictions. It is considered 'jailbreaking' because it frees users from the ‘jail’ of limitations.

Key

In secure, encrypted systems sometimes the same key - usually a string of letters and numbers - locks and unlocks your data. And sometimes the sender and recipient have different keys, which makes life even safer. Protect any keys that unlock important data: If your enemies find the key, you’re stuffed.

Kompromat

Often used to describe compromising material gathered by Dvorian officials. Also used generally to describe compromising material gathered for blackmail or to discredit and manipulate someone for political gain or leverage.

‍SPYSCAPE glossary of spy terms including intelligence operative

Legend

If you need a legend, you must be going in deep. It’s a sophisticated cover that amounts to an entire artificial life history (and supporting documents) to fool even determined counterintelligence professionals.

Lightning contact

See brush contact.

Limited hangout

What to do if news gets out about your operation? You could try a limited hangout: Shutting down further inquiry by giving away a portion of the truth and making an apology.

Live drop

You have secrets or money to exchange with an agent. How do you do it? Sometimes the safest thing is to meet face-to-face. That’s a live drop. Very different from a dead drop.

MICE

Why spy? You might want to get paid. Or you believe in the cause you’re helping. Perhaps you were blackmailed into it. Or maybe it makes you feel important. Most agents are motivated by one or more of these: Money, Ideology, Coercion, Ego. In short, MICE.

Microdot

A microdot is an image or a whole page of text shrunk down to the size of a period, so as to escape notice by the enemy. (See also steganography.)

Mole

You are employed by an intelligence service, but you are passing secrets to the enemy. Often moles are recruited before they even work for their target service, making them even harder to spot than most agents.

Morse code

You have a message for someone, but normal communication isn’t an option. Luckily you know Morse code. You send each letter as a unique combination of dots and dashes - maybe flashing a torch, or tapping it out over a radio.

Naked

Acting without any assistance; you’re so exposed you might as well be naked.

Need-To-Know

The first rule of espionage: No one should know anything they don’t need to. Information can leak in all sorts of directions. So keep a tight lid on it. Tell people exactly what they need to know - and no more.

Numbers station

A shortwave radio station used to broadcast coded messages to an operative in the field. All you have to do is tune your radio and know how to interpret the code.

One-time pad

The emperor of encryption, the one-time pad is unbreakable if used properly. Only you and the receiver have the pad, or key, needed to encrypt and decrypt the message. And it’s randomly generated. To read the message, an enemy would have to get hold of the pad.

‍Computer information on screen for hacking

Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT)

Sometimes you don’t need to be covert about it. OSINT is intelligence collected from overt, publicly available sources. Mainly the internet nowadays.

Operation

What are we here to do? Recruit someone? Recover intelligence? Go after something new? Once it’s got a specific goal, we call it an operation, one of the most important words in intelligence.

Operational security (OpSec)

If you want to keep hold of your secrets and identity, you’ll need good OpSec. That means hiding your IP address, not leaking any personal information, and keeping all your conversations private and not logged.

Personal surveillance detection

See anti-surveillance.

Plaintext

Your plaintext is your message. The thing you want to say, before it gets scrambled with a cipher.

Plant

No one around you knows it, but you’re not who you seem. You’ve been secretly placed in this situation to gather intelligence. You’re a plant and from the seeds of your intelligence, a whole conspiracy might grow.

Playback [Usually] fake intelligence. You supply false information or information that has no real value. Your target thinks it’s real, and gives you something in return. The perfect trade, for you at least. Then, you listen to your network. If you hear your false information being exchanged amongst your enemies, your network is functioning properly. This also points to the reliability of the contact that delivered the information. That’s playback.

Propaganda Biased information put out to promote a cause or point of view. If the source is obvious, it’s white propaganda. If it pretends to be from one side, but is actually created by its enemy, it’s black propaganda.

Recognition signal

Something to confirm a contact’s identity. The signal must be distinctive. Any random person might be carrying a brown leather bag, but it probably won’t be diagonally over their left shoulder.

Recruitment

You’ve spotted someone who could be useful to your service. But this isn’t the sort of role you can just advertise. You may want your potential agent to turn against their country. Recruitment is often the final step in a process, after spotting, targeting, cultivating and assessing.

Redaction

Some secrets have to stay secret. That’s why many documents are redacted, meaning their most sensitive passages are deleted or blacked out. Even declassified documents from decades ago may have redactions. Some things only a few people can know.

Sanitizing

If you’re worried your dirty dealings are about to be exposed, there’s only one thing to do: sanitize. Get rid of anything incriminating. Burn it, purge it from the record, amend the documents. Keep yourself and your sources safe.

