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Mercy Houses of the Open Door

The Mercy Houses of the Open Door are Caerlon’s largest distributed reconstruction-era religious institution.

They are not a single temple, centralized church, or replacement government. They are a continent-wide compact of healing houses, refugee shelters, public kitchens, roadside refuges, rehabilitation wards, field clinics, funerary receiving rooms, family-tracing desks, quarantine stations, and community storehouses.

The network arose during the invasion from Vorrak, when local temples and shrine-halls opened their doors to wounded soldiers, displaced families, abandoned children, unidentified dead, and people whose settlements no longer existed. Many of those emergency houses never returned to their former functions. Their kitchens became permanent public hearths. Their sleeping halls became refugee wards. Their prayer rooms became treatment rooms, identity desks, grief chambers, and places where families waited for news.

Veyra’s teachings concerning healing, mercy, birth, and restoration provide the strongest shared religious foundation. Local houses also include clergy and lay servants of Halven, Morvane, Olyrra, Selari, Thalara, and other traditions appropriate to their communities.

No person must worship Veyra—or any god—to receive threshold care.

The Mercy Houses possess considerable moral and political influence because they kept people alive when older authorities failed. They do not possess sovereignty. A Mercy House can shelter, heal, document, witness, protest, refuse cooperation, and coordinate relief. It cannot crown rulers, overturn courts, command armies, settle all property claims, or declare itself the sole religious authority of Caerlon.

Institution at a Glance

Field	Mercy Houses of the Open Door
Institution type	Distributed religious mercy and reconstruction network
Parent tradition	Caerlonian branch of the Healing Houses of Veyra
Other common traditions	Halven, Morvane, Olyrra, Selari, Thalara, local saints, refugee hearth traditions
Continental reach	Every major Caerlonian region, with greatest concentration in the Crownward Heart, Heart Plains, Highharbor Coast, and Scoured Marches
Largest urban complex	Saint Veyra’s Southward Hospital in Crownward Seat
Largest food-and-relief center	Open Table House at the Heartplain Assembly Halls
Largest maritime house	Veyra’s Salt Mercy House in Highharbor
Largest specialist affiliate	Hope’s Return
Principal work	Healing, food, shelter, rehabilitation, refugee assistance, road relief, family tracing, funerary intake, quarantine support, and institutional referral
Governing body	The Common Table of the Open Door
Governing principle	Immediate need is addressed before status, debt, origin, or political claim
Common symbol	An open hand above an unbarred threshold
Common reputation	Necessary, compassionate, exhausted, politically difficult to intimidate

Identity and Founding

Before the Invasion

Before the Vorrakian invasion, Caerlon contained Veyran healing chapels, Halvenite hearth shrines, funerary houses, midwife circles, roadside hostels, temple kitchens, veteran infirmaries, and local poorhouses.

They did not form a continental institution.

Most answered to a particular temple, settlement, noble patron, guild, village council, or religious tradition. Standards varied widely. Some served anyone who arrived. Others served only local families, recognized congregants, paying patients, soldiers, guild members, or people carrying acceptable letters.

The invasion made those distinctions impossible to maintain.

The Open Door Nights

The earliest Open Door traditions date to the first large refugee movements away from eastern Caerlon.

Temple records describe nights when local clergy removed doors from their hinges because frightened crowds kept breaking them. Kitchens boiled grain reserved for festivals. Funeral attendants became triage workers. Village priests turned reliquary chests into medicine stores. Road shrines used altar cloths as bandages. Families slept beneath legal tablets, saint paintings, and military banners because no other roof remained.

No single house invented the Open Door.

The name arose because survivors repeatedly remembered the same thing: amid closed gates, guarded estates, blocked bridges, and abandoned offices, certain doors had opened.

The First Compact

After the invasion was halted, many emergency houses attempted to return to ordinary temple life. Most discovered that the emergency had changed rather than ended.

The wounded still needed care. Refugee camps had become neighborhoods. Families remained separated. Veterans returned with injuries that did not heal cleanly. Death rolls were incomplete. Reconstruction workers traveled unsafe roads. Settlers entered ruined districts without reliable shelter. Resurrected people returned to households and laws that did not know how to receive them.

Representatives of twelve major houses met at the Heartplain Assembly Halls and adopted the First Open Door Compact.

The Compact did not establish a new church. It established minimum obligations that different religious houses agreed to share.

The Seven Clauses of the Open Door

Every fully recognized Mercy House displays the Seven Clauses near its principal entrance.

1. Stabilize Before Questioning

A person in immediate danger receives necessary first aid before being required to prove identity, citizenship, innocence, military service, religious affiliation, or ability to pay.

Questions necessary to prevent further harm may still be asked during care.

2. Water and the First Bowl Are Not Sold

Every person admitted through the Open Door is entitled to potable water and one ordinary meal appropriate to the house’s available stores and the person’s medical condition.

The First Bowl cannot be withheld for debt, ancestry, origin, doctrine, political loyalty, or lack of documents.

This obligation does not create a right to indefinite lodging or unlimited meals.

3. No Guest Is Removed Unwitnessed

A creditor, recruiter, noble agent, military officer, family claimant, bounty holder, or official may state a claim against a guest.

They may not quietly remove that person.

Removal requires:

• the House Steward or appointed deputy;
• a second witness not under the claimant’s authority;
• a publicly stated or written basis;
• and a record of the destination.

