House Ghallanda — Services & Prices

"A King's Bounty with a pinch of vazilla, as always. But what's wrong? I can see it in the slump of your shoulders, my friend; something's weighing you down. Tell me your troubles. A burden shared is a load lifted. And if I can't help you solve your problem… perhaps I know someone who can."

Mark: Hospitality | Guilds: Hosteler's Guild, Dragontail Guild Symbol: The Blink Dog

House Ghallanda operates the majority of inns, taverns, and restaurants across Khorvaire, either directly through its bound businesses or through licensed partners certified by the Hosteler's Guild. The blink dog emblem displayed at an establishment's door is a guarantee of standards — not every blink-dog inn is run by a halfling, but all are held to the same expectations of health, quality, and reliable service. Whether you are a merchant seeking a clean bed in an unfamiliar city, a diplomat requiring a neutral space where enemies can negotiate without bloodshed, or a fugitive who needs to disappear for a few days, House Ghallanda has something for you. The halfling pouring your drink will not ask why you need it. She will only ask what you would like to eat.

Prices below reflect typical rates at Gold Dragon Inns and Ghallanda enclaves. Gold Dragon Inns use fixed pricing; independent licensed establishments may vary. Regional scarcity, festival demand, and security requirements may affect final costs.

What House Ghallanda Will and Won't Do

Understanding what the house offers — and what it refuses — is as important as any price list.

The house will: Provide lodging and food to any paying guest regardless of nationality, reputation, or politics. Maintain enclave sanctuary against any external authority, including Sentinel Marshals. Protect guests' valuables in arcane-locked strongboxes. Arrange entertainment through licensed performers from House Phiarlan and House Thuranni. Deploy Leomund's secure shelter through licensed mark-bearers where permitted.

The house will not: Surrender a paying guest to any government, military force, or rival dragonmarked house. Sell information about guests. Take political sides. Break its own sanctuary guarantees. Tolerate violence against guests on the premises. Offer mark-assisted magical services through unlicensed operators — counterfeit "Ghallanda" services are a serious offense, and the house takes enforcement personally.

The house reserves the right to: Refuse service entirely to anyone, for any reason, without explanation. Permanently blacklist guests who abuse house hospitality, violate house rules, or endanger other patrons. Escalate a dispute to the hallmaster, whose judgment is final within the enclave.

GOLD DRAGON INN — GUEST CONDUCT NOTICE House Ghallanda welcomes all travelers. We ask only this: respect the house, respect the staff, and respect your fellow guests. Violence, theft, and conduct endangering other patrons will result in immediate removal. Disputes may be brought to the hallmaster, whose judgment is final. The blink dog watches over all who enter in good faith. — Posted in the common room of every Gold Dragon Inn

I. Lodging

Standard lodging rates at Gold Dragon Inns. Quality is reliably modest with comfortable upgrades available. Every Gold Dragon Inn uses one of a small number of familiar floor plans — a traveler who has stayed at one will recognize the layout of any other. A small roadside inn might have four rooms and a moderately sized common room; a thriving inn in a large city might have forty rooms, a restaurant, a separate common room, and two stages for entertainment. All buildings include accommodations scaled for halfling-sized guests as well as larger folk — one of the few inn chains in Khorvaire where a gnome does not have to sleep in a bed built for someone twice her size.

An arcane-locked strongbox is available to all lodging guests at no additional charge — standard at every Gold Dragon Inn. Travelers often carry valuables, and the house considers secure storage a baseline expectation, not a luxury.

Ghallanda Secure Shelter (Leomund's secure shelter, mark-assisted): 280 gp flat, or 35 gp per person for a group of up to eight. The shelter is a fully enclosed magical space that lasts eight hours — warm, dry, and proof against weather and most hostile intrusions. City law in Sharn prohibits erecting a secure shelter within one mile of the city without a permit. House Ghallanda holds that permit exclusively.

II. Food & Drink

Every Gold Dragon Inn serves the same standard menu. The menu adjusts seasonally and incorporates regional specialties, but certain staples are always available. A traveler in the Byeshk Mountains and a traveler in Wroat will find the same core dishes prepared to the same standard — the house's great promise is that you always know what you are getting, and what you are getting is good.

Premium or rare ingredients may add 10–50% to stated prices. For context: a street vendor in Sharn will feed you for 12 copper pieces with watered ale. The Commons in Upper Menthis — the open-air food market near Morgrave University — will give you a decent meal for 19 copper. A Ghallanda hearth meal at 8 silver sits comfortably above common fare but well below the 40-silver prix fixe at a place like Sannid's in Platinum Heights. The house feeds the broad middle of Khorvaire's traveling population, and does so reliably.

The Gold Dragon Inn Menu

The Gold Dragon Inn menu is built around Talentan Fusion — a blending of traditional halfling cuisine from the Plains, adapted over centuries for a Khorvairan palate. Whatever the season, a traveler can count on finding tribex steaks served with herb butter, the house's signature Threehorn Egg Frittata (made with mushrooms, tribex belly, and walnuts — usually prepared with goldenfowl eggs despite the name, as genuine threehorn eggs are scarce), and the ever-popular Dragonuggets, flavored by prestidigitation to individual taste.

