Are you taking requests? I'm playing a Lyrandar Windwright captan in my upcoming game in a few weeks and I'd like to get your pov on the cool half-elves bearing the Mark of Storm.
A battered, smoking corpse-like creature hauls itself into the room. It pulls a few daggers marked with 'Occupant,' out of its body.
Yeah, yeah. I know I said weekly, but quite frankly these (while a lot of fun) are turning into a lot of work. They'll get finished at some point, so call off those darn Thuranni assassins already...
icedrake]Are you taking requests? I'm playing a Lyrandar Windwright captan in my upcoming game in a few weeks and I'd like to get your pov on the cool half-elves bearing the Mark of Storm.
I am taking requests, and Lyrandar is on my list. wrote:
Are you taking requests? I'm playing a Lyrandar Windwright captan in my upcoming game in a few weeks and I'd like to get your pov on the cool half-elves bearing the Mark of Storm.[/quote] I am taking requests, and Lyrandar is on my list.
However... Lyrandar is one of the ones I really want to do. Because of that I'm holding off on doing it. Sort of a promise that I have to get the other stuff done first, and then if I'm a good Mage will I let myself write out the half-elves.
So, hold tght to your Wheel of Wind and Water. I won't have them done for a while, but every House I write helps me better understand the ones that come after. The later it is, the better it more likely to be.
And longer to. These things are starting to creep up in the page count...
Anyway...
As some people have been asking for an example, and Kundarak seemed to be the House of choice...
Example of a Banking Guild station
This is an idea for a medium-sized Kundarak banking establishment. It can either be a secondary branch in a major city, or else the main one in a smaller town. For sake of convenience, I’m going to assume that when you enter the bank through the main doors, you are heading north.
I have covered what I consider to be most of the common methods of infiltration. I make no claims at being able to outthink everybody, so add whatever defences you feel appropriate. I have left some holes that clever PCs or DMs can exploit. Any level of security can be removed to make the bank easier to infiltrate if necessary for your story.
I haven’t listed DCs for items or how hard it is to sneak past people or open locks or what it requires to get through doors. I leave that information for individual DMs to design as per the DMG. (I’m not getting paid for this, so I’m not going into the same level of detail as an adventure would.)
Note: All dwarves take pride in their appearance, so describe the staff as flashy dressers. There will be lots of jewellery and fine clothes wore by the members inside. Armour and weapons will be polished and well kept.
Outside Appearance:
The building is a long, low structure, built very much like a brick. Made of dark stone, the place seems synonymous with the terms squat, thick, and sturdy. There appears to be no windows that you can see. Above the front gate is the Kundarak crest, with the identification of the Banking Guild just beneath it. The main gate is metal reinforced wood, and an armed and armoured dwarf stands to each side of the open entry way.
More Info:
The two dwarves are both LN, warrior 1, wearing chain mail, large shields, and carrying dwarven waraxes. Each has a whistle that they can sound if they see trouble, and maxed out Spot and Sense Motive skills. If any kind of serious trouble occurs they will use a move action to retreat inside the doors and one will use standard action to throw a switch to release the door clasps while the other shields him. (Counterweights force the doors closed. It is only the clasps which hold the doors open.) After the switch is thrown the doors take 1 full round to grind close and lock. There is a portcullis inside the doors, and the guards will retreat to this and close it behind them.
Once past the first set of doors a short tunnel leads past the portcullis and to set of normal double doors.
The bank has many small air holes in its structure for ventilation, but these are too small for anything but a Fine creature to move through. The walls have gorgon blood mixed in with them, making ethereal movement through them impossible.
There is a secret door along one side of the bank, but it is located five feet off the ground and is alarmed, fire trapped, and arcane locked. The only people who know about it are the bank employees and the leader of the local militia.
All areas inside are lit by everbright lanterns.
Room A: Main Room:
Appearance:
The double doors open into this large, squat chamber. First thing to catch your attention is the large statue of an axe-wielding dwarf carved out of stone that stands beside a desk in the middle of the room. Its armoured head brushes against the ceiling. A single female dwarf is sitting behind the desk, filling out forms. There is movement behind her. She looks up as you enter.
(More thorough look around)
There is a sign beside the stone statue. Two common doors stand closed on the west wall, and two similar ones on the east. Behind the desk on the north wall is a passageway. Two armed dwarves are slowly patrolling in the space behind the desk.