Immediate restraint or removal remains permitted when a guest presents a direct and ongoing danger that cannot safely be contained.

4. Records Must Distinguish Fact from Testimony

Mercy House ledgers distinguish:

• what a worker directly observed;
• what a patient or guest reported;
• what another witness reported;
• what an official document claims;
• what remains uncertain;
• and what has been corrected.

A house may record an unknown name without inventing one.

5. Relief Stores Are Held in Trust

Food, medicine, blankets, tools, building materials, and other relief supplies may not be diverted for private resale, political reward, donor preference, or unrecorded military use.

Emergency requisitions must name the authority taking the goods and the obligation to replace them.

6. The Dead Are Not Administrative Waste

A body received by a Mercy House must be protected from theft, mutilation, disappearance, hurried disposal, or deliberate misidentification.

Known names are recorded. Uncertain names remain uncertain. Personal effects are listed. Appropriate funerary authorities are notified.

7. A Closed Door Must Point Toward Help

When a house cannot safely admit more people, its threshold officers must direct urgent cases toward the nearest functioning alternative.

A house that repeatedly closes without warning, referral, or review may lose recognition under the Compact.

Complete Continental Spatial Footprint

The Mercy Houses operate as a network of fixed nodes rather than as a single headquarters with distant branches.

The main network follows four transportation systems:

1. the Caerlon Sea Road and Highharbor docks;
2. the River Valen and Valenic Towpaths;
3. the Crownward and Heartplain reconstruction roads;
4. the Marcher roads extending east through the Scoured Marches.

Secondary branches follow the River Torin crossings, Verdant estate roads, Estenmark military roads, Silveredge pass roads, Elderidge rescue roads, the Dread Sea Coast, and the restricted Broken Chain approaches.

Continental Orientation

The network’s primary west-to-east relief corridor is:

Highharbor → Valenbridge → Crownward Seat → Heartplain Assembly Halls → Saintsbridge → Hope’s Return → Fort Harrowline → New Bellweather → Concord Milehouse Seven → Mournleigh Crossing

This corridor carries medicine, grain, trained personnel, patient transfers, refugee records, funerary notices, and road-closure information.

Additional branches extend:

• north and northwest from Crownward Seat toward the Silveredge Gatehold;
• southwest and south through the Heart Plains and Verdant Expanse;
• across the Torin Riverlands through Torinbridge;
• southeast through Estenmark toward Fort Harrowline;
• through the Elderidge Oathlands along the Old Rescue Road;
• and eastward from Chainwatch Harbor toward the Broken Chain quarantine stations.

House Classes

Class	Function
Great Mercy House	Large urban or regional complex providing specialized treatment, long-term recovery, records, teaching, stores, and referrals
Full Mercy House	Permanent house providing ordinary treatment, meals, beds, records, and local relief
Road Door	Small institution serving travelers, convoys, road workers, pilgrims, and displaced people
Quay Door	Maritime intake station serving sailors, passengers, dockworkers, and arrivals
Resting Hearth	Affiliated shrine, farm, inn, household, guildhall, or refuge offering limited services
Field Door	Temporary emergency site established during evacuation, epidemic, disaster, or military movement
Specialist Affiliate	Independent institution sharing referrals and standards without answering to the Common Table

Network Node Registry

Crownward Circle

Node	Exact placement	Class	Primary function	Normal service reach
Saint Veyra’s Southward Hospital	Crownward Seat, Southward Hospital Quarter, on the east side of the South Crown Road between Road Glass Market and the Ministry Yards; ten minutes on foot north of the southern city gate	Great Mercy House	Advanced healing, rehabilitation, teaching, continental records, veteran care, resurrection recovery	Crownward Seat and continent-wide specialist referrals
Mile Zero Road Door	At Road Glass Station at Mile 0, immediately outside Crownward Seat’s southern gate where the restored Crownward roads divide	Road Door and dispatch station	Traveler intake, convoy inspection, transfer staging, road notices	Southern Crownward roads and western approach to the Heart Plains
Low Petition Meal Room	At the lower end of the Low Petition Steps, entered from the public side street rather than through the civic court	Resting Hearth	Food, water, quiet waiting, referral for petitioners	Crownward petition and archive districts
Ashleaf Referral Desk	Inside the public receiving hall of the Ashleaf Repository	Specialist desk	Names, damaged records, family tracing, death-record correction	Crownward and continent-wide record cases

Saint Veyra’s Southward Hospital

The Southward Hospital is the largest individual Mercy House in Caerlon.

Its main frontage faces the South Crown Road. Its rear service gate opens toward the Ministry Yards so wagons carrying timber, medicines, food, clean cloth, and patients do not block the public entrance.

The hospital complex occupies four connected courts:

1. The Open Court — public intake, drinking fountains, covered benches, the First Bowl kitchen, and the main Open Door Board.
2. The Healing Court — ordinary wards, surgery rooms, magical-treatment rooms, apothecaries, childbirth chambers, and infectious-disease assessment rooms.
3. The Returning Court — rehabilitation halls, prosthetic workshops, exercise yards, quiet rooms, and recovery wards for people affected by resurrection or severe magical trauma.
4. The Witness Court — records offices, family rooms, referral clerks, funerary advocates, complaints offices, and classrooms.