The menu rotates with the Khorvaire calendar:

Spring (Therendor–Dravago): Fresh greens and foraged vegetables take prominence. Rampion salads, ferntip omurice, and seasonal sweets conjured with illusion-assisted presentation.

Summer (Nymm–Barrakas): Shared plates and grilled meats. Goldie's Wildfire Kebabs are brought raw to the table on a bed of dried herbs that ignite on contact with air; guests decide when to pull them from the flame.

Autumn (Rhaan–Sypheros): Mushrooms, nuts, and warm spices. Harvest feasts fill the common room with tables end to end, and for a flat fee guests may eat their fill of whatever comes off the grill or out of the pot.

Winter (Aryth–Zarantyr): Bright flavors against cold months. High-tal service — a tiered tray of small plates, finger sandwiches, and pastries served alongside hot tal — is a winter afternoon tradition at Gold Dragon Inns across Khorvaire, and some establishments have turned it into a social event worth traveling for.

During Long Shadows, a special three-day menu is served. Guests purchase dense, brick-like bread and toss it into the hearth fire. The staff then sets fresh round dough on a ceramic plate above the flame. When done, the round loaf is hollow — cut at the top, it reveals a stew-filled interior. The method by which the stew arrives inside the uncut loaf is, according to the house, none of your business.

"How does the stew get in the bread?" "How does the blink dog find you when you're lost?" "That's not an answer." "It's the only answer you're getting. More tal?" — Overheard at a Gold Dragon Inn, Long Shadows, 997 YK

III. Mark-Assisted Hospitality Services

These services require a licensed bearer of the Mark of Hospitality. Only certified Ghallanda heirs may offer them commercially; unlicensed provision is illegal under Hosteler's Guild charter.

The mark has three aspects — Food, Shelter, and Soothing — and commercially available services are organized accordingly. The mark's magic ranges from the ambient (a Ghallanda innkeeper wearing Innkeeper's Gloves maintains a clean, comfortable environment as naturally as breathing) to the extraordinary (a Greater Mark heir opening a door into a fully furnished extradimensional estate).

On the Hospitable Hall and Magnificent Mansion. These are not everyday services. In the wake of the Last War, perhaps a few hundred individuals across Khorvaire can produce one of these effects — through the Greater Mark, a Manor Key, or both. The typical Ghallanda inn is made of brick and mortar. But Ghallanda pop-ups are wondrous things. The layout of a Hall can be changed every time an heir casts the spell: a stage for tonight's performance, small cabins for an influx of guests, a command post for officers behind enemy lines. The décor is limited only by the imagination of the caster, and a pop-up restaurant can have a new theme every night. Some heirs operate in major cities, providing a unique experience to wealthy patrons — a different restaurant in a different world every evening, entered through a doorway that was not there yesterday and will not be there tomorrow. Others prefer the road, opening a new door to a new community every day. These itinerant pop-ups are among the most wondrous experiences Khorvaire has to offer.

IV. Wayhouses & Road Support

Wayhouses are maintained along major roads at roughly a day's travel apart, coordinated with House Orien timetables where lightning rail or coach routes apply. Some are found in locations with no other services — high in a pass through the Byeshk Mountains, deep in the Karrnwood, or beneath the surface of the Mror Holds. Sometimes a wayhouse is the nucleus of a small community whose entire industry is focused on providing for the needs of travelers.

For hostile routes, the house recommends arranging a House Deneith escort separately — Ghallanda does not provide armed security beyond standard enclave guards. The house feeds you. The house shelters you. The house does not fight for you.

V. Private Dining, Events & Hosting

Major enclaves and Ghallanda Hall offer private event facilities. The Ghallanda Hall heroes' feast — an enchanted meal served in a private warded dining room with exceptional entertainment — is the premier example of this tier. In Sharn, heroes' feasts occur no more than once a month, rotating between the Dragon Towers enclave, Ghallanda Hall in Underlook, and the open-air market in Little Plains.

Ballrooms include enclave guards and warded entry as standard. Magical silence or privacy wards are available on request. Major enclaves with a Manor Key or a resident heir of the Greater Mark may also offer a rotating pop-up space — a Hospitable Hall or Magnificent Mansion configured to the needs of the event, dressed as anything from a royal banquet hall to a replica of a customer's lost family estate. Pricing is negotiated per event, and the waiting list can be long.

VI. Mobile & Field Services

The Wandering Inn is the most celebrated mobile operation in Khorvaire, but the house maintains field kitchens and mobile support for caravans, military contractors, and expeditions across the continent. During the Last War, the Dragontail Guild attached marked quartermasters to every major army — heirs who could conjure shelter and purify spoiled provisions in the field, answering to clients on opposing sides of the same front lines without apology.

For travel into genuinely dangerous regions — remote wilderness, active war zones, areas near the Demon Wastes — the house has demonstrated willingness to operate, guided in part by Baron Yoren and Chervina d'Ghallanda's expanding enclave program. Appropriate escort and risk compensation should be expected.