More Info:
If anyone looks, in both common and dwarven the sign reads, “The duty of protection brings life to a warrior.” If someone really looks closely, they will notice some rust coloured flakes along the stone axe blade that looks suspiciously like dried blood.
This is NOT a stone golem, but the dwarves here have done everything to suggest it is. (Paranoid PCs who read the Monster Manual should feel the same.)
Upon entry, a detect magic Dragonshard mounted above the door will cause all magic items brought in to glow (even through clothing). The dwarf behind the counter will greet the players and ask them to please leave all magic items with her during their time in the bank, as well as explaining that spell casting is not permitted on site. She will direct people wanting banking services to Rooms B.
The dwarf behind the counter is Nevilla Ollorgo d’Kundarak, LG, an expert 2. She is young and slightly overeager in this, her first position. She will keep a close eye on the party while they are in sight, and if the party tries anything even remotely suspicious, roll her Spot check. If she makes it (or just rolls a 1), she will cry out an alarm, bringing the whole armed contingent of the bank down on the party.
If the party was doing something wrong they will be caught. If (more likely) it is a false alarm, the branch manager will apologize to the party and berate Nevilla.
If it was a false alarm, Nevilla will locate the party in a tavern or other neutral establishment later and apologize herself. If the party accepts her apology she will become a good friend, but if they blow her off or berate her, they will make a powerful enemy for life. She’s young, but the Prophecy has great things in store for her as she will develop her Least Mark within 6 months. Once it manifests her rise in the House hierarchy will be swift.
The guards behind the counter will be one of three different groups:
1) 2 LN Warrior 2. Both served in the Last War and are veterans. They both wear half plate and carry masterwork waraxes. As well, each carries two tanglefoot bags, and will use them before moving in.
2) A LE Warrior 2 and a LN Warrior 1/Magewright 1. The first is armed as above (no tanglefoot bags), the other carries a battleaxe, scale mail, and an eternal wand of hold person.
3) A N Warrior 1 (greatsword), a NG Warrior 1/expert 1 (focusing on animal handling), and a magebred wolf (thick skin). Both wear half-plate.
During the night when the bank is closed, Nevilla puts out a sealed letter on her desk that has “Unlocking Codes” written on it in Dwarven. Those who open it will read explosive runes for their stupidity.
Rooms B: Offices:
Each of these four rooms (2 to the west, 2 to the east), off of Room A are the places where business is conducted. Each is identical for all practical purposes.
In each room there is a bench for customers, a desk, a chair and a LN dwarf expert 3. They will provide all regular banking services. One is a N expert 5, the assistant branch manager.
Hidden from sight behind each desk are three strings. The strings run through channels carved under the floor to rings bells in certain rooms. The first will ring at the main desk in Room A. One will summon a gnome from Room D. The last will summon the guards from Room C. The dwarf can make a Sleight to Hand check (with a +5 bonus for the desk blocking line of sight) to pull a string without being noticed.
Note: Rooms A and B are the public section of the bank. The passageway heading north is the private section, and anyone not accompanied by a staff member will be stopped.
Room C: Duty Room:
Appearance:
The corridor heading north from the main chamber opens up first to the east. Several armed dwarves can be seen inside.
More Info:
Any of the dwarf guards mentioned in Room A that were not patrolling Room A are to be found here, on relaxed duty. Anyone passing this point but not escorted by a banking dwarf or gnome will be escorted out of the bank unless they can sneak by. The ring of a bell from Room B or the sound of trouble from Room A will bring them running.
Room D: Room of Records:
Appearance:
This low, long room is filled with tables and piles of papers. Along the walls many cabinets are filled with scraps of parchment. Several gnomes are seated at tables, working on sheets of something or another.
More Info:
Five gnomes work here, organizing the bank information for the dwarves and for other Banking enclaves. Four of the gnomes are experts level 2 or 3, NG or LN.
The fifth, Pagous Illso, is a LE expert 2/rogue 4/assassin 1. He’s actually a member of the Trust, assigned to do some spying on Kundarak. A definitely nasty piece of work, he’s found the companionship of the Banking Guild to appeal to him more than the backstabbing nature of gnomish covert operations. He’s abandoned his duty to the Trust and they might one day do something about that. However he is loyal to the bank, and anyone who injures staff members will earn his undying hatred.
Room E: Pantry and Lunch room.