The hospital maintains approximately 240 permanent inpatient beds. The covered courtyards, teaching halls, and chapel galleries can hold another 180 emergency cots during a declared crisis.

The hospital is not the headquarters of Caerlonian religion. It is the principal administrative and teaching anchor of the Mercy House network.

Heartplain Circle

Node	Exact placement	Class	Primary function	Normal service reach
Open Table House	Southern edge of the Heartplain Assembly Halls complex, below Assembly Ridge and between the Refuge Row Annex road and the public granary road	Great Mercy House	Food relief, regional governance, training, agricultural injuries, refugee assistance	Central Heart Plains
Grainwake Storehouse Door	Eastern side of Grainwake’s convoy yards, adjoining the public grain scales but separated from the guarded granary compounds	Full Mercy House and supply depot	Convoy medicine, grain relief, labor injuries, emergency stores	Grainwake and northern grain roads
Miller’s Concord Hearth House	On the north bank of the millrace between the public mills and the western refugee quarter	Full Mercy House	Mill injuries, respiratory illness, food relief, shelter	Miller’s Concord and nearby milling villages
Three Refuge Doors	Three linked houses surrounding the Three-Camp Market in Refuge Row	Three linked Full Houses	Refugee shelter, family tracing, childcare, labor protection, memorial claims	Refuge Row and neighboring camp-born settlements
Hearthford Bridge Door	West abutment of the main bridge, above the ferry stairs and outside the toll enclosure	Road Door	Bridge injuries, travelers, river rescue, overnight shelter	Hearthford crossing and local farms
Assembly Roadhouse Nine	On the Heartplain Assembly Road at the ninth official roadhouse from Crownward Seat	Road Door and courier relay	Convoy shelter, route information, first aid, message transfer	Central Crownward–Heartplain road
Westrow Winter Hearth	Inside Westrow Barns’ outer granary wall, beside the public cart entrance	Resting Hearth and winter shelter	Cold-weather refuge, reserve blankets, food distribution	Western Heart Plains

Open Table House

Open Table House is built into the southern retaining wall of Assembly Ridge.

Its upper entrance opens toward the Assembly Halls and political offices. Its lower entrance faces the wagon yards and public grain road. This allows town representatives, grain officers, farmers, refugees, and relief convoys to use the house without passing through the same controlled approach.

The complex contains:

• a public dining hall capable of serving eight hundred simple meals in a day;
• 120 permanent beds;
• two childbirth rooms;
• an agricultural-injury ward;
• a grain-allergy and dust-lung clinic;
• refugee claim rooms;
• family-tracing desks;
• a training kitchen;
• emergency grain stores;
• a council chamber used by the Common Table;
• and a wagon court large enough to stage twelve relief wagons.

The Open Table House controls no Heartplain granary. It receives allocations through negotiated agreements with the Heartplain Assembly.

The Three Refuge Doors

The Three Refuge Doors are:

• East Door, specializing in family tracing, identity referrals, and child protection;
• Market Door, specializing in food, labor disputes, and short-term shelter;
• Field Door, specializing in rehabilitation, memorial claims, and protection for people traveling to hearings.

Veylora Openhand is the elected protector of the Three Refuge Doors and the refugee council associated with them.

The three houses share a kitchen, grain store, memorial field, escort roster, and complaints court. Their records remain separate so the loss or seizure of one ledger cannot erase the entire community’s history.

Salt Circle

Node	Exact placement	Class	Primary function	Normal service reach
Veyra’s Salt Mercy House	Highharbor, on the landward edge of Saltwatch Quays, one block west of Mourners’ Dock and backed by the Ropewalk Ward	Great Mercy House and Quay Door	Maritime injuries, refugee intake, quarantine support, drowned-person recovery	Highharbor and western maritime routes
Farwake Arrival Room	Farwake Piers, beside the public pilot registry and outside the secured charter-captain offices	Quay Door	Foreign-language intake, traveler referral, pilot injuries, missing-passenger records	Farwake Piers and foreign arrivals
Ropewalk Meal Door	Ropewalk Ward, at the junction of Sailcloth Lane and the cargo-hauler road	Resting Hearth	Meals, wash facilities, minor treatment, labor referrals	Ropewalk workers and dock families
Drychain Isolation Annex	Landward side of Drychain Yard, outside the restricted drydock fence	Controlled Field Door	Patients released from ship quarantine, families waiting on isolation decisions	Drychain Yard and Chainward Customs
West Lantern Rest Room	Base of the West Lantern Point approach stair	Resting Hearth	Exhausted pilots, signal workers, storm survivors	Western harbor approaches

Veyra’s Salt Mercy House

The Salt Mercy House is positioned where three districts meet:

• Saltwatch Quays to the east;
• Mourners’ Dock to the southeast;
• the Ropewalk Ward to the west.

Its placement allows patrol boats, mortuary barges, cargo crews, refugees, and ordinary city residents to reach it without crossing Leaguehall Rise or the most restrictive customs streets.

The principal public entrance faces Ropewalk Ward. A covered patient passage connects to Saltwatch Quays. A screened funerary passage leads toward Mourners’ Dock. A separate inspection yard receives patients transferred from quarantine vessels.