Safehouse

There’s a target on your back, and you need a safehouse - a secure, secret location to hide in. Just don’t expect luxury. Most safehouses look as ordinary as possible.

Signals Intelligence (SIGINT)

SIGINT is intelligence gathered by intercepting communications between people. Because such communications are often encrypted, cryptanalysis plays an important role in SIGINT.

Sleeper

As a sleeper agent, you live in a foreign country as an ordinary citizen. You will only act if a hostile situation develops. You build up your legend every day, adding new layers, acquaintances, and experiences. You might live it for years.

Source handler

See agent handler.

Special operations officer

As a special ops officer you’ll need the skills to operate weapons and explosives, and a whole lot of courage. You’ll be taking on missions to gather intelligence and destroy targets in hostile environments.

Spook

Slang for intelligence officers. The primary meaning of spook is a ghost. Like them, intelligence officers operate in the shadows.

Spy

If you’re thinking of becoming a spy and passing secrets to a foreign intelligence service then you’re taking a big risk. Getting caught could mean a life sentence. (Note: The word 'spy' is commonly used to mean an intelligence officer, which is confusing because in fact it’s the opposite.)

Spycatcher

A specialist in counterintelligence (thwarting enemy spies).

Spymaster

You’ve made it to the top. You’re a leader of an intelligence service.

Stakeout

Two targets are about to meet in a public park. Your surveillance team performs a stakeout of the area - spreading out, assessing the dangers, covering exit routes. All without drawing any attention.

Station

Your station is where you carry out your espionage work, maybe for a few hours, a day, or long-term. In any case, keep it under your hat.

Steganography

Like a Russian doll for data. Steganography is hiding a message, image or file in another message, image or file. It may look ordinary but not if you look much closer. (For an example of steganography, see Microdot.)

Surveillance

The most literal form of spying is surveillance: secret observation. It may be simple: you alone, watching a doorway from a café across the street. Or complex: a team on foot and in vehicles, tracking targets via camera and satellites. Just make sure those targets never know you’re there.

Surveillance aware They know. You know they know. You can see it from their behavior. They’re looking at you looking. They’re surveillance aware.

Surveillance Detection Route (SDR) A surveillance detection route is a predetermined, carefully selected route to lure a surveillant into following their target and expose hostile surveillance.

Technical Intelligence (TECHINT) Intelligence about weapons and equipment used by foreign armed services. If you know what your adversaries are capable of you can plan accordingly.

Technical operations officer An officer who gathers intelligence by tapping phones, breaking into buildings, planting cameras, and other means.

Traps Has anyone been sneaking around while you were away? You’ll know because you set subtle traps (sometimes known as 'tells') to give intruders away. A hair along a drawer that will drop invisibly if someone disturbs it, perhaps. Or a microscope slide under the carpet that will shatter inaudibly if someone walks on it.

Tradecraft The array of methods and tools used in covert intelligence operation. Get the tradecraft right and you give an operation the best chance of success. Get it wrong and there’s every chance you’ll get blown.

Traffic analysis Traffic analysis means gathering intelligence by recognizing particular patterns or discrepancies in intercepted messages. It allows you to infer things without needing to read the messages themselves.

Trigger If you’re the trigger in a surveillance team, your eyes are glued to the target, and it’s your job to report on their movements. Meanwhile the others stay back to avoid spooking the target.

Technical Surveillance Countermeasures (TSCM) If there are listening devices or covert cameras in your office, you’ll need to flush them out. So you launch TSCMs (or bug sweeps) to detect, and frustrate any electronic surveillance.

Uncle Uncle is intelligence community slang for headquarters. No one said espionage was funny.

Undercover Operations conducted using a false identity. Your cover identity might last a few hours or several years, depending on the operation.

Walk-In It can be very tough to find a suitable agent. Suddenly, hope: a walk-in appears, a spy looking to betray their country and provide you with vital information.

Wallet Litter If your fake wallet's going to look like a real one, it needs wallet litter - receipts, travel documents, event tickets -to add convincing detail to your cover.

So why employ spies instead of just scrying? It's high level magic not always accessible. More powerful entities will have magical detection available and will be watching for that.

Handy equipment for spies includes Philter of Love, medallion of thoughts, helm of telepathy, hat of disguise, gloves of thievery, eyes of the eagle, boots/cloak of elvenkind, bag of devouring, ring of invisibility, ring of 3 wishes, robe of archmagi, and immovable rod.

