Who spies on the spies?
Silly question. Obviously, they spy on one another.
The rulers of Atlantis, whoever they may be, are sensible enough to know that whoever commands the Secret Police has a position of great power. For this reason, there is no one commander of the Secret Police. The Secret Police have three commanders, and the three of them hate one another.
In principle, the three commanders of the Secret Police are appointed, respectively, by the Institutes, the Navy, and the Emperor. Well, that's the principle. Neither the Institutes, the Navy nor the Emperor expected their appointee to be loyal, so they were not disappointed with what they got.
The system actually works rather well. The three commanders of the Secret Police are so busy spying on one another that they do not have any real political power. And they are so busy telling tales behind one another's back that important information gets forwarded and acted on.
Conjet Redery, a gnome, was nominated as a Commander of the Secret Police by the Institutes. He is a professional spy.
[AD&D-Specific] Conjet Redery, gnome male, Str 10 Dex 16 Con 17 Int 17 Wis 12 Cha 8. Align CE. Hp 61. Thief, level 15. Illusionist, level 13.
Conjet Redery hates everyone. His primary concern is maintaining his position as Commander of the Secret Police. His secondary concern is to increase his own power and influence at the expense of the other two Commanders of the Secret Police. He might pass on any information he receives to the appropriate authorities, if he thinks they will find out anyway from someone else.
Redery lives in his office in the Headquarters of the Secret Police. Quite literally so. He assumes, correctly, that a lot of people would like to see him dead. On the rare occasions that he ventures out of his office, he does so in disguise.
Redery owns several magical items, appropriate to his level.
Idatan Cegelom, a half-elf (his elf parent was an aquatic elf), was nominated as a Commander of the Secret Police by the Navy. Before taking his current post, he was in Naval Intelligence.
[AD&D-Specific] Idatan Cegelom, half-elf male, Str 15 Dex 12 Con 10 Int 15 Wis 14 Cha 16. Align LE. Hp 50. Fighter, level 11. Cleric, level 11. Mage, level 12.
Cegelom is a priest of Kaieak the Navigator, a lawful evil naval deity little-known outside Atlantis.
Cegelom, being lawful, passes on information he receives to the appropriate authorities. But he makes sure that the Navy gets anything important first.
Cegelom lives in officers' accommodation in a Naval Barracks, a short distance to the north-west of the Headquarters of the Secret Police.
Cegelom owns several magical items, appropriate to his level.
Aliebde Talomzar is related to the Imperial Family, and was nominated as a Commander of the Secret Police by the Emperor. Some decades ago, he was a career diplomat. Then he disappeared for many years. No-one knows where he went, but everyone assumes that he was spying on someone or something. On his return, the Emperor nominated him as a Commander of the Secret Police; everyone assumes that this is a reward for successful completion of whatever mission Talomzar was carrying out.
Professional spies, including Redery and Cegelom, are usually disdainful of Talomzar's abilities, considering him to be a dilettante. He does nothing to correct this opinion, carefully maintaining the image of a talented amateur.
[AD&D-Specific] Aliebde Talomzar, Str 16 Dex 16 Con 11 Int 13 Wis 17 Cha 18. Align NG. Hp 106. Fighter, level 7. Thief, level 8. Bard (1st-edition), level 23 [*].
[*] 1st-edition bards usually cast druid spells and wizard spells from the school of illusion. To make things a little different (as there is already one illusionist among the Commanders of the Secret Police), Talomzar's wizard spells are from the school of enchantment.
Talomzar takes his job seriously. As he sees it, his job is to protect the citizens of Atlantis, and he does it effectively.
Talomzar does not take anything or anyone else all that seriously. He does not care all that much for the Institutes, the Navy, the Emperor, or anyone else who might claim to rule Atlantis. He regards rulers as one of the things the citizens of Atlantis need protection from. One of his hobbies is stirring up trouble between Redery and Cegelom, who also come into the category of things the citizens of Atlantis need protection from.
Any correlation between what Talomzar learns and what he tells other people is purely coincidental.
Talomzar lives alone on a small island he owns, some way to the north-east of the Headquarters of the Secret Police. He does not appear often in his office at the Headquarters, reinforcing the impression that he is lazy and does not take his duties seriously.
Talomzar owns several magical items, appropriate to his level. These are powerful, but do not include anything non-standard. Since he is from a wealthy background he also has a few family heirlooms. These are less powerful, but do include things not found on standard tables of magical items, so could have surprise value.
Between the Commanders of the Secret Police and the common-or-garden spies, there are Lieutenants of the Secret Police. Lieutenants of the Secret Police nominally also hold the rank of Lieutenant in the Navy. Some are serving Naval officers.
Some Lieutenants report to Redery. Some Lieutenants report to Cegelom. Some Lieutenants report to Talomzar. Some Lieutenants appear to report to Redery but in fact pass on important information to Cegelom first. Some Lieutenants appear to report to Cegelom but in fact just pass on misinformation created by Talomzar. Some Lieutenants ...
You get the idea.
There is no such thing as a typical Lieutenant of the Secret Police. Here are a few of them:
Vievio Idamomagast is a Naval officer reporting to Cegelom. He is, in point of fact, loyal to Cegelom. He pretends to be loyal to Cegelom. Got that? OK, I'll explain. He is a double agent. Redery believes that Idamomagast thinks that half-elves do not belong in the Navy and is only pretending to be loyal to Cegelom. In fact, although Idamomagast does not particularly like half-elves, he knows that his duty to the Navy requires that he follows Cegelom's orders. Idamomagast appears to be a standard-issue thug, but is actually shrewd and observant.