The complex contains:

• 160 permanent beds;
• 80 isolation cots;
• a drowning and exposure hall;
• a rope-and-crush injury ward;
• foreign-language intake desks;
• a passenger and manifest office;
• a public kitchen;
• a family waiting gallery;
• a sea-death receiving room;
• and an upper storm refuge above the usual flood line.

The house cooperates with Highharbor quarantine authorities but does not permit quarantine to be used as a substitute for arrest, debt collection, or political disappearance.

Valenic and Torin River Branches

Node	Exact placement	Class	Primary function	Normal service reach
Valenbridge River Door	South bank of Valenbridge, between the principal barge landing and the road to Riverseal Court	Full Mercy House and River Door	Barge injuries, flood relief, patient transfer, river-worker care	Central River Valen corridor
Lowbank Flood Hearth	Highest permanent street in Lowbank, beside the Mud Bell Office	Resting Hearth and flood refuge	Flood evacuation, dry storage, temporary shelter	Lowbank and nearby towpath settlements
Torinbridge Span Door	Eastbank Ward, on the first public street east of the Great Span and adjacent to the southern entrance of Asylum Row	Full Mercy House	Bridge injuries, asylum referrals, disputed-name intake, ferry accidents	Torinbridge and nearby Bridgeholds
Three-Pier Rescue Room	Three-Pier Landing, directly above the ferry steps	River Door	River rescue, cargo injuries, short-term shelter	Local River Torin traffic
Greybarrow Rest Bench	West end of Greybarrow Bridge beside the burial markers	Resting Hearth	Funerary rest, traveler water, minor care	Rural bridge traffic

The Valenbridge River Door manages the network’s principal barge transfers. Patients too fragile for long wagon travel may be moved between Highharbor, Valenbridge, and Crownward Seat by river.

The Torinbridge Span Door is deliberately located outside the fortified bridge towers. Bridge wardens may control access to the Great Span, but they do not control the Mercy House threshold.

Verdant, Estenmark, Silveredge, and Elderidge Branches

Node	Exact placement	Class	Primary function	Normal service reach
Veyra’s Green Infirmary	Larkgrove, where the main Heirwood Road enters the public market, outside any single noble estate	Full Mercy House	Long-term war wounds, herbal medicine, resurrection recovery, estate-labor injuries	Verdant Expanse
Estenhall Watch Door	Outside Estenhall’s southern gate between the Clear Road Office yard and the public muster road	Full Mercy House and military-civilian transfer point	Muster injuries, evacuations, civilian protection, military-road referrals	Estenmark
Stormstep Refuge	Silveredge Pass Roads, one day’s climb below Silveredge Gatehold at the junction with the Upper Chain Lift service path	Road Door and mountain refuge	Exposure, rockfall, pack-train injury, winter shelter	Southern Silveredge approach
Bellroot Oath Hearth	Bellroot Village, on the eastern edge of Hearthlaw Green where the Old Rescue Road enters the village	Full Mercy House and witness shelter	Rural care, oath witnesses, rescue duty, family testimony	Elderidge Oathlands
Seven-Oath Ford Rest House	North bank of Seven-Oath Ford outside the formal oath stones	Resting Hearth	Crossing injuries, traveler shelter, neutral witness space	Southern Oathlands

Veyra’s Green Infirmary is independent of the Verdant noble courts. Its location in Larkgrove prevents any single principality from claiming that access to healing depends upon estate permission.

The Estenhall Watch Door accepts military patients but is not under military command. Armed units use the rear muster entrance; civilians use the southern threshold court.

Stormstep Refuge remains under Silveredge hold law while observing the Open Door Compact. During severe weather, rescue priority overrides ordinary toll and debt claims.

Bellroot Oath Hearth preserves written records but accepts properly witnessed oral testimony where Elderidge custom recognizes it.

Marcher Circle

Node	Exact placement	Class	Primary function	Normal service reach
Saintsbridge Mercy Door	Western bridgehead of Saintsbridge, behind the evacuation-shrine row and outside the eastern inspection gate	Full Mercy House and Road Door	Evacuation, bridge injuries, refugee transfer, Marcher intake	Western entrance to the Scoured Marches
Hope’s Return	South side of the Old Retreat Road where the Saintsbridge road joins it, six hours east of Saintsbridge	Independent specialist affiliate	Advanced healing, Saint Ruth pilgrimage, rehabilitation, resurrection ethics	Continental specialist referrals
Harrowline Gate Door	Outside Fort Harrowline’s main gate between the civilian wagon lane and the road serving the Last Hot Bowl	Full Mercy House and Field Door	Patrol injuries, civilian treatment, patient transfer, road-closure support	Fort Harrowline and western patrol roads
Veyra’s Handhouse	New Bellweather, north side of Bell Green where Old Ford Road begins, behind Olyrra’s Name Rail	Full Mercy House	Childbirth, war trauma, construction injuries, local care	New Bellweather and Bellweather Ford approaches
Westwatch Palisade Door	Immediately inside Westwatch Palisade’s western gate	Road Door	Arrival screening, overnight shelter, emergency retreat	Western Rebuilt Marches
Ashroad Camp Field Door	Southern edge of Ashroad Camp, separated from the road-repair tool yards by a drainage ditch and rope fence	Field Door	Work injuries, escort staging, temporary shelter	Reconstruction crews on the eastern road
Concord Milehouse Seven	North side of the Marcher Patrol Road at the western boundary of the Contested Middle Marches	Fortified Road Door	Controlled shelter, convoy assembly, missing-person records	Western Contested Middle Marches
Mournleigh Witness Door	Southwest corner of Mournleigh Crossing beside the public witness stones	Limited Road Door	Witness protection, first aid, escorted rest, haunted-road referrals	Mournleigh Crossing
Greyfield Receiving Tent	Western edge of Greyfield Shrine Rows, outside the burial fields	Seasonal Field Door	Pilgrim care, funerary assistance, battlefield remains	Greyfield Shrine Rows
Chainwatch Sea Door	Chainwatch Harbor, on the landward side of the quarantine pier and inside the second warning wall	Full Mercy House and coastal intake site	Coastal injuries, refugee landings, quarantine families, wreck survivors	Dread Sea Coast
Eastwind Isolation Door	Shoreward end of Eastwind Quarantine Pier, separated from the settlement road by the blue-post boundary	Controlled Field Door	Quarantine care and patient transfer	Eastwind Pier and coastal patrol traffic
Lantern Reef Sickbay	Lantern Reef Station in the Broken Chain Approaches, beneath the lighthouse service terrace and above the main boat landing	Restricted Specialist Affiliate	Patrol injuries, exposure, quarantine stabilization	Lantern Reef and cleared approach channels

