The Society of Eyes and Ears in Faerun

The Society of Eyes and Ears is an adventuring company founded in Arabel in 1353. Arabel was known as the City of Adventurers, as many an errant knight and wandering adventurer passed through the city for a myriad of motivations, from the thrill of exploration to the desire to do good deeds in the lands. This gave fertile ground for the Society to arise and offer an outlet that could commission these adventures for the folk seeking them.

At its basic function, the Eyes and Ears, as it was initially and still colloquially known, began as a courier and bounty hunting operation — taking contracts from both private and municipal benefactors who needed skilled freelance operatives to achieve their goals. The Society quickly drew the attention of the Crown, which began to draw upon their growing roster of adventuers in order to commission mercenaries and independent agents for deeds in the interest of the Crown. Following the failed revolution of Gondegal in Arabel, in order to keep a rein on mercenary activity in the Royal lands, adventurers in Cormyr had to be registered with a chartered adventuring company. The Eyes and Ears slipped into this position quickly gaining Crown support as the registrar of record.

In the three decades that have followed, the Eyes and Ears’ reach has spread across Cormyr and into the Dalelands and their surrounds, and it has gone from a mere bounty operation to a network of intelligence, exploration and lore gathering, in league with not only the Purple Dragons and local constabularies about the Dales, but also organizations of knowledge and exploration like the Leaves of Learning in Deepingdale — which initially had a chapter of the Eyes and Ears on its campus before the recent construction of the Adventurers’ Lodge in the expanded city walls — as well as other institutions sponsored by churches of knowledge, recording and travel, such as Oghma, Milil, Shaundakul and others. Being a charter member of the Society brings a livelihood, benefits and prestige to an adventurer while affording them their autonomy to walk their path as they see fit.

The Adventurers’ Lodge

As the Eyes and Ears has grown into further reaches of Cormy and Cormanthor, they have set up satellite bases of operation, called Adventurers’ Lodges.

A typical Lodge features a quartermaster’s shop, which carries merchandise suited to outfit adventurers for their undertakings. The wares found in these shops often are gained from their charter adventurers who sell off their unwanted loot; other items are consigned by members of the Society as an outlet for selling their craft. In recent years, the expansion of the Eyes and Ears has gained the attention of Aurora’s — makers of the Whole Realm Catalogue — who have negotiated a collaborative deal with the Eyes and Ears to have a representative of theirs in select lodges to ply their own wares, in exchange for the services of Auroa’s vast magical courier resources. As a result, if a given quartermaster’s shop doesn’t have it, they can likely get it quickly from another locale. Thus any charter member or affiliate of the Eyes and Ears within access to a Lodge need not regard the limitations of settlement size when seeking to procure gear.

A Lodge also typically houses a meeting room (or multiple), an entertainment facility that usually includes a bar and small stage, office space for chapter officers, an infirmary, and a detention facility for deposing bounties until the commissioning authorities take delivery. In remote Lodges away from civilization — such as a recently estalished one near the ruins of Myth Drannor, a Lodge also contains room and boarding for charter members needing to rest and recouperate from their delving, for a reasonable rate, of course.

Reception in the Realms

Among the free populace of Cormyr beyond, the Eyes and Ears is viewed, in general, amiably. In some circles it’s paid little more mind than any mercenary company, and indeed the Society bears some resemblance to such from the outside looking in. The sponsorship of patron faiths that are generally regarded as benevolent also helps to better the impressions among the populace at large. In areas where despotism has hold however, including places like Hillsfar and Zhentil Keep, the Eyes and Ears are considered more meddlesome than anything, and efforts are actively taken to keep Society affairs out of these places’ activity. Indeed, someone who is a known charter member of the Society may find themselves made to feel unwelcome in tyrannical provinces, or places where those that hold power have something to hide that they don’t want to end up in the Society’s Chronicles.

Harper ties

The Society has a crossover between its charter membership and those affiliated with “Those who Harp,” though this is neither widely known, nor touted any more publicly than any given Harper’s association with the semisecret agency. The Society serves as a means for the Harpers to access to a pool of reliable talent, without having to tip their hand either to the adventurers, or even the Society itself, of its involvement, thus granting the Eyes and Ears at least plausible deniability in Harper activities. In turn, the Eyes and Ears has gained generous financial endowments in the form of bounties paid from the Harpers’ coffers.

Code of conduct

The Eyes and Ears Society gives their charter members a wide berth of autonomy to go where and do what their whims lead, and there are no markings, badges or uniform that members are required to display. The only token of one’s affiliation with the Society is their signed charter, a copy of which members carry in order to identify themselves to authorities in the course of their commissions if need be. And indeed, many a local constabulary will insist on seeing the charter of a Society member in pursuit of a bounty before the member is affored free reign over their actions.

The Society has no moral codes of their own, and the only simple tenets they require of their members is not to interfere in other activities or commissions of the Society, and not to cause collateral damage in the process of performing their commissions. A member of the Eyes and Ears who brings consequences of bad decisions or injured commoners to the Society’s doorstep will find themselves very quickly disciplined, or worse, blackballed and rejected from the guild and barred from its services.