[AD&D-Specific] Vievio Idamomagast, human male. Str 14 Dex 11 Con 9 Int 14 Wis 14 Cha 9. Align LE. Hp 74. Fighter, level 13.
Jamouno Letezebar is a straightforward burglar, competent at sneaking around and breaking into places, but not much good for anything else. Everyone except Talomzar believes that Letezebar is lawful evil. He used to be, until an unfortunate accident with a helmet. Letezebar nominally reports to Cegelom but actually passes on any important information to Talomzar first.
[AD&D-Specific] Jamouno Letezebar, human male. Str 9 Dex 15 Con 10 Int 8 Wis 12 Cha 12. Align CG. Hp 51. Thief, level 15.
Mondevi Ketaires is a priestess of Kaieak the Navigator. Temples of Kaieak the Navigator double as brothels, and she used to be a temple prostitute until Cegelom found her a sinecure in the Secret Police. Her duties include training female spies in seduction.
[AD&D-Specific] Mondevi Ketaires, human female. Str 11 Dex 9 Con 9 Int 11 Wis 16 Cha 12 Align LE. Hp 54. Cleric, level 12.
Xaspud Nateamom has no distinguishing features. He could pass unnoticed in a crowd of two. This, despite his other limitations, makes him a very effective spy. He is known to be loyal to Idamomagast (whatever that means).
[AD&D-Specific] Xaspud Nateamom, human male, Str 10 Dex 11 Con 11 Int 10 Wis 11 Cha 8 Align LE. Hp 47. Thief, level 13.
Pierarte Alaudulyn is a warrior from the Atlantean aristocracy. He believes himself loyal to the Emperor. Since he suffers from the delusion that Talomzar is also loyal to the Emperor, Alaudulyn follows Talomzar's orders, even when they seem peculiar. When not following specific orders, Alaudulyn behaves as one would expect an Atlantean aristocrat to: he is opinionated, arrogant and boastful and makes stupid bets.
[AD&D-Specific] Pierarte Alaudulyn, human male, Str 14 Dex 11 Con 17 Int 9 Wis 12 Cha 10 Align LE. Hp 92. Fighter, level 10.
Anyone could be an active spy for the Atlantean Secret Police. All that is required is information and a desire to turn it into cash.
Some assorted spies:
Sopek Ginaured is a mercenary warrior. As a profitable sideline, she sells any information she comes across to the Atlantean Secret Police.
[AD&D-Specific] Sopek Ginaured, human female. Str 13 Dex 9 Con 12 Int 12 Wis 11 Cha 13. Align CE Hp 65. Fighter, level 10.
Tapeen Wswfirn is the playboy son of a wealthy merchant. His favourite hobby is casual sex. For this purpose, he finds his other hobby, the study of charm spells, very useful. He is not quite as stupid as he seems, and often picks up items of information from his father's business contacts. He passes these on to one of his girlfriends, who is an office-worker in the Headquarters of the Atlantean Secret Police.
[AD&D-Specific] Tapeen Wswfirn, human male. Str 10 Dex 14 Con 13 Int 11 Wis 13 Cha 16. Align CG Hp 23. Enchanter, level 8.
Vellina Cesketem is now a researcher at the Institute of Invocation. She funded her studies by doing office-work at the Headquarters of the Atlantean Secret Police, and continues to report to them anything she considers interesting. She particularly detests Ennisse Tezet, the current head of the Institute.
[AD&D-Specific] Vellina Cesketem, human female. Str 10 Dex 9 Con 16 Int 14 Wis 11 Cha 11. Align CG Hp 39. Invoker, level 8.
Lomag Vxutamon is a junior priest at the Temple of Teus the Wise. His pastoral work brings him into contact with all aspects of Atlantean society, including some of the more disreputable parts. When he comes across evidence suggesting covert illegal activity, he regards it as his duty to pass it on to the Secret Police. After all, the Secret Police are there to catch Secret Criminals, aren't they?
[AD&D-Specific] Lomag Vxutamon, human male. Str 11 Dex 9 Con 11 Int 14 Wis 14 Cha 12. Align LG Hp 21. Cleric, level 4.
Virisa Maaqvar is a junior priestess of the Imperial Cult. Her duties include "entertaining" guests of the Emperor. She finds that people let a lot of information slip out while being entertained, and she passes it all on to the Secret Police.
[AD&D-Specific] Virisa Maaqvar, half-elf female, Str 9 Dex 14 Con 11 Int 13 Wis 15 Cha 11. Align LN Hp 15. Cleric, level 4. Mage, level 3.
The fact of the matter is that most spies work at a desk in the Headquarters of the Secret Police. They rarely go adventuring. Their job is to collate information. For every active spy out there in the real world, there are ten desk-spies sifting through the reports made by the active spies to look for unexpected correlations.
Most of the desk-spies will be career office-workers. The Secret Police can pick and choose, and they choose people with potential. As part of their training, career office-workers learn the skills of a 1st-level thief. It is not entirely unknown for an office-worker to develop a taste for active spying, but it is rare, so very few progress to 2nd-level.
A few of the desk-spies will be youngsters trying to earn enough money to pay for tuition at the Institutes. They will typically be 1st-level specialist wizards, but might be earning the money for advanced tuition, in which case they could be 2nd-level, 3rd-level or even 4th-level specialist wizards.
A few of the desk-spies might also be daughter of aristocratic families, filling in time before their parents arrange marriages for them. They will typically be 1st-level fighters, but sometimes progress to 2nd-level.
The Secret Police does not maintain a standing army of thugs. When it has need of thugs, they are borrowed from the Navy.