Hope’s Return

Hope’s Return is not governed by the Common Table.

It is the headquarters of the Order of Hope’s Return and the greatest specialist religious complex associated with the Mercy Houses.

The site stands in the Western Rebuilt Marches on the battlefield where Saint Ruth died and the dead were restored. The Old Retreat Road passes along its northern wall. The Saintsbridge road joins that route west of the pilgrim gate. A separate eastern service road connects the complex to Fort Harrowline without forcing supply wagons through the pilgrim court.

Mercy Houses refer patients to Hope’s Return for:

• severe battlefield trauma;
• advanced magical and physical rehabilitation;
• disputed miraculous recovery;
• resurrection-related care;
• long-term veteran treatment;
• and cases requiring the Order’s expertise.

Hope’s Return trains Mercy House personnel and receives network supplies. It cannot issue commands to the Common Table.

Route and Travel Registry

The times below assume ordinary conditions, maintained routes, fair weather, and either a loaded relief wagon, ordinary river barge, or appropriate vessel as stated.

They are operational planning times used by the network, not promises to travelers.

Western and Central Routes

Route	Normal mode	Ordinary time	Adverse time	Primary authority
Highharbor to Valenbridge	River barge	2 days upstream; 1½ days downstream	3–4 days	Valenic lockkeepers and Highharbor river offices
Valenbridge to Crownward Seat	River barge	2 days upstream; 1 day downstream	3 days	Valenic Compact and Crownward river offices
Highharbor to Crownward Seat	Through river journey	4 days upstream; 3 days downstream	6–7 days	Valenic and Crownward authorities
Crownward Seat to Heartplain Assembly Halls	Loaded wagon	3 days	4–5 days	Crownward road offices and Heartplain councils
Crownward Seat to Bellroot Village	Loaded wagon	3 days	5 days	Elderidge road communities
Crownward Seat to Stormstep Refuge	Pack train	4 days in fair season	6–9 days	Silveredge pass wardens
Heartplain Assembly Halls to Torinbridge	Loaded wagon and ferry	2 days	3–4 days	Torin bridge authorities
Heartplain Assembly Halls to Larkgrove	Loaded wagon	2 days	3 days	Verdant estate-road authorities
Heartplain Assembly Halls to Estenhall	Loaded wagon	3 days	4 days	Heartplain and Estenmark road officers

Eastern Reconstruction Corridor

Route	Normal mode	Ordinary time	Adverse time	Primary authority
Heartplain Assembly Halls to Ashroad Camp	Loaded relief wagon	2 days	3 days	Heartplain road councils
Ashroad Camp to Saintsbridge	Loaded relief wagon	1 day	2 days	Marcher Concord and local bridge wardens
Saintsbridge to Hope’s Return	Loaded wagon	6 hours	10 hours	Local road wardens and the Order of Hope’s Return
Hope’s Return to Fort Harrowline	Loaded wagon	1 day	2 days	Marcher Concord
Fort Harrowline to New Bellweather	Loaded wagon	8 hours	1½ days	Marcher Concord and New Bellweather council
New Bellweather to Concord Milehouse Seven	Escorted convoy	2 days	3–5 days or closure	Marcher Concord
Concord Milehouse Seven to Mournleigh Crossing	Escorted wagon	6 hours	1 day or closure	Marcher Concord
Mournleigh Crossing to Greyfield Shrine Rows	Escorted wagon	1 day	Route may close	Marcher Concord and funerary wardens
Estenhall to Fort Harrowline	Military supply wagon	2 days	3 days	Estenmark and Marcher Concord

Coastal and Broken Chain Routes

Route	Normal mode	Ordinary time	Adverse time	Primary authority
Chainwatch Harbor to Eastwind Quarantine Pier	Coastal road wagon	6 hours	1 day	Coastal patrol authorities
Chainwatch Harbor to Lantern Reef Station	Patrol cutter	1 day	2–3 days or closure	Dread Sea patrols and lighthouse officers
Highharbor to Chainwatch Harbor	Coastal vessel	6–9 days	10–15 days	Highharbor League, coastal patrols, and port authorities
Highharbor to Chainwatch Harbor	Overland relief convoy through Crownward and Estenmark	12–16 days	18 days or longer	Multiple regional authorities
Lantern Reef Station to the nearest cleared quarantine islet	Patrol boat	4–8 hours	Route may close	Broken Chain quarantine authority

Approaches and Recognition

Recognizing a Mercy House

A recognized Mercy House displays:

• an open-hand emblem above the principal public entrance;
• an Open Door Board listing available services;
• a white threshold line that officials and claimants must not cross without permission;
• a visible water point;
• and an arrow marker showing the nearest alternate house.