The only notable feature of this room is that hidden behind one shelving unit (Search check needed to find) is a short tunnel leading to the secret exit mentioned in the outside section.
Room F: Bathrooms.
For employees only.
Room G: Branch Manager’s Office:
Outside Appearance:
This is the end of the hall. To the west is a locked metal door. To the north the corridor ends in a solid wooden door. Something is written on it in dwarven. (Branch Manager)
More Info:
Lesedr Shallivos d’Kundarak (LN expert 5/warrior 2) leads the bank from this office. He alternates his time between paperwork (the small amount he doesn’t foster off on the gnomes) and walking around the facility, checking up on how things are working. He wears 8 copper rings, and just became a member of the Aurum last year. He is slowly accepting the view of the Aurum, and will slide into Lawful Evil over the next few years.
His desk has strings that can ring bells in Room A, C, D, J and K. A simple code transmits either “Come here,” or “Lock down.” In one drawer he has a single-shot command activated rod that will trigger a Mord. Faithful Hound spell just outside his door. It can not be recharged once triggered and must be replaced by someone with the Greater Mark of Warding (Mord. Faithful Hound) and Craft Rod feat. It also requires a whole lot of paperwork explaining things to his superiors.
Any entry to the vaults requires his permission. For a customer to gain access to the vault, they must be accompanied by the dwarf from Room B who talked to them, along with a gnome who is filing the paperwork. These two employees present themselves to Lesedr together (so that a changeling can’t just copy one). Lesedr uses another wall mounted detect magic Dragonshard to check for illusion or enchantment magic.
If all checks out, he leads the people to the metal door outside his office and unlocks it. The door is arcane locked and has a glyph of warding with a blindness spell in it. A set of stairs led down to the west.
Note: All lower levels of the bank are protected by Dimensional Lock and Mord. private sanctum spells powered by Dragonshards set into the ceilings.
Room H: Vault Entry:
At the bottom of the stairs, a 5ft wide, 10ft long corridor turns north. At the north end another metal door reinforced with adamantine is there. The branch manager will knock, and a small vision slit will open. The Warding Guild Guardian inside (NE Warrior 1; breastplate, heavy crossbow and battleaxe), looks out and asks for the password (changed daily). If the password is not given, he throws a switch, causing the floor of the Vault Entry to fall away into a 20ft pit. The guard can also open and close a small arrow slit in the door, allowing him to fire at who ever is in Room H.
The door is bolted and locked from the inside. There are metal bars driven into the stones that surround the door, so if a Stone Shape spell is used the caster will still have to cut their way through the bars. A second Stone Shape will allow enough stone to be moved to bypass the bars.
The walls and ceilings are worked stone, so Soften Earth and Stone is ineffective.
Room I: Vault Main Room:
This 10 by 10 room has doors on each wall. The one to the south leads to Room H. The one to the north leads to Room L: the Vault. The west door leads to Room K: Artificer Lab. The east door is Room J: Viewing Room.
A chair placed in a corner is used by the Guardian in this room.
Room J: Viewing Room:
This 5 by 10 room has two chairs and a table. It is here to provide some privacy for those who wish to examine what their ‘box’ possessed.
Room K: Artificer Lab:
This is the room where the arcane contraption that teleports small packages between Kundarak enclaves is maintained. The room is messy, with the device itself occupying a corner (it looks like a 1ft by 2ft by 1ft stone basin, marked with arcane symbols, Dragonshards, and groves for the alchemical fluids that keep it working). The rest of the room has a table and a number of arcane items and materials scattered about.
In the room, Falsis Steelring (CN Artificer 7) and his homunculus oversee the magical defences of the facility. A dwarf approaching venerable age, Falsis was a member of Lord Boroman ir’Dayne’s famous expedition to Frostfell. He’s never really recovered from that and always wears heavy furs, no matter the weather.
Room L: Vault:
The door to this room is also reinforced with adamantine. It too is Arcane Locked and Fire Trapped. A line of lead sheeting encloses the entire room. Inside is a 5 by 15 room, with small ‘boxes’ dug into the walls. Here the final level of security occurs.
When someone places something in a box, they are given a small slip of parchment to write on. The customer writes a password on the letter, seals it, and places it in the box. The guards do not know what’s written in the letter.
When the customer returns to take something out of the box, the guard opens the box, takes out the piece of parchment, and asks for the password. The customer says the password, and only then does the guard open the letter. If the password matches, the customer gets to handle what was stored in the box. If the passwords don’t match, the customer is marched back upstairs and an investigation is undertaken.