Helpful spells for spies include knock, disguise/alter/etc. Self, invisibility, ESP, detect thoughts, expeditious retreat, haste, wind walk, speak with animals/plants/dead, mage hand, fly, silence 20' radius`.

[#_CLANTRIBE_NATIONX]

Nation X

This nation is of legendary proficiency in the spying arts and intelligence is their mother's milk. They have puppet leaders and sleeper agents everywhere. Their espionage capabilities keep this nation well on top of the Cirisca fracas. They rarely or never show their hand, though.

[#_CLANTRIBE_WARRIORS]

Warrior & Mercenary Groups

It is both common and necessary for the brave rank-and-file protectors of society to organize into armies. Groups of warriors train and drill together, learn new fighting techniques, and form battalions when war comes upon their land.

An organized army will be divided into a hierarchical military structure. The number of tiers may vary, but there is always a supreme leader, a trusted circle of advisors, then usually generals, and rank and file. Depending on the complexity of the organization, there could be more tiers between the generals and rank and file, such as leftenants and captains. These organizations are designed to carry orders and information quickly and efficiently through the ranks, while also maintaining the integrity of the message. Each individual soldier is trained to carry out her or his orders with military precision and without question.

Pay for hired soldiers is 1gp/month for foot soldiers, 4gp/month for archers, 6gp/month for medium cavalry, and 150gp/month for engineers. The soldier will be issued a standard set of equipment, and in most normal circumstances should be provided with food, water, shelter, and other supplies. Sometimes soldiers will be transported, such as onboard ships, riding with caravans, etc., but most often they will probably be marching everywhere.

There are also myriad tribal and clan type organizations of warriors. These are less organized, but often more fierce. Individualism is more emphasized and theirs is a life of pride. Boasts of military accomplishments can always be heard accompanying the morning and evening campfire meals.

When cries to arms are raised, many brave warriors may answer for many different reasons. Love of nation. Protection of family and home. Glory and honor. Duty and loyalty to their patron lord. For some, the motivation is to get paid. In exchange for a small finder's fee (typically 10% early on, this may go down as the Merc advances through the ranks), these mercenary groups can connect sellswords to a large variety of potential jobs.

These groups can be consulted by PC's needing help in the form of extra hired swords or personpower of any kind. PC's might also join these groups and be consulted themselves. All such soldiers of fortune are generally elite crack squads of troubleshooters and creative problem solvers that don't always think in a linear fashion. Indeed, that is the appeal and how they make their money.

Most mercenary groups are formed by charismatic former soldiers and naturally organize along military lines. There is typically a rigid hierarchical structure through which information, orders, and modi operandi flow. Ranks in this structure almost always resemble military ranks, albeit sometimes stripped down. E.g., General, Corporal, Lieutenant, Captain, Soldier, and so on. It's not impossible for merc groups to take on other organizational structures similar to a business or a dictatorship, either.

Upon hire, in nearly all cases it is left to the devices and abilities of the contractors to complete the task assigned within the specified timeframe. It is the contractors' responsibility to provide their own transportation to and from the job site. In the cases where this does not apply, this will be stipulated in advance. Contracts may be in writing or verbal. (In some clandestine instances, it cannot be in writing for practical reasons).

[#_CLANTRIBE_REDCORSAIRS]

Red Corsairs

The Red Corsairs are a fairly dreaded group of pirate-like nautical marauders (to others), to Dvoria they’re enforcers. Their primary headquarters is Osavec, a strongly military town in Dvoria. These privateers operate throughout Dvorian waters and well beyond (their reach sometimes extends to the opposite side of the globe).

The Red Corsairs function contractually with the Grand Czar or his direct vicar. The leader of the Red Corsairs is involved with the wife of the Grand Czar and other queens of the nation. Their work is pseudo criminal and often brutal. They have the direct charge of protecting the waters and trade of Dvoria. They are officially authorized to engage and destroy any vessels of enemy nations or whatever they deem to be a threat to Dvorian waters or trade routes. The Red Corsairs are entitled to retain the spoils of war from these engagements.

The Red Corsairs will extort money from all traders but more from foreigners. They run the docks and nothing gets past them without paying some kind of price, sometimes trivial, sometimes great. The Dvorian economy tends not to import as much as most other Syserian economies, but others will import Dvorian goods. The Red Corsairs are not above slavery.

There is often internal and external strife amongst the Red Corsairs, with some “specializing” in coastal, others emphasizing southern trade routes, and still another focused on deep uncharted waters. Each of these key players is apt to accuse the others of being afraid of them or unwilling to get caught in their way.

