Spy

*"Secrets are my stock in trade. My compensation is coin equal to the secret’s value to a client. My silence will cost at least twice as much."*

## Advanced

(Core) Spies are secret agents who gather information for their patrons or the highest bidder. Spies are masters of disguise who often risk their lives to work undercover in enemy territory. Some will even join subversive groups and study them for months from the inside. A Spy who dares to infiltrate a Chaos coven risks far worse than death, but there are many groups in the Old World who desperately need the information such a stout soul can provide. All the nations of the Old World employ Spies, usually to monitor the military and political moves of their rivals.

### Secondary Profile

**Skills:** Charm, Common Knowledge (any two), Concealment, Disguise, Gossip, Lip Reading, Performer (Actor), Pick Lock, Shadowing, Sleight of Hand, Secret Language (any one), Silent Move, Speak Language (any three)

**Talents:** Flee!, Linguistics, Schemer, Suave or Sixth Sense

**Trappings:** Disguise Kit, 4 Homing Pigeons

### **Career Entries**

Camp Follower, Charlatan, Courtier, Explorer, Merchant, Minstrel, Physician, Rapscallion, Sea Captain, Servant

### **Career Exits**

Assassin, Explorer, Master Thief, Racketeer

## The Emperor’s Eyes

While the Emperor’s armies defend the borders of his realm, an unseen legion battles tirelessly to thwart the enemies within. These agents, known as the Emperor’s Eyes by those aware of their existence, confound those who plot against the Emperor, whether they be Chaos cultists, treacherous nobles or populist agitators. In the court of every Elector Count, in every guild building and meeting house where malcontents rant against Imperial edicts, and even within the Colleges of Magic, an Eye waits and watches. Knowledge is power, and Karl Franz uses the Eyes to maximise his authority.

The Eyes answer to Duke Friedrich von Fuchs, undersecretary to the Marshal of Altdorf, despatching intelligence to him scrawled in complicated cipher using invisible ink. An Eye cannot afford to reveal his true identity, and each carries a dose of arsenic. If an Eye is captured during a mission, von Fuchs will send a fellow agent to silence him.

Eyes are recruited from all spheres of society. Most are merely paid informers, but professional spies perform more sensitive work, masters of subterfuge who can worm their way deep into a conspiracy. Duke von Fuchs’s minions scour universities and guilds for candidates who display the necessary intelligence, charm and ruthlessness. The duke often uses blackmail to ensure the loyalty of new recruits, engineering events that would ruin them should they be made public.

## Emmanuel Blanck

The dashing baron became the talk of the ball when he stole a dance with Duchess Feodora Elsenach. He even shared her carriage home! But the scandal was forgotten the following morning with news of the duchess’s arrest and incarceration within the Palace of Retribution.

Within a week, she was executed for high treason – condemned by the discovery of an altar to an unspeakable deity hidden within her bedchamber. The chattering classes agreed that the duchess’s mysterious suitor had a hand in her demise, but nobody who had been at the ball could remember anything about the man, who had disappeared as though he never existed.

Emmanuel Blanck, spy extraordinaire by Imperial appointment, has perfected the art of being forgettable. He has a thousand masks; with a subtle frown or curl of the lip, he can transform his face. Using flattery and conceit, he can engage a person in genial conversation for hours, gleaning their innermost secrets while divulging nothing about himself. Among his many achievements, he infiltrated the notorious Blackpowder Plotters, saving the life of the Emperor himself. He toppled the Conspiracy of Skulls, foiling a ritual to summon a Bloodthirster beneath Altdorf ’s Temple of Sigmar. He was also instrumental in influencing the Boot Tax rioters of 2519 to lynch the very demagogues who had incited them to violence.

Only the spy master, Duke von Fuchs, is aware of Blanck’s existence. He calls upon his services in times of national crisis. The two never meet – the duke communicates with the agent by means of an obscure code flashed by lantern at dusk across Altdorf ’s rooftops. When Blanck signals that he has received his orders, von Fuchs is confident that he will resolve the case with his trademark efficiency.