A new password is requested each time a customer accesses their box.
Happy Banking, and remember: with each new account you open you get a free Oil of Prestidigitation! :D
Once again, FBM appears to have a plant in my group (I think it's the gnome bard). How else could he keep generating exactly the material I need for my current game.
FBM: The detail you continually put into your work is inspiring to all of us. You need not apologize to us for having to take your time completing this project. Perhaps we-the-seriously-impressed can aid you in this project in some way?
perrywrogers]Once again, FBM appears to have a plant in my group (I think it's the gnome bard). wrote:
Once again, FBM appears to have a plant in my group (I think it's the gnome bard). How else could he keep generating exactly the material I need for my current game.
House Phiarlan. They're darn good spies.
FBM: The detail you continually put into your work is inspiring to all of us. You need not apologize to us for having to take your time completing this project. Perhaps we-the-seriously-impressed can aid you in this project in some way?
1. Money.
2. Personal power.
3. Hot, scantily-clad half-elven women delivered to my house. I'm not saying doing that will increase my speed of writing, but I'd certainly appreciate it.
Anyway, here I present to you the people who will reattach your adventure's head after they attempt that assault on the Crimson Monastery in Atur. Ladies, gentlemen, whatever gender the changelings are now, and warforged, I give you...
House Jorasco
“Excuse me, healer. I have a question.”
“You ask why we request payment for our healing skills? Our skills grant life, so how can we charge for that which keeps someone alive?
“Does not the farmer charge money for the food he produces? Is not food necessary?
“Does not the carpenter charge for her services when she builds you a house? Is not shelter necessary?
“Food, shelter, healing. All provide for life. If the farmer and carpenter can make money from keeping your alive, should not we be afforded the same courtesy? Does that answer your question?”
“Er… actually I was going to ask why these robes you make us wear never close completely in the back, but that was a pretty good answer anyway.”
Overview:
When the halflings first developed the Mark of Healing, they had the example set by the Mark of Hospitality to follow. Using House Ghallanda as a guide, what was to become Jorasco forged itself into an extra-tribal power.
The ability to heal without the comforting warmth of religious pomp and ceremony was seen as something vaguely distasteful by the nomadic tribes. ‘Witches’ some Jorasco members were called behind their backs, and occasionally to their faces. A level of such resentment developing was understandable. When someone else holds the power of life or death over you… resentment often accompanies when others have such power. House Jorasco learned early on that while their skills were in great demand, there would always be some indefinable something that separated them from the people they treated.
This disconnect from their fellow halflings prompted Jorasco to move its operations away from the Talenta Plains when other opportunities became available. It was during the move to the city of Vedykar that the House set up a Healers Guild to separate its business from family affairs. The warlike nature of the pre-Karrnath humans provided the House of Healing with much business. Supplying healers for the army was their first major contract, and Jorasco has continued that practice with all major militaries.
The abilities the House offers make them welcome everywhere; every city and large town has a House of Healing enclave. Smaller communities will often have a person who trained with the Healers Guild, but did not have the skills necessary to be a full Guild healer. Others set up practices in smaller, outlying communities to enjoy a level of freedom, or to exercise power over the locals. Some are simply banished by the family to far off locales.
Most Jorasco personnel will be adepts and experts. Adepts will generally choose Olladra as their patron, and have healing as the domain of choice. Skills will focus on Healing, Knowledge (nature, local, history, religion), Gather Information, Sense Motive, Craft (alchemy), with other skills as needed. Feats will tend to be Skill Focuses and the lower level Item Creation Feats (scrolls, potions).
Out of all the PC classes, cleric (usually of the Sovereign Hosts) is the most common, with necromancer coming second. Not your stereotypical undead commanding necromancer, but instead a wizard who specializes in the energy that makes life go.
(Note: I just love the idea of a PC waking up to see a halfling in a Jorasco uniform smiling at them and saying, “Hello. I’m Healer Fojik d’Jorasco. I’ll be the presiding necromancer for the duration of your stay with us.” )
Members of the other common races of Khorvaire are represented in the Healers Guild, although in low numbers. House Jorasco does tend to have high criteria before they allow someone into the Guild, so non-halfling healers do tend to be very skilled. Shifter healers generally work in their own communities, as most people get nervous having someone with claws and fangs poking around their insides. There are no known warforged healers, although the Guild did purchase some during the Last War to act as defenders or bodyguards.
