House Medani — Services & Prices
"You've heard of the Basilisk's Gaze, then? Medani operatives, charged under the Treaty of Thronehold to hunt down the worst war criminals of the last century. It's kind of odd, right? If you want to find someone, you go to Tharashk. Why Medani? Well, it could be that Breland objected to Tharashk because of their close ties to Droaam. But you know what I think? I think it's because these people the Gaze is hunting, they aren't common criminals. They've got money, influence, magic. Finding a person like that, it's more of a puzzle than a job for a simple bounty hunter. And apprehending them… that's a thing that would have to be done quietly and carefully."
Mark: Detection | Guild: Warning Guild | Symbol: The Basilisk's Eye
House Medani bears the Mark of Detection and specializes in early warning, investigation, counterintelligence, and risk mitigation. Where other houses enforce the law or wield force, Medani focuses on noticing danger before it becomes unavoidable — through dragonmark-assisted intuition, structured analysis, and the trained inquisitives of the Warning Guild.
Most clients do not interact with the Warning Guild through a dedicated office. Many Medani heirs run their own licensed agencies — independent operations supported by the guild, operating under their own names, often serving the same communities for generations. A typical agency runs one to four operatives with a few assistants or apprentices.
Prices are listed in gold pieces (gp) unless otherwise noted. Sensitive contracts require retainers and confidentiality clauses as standard practice.
What House Medani Will and Won't Do
The house will: Take investigative, protective, and analytical contracts from any client of legal standing, regardless of nationality. Certify and license independent inquisitives to Guild standards. Coordinate with Deneith for enforcement, Kundarak or Cannith for technical implementation. Accept payment from anyone with coin for above-board services.
The house will not: Perform coercive interrogation, administer forced confession magic, or conduct mindreading without consent. Take contracts directed against its own clients or betray confidential information gathered under contract. Use the mark's powers to covertly surveil clients or private citizens outside the terms of a contracted case. Make arrests, prosecute, or punish — Medani identifies, advises, and reports; enforcement belongs to legal authorities or House Deneith. Certify guilt; its results are advisory and explicitly probabilistic. Any operative who sells client secrets is immediately excoriated and reviewed for criminal referral.
The Wolves of Omen Hall and other discreet operators work in a grayer space than guild-facing services. The Warning Guild acknowledges its above-board risk managers; Wolves maintain lower profiles and reach their clients through introduction rather than office visits.
WARNING GUILD — CLIENT TERMS OF ENGAGEMENT All investigative and protective services are conducted under the terms of the client's contract with the Warning Guild. Results are advisory; the Guild does not certify guilt, render legal judgments, or carry out enforcement actions. Information gathered under contract is confidential and will not be disclosed to third parties except as required by the laws of the jurisdiction in which the contract was executed. The Warning Guild reserves the right to decline any contract it judges to be in conflict with house ethics or operational integrity. A Medani operative is not a weapon. A Medani operative is a pair of eyes.
I. Dragonmarked Detection Services
These services require a bearer of the Mark of Detection. Producing a spell-like effect through the mark is not the same process as casting a spell — a Medani heir performing a detect poison ritual does not invoke words of power. Most trace the design of the mark on their palm while murmuring observations about the subject or environment, meditating on each detail until perception extends beyond the physical. To the bearer, and to observers, this process feels like deduction: a slow accumulation of observation reaching a certainty that no reasonable chain of evidence could quite explain.
Service | Description | Price |
|---|---|---|
Detect poison & disease | Identifies toxins or infection in a person, food, object, or location | 10–20 gp |
Detect magic (focused) | Identifies magical effects, tampering, or active enchantments | 15 gp |
Aura reading | Extended scan of an object or area for magical schools and intensities | 25–40 gp |
Lie & deception assessment | Mark-assisted evaluation of testimony; detect thoughts applied as structured deduction | 20–50 gp |
Truth verification session | Formal lie detection for legal, diplomatic, or commercial proceedings | 25 gp |
Suspicious activity scan | Passive sweep of a location or event for threats, tampering, or concealed intent | 25–75 gp |
Threat sense consultation | Short-term danger assessment for a person or site | 10–25 gp |
Detection services provide warnings and probabilities, not guarantees. Detect thoughts is the most powerful tool in this tier — Medani inquisitives using it do not access thoughts the way a kalashtar would. They ask pointed questions and draw conclusions from the most minute reactions. If a subject succeeds on their save, the inquisitive simply cannot draw deeper conclusions; there is no forcing the issue. Field services incur a 25–50% surcharge.
