A major plot now surfacing in my saga is a cabal of Tytalus from Normandy seeking to destabilize Stonehenge Tribunal to set the stage gaining control. To that end, a Tytalus with the Personae supernatural ability and Gentle Gift has entered the Tribunal posing as a Jerbiton mage.
I'm trying to develop a plan of ways he might weaken powerful covenants (e.g. Blackthorn, Voluntas), make allies of weaker covenants, and generally cause the covenants to war upon each other.
Of course, to succeed will take a lot of time, so he has to avoid being caught. Which means whenever possible don't use magic directly on a target as it could be sense with InVi or Qaesitorial rituals. Even better, shift suspicion onto other sources. Here are my thoughts:
Low risk of discovery via magical investigation:
Disguise oneself, using mundane disguise or a personal MuIm spell, as another mage, an agent of another covenant, a clergy, a noble, or a merchant and
A. Hire mercenaries to attack a covenant
B. Hire thieves to steal arcane connection of mage A and deliver it anonymously to his enemy, mage B
C. Convince local clergy that X covenant is practicing witchcraft
D. Hire spies to determine activities of other covenants
E. Bribe grogs in other covenants for secrets or assistance in schemes
F. Encourage political, legal or military action by greedy nobles or religious against covenants
High risk of discovery via magical investigation:
G. Attempt to lead old mages into CrVi traps to give them warping points and trigger final twilight
H. Compel packs of animals (wolves, crows, rats) to invade covenant lands and ruin their crops
I. Bargain with faeries to stirr up trouble on covenant lands
J. Mess with non-gifted Redcaps (PeMe) and read, steal, or edit messages
K. Summon and release a disease spirit upon covenant lands
L. Raid covenant vis sources
Anyone have some other good ideas about dirty tricks within or outside the Code that doesn't involve direct confrontation (even political) with targets by the instigator (confrontation by duped proxies are fine)? Or suggested ways to avoid magical investigation and Qaesitors?
Agreed, Acute Sense mastery is very good. However. Read it closely. As best I can tell, it will reveal that the sigil is false/has been tampered with.
Not what your actual sigil is.
I did not see on your list the basic attempt to set various covenants against each other. Usually this is done by making it seem like covenant A attacked covenant B. This is best done between covenants that are already rivals. Horsingas covenant from Loch Leglean could be a convenient scapegoat to blame as the aggressor against northern Stonehenge covenants, as it is already a raider covenant.
If a Qaesitor were even notified, by the time one could receive the notification and have time to respond, that could be several seasons later. In that time, an escalating series of incidents might well set to covenants down the road to ruin.
The aggressor covenant would know it wasn't doing anything in this case, so they'll be out there looking for the real perpetrator. This is best deflected by making sure that it also seems like covenant B attacked covenant A. That way, covenant A's claim that they were attacked by covenant B will look to covenant B like an attempt to cover up its own attack.
Mindreading where are the vis stocks and stealing them. Same with books but those can be destroyed.
Find the allies of the covenants (fairies, mundanes, monsters) and spoil their relationship.
The Tytalus guy must go there personally to make contacts. Destroying things are easier but he need to find followers to gain political control.
I wouldn't do the "high risk" options because they not only risky but aren't very useful.
Anyway with a lot of guile and intrigue use this magus would get much more.
Probably not a good choice, since they are in a different tribunal, and even if they deny things, it is more likely that the Stonehenge covenants will refuse to believe them, and suddently have a commen enemy. This situation too is useful for control, but does not promote chaos in and off itself.
Much better. If he's blaming Horsingas, it's going to be a flimsy blind, to move the blame over to some other covenant.
Another option would be to use the threat of a returned House Diedne to stir up trouble and chaos. Rumors that certain covenants were harboring members would definitely cause issues. You'd have to go a long way to make sure it could not be traced back to you.