Since the formation of Darguun a number of goblins have studied to be healers, but they are usually found in out-of-the-way locations, since most people react with horror at the thought of being treated by a goblin.
Business Operations:
The House of Healing provides for the curative needs of the Five Nations and beyond. With much of the world’s clergy unable to cast spells and those that can liable to ask troubling questions before providing any healing (“And exactly how did you put on 10 pounds during the Fast of the Holy Sacrifice?”, House Jorasco is on the front line in healing wounds.
While a healer will not make judgements, they may ask troubling questions of a different nature. (“Exactly how did you manage to get live fiendish weasels growing out of… that part of your anatomy?” They seek to expand their medical knowledge, so interesting and unique diseases and conditions will garner a significant amount of attention from the staff of an enclave.
For the average customer, a Jorasco healer will look to their wounds with the Heal skill. It takes time, but the curative magic of the House is generally reserved for the more life-threatening cases, or else those willing to pay more. Life in Eberron is not necessarily fair, and more gold gets access to faster healing.
If your presiding healer is an expert or other non-spell caster, potions will be the magic item of choice, as they can be used by anyone. Adepts and clerics use the less expensive scrolls to supplement their own spell casting powers. Rarest of all abilities are the Dragonmark powers themselves, and much is expected from Marked individuals in terms of skill and ability.
Because of the focus on medicinal healing, the Healers Guild consumes a large amount of rare herbs. The desire to find new and better medicines occupies some of the best Jorasco minds. These medicines are not generally found through scientific testing, but by years of carefully directed divinations.
Such divinations often direct the search to exotic locations such as the Shadow Marches, Q’barra, or even Xen’drik. It appears as if the best herbs grow in the harshest of regions. Healers often do not have the skills to survive such journeys, so adventurers are contracted to bring back samples.
Being centres for therapeutic assistance, it is often important for people to get healing quickly. As such most enclaves are relatively open places with few guards or hindrances to entry. There usually is one wing of the enclave that is heavily guarded however, as this is where the Guild keeps their store of healing magic. This wing is heavily warded by the Engineers of House Kundarak and watched by Deneith soldiers.
If any action occurs in a Healing Guild enclave, troublemakers will find themselves in a world of difficulty. At a Jorasco enclave a person will find one of the highest concentrations of PC classes in the whole of Eberron… after all, PC classes and the need to be put back together go hand-in-hand. Patients, some at 1 hp all the way to fully healed individuals, will come to the aid of any Jorasco staff member who calls. The Healers Guild has a standing policy of free healing for those who come to their defence.
Bringing people back from the dead is not a service the Guild offers. If someone wishes to use an Altar of Resurrection or a Raise Dead, they will have to negotiate with a Jorasco family member individually. The Guild owns none of the Altars, they are all House Jorasco property. Many family members with the ability to bring people back take considerable care with this decision. Some are mercenary enough to raise just about anyone, but most take a more philosophical approach to evaluating someone’s life. Many who bring in a body to be raised are counselled to focus on the living, and allow the dead to pass on.
And not everyone comes back from Dolurrh when called. As Jorasco members who can cast such spells tend to be proud individuals, often they will resist using such magics, not wanting to run the risk of facing their own failure if the soul does not return.
In a world cursed with the presence of the Daelkyr, the Dragon Below, the Madstone, and the nightmares of the Quori, is it any wonder that a sizable number of people are lunatics? Added to these supernatural terrors are those unlucky enough to simply go insane from natural causes or who become unzipped from the horrors of the Last War or the Mourning. Whatever the cause, Eberron has more than its share of unhinged people and it is left up to the Healers Guild to take care of them.
The Guild runs a diverse number of sanatoriums that offer these lost souls a measure of peace. Most are relatively large structures, as collecting these mentally wounded people together allow for resources and staff to be more effectively utilized. Sanatoriums are located either near large cities or else off by their lonesome in far-off locations, depending on the local political climate.
Aundairian sanatoriums tend to be well run places with much open space. A number of these institutions were set in pastoral settings and so became the problem of the Eldeen Reaches after the civil war. With arcane magic being so well regarded in the country, there is an understanding that sometimes a person can go too far into the mysterious of magic and lose themselves. As such most patients are looked upon with sympathy and concern. Often attempts are made to give the patients some level of influence inside the sanatoriums, to allow them a sense of control over their own lives.