II. Investigative Services
The house's reputation rests on structured, discreet investigation — often preventive rather than punitive. A Watcher's most powerful tool is Deductive Reasoning (the mark's divination), which rarely solves a mystery outright but always provides actionable leads. Inquisitives from Wroat and Korth trend toward close cooperation with local authorities; Sharn's Omen Hall produces investigators more accustomed to working outside Watch channels.
Short-Term & Discrete Investigations
Service | Description | Price |
|---|---|---|
Background investigation | Identity verification, affiliations, red flags | 50–150 gp |
Background dossier (rapid) | Streamlined profile using Deductive Reasoning; draws on the gestalt | 15–30 gp |
Incident reconstruction | Post-event analysis of a crime, accident, or suspicious occurrence | 100–300 gp |
Sabotage detection sweep | Inspects workshops, ships, estates, or supply chains for tampering | 80 gp |
Missing person inquiry | Initial investigation and threat assessment | 100 gp + expenses |
Criminal investigation support | Evidence gathering, pattern analysis, coordination with authorities | 35 gp/day |
Document authentication | Detects forgery, enchantment, or unauthorized modification | 20 gp |
Ongoing & Complex Cases
Service | Description | Price |
|---|---|---|
Extended investigation | Multi-day casework; weekly rate | 150–400 gp/week |
Counterintelligence operation | Identifies infiltrators, spies, or internal leaks | 120 gp+ |
Counter-espionage review | Comprehensive surveillance and leak detection | 250–750 gp |
Pattern analysis | Serial threats, recurring anomalies, long-running conspiracies | 200–600 gp |
Political risk advisory | Noble or state matters; sensitivity review and threat mapping | Negotiated |
Reports are confidential and tightly controlled. Medani does not make arrests — that function belongs to local authorities or, by separate contract, to House Deneith. Inquisitives who discover criminal activity in the course of a case are obligated to refer it to appropriate parties, but will not breach client confidentiality to do so unless the crime directly endangers the client's life.
III. Protective Intelligence & Warden Services
Medani is most often retained before trouble occurs. Wardens are the house's protective specialists — more rogue than fighter. A Warden's job is to ensure the threat never materializes, and ideally the client never knows it existed. Wardens trained at the Old Shield in Korth are the most martially capable; those from Flamekeep's Witness specialize in supernatural threat assessment. Many private security operations pair Medani Wardens with Deneith Blademarks — the Warden provides tactical intelligence and threat anticipation, the Blademark provides physical intervention.
Service | Description | Price |
|---|---|---|
Residential threat assessment | Full household risk evaluation | 50–150 gp |
VIP threat profile | Custom dossier on threats to a specific individual | 60 gp |
Event security planning | Routes, safe locations, contingency drills | 75–250 gp |
Travel route risk analysis | Itinerary threat appraisal and alternate routing | 20–75 gp |
Courier watch | Ensures deliveries are uncompromised in transit | 15 gp |
Crisis alert network | Sending-stone warning service; monthly retainer | 10 gp/month |
Warden (personal retainer) | Ongoing protective intelligence; not visible bodyguard service | 35–80 gp/day |
A Warden who is placed in open physical combat has already failed at their primary function. Medani makes this explicit.
IV. Security Consulting & Counter-Divination
Medani identifies vulnerabilities; implementation is handled by partner houses unless otherwise contracted. Counter-divination work is particularly prized by clients who fear magical observation — Medani Wolves and Warden specialists trained at Trolanport's Medani Hall are the foremost practitioners of nondetection
based protective work in Khorvaire.
Service | Description | Price |
|---|---|---|
Premises security audit | Full site vulnerability review; written assessment | 75 gp |
Counter-scrying consultation | Designs nondetection integration with Kundarak/Cannith wards | 120 gp |
Magical surveillance setup | Discreet detection endpoints and tripwire assessment | 150 gp |
Trap detection oversight | Supervises trapmasters or construct-based systems | 60 gp |
Safe route planning | Secure transit for sensitive parties or cargo | 20–25 gp |
Panic room advisory | Layout, sensor placement, redundancies, escape routing | 50 gp |
Manifest zone reconnaissance | Assessment of planar anomalies affecting a site | 150 gp |
Surveillance systems established under Medani contract remain under Medani operational control unless purchased outright — the house takes unusual care to ensure that detection infrastructure it installs cannot be trivially repurposed against its clients.
