Sabotage and Subterfuge

D’you want to start a criminal underground? Hire a rabble rouser to instigate a peasant revolt, poison a vassal’s opinion of their liege before provoking them into starting an independence faction, maybe sow the seeds of plague in some enemy realm? Perhaps grow a spy network, and use them to uncover secrets or steal innovations from their court of operation?

If you like the idea of expanding on CK3’s systems of intrigue, this mod might be for you. It adds 3 new court positions (and adds to the Master Assassin), 5 new schemes, an iteration on the spy network system from CK3AGOT, new perk interactions and adjustments, and new decisions to tie it all together, among a few other odds and ends.

All of the mod’s content is unlocked via Sabotage and Subterfuge decisions, beyond the perk tree changes; it should have solid tooltipping from there. Note also that this is my first CK3 mod, and there will definitely be bugs I haven’t caught. Please don’t hesitate to reach out in this mod’s CK3 Mod Co-op Discord thread with questions! I sincerely hope you enjoy the mod 😀

This works much like the CK3AGOT system for those who are familiar. Once you have the ability to grow a spy network (start as admin or by decision), you can recruit spies either by character interaction or by your spymaster using the Find Secrets task in another court. Once recruited, spies regularly have an intrigue-scaling chance of discovering a secret in their court and offering to sell it to you. Their efficacy and abilities can be upgraded in several ways.

Each of these schemes are enabled by employing the corresponding court position and having them perform the matching task. They all have full eventing, with varying variety (3ish to 10ish).

Rouse Rabble (hostile): Attempt to instigate a Roused Rabble peasant faction in the target’s realm. Scale from vanilla peasant size to larger than populist if given additional funding. More counties will get involved as your Rabble Rouser improves. Schemer will be notified of faction / war progress via events. Requires Rabble Rouser.

Provoke Vassals (hostile): Attempt to instigate a vassal under the target to start a provoked independence or dissolution faction. Scheme handles modifiers to keep the faction running smoothly. Vassals with negative opinion of liege and Poisoned Opinion modifier much more likely to join than usual. Schemer will be notified of faction / war progress via events. Requires Rabble Rouser.

Poison Opinion (personal): Reverse-Sway, reducing the target’s opinion of their liege by the same magnitudes as Sway. Applies Poisoned Opinion modifier, which makes targets more likely to join Provoked factions. Requires Femme Fatale.

Spread Plague (hostile): Attempt to start a plague in a random county in the target’s realm. Requires Master Assasin.

Smuggle Artifact (hostile): Flavour-adjusted version of Steal Artifact. Requires the Plan Heist decision instead of the Buy Artifact Claim decision, and does not require a claim. Costs are comparable but distinct. Requires Smuggler.

Break Out of Prison (hostile): Attempt to break the target out of prison. They may join your court if you succeed depending on their circumstances (marriages, jobs, titles, liege was imprisoner, etc.)

All of these positions include unique aptitude calculations, and additional effects for being employed, omitted here for space. The in-game tooltips for these positions are pretty thorough to cover other details. Many of the tasks listed below are scaled based on aptitude.

• Rouse Rabble: Allows the use of the Rouse Rabble scheme. Increase Rouse Rabble success chance.
• Provoke Vassals: Allows the use of the Provoke Vassals scheme. Increase Provoke Vassals success chance.
• Pacify the Masses: Monthly increase to development growth in capital. Popular opinion increase. Reduce enemy Rouse Rabble success chance.

• Poison Opinion: Allows the use of the Poison Opinion scheme. Increase Poison Opinion success chance.
• Embrace the Spiders: Increase scheme discovery chance. Increase the chance of your spies discovering secrets and innovations.
• Soothe and Surveil: Increase monthly intrigue lifestyle experience. Reduce enemy hostile scheme potential. Reduce enemy Poison Opinion success chance.

• Plan Heist: Allows the use of the Plan Heist character interaction, and the subsequent Smuggle Artifact scheme. Increase Smuggle Artifact success chance.
• Plan Prison Break: Allows the use of the Plan Prison Break character interaction, and the subsequent Break Out of Prison scheme. Increase Break Out of Prison success chance.
• Monitor Supplies: Increase supply limit. Decrease building construction time. Reduce enemy Smuggle Artifact success chance.

• Spread Plague: Allows the use of the Spread Plague scheme. Increase Plague Resistance.

Schemer
– Digging for Dirt makes spies more likely to join
Seducer
– Subtle Desire makes attracted spies more likely to join
– Mortal Adoration gives you 2 random skill points per Lover
– Graceful Recovery gives you attraction opinion
– Unshackled Lust gives years of fertility
– Smooth Operator gives +1 personal scheme
– Enticing Opportunity lets you claim bastards (Lecherous Legacy)
Torturer
– Dreadful makes spies less likely to flip when caught
Avaricious
– Golden Obligations unlocks Embezzle interaction, no longer unlocks Demand Payment (moved to Smuggler)
Diplomat
– Accomplished Forger unlocks Ennoble lowborn interaction

This mod adds several gamerules to customize the experience. They’re not included here for space, but there’s a summary image at the top. If you think a new game rule would be useful, let me know!

Sabotage and Subterfuge: Obfuscation

Princes of Darkness
Veritas (MR. REVIVAL)

Localization is supported in English natively, and French, German (native), Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, Simplified Chinese, and Spanish from machine translation.

– COFindus for allowing me to include Lecherous Legacy
– One Proud Brazilian for allowing me to iterate on the Ennoble / Embezzle interactions from Additional Lifestyles
– The CK3AGOT team for allowing me to iterate on their spy network system
– hunter00001 for making the 3 new court position icons
– Wala for making the new house modifier icon
– CK3 Modding Co-op server for their help, guidance and support