Idea time: Espionage in the Hyborian age

[KemperBoyd]

I finished running the Tales of the Black Kingdoms and the players made a friend of a Stygian during this game. This Stygian promised as a gesture of good will send word to a Stygian trading house in Iranistan, where the characters are heading now.

I've envisioned that the Stygians use their traders in various western and eastern countries as spies and general keep-an-eye-outers and frequently use exiled Stygians for this: Thoth-Amon arranges for criminals condemned to dead to be pardoned and exiled instead and allows them to live comfortable abroad in exchange for setting up spy networks.

The man running the trading house in the capital of Iranistan, Anshan, is a portly Stygian in his fourties called Nun-Ameth. He specializes in trade information: for the Stygians it's important to keep the lotus imports from Khitai going and they don't really want western traders to get a monopoly on Khitan lotus. So Nun-Ameth sometimes bribes officials and sometimes has his thugs beat or rob western traders. Apart from that, he's actually a very nice person to everyone he meets. He knows he lives at the mercy of Thoth-Amon and on borrowed time.

(mechanically, Nun-Ameth is Scholar 2/Thief 4)

Any other ideas for Hyborian-age cloak and dagger-type stuff?

 

[Doc Martin]

I had the idea (or maybe I got it from somewhere, can't remember - that's fatherhood for you) that the Stygian god Thoth was a god of knowledge and as such not seen as a malign threat by other nations. Therefore temple/libraries of Thoth were tolerated in cities outside of Stygia. In one particular setting I created (a Corinthian city state) the library of Thoth was actually used as a front for spying on the city - in particular the hospital of Ibis also in the city. The temple of Thoth had sacred baboons which were tolerated in the locality and allowed to wander about the streets. However, some of the priests of Thoth had the ability to go into a trance and see through the eyes of the baboons and control their actions to further their ends in gathering information and undermining the followers of Ibis. Never got round to using this in any detail but I'm sure you can think of things to do with it if you wish.

 

[Stygian Devout]

I've envisioned that the Stygians use their traders in various western and eastern countries as spies and general keep-an-eye-outers and frequently use exiled Stygians for this

Interesting and of course a trader is a natural cover for a spy. But keep in mind the vast majority of traders would be just traders because Stygia does in fact does rely heavily on import/export business. the spy-as-trader gig would be relatively rare.

 

[DimitriX]

I like the idea of more intrigue in Conan. I think its likely that Zamora and Stygia would use spies and assassins to further their goals. Also, considering that the game takes place under the reign of King Conan, I think its likely that you could see a lot of political intrigue in Aquilonia as many of the nobles would hate the idea of a Cimmerian brute sitting on their throne.