The dark side of this set-up is that patients touched by dark minds can thus find ways to plan horrible actions or take the first steps towards some twisted goal. That poor soul given paint to draw her own nightmares to help with therapy may use that same paint to lay down a summoning circle to call forth some pseudo-natural creature during the night of the three eclipses. Or that man given a garden to tend may lovingly take care of the plants, even if the flora grows big and strong and twisted on humanoid blood. The aberrations that stalk the Eldeen Reaches often seek out sanatoriums, knowing they will find minds there as twisted as their own.
Sanatoriums in Thrane are some of the best run in the whole of the Five Nations. The Silver Flame promotes the idea of protection, and protecting those unfortunates from themselves is seen as doing good work. Airy structures filled with symbols of the love and concern of the Sliver Flame, the sanatoriums in this nation never lack for helpful staff. The patients are helped to discover the Voice of the Silver Flame for themselves, and this gives them something to hope for, a goal to achieve.
Of course telling a patient to listen to a voice is often problematic: after all, many of them are there because of the voices already in their heads. The whispers inside someone’s skull can come from many sources: Daelkyr, The Fury, Khyber himself, Quori nightmares, or even the Fiend in the Flame… identifying the Silver Flame from all these competing voices is not an easy task. Is it any wonder some never find their way back? And worse, the large number of souls helping the patients means more fertile minds in which to spread new seeds of true madness.
Karrnath sanatoriums are austere places. Life in Karrnath is hard and cold, with the sanatoriums here mirroring that ascetic outlook. Not to say that they are horrible places; in fact, the rigid, regimented life that permeates a Karrnath sanatorium often provides the patients with a sense of control and structure. The world outside may be chaotic and falling into unmitigated madness, but within these walls patients know what to expect and can relax knowing that tomorrow will be the same as today. In here, they are safe.
But with the daily life regimented, things can turn ugly. Not quickly, for things inside the walls progress slowly, but over time a small madness can become accepted, even propagated. Accidentally cut your neighbour at lunch one day, and the next day you do it again. And then, the day after. Time passes, and soon every patient takes a knife to their neighbour at lunch hour. No one remembers the reason why, you do it simply because it has been done before. Woe be it to the guards who too late attempt to stop such action: for structure is what brings healing!
Nothing will be said about the sanatoriums in old Cyre. Places of healing, they offered some kindness to lost souls. If these patients were lucky, then the only good the Day of Mourning ever did was that it ended their sufferings as it slew a nation.
But then… could something as evil as the Mourning ever do anything good, even by default? We shall speak not of such things, only recommend that all avoid Mournland sanatoriums.
No matter what noises they hear emanating from them.
The Lhazaar Principalities have only a few sanatoriums on remote, lonely, wind and wave swept isles; not nearly what the region’s population would suggest. Most people who show signs of madness in this realm are helped over the side of ships into the mouth of The Devourer. Those madfolk who survive his deadly maw are truly to be feared.
Breland, with its large population has the largest number of Healing Guild sanatoriums. The vast space available to the nation means that nearly all such Houses of Healing are located far from population centres.
The reason for this removal is that the majority do not want the problems of the minority to plague them. With feeling of independence and self-reliance, the average Brelander has little, if any, sympathy for the insane. ‘Out of sight and out of mind,’ is the unsaid rule behind Breland sanatoriums. Some of the most corrupt Jorasco personnel work in these facilities, far removed from those who would raise issue with the dark and twisted things that happen in unseen places.
Personality:
A typical House Jorasco halfling is well educated and learned. They are generally cosmopolitan, sophisticated and enjoy the finer things life has to offer. Most have turned their backs on their nomadic heritage and are gently patronizing to their cousins who still ride the dinosaurs.
On a whole, House Jorasco is lawful, as is the Healing Guild. Strongly chaotic individuals are most often transferred to out-of-the-way enclaves, such as Stormreach.
A member of the Healing Guild has knowledge, abilities and skills that people need. The people respect Jorasco’s skills and talents, but on the whole do not love the House. In return, the House is compassionate, but stays somewhat detached from everyday life. A noble will invite the local Jorasco heir to any social function, but doesn’t expect the heir to engage in too much small talk.
A significant personality split in the House is between those who deeply and personally care about their patients, and those who care, but take efforts to distance themselves from their patients. After all, knowing someone is in pain I can sympathize with them, but becoming emotionally involved may keep me from making the best decision for treatment.