The Wandering Inn is not a commercial service in the conventional sense. The Inn travels the Talenta Plains on a well-established path, accompanied by clawfoot riders and glidewing scouts who patrol for travelers who have strayed from safe routes. Any traveler who encounters the Inn is welcome to a day and a night of hospitality — food, entertainment, healing, and guidance on the dangers ahead — at no charge. It is customary to leave a gift; those with nothing to give may pay with a kind act to someone in need in the future. Each wagon is protected by hallow and enchanted to sustain a magnificent mansion within — meaning that a humble-looking wagon opens into halls of warmth, light, and abundance that defy the imagination.

VII. Discretion & Sanctuary Services

House Ghallanda enclaves are sanctuaries beyond the legal reach of any government or dragonmarked house. This status is not negotiated case-by-case — it is a structural feature of every enclave, rooted in an amendment to the Korth Edicts granted by Galifar I himself. Ghallanda enclaves are protected by the effects of hallow, warding against aberrations, fiends, and undead and blocking all teleportation and interplanar travel into or out of the enclave.

What follows are the specific service expressions of that guarantee. The house does not officially acknowledge most of the entries in this section. Availability varies by enclave and hallmaster.

The house does not provide false papers, forged identity documents, or assistance in manufacturing new identities — that is the business of the Tyrants, not Ghallanda. The house does not arrange armed enforcement or contract violence; for security, clients are directed to House Deneith.

Abuse of sanctuary — using an enclave to plan violence against other guests, to stage criminal operations, or to conduct activities the house considers a direct threat to its reputation — results in service termination and permanent blacklisting. The house has long institutional memory. A guest expelled from one enclave is expelled from all of them.

The Hearth Guard

Each Ghallanda enclave is defended by a garrison of the Hearth Guard — not a conventional military force, but something stranger and more interesting. The Guard is made up overwhelmingly of people who once sought sanctuary themselves, who swore a year of service to the enclave in exchange for room, board, and protection. The philosophy of the house is that service in the Hearth Guard provides a fresh start: whatever you may have done in the outside world, this is your opportunity to do better.

Each enclave's Guard operates as an independent unit under a Guard Captain, chosen for their skills, integrity, and — crucially — their judgment of other people's character. The Captain evaluates every recruit and decides whether to accept them. Members of the Guard may come from anywhere: deserters, former Boromar enforcers, disgraced templars, hunters from the Plains, convicted criminals seeking clemency. The Captain determines how to forge them into a functional unit and make best use of their varied skills.

Recruits swear to serve for one full year without leaving the enclave. In exchange they receive room and board, equipment if needed, and a small salary paid in a lump sum at the end of their term. After the first year, a recruit may ask their Captain for permission to leave for short periods. Those who leave without permission end their service immediately. A Hearth Guard is only protected by sanctuary while inside the enclave — many guards never take advantage of the option to leave.

Sentinel Marshals who pursue a fugitive into a Ghallanda enclave are turned away at the door by the Hearth Guard. They are not always gracious about this. The Hearth Guard is not always gracious in return.

VIII. Hirelings & Certified Staff

All Ghallanda-certified staff operate under Hosteler's Guild codes. Master chefs and senior stewards may require ingredient or travel stipends in addition to day rates.

Staff loyalty is a genuine house value, not merely a contractual term. Ghallanda staff are not informants — they will not report on guests to external parties, including clients who hired them. This cuts both ways: clients cannot direct Ghallanda staff to surveil other guests. If you hire a Ghallanda innkeeper to run your establishment, you are buying their expertise and their standards. You are not buying their eyes and ears.

The Ghallan Wanderers

Ghallanda heirs who serve as Wanderers are not a commercial service — but they are worth knowing about. A Wanderer is a Ghallanda heir on the road, charged to make friends, learn new things, and above all to help those in need. A Wanderer might offer goodberry morsels to a starving family, provide a temporary extradimensional shelter to a fugitive, or step in to mediate a dispute before blood is shed. Wanderers are not expected to have an answer for every problem. They provide a moment of respite and move on.

Any inn or tavern run by a Ghallanda heir will find shelter for a Wanderer, even if it is the stables. Beyond this, a traveler who once received a helping hand from a Wanderer may be inclined to repay that kindness to a stranger — at the Wanderer's request or simply on instinct. The house has cultivated this network for centuries. It costs nothing to a traveler and provides nothing that can be invoiced. It is simply what the house believes in.

"You carry the sanctuary within, but you must open that door to those in need." — From the tale of Kullikora, the oldest known reference to the Mark of Hospitality

IX. Membership & Ongoing Contracts

The membership programs reflect the house's understanding that its most valuable clients are not the wealthiest but the most loyal. A merchant who stays at Gold Dragon Inns fifty nights a year is worth more than a noble who books one luxury suite. The Hearthstone Circle and Caravan Passbook are designed for working travelers — the people who keep Khorvaire's roads busy and its economy moving. The Diplomatic Hospitality Retainer, by contrast, is for clients who need guaranteed access to sanctuary and hallmaster intervention at short notice — ambassadors, intelligence operatives, and anyone whose work requires a neutral ground they can reach quickly and trust absolutely.