Commercial Espionage

Two agents, Naas and Kerrick, are responsible for a series of actions of commercial spying which suggest that the Brotherhood is scheming against Greyhawk merchants for commercial gain. Naas has actually been doing this for some five years, breaking into Guild and Union headquarters and the homes of important merchants and copying commercially useful documents with the magical scroll he carries.

Kerrick operates using his magical ring for disguise, and works the River Quarter extracting information from Rhennee (paid with gold) and ordinary rivermen and sailors. He has some warehousemen on his payroll. Kerrick and Naas have met just twice in the River Rat tavern. Undercover City Watchmen observed both meeting and keep track of both Naas and Kerrick.

The information collected is useful to the Brotherhood. They learn how to get the best prices for their goods, whom to sell to, who pos- sesses stolen goods they’d like to get rid of fast (which the Brotherhood can buy cheaply and then ship south), and so on. The activities of the agents are just clever enough to be unobtrusive, and just not quite clever enough to evade detec- tion by the authorities. So, the authorities feel happy just continuing to watch these agents.

The Watch and the Directors (generally) and Nerof and his cronies (specifically) feel that they understand what the Brotherhood is about. Ghri- giel, in public, harps at length about the need for trade to be boosted. The Brotherhood’s agents actually help increase the city’s profits through generating trade that can be levied, and the Brotherhood dearly needs money from Greyhawk. Nerof is not unhappy about that. Ghrigiel has him neatly fooled.