Others feel that it is only by understanding the patients and truly experiencing their suffering can true healing occur. The stand-offs currently have a significant edge in the House right now, if only because a large number of the more caring heirs entered Cyre after the Mourning to help out the poor people there. None returned.
Allies:
House Deneith:
It has been remarked that these two Houses operate on a revolving-door business relationship. Deneith sends people to Jorasco to be healed, and Jorasco sends them back to fight. Whatever the reason, these two Houses send a lot of business each other’s way.
The many army medics supplied by Jorasco in the Last War have in some cases become fast friends with the Deneith people they patched up. While their businesses may appear to oppose each other, the two Houses get along quite well.
Clergy of Olladra:
Being the Sovereign Host of healing, (as well as gambling and some other vices), many Jorasco adepts choose Olldara as their patron. Those that do tend to heal by day and party by night.
The Blood of Vol:
For the regular worshiper, the Blood of Vol is a religion about triumphing over death. As many Jorasco heirs fight against death as well, the two organizations find they have many things in common. While the undead are not generally liked by Jorasco, the dead are beyond the services of the House so there’s no real hatred against them.
It should be noted that this is only for the regular faithful of the Blood. Higher level clergy (and Vol herself) have a different agenda.
The Populace:
While House Jorasco may not be loved by the people, it certainly is respected. The House can mobilize a surprising amount of support for projects if it puts its weight behind something.
Rivals:
House Vadalis:
Because most see the House of Healing as a business and somewhat cold in their service, people often try other methods for healing first. If you’re a member of a congregation, your local priest may heal your family –depending on the priest’s skills, talents, and other factors.
Another place to go is the Horse Healer. Vadalis personnel generally know something about animal wellbeing, and some of that skill can be transferred to humanoids. While their suggestions may not be exactly what you’re looking for, their herb lore is fairly advanced and they’re willing to share simple cures with friends. If you’re actually a member of the local community, they might even be willing to sell a few cure potions that they keep around.
House Vadalis does this on an infrequent, case-by-case basis, and is not really interested in competing with Jorasco. It’s just suggestions and help for friends of the family. So long as this is nothing more than wise words for friends, House Jorasco won’t really do anything. Vadalis heirs shouldn’t expect any deals during a stay at a Healing enclave though.
The Lord of Blades
When the Lord of Blades truly begins his quest to rid the world of the meatbags, one of his first targets will be the means by which the bags of blood repair themselves.
House Jorasco has long enjoyed a certain elevated status of protection rare even amongst Dragonmark Houses. When the warforged nation marches, that sense of invulnerability may cost the family much.
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I know I spent a lot of time on the insane asylums, but I decided those were probably the most fun adventuring parties would have when dealing with House Jorasco. Nothing like a good old Silent Hill (tm) run through a medieval insane asylum to creep the players out. Especially if they accidentally (on purpose) built it over a manifest zone…
My group's halfling just called me up, and told me to read this, the latest post. She loves it.
I like the assylum stuff because it helps add depth and flavor to the regions that you detailed. If you want to know about a people, investigate their charities, and how they treat their sick and infirmed.
You are my hope and living proof that others can write for Eberron that can be written by people other than Keith Baker, as well as Keith Baker. No, seriously, you are that good. It doesn't even seem remotely possible that you could let me down: in fact, you continually exceed my expectations!
And I was hoping you would go through all the asylum stuff in detail. They were scarce in the ECS, and next to the Dreaming Dark, I the Daelkyr and Xoriat the most as villians. Don't feel bad about spending so much time on it! Feel proud! :D
And what was that about Thuranni Assasins? I know of no such things. No... really....
I love your hint drops about how to portray the Lord of Blades like good old HK from KoToR. You can just imagine that scene.
[Human PC] Your reign of terror is at an end! [LoB] Observation: You meatbags appear to be outnumbered 11.25 to 1. Fleshy materials often cannot withstand the stresses of such odds. [Dwarf PC] You're insane! [LoB] Conclusion: If I had internal organs, I would be sick at your delusionment. Luckily, I am not a fleshy meatbag. Meatbag.
*fanfare* 
It doesn't even seem remotely possible that you could let me down: in fact, you continually exceed my expectations!
the Daelkyr and Xoriat the most as villians. 
Don't feel bad about spending so much time on it! Feel proud! :D
No... really....
