Tower of the Eyes

In the Royal Court of Fairhaven, a round alabaster tower with two heavy-lidded eyes carved into the stone near the top, rises from the northeast portion of the Great Keep. This otherwise nondescript tower houses the secret headquarters of a secret organization—the Royal Eyes of Aundair.
The Royal Eyes headquarters has one of Khorvaire’s greatest concentrations of magical and mundane surveillance. At any given time, Spy Master Racannoch has a half-dozen arcanists using scrying spells or crystal balls to observe Aundair’s rivals at home or abroad. Other spellcasters within the tower experiment with illusion magic, crafting stealthy magic items for Royal Eyes agents, or interrogating those prisoners unfortunate enough to know something the Royal Eyes has an interest in.
The Tower of the Eyes is a central clearinghouse for the Royal Eyes’ intelligence-gathering operations, but few agents are there at any given time. Only those agents undergoing training or those taking a firsthand look at spy reports can be found within the Tower of the Eyes. All others are spread across Khorvaire, doing the Crown of Aundair’s bidding.

In Our Story:

Uses:

Once you’re a member of the Royal Eyes, you can enter the tower and request assistance (often a scrying spell or research in the tower’s libraries). Unless Aundair is facing a national crisis, access to a scrying spell or crystal ball can be arranged within 12 hours. Trusted and elite agents can meet with other top agents and with Spy Master Racannoch, and sometimes get magic items made by the Royal Eyes’ crafters (only if it’s for a mission, and only with Racannoch’s approval). Spartan but magically secure accommodations are available for agents visiting Fairhaven for a few days.
Elite agents are made lords of Aundair in a private ceremony with Queen Aurala. A noble can use the ir prefix before his or her surname, and lordship often comes with title to a small piece of land in rural Aundair. (Because the Last War decimated entire noble families, the crown is acting as steward for hundreds of unclaimed noble estates.) If you have an unsavory or muddled background, the Royal Eyes develops a lordly identity that you can assume when you wish. Many elite agents lead lives of noble ease—until the crown calls them to undertake “ just one more mission” for the good of the nation.
You can also use your affiliation to get favors from the Royal Eyes beyond what you need for your current mission. These favors are not given freely, however, and may come at a cost beyond the material. If the PC requests a dangerous, expensive, or illegal favor, they should expect to repay that favor in kind- and with interest.

Type

Tower

Interactions with other NPCs:

Equipment:

The Royal Eyes issues its trusted agents hats of disguise so they can go incognito when they need to. Changelings and others who don’t need the hat’s magic get another item useful in the spy trade, often a cloak of elvenkind or slippers of spider climbing. When a particular mission demands it, you might get other magic items issued to you, but it’s always with the understanding that the Royal Eyes wants the item back when the mission ends.