Foltest

Foltest is an agent of imperial intelligence in the Sürgün Günlükleri ("Exile Chronicles") campaign, a young man with long hair and an air of confidence. He speaks for Mr Lorenz, whom the mage Klobus describes as officially a guardian of the imperial family and unofficially the chief of its intelligence service (Einhart Lorenz). Foltest is not his real name.^{1 2 3}

Tal'gard

The morning after the bells of Tal'gard announced the death of a great churchman, two visitors came to Kemp Corvus: Foltest, who entered first and said they brought a particular solution, and the gold-armoured champion Sir Vulcar Goldensteel. Foltest said that he came with official orders: Mr Lorenz wanted the rebel Rainer Karga killed in a duel to the death before the eyes of the people, as a show of strength, and Sir Vulcar had been brought for that purpose.^{1 4 5}

The prince's aide Frederich Barnas sent word by magic that such a display of violence was wrong and that they should wait for him. When Frederich arrived, alone and tired, Foltest passed visibly by the door, as if he knew of his coming. Outside, Foltest told Ephorus that Lorenz's order had not changed: if Rainer grew stronger, the prince would fail and a greater slaughter would follow, and his own master answered to the emperor in the Marble Palace while Frederich served only the prince. He let it be known that intelligence had looked into Ephorus's unusual skills, hinting that they might work together, and gave it as his own opinion that if the duel were refused and Rainer killed some other way, the propaganda would be worse.^{6 7 8 9}

The company argued at length over the emperor's will, the prince's standing, the risk that Lorenz would have Rainer assassinated and the pressure of his offer; Katherine spoke for Frederich's course and Ephorus for Lorenz's, and the choice fell to Kemp. On the day of the duel Foltest stood among the crowd in the square.^{10 11 12}

Spoiler: The vialGösterAçık ettiği: Sürgün Günlükleri #23 · Ne okuduğunuzu söyleyin

Foltest left behind a vial to make Rainer easier to defeat. A first examination showed it was not deadly; he said it would slightly slow the reflexes and leave no visible trace, and that the knight knew nothing of the plan and might refuse if he did. Tested with a small drop, it proved odourless and tasteless, a complex mixture like a painkiller or sleeping draught that weakened strength and reactions within about a minute. When Rainer, cut in the duel, began to falter under its effect, Foltest slipped away from the crowd.^{13 14 15}

Spoiler: After the duelGösterAçık ettiği: Sürgün Günlükleri #24 · Ne okuduğunuzu söyleyin

After the duel Foltest called Ephorus into another room on a pretext of paperwork and brought him the documents of his freedom, his release and his paid service, still lacking the wage and Kemp's signature. In the name of intelligence he ordered Ephorus to report in writing, two or three times a year and in detail, on the doings of Kemp and Katherine, since rising warriors and mages might one day prove useful or dangerous. Asked whether he now worked for the secret service, Foltest said that for the present he was an informant; Ephorus said the choice was an illusion.^{16 17 18}

Foltest held out a vial and asked for blood, which Ephorus gave by cutting his hand; intelligence needed it, he said, to find and rescue him if need be. He also asked to be told of powerful magical objects that could endanger the realm, speaking of the great vault at the heart of the Marble Palace, and when Ephorus objected that an object's danger depends on who wields it, he answered that the reports would decide. When Ephorus admitted that he himself had put the poison in, Foltest took it as his first good report.^{19 20 21}

Gromkar

In Gromkar Foltest found Ephorus walking at night with his own drow face and, greeting him like a friend, took him to a safe house. From outside it looks well kept, with watered flowers; inside are two wooden chairs, chests, a writing desk and cages of owls and ravens. Foltest said the local rulers did not know of it, and that their next meetings would be held there.^{22 23 24}

Reminded that he owed regular reports on Kemp and Katherine, Ephorus said he had written none, having seen nothing that called for one. Foltest asked about House Corvus, its old lord, its heirs and soldiers and the drow raid on its land, and why Katherine had left the company; he mentioned that her former teacher, Master Tarvos, had ties to political circles opposed to the confinement of mages in Archon. He said intelligence followed strengthening bands of adventurers and mercenaries as future threats or allies.^{25 26 27 28}

He taught Ephorus to leave written reports beneath thief-marked stones of the wells in towns and villages, to be collected within a week or two, and named a closed well in the centre of Gromkar as his drop. He hinted that intelligence could influence a noble succession if a greedy heir moved against a loyal brother. Such news, he said, should come to intelligence first, since ordinary sealed post might fall into the wrong hands and cause panic, and Mr Lorenz kept certain secrets that even the emperor did not know; lately they had heard of drow movements more widely organised than a single house's war band.^{29 30 31 32}

Asked whether he would be rescued if captured or killed while working for them, Foltest said such decisions weighed the value of the knowledge and of the person's future against the cost of the operation, and that reporting on a small company alone might not be enough. He then tied a written note to an owl's leg, made the bird invisible and sent it off through the window. He said he had trained at Archon and been chosen from there, that he was legally dead, and that old rulers' names were often used in intelligence; he asked Ephorus to carry what he knew in writing, so that it could be found if he died.^{33 34 3}

Spoiler: A later meetingGösterAçık ettiği: Sürgün Günlükleri #31.5 · Ne okuduğunuzu söyleyin

Ephorus told him that a drow priestess had perhaps wished to use him as her agent, and that he meant to turn this to the Empire's advantage. Foltest said he would consult specialists on how to use the chance and send word within a few weeks, and meanwhile Ephorus should behave as if their meeting had never happened. As for where the line lay if the drow asked for murder or imperial secrets, he advised him to kill no innocent and leak no real secret, but to keep their trust in trivial tests.^{35 36 37}