V. Forensic & Verification Services
Forensic work is a Watcher specialty. A professional inquisitive trained in Arcana and Investigation can use detect magic at a crime scene to pick up traces of spells used in the recent past — the school of magic, the approximate time of casting, and in some cases the specific techniques employed.
Service | Description | Price |
|---|---|---|
Arcane signature analysis | Determines spell origin, caster school, or magical tampering | 35 gp |
Poison origin identification | Traces toxin to source, method, and likely supplier | 50 gp |
Death scene consultation | Scene analysis; coordinates with Jorasco or local watch | 60 gp |
Inventory integrity check | Confirms shipments, collections, or stores unaltered | 25 gp |
Artifact / magebred verification | Confirms legitimacy and detects tampering | 80 gp |
Document authentication | Detects forgery or enchantment in contracts, writs, legal instruments | 20 gp |
Medani forensic findings are admissible in both Aundairian and Brelish civil proceedings. Other jurisdictions require corroborating testimony.
VI. Specialist & Restricted Services
The following services are offered only after internal ethical review. Some require a senior mark-bearer.
Service | Description | Price |
|---|---|---|
Deductive Reasoning (divination) | Senior Watcher uses mark-enhanced deduction to answer a focused question; draws on the gestalt | 75–200 gp |
Background Check (Greater Mark) | Draws on combined Medani gestalt memory to profile a subject; more detailed for well-known subjects | 150–400 gp |
Augury (Voice of Aureon) | Ritual augury reaching further than standard; weal or woe | 50–100 gp |
Deep pattern threat analysis | Long-term anomaly mapping for serial threats | 300–1,000 gp |
Counter-divination deployment | Active nondetection coverage for client, location, or object | 150–500 gp |
False-flag investigation | Identifies planted evidence and reconstructs deliberate framing | Restricted |
The Deductive Reasoning service is the mark of Medani's master inquisitives. Results are not delivered as prophecy or cryptic riddle — they reflect the inquisitive's conclusions drawn from every observable detail, supplemented by whatever the gestalt provides. The more information the client provides in advance, the more specific the answer.
The Background Check depends on the depth of the gestalt's knowledge. A criminal who has crossed paths with a Medani inquisitive before will yield more. A truly obscure subject — someone who has lived entirely outside Medani's reach — may yield little. The house does not fabricate.
House Medani refuses coercive interrogation, mind control, and forced confession magic in any form.
VII. Hirelings & Specialists
Hireling Type | Description | Price |
|---|---|---|
Inquisitive (unlicensed) | Trained investigator without Guild certification | 1–2 sp/day |
Warning Guild inquisitive (licensed) | Certified investigator; Guild standards | 5 gp/day |
Medani Watcher (apprentice mark) | Surveillance, evidence gathering, basic detection | 8 gp/day |
Detection consultant (Least Mark) | Threat sensing, lie assessment, poison and magic detection | 15–25 gp/day |
Marked sentinel | Trap detection, aura reading, deception assessment | 25 gp/day |
Senior analyst (Lesser Mark) | Complex investigations, detect thoughts, Deductive Reasoning | 35–60 gp/day |
Counterintelligence officer | Anti-espionage oversight, nondetection deployment | 35 gp/day |
Forensic specialist | Arcane and physical evidence analysis | 30 gp/day |
Crisis coordinator | Event or estate security planning oversight | 22 gp/day |
Medani guide (Trolanport) | Navigates clients through Zil etiquette and Trust protocols | 15–25 gp/day |
Hazard pay applies in war zones, active investigations, or Mournland-adjacent operations. Bribery or coercion directed at a Warning Guild operative leads to immediate dismissal and review — and the offending client's relationship with the Guild will be reviewed as well. The Trolanport tourist guide is a distinctive service: a Warden subset that helps outsiders navigate the byzantine social politics of Zilargo without inadvertently crossing the Trust, an experience that can ruin a business trip or worse.