Road Doors use painted boards or carved stone markers. Quay Doors use flags and lanterns. Mountain doors use carved hand marks and stacked rescue stones.

Open Door Boards

Mark	Meaning
Open hand	Public intake is operating
Bowl	A public meal is being served
Cot	Sleeping spaces are available
Bandaged hand	A trained healer is on duty
Cradle	Childbirth or infant care is available
Gray ring	A funerary attendant can receive the dead
Open book	Records, family tracing, or referral assistance is available
Blue circle	Controlled medical assessment or quarantine is active
Horizontal bar across the hand	Entry is restricted
Arrow beneath a barred hand	Direction of the nearest functioning alternative

A service mark must be covered when that service is unavailable.

Knowingly displaying a healer, bed, or funerary mark without the necessary staff or capacity is a Compact violation.

Night Lantern Signals

Mercy Houses use standardized night lanterns where local law permits:

Signal	Meaning
One steady white lantern	Threshold open
Two white lanterns side by side	Trained healer available
Three white lanterns vertically	Beds full; water, food, and urgent assessment still available
One blue-shuttered lantern	Controlled quarantine approach
One white lantern above one gray lantern	Funerary intake available
Repeated covering and uncovering of a white lantern	Immediate assistance required at the approach
No lantern with a visible direction arrow	House closed; follow the marked alternate route

These signals do not replace local alarm bells.

Supply Movement

Primary Supply Flow

The network’s ordinary supply pattern is:

1. imported medicine, salt, cloth, and foreign relief arrive through Highharbor;
2. river barges move bulk goods to Valenbridge and Crownward Seat;
3. Crownward stores divide specialist supplies among the regional circles;
4. Heartplain convoys provide grain, preserved food, seed, and livestock products;
5. Estenmark and Marcher wagons carry supplies east;
6. Silveredge shipments provide metal tools, stone, fittings, and mountain medicines;
7. Verdant houses provide herbs, timber, fruit preserves, and long-term recovery supplies.

Shared Stores

Regional Shared Stores maintain:

• grain;
• preserved food;
• blankets;
• clean cloth;
• soap;
• lamp oil;
• firewood;
• healer’s tools;
• common medicines;
• water containers;
• rope;
• splints;
• repair tools;
• temporary shelter canvas;
• burial cloth;
• record slates;
• and sealed referral packets.

At least two officers must witness the opening of emergency reserve stores.

Supply Responsibility

Region	Primary supply responsibility
Highharbor	Imported medicine, salt, maritime equipment, foreign aid
Crownward	Specialist tools, records materials, trained staff, money transfers
Heart Plains	Grain, ordinary food, livestock products, winter reserves
Valenic Corridor	River transport and bulk redistribution
Torin Riverlands	Crossing access, ferry transfer, local escort
Estenmark	Secured wagons, road discipline, emergency depots
Verdant Expanse	Herbs, timber, fruit preserves, recovery gardens
Silveredge	Metal tools, fittings, stone, mountain rescue equipment
Elderidge	Rural shelter, witnesses, local rescue obligations
Scoured Marches	Field distribution, local intelligence, patient evacuation

Message and Referral Movement

Ordinary messages move through:

• Mercy House couriers;
• Heartplain assembly riders;
• Valenic river packets;
• Marcher dispatch riders;
• Highharbor ship messages;
• Silveredge signal relays;
• and recognized local witnesses.

An urgent patient-transfer request uses a red-banded referral slate.

The slate records:

• the sending house;
• the patient’s stated or assigned name;
• the nature of the need;
• treatment already provided;
• the requested destination;
• whether armed escort is needed;
• whether quarantine applies;
• and who authorized the transfer.

Two copies are prepared whenever practical. One travels with the patient. The second travels by another route or remains sealed at the sending house.

Network Failure and Alternate Paths

House Overcapacity

When a house reaches safe capacity:

1. urgent cases continue to receive threshold assessment;
2. the cot mark is covered;
3. the three-lantern signal is displayed after dark;
4. the nearest alternate house is notified;
5. stable patients may be transferred;
6. public sleeping space may be opened if it does not compromise medical care.

Road Closure

When a route closes:

• the sending house records who declared the closure;
• route arrows are changed;
• couriers notify both ends of the affected segment;
• patient transfers use a river, bridge, or regional alternate when possible;
• and no house describes a route as safe solely because a military or merchant authority demands it.

