Being myself the Lord of My Kingdom, I wasn't use to the... underbelly... of the Realms. My eyes quickly scanned the room, noting the heathens and the god-fearing alike tossing back ale and wagering on dice games. My advisor had been wise to send me her e, as I soon alighted upon the man. He was just as described to me: grey cloak, hook nose and beady eyes.
I sauntered up to the man and sat down, trying very hard to look like one of the locals, and failing miserably. The torchlight glinted off my well-buffed armor, beneath the shawl designed to cover it.
The hawk like man looked at me with his piercing eyes, and said... something completely unintelligible. An unsettling silence fell between us, as he obviously expected a response. I coughed uncomfortably, scrambling for an answer to his indecipherable q uestion. But my advisor has given me another piece of advice...
I leaned in and, feeling like a fool, whispered: "I need a turkey to sleep on a whale."
The lean mumbling man mumbled a response, stared at me blankly. I stood slowly up, only to find that he followed suit, and as I left, so did he. It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Each class goes about gaining this information in a different way. Fighters, Barbarians and Vampires are the most straightforward, they recourse to spies. To hire a spy, first go to the market. The ir you will find the list price for spies, if they are available. If the price seems fair, then, buy 1 spy. You may only have one spy in your employ at a time, and be aware that to find this elus ive scoundrels in the bowels of the black market costs 1 move for every 100 copper that they charge. The cheap spies are easy, even free in move, to find, but the expensive ones take time and energy.
Once the spy is in your employ, you may spy <nick> to send your spy into your opponents kingdom. This costs one move. After your spy is safely placed in your opponent's kingdom you may always get information from your spy with the same command, spy <nick>. Beware, however! When you first send your spy into that kingdom, and every time you check in with your spy, there is a chance that he will be caught. If he is caught he will certainly be tortured, and in the best cases he will be executed. In the worst cases he will give your opponent important information about your kin gdom, or he may even switch sides and come under the employ of your enemy!
Spies are also used for espionage, which is explained below. Moreover, the great weakness of spies is that they fear the Mighty Bloodgaurd, and will not report troop movements of that noble caste. You must always consider, then, when you spy, that your opponent may have bloodguard which you cannot see.
Clerics, Magi and Rangers all use other abilities to spy on their opponent's kingdoms. Rangers simply use their strange abilities to speak to the animals living among their enemies' troops, and they call this ability vi sion. Magi use a spell, called truesight, to scry into their opponent's castles. Clerics, perhaps most impressive of all, simply ask their Lord to grant them a divine divination of the area they wish to invade. The great advantage of all these methods, is that they will reveal an opponent's bloodguard.