[#_CLANTRIBE_BLACKTALON]

Black Talon

These experienced and shrewd warriors (along with pockets of spellcasters and rogues) are all of a like mind on one important aspect—profit. Black Talon is a group of mercenaries, and theirs is a life of chasing the next payday.

Black Talon unofficially has an army of 35,000 worldwide. Due to the relative secrecy of this organization, opinions and rumors vary on how long it would take for Black Talon to raise their army as a unified force in and of themselves. This is something that conspiracy theorists and the enemies of Black Talon ruminate on and lose sleep over.

Black Talon is an ancient organization formed before The Dark Times, which they are all keen to brag about. Like everyone else, their history between The Great Rift and the Rebuild is entirely lost. Black Talon Mercs are typically well-equipped and financed.

Joining the Black Talons simply requires that a candidate is able to pass a battery of physical and combat tests similar to a basic military boot camp. Lack of military experience ostensibly provides no handicap, but, on the whole, soldiers will be more likely to pass for obvious reasons. Military experience is not supposed to garner any preferential treatment in the onboarding process, but sometimes that happens in practice.

[#_CLANTRIBE_PRIESTS]

Priest Groups

Generally speaking, priest centered organizations are centered around zealously promulgating a deity's agenda. These will be detailed in the Pantheon section of this book. Some groups include Paladins, Druids, and sometimes even other characters like Wizards and Bards, et. al.

There are however, a few cults worshiping dead or demigods and/or domains believing they could one day become active again.

[#_CLANTRIBE_WIZARDS]

Wizardly Societies

These are groups of practitioners of arcane arts & sciences that band together for the purposes of furthering their knowledge and accomplishing a goal.

For some groups, their existence is a secret. Others operate in the open. All hoard and jealously guard knowledge.

[#_CLANTRIBE_INCOGNUS]

Circle of Incognus

This is a fraternity of likeminded individuals with a number of goals. One is to chronicle and preserve all knowledge possible. Ideally, all Syserian knowledge that exists, but this is an unattainable goal; it's just an ideal. The Circle of Incognus is organized into Houses. They exist in a two tier hierarchy: Great Houses and Houses.

The Circle of Incognus has taken responsibility for measuring time and chronicling known history.

Through magical means, all Houses share their information assuming they are Realized (see below). It is believed or inferred that there has to be a Supreme House above all others, but this House, if it exists, is not known to any of the membership at large.

Interested parties become members of the Circle through a process of initiation and then eventual induction. There is a three tiered level of membership, starting at first tier with Initiates, then Constituents, and ending tier three which are referred to as “Links.”

Realization and Amity

Relations between Houses are determined by the concept of Realization. Each House maintains a list of other Houses that are Realized. When two Houses Realize and are in communication with each other, they are said to be in Amity, and the brothers and sisters of each may visit each other's Houses and interact as Incognus. When two Houses are not in amity, inter-visitation and communicating as Incognus is not allowed.

[#_CLANTRIBE_Xiantiinne]

Xiantiinne

A secret society of elven wizards that meets regularly to keep the rifts caused by Chaos stones from opening afresh. This is an elite group of high level wizards which also share special spells that only they know about. They are highly xenophobic and secretive. They have some nature shaping abilities. Xiantiine are almost entirely Hiya Layos worshippers and are pacifists.

[#_CLANTRIBE_BLOODAXE]

Tribe of the Iron Axe

These orcs are ruthless marauders that steamroll any lands they pass through, killing, eating, taking, and raping whatever they want until they are killed or have left. They leave dead bodies and trampled & burned flora in their wake. Burning cities and villages is a favored pastime of the Tribe of the Iron Axe.

These Orcs worship the harlot demoness Szikuleth. Her motives, capabilities, and M.O. are all unclear. Some say she just wants to sow destruction and watch the world burn. Others believe she is keen to take over the world. And still others believe her methods and motives go deeper than that, or are fundamentally unknowable.

[#_CLANTRIBE_FALCONHAND]

Falconhand

A group of human-centric arcane magic users, commanding sizable legions of elite fighting troops. Their heraldry is a white falcon on various backgrounds according to locality, usually with the word “Falconhand” emblazoned beneath it.

The consortium of portal overseers is ostensibly a diverse group, but Falconhand represents 7/12 of its members. There are rumors and whispers of conspiracy, but none dare oppose them. They are powerful and have few to no enemies. They are often the first to defend any portal city from attack or disaster.

[#_CLANTRIBE_LUCKYSTRIKE]

Lucky Strike

Lucky Strike are a wandering band of halfling and quickling faithful (along with some zealots) that have larcenous and mischievous tendencies. They are known to never set down roots and stay in one place, with one exception: The Hub.