Principal Alternate Paths

Closed segment	Normal alternate
Highharbor–Crownward river movement	Highharbor coastal roads and Crownward restoration roads
Crownward–Heartplain main road	Valenic towpaths followed by local grain roads
Heartplain–Saintsbridge road	Estenmark military roads
Saintsbridge–Hope’s Return road	Southern farm track under local escort
Hope’s Return–Fort Harrowline road	Northern patrol road, military permission required
Fort Harrowline–New Bellweather road	Old Ford supply track, weather dependent
New Bellweather–Milehouse Seven road	No routine civilian alternate; transfers return west
Chainwatch–Lantern Reef sea route	No routine alternate; station shelters in place

Quarantine

A quarantined house must:

• display the blue-circle mark;
• establish a separate approach;
• preserve access to water and messages;
• identify who imposed quarantine;
• record entry and exit;
• and review the restriction at a stated interval.

Quarantine does not suspend the prohibition against unrecorded removal.

Political Seizure

When an authority attempts to take control of a house:

1. the House Steward requests a written order;
2. the complaints witness records the names of those present;
3. patient records are sealed;
4. the regional circle is notified;
5. doors remain open for immediate care unless violence makes that impossible;
6. shared stores are counted in the presence of witnesses.

The Compact does not authorize armed rebellion. It does authorize public refusal, documentation, appeal, and withdrawal of network recognition.

Lost Records

When records are destroyed or seized:

• temporary slates are reconstructed from workers and patients;
• copies held by referral destinations are requested;
• Ashleaf or local record-priests are notified;
• oral witnesses are recorded separately from written evidence;
• and uncertainty remains visible rather than being replaced with convenient certainty.

Standard Mercy House Layout

A Full Mercy House follows a consistent operational sequence even when local architecture differs.

1. Threshold Court

The public arrival space contains:

• the Open Door Board;
• benches;
• potable water;
• a weapons rack or peace-binding station;
• a signal bell, gong, or runner post;
• and covered space for basic assessment.

People in immediate danger pass through without delay.

2. Intake Room

The Intake Room is used for:

• immediate assessment;
• washing;
• bandaging;
• disease or poison questions;
• separating dangerous cases;
• and assigning the person to the appropriate service.

3. Common Table and Kitchen

The kitchen remains near the public threshold so hungry travelers do not need to cross treatment wards.

The dining room also acts as an observation point. Staff may identify people who appear lost, threatened, ill, exhausted, or in need of private assistance.

4. Ordinary Ward

The Ordinary Ward contains beds or cots for people requiring observation but not isolation.

Furniture is arranged for cleaning, staff movement, and evacuation.

5. Quiet Ward

The Quiet Ward serves people experiencing:

• grief;
• panic;
• magical shock;
• battlefield memories;
• severe exhaustion;
• resurrection disorientation;
• or distress that makes a crowded hall unsafe.

It is not a prison ward.

6. Family and Witness Rooms

Small private rooms allow families, advocates, witnesses, and house officers to discuss sensitive matters.

A claim of kinship is not treated as proven merely because someone demands access.

7. Records Room

The records room is dry, lockable, and physically separated from open flame, public sleeping halls, and kitchens.

It contains:

• intake ledgers;
• treatment records;
• death records;
• transfer letters;
• complaints;
• unidentified-person records;
• and supply accounts.

8. Stores

Food, medicine, blankets, tools, lamp oil, and donated goods are kept in counted stores.

Medicine and public food are not kept in the same room.

9. Washhouse and Laundry

A recognized healing house requires:

• clean water;
• drainage;
• laundry space;
• waste removal;
• and somewhere to boil cloth and instruments.

A house unable to maintain these systems may offer shelter and food but cannot display the healer mark.

10. Quiet Room for the Dead

The Quiet Room has:

• a washable stone or sealed-wood surface;
• clean cloth;
• a personal-effects shelf;
• a death slate;
• access for funerary attendants;
• and a screened exit.

Bodies do not pass through the dining hall when another route is available.

11. Service Yard

The service yard receives:

• patient wagons;
• food deliveries;
• laundry;
• firewood;
• waste carts;
• and animals.

It must not block the public threshold.

Intake Procedure

Ordinary intake follows a standard sequence.

1. A Threshold Keeper asks, “What do you need now?”
2. Immediate dangers are identified.
3. Weapons are peace-bound, secured, or surrendered when practical.
4. A trained worker assigns an intake category.
5. Water, urgent care, and the First Bowl are provided as appropriate.
6. Identity and travel questions follow only after immediate need is addressed.
7. The person is assigned to a ward, meal bench, family room, waiting area, or referral officer.
8. A temporary intake slate is created.
9. The slate is transferred, corrected, retained, or destroyed according to the house’s record rules.

Intake Categories

Colored cords are attached to beds, benches, or case slates rather than tied to patients.

Cord	Meaning	Required response
Red	Immediate threat to life	Care begins at once
Amber	Serious condition likely to worsen	Assessment within the current bell
White	Stable injury, illness, exhaustion, hunger, or shelter need	Ordinary intake queue
Blue	Infection, poison, curse, magical contamination, or uncertain exposure	Controlled assessment area
Gray	Death, expected death, or funerary need	Quiet Room and funerary attendant
Green	Shelter, family tracing, papers, work protection, or referral	Records or social-care officer

A cord records priority, not moral worth.

First-Night Protection

Most Caerlonian authorities recognize the Mercy House custom called First-Night Protection.

A newly admitted guest cannot ordinarily be removed before the house’s next public review period unless:

• the guest presents an immediate danger;
• medical quarantine requires transfer;
• the guest freely agrees to leave;
• or a valid authority presents a specific order accepted before the required witnesses.

First-Night Protection is not permanent sanctuary.

It exists to prevent wounded, exhausted, frightened, or disoriented people from being seized before they can understand the claim against them, request an advocate, identify witnesses, or explain an immediate danger.

Services

Services at Every Full House

A Full Mercy House provides:

• potable water;
• one ordinary meal;
• immediate first aid;
• basic wound care;
• short-term shelter;
• assistance contacting family or authorities;
• safe storage of small personal effects;
• a written referral when further care is needed;
• and a witnessed record if someone is removed.

Services at Larger Houses

Larger houses may provide:

• long-term recovery;
• childbirth care;
• disease and poison treatment;
• magical healing;
• curse assessment;
• prosthetic fitting and repair;
• rehabilitation;
• grief care;
• refugee registry assistance;
• family tracing;
• funerary preparation;
• translation;
• and escorted transfer.

Services Not Guaranteed

The Open Door does not guarantee:

• free indefinite lodging;
• unlimited magical healing;
• resurrection;
• restoration of legal identity;
• permanent asylum;
• immunity from lawful investigation;
• payment of personal debts;
• recovery of lost property;
• or recognition of inheritance.

A house provides care and access to procedure. It does not claim authority it does not possess.

Governance

Local House Authority

Each Full House maintains:

• a House Steward;
• a Threshold Keeper;
• a senior care officer;
• a stores officer;
• a records officer;
• a complaints witness;
• and sufficient trained staff to provide the services displayed on its board.

One person may hold more than one office in a small house. No person may simultaneously control stores, accounts, and complaints.

Regional Circles

Circle	Primary area
Crownward Circle	Crownward Seat, Crownward roads, central records, specialist teaching
Heartplain Circle	Heart Plains, food routes, refugee settlements, grain relief
Salt Circle	Highharbor, Valenic transfer routes, maritime arrivals
Marcher Circle	Scoured Marches, Estenmark connections, Dread Sea Coast
Outer Branch Council	Torin, Verdant, Silveredge, and Elderidge affiliated houses

The Common Table

The Common Table meets annually at Open Table House and during declared continental emergencies.

Every Full or Great House sends:

• one vowed service representative;
• and one lay representative chosen from workers, patients, refugee councils, local communities, or supporting households.

The lay representative cannot be replaced by a noble patron, donor, military commander, or government official solely because that person funds the house.

The Common Table decides:

• recognition and suspension of houses;
• shared supply priorities;
• training standards;
• referral procedures;
• emergency deployments;
• common record forms;
• complaints involving multiple houses;
• and public responses to authorities that violate the Compact.

It cannot determine the doctrine of every Veyran, Morvanite, Halvenite, Olyrran, Selarite, or Thalaran institution.

Rotating Offices

Office	Responsibility
Door Convener	Chairs the Common Table and communicates public decisions
Keeper of the Open Ledger	Maintains the recognized-house roster, suspensions, corrections, and inter-house referrals
Steward of Shared Stores	Coordinates emergency supplies without owning local stores
Witness of Complaints	Receives accusations and appoints review panels
Warden of Road Doors	Coordinates road houses, escorts, and closure notices
Warden of Quay Doors	Coordinates maritime intake and quarantine relationships

No regional circle may hold the Door Convener’s office for two consecutive full terms.

Membership, Training, and Succession

Vowed Members

Vowed members may include:

• clergy;
• physicians;
• lay healers;
• midwives;
• cooks;
• scribes;
• funerary attendants;
• guards;
• quartermasters;
• translators;
• refugee workers;
• and rehabilitation specialists.

Ordination is not required.

House Learners

House Learners train in:

• threshold intake;
• first aid;
• sanitation;
• fire and evacuation procedure;
• kitchen and stores work;
• record distinction;
• guest privacy;
• conflict de-escalation;
• treatment of the dead;
• and the limits of house authority.

Every learner serves in at least two different areas of the house.

Specialist Training

Specialists may train through:

• Saint Veyra’s Southward Hospital;
• Hope’s Return;
• Ashleaf record-priests;
• Morvanite funerary houses;
• midwife circles;
• prosthetic workshops;
• apothecaries;
• Marcher field clinics;
• Veyra’s Green Infirmary;
• or recognized foreign healing traditions.

Choosing a House Steward

A House Steward is selected by the vowed workers and confirmed by a local assembly including lay representatives.

The office is not hereditary.

A donor, noble, priest, guild, or government official cannot appoint a steward unilaterally.

If a steward dies, resigns, or is removed, the Threshold Keeper and records officer jointly maintain essential operations until an interim steward is selected.

The Open Door Vow

The Open Door Vow is taken at the principal threshold of a recognized house.

Participants

The rite requires:

• the candidate;
• a vowed house member;
• a lay witness;
• and a records officer.

Objects

The rite uses:

• a basin of clean water;
• an empty bowl;
• a folded bandage;
• a blank page;
• the house key or door latch;
• and the Open Ledger.

Sequence

1. The candidate washes both hands.

2. The empty bowl is placed on the threshold.

3. The bandage is unfolded beside it.

4. The blank page is placed above both.

5. The vowed member asks:

   • “What comes before the name?”
   • “What comes before the debt?”
   • “What remains when memory fails?”

6. The candidate answers:

   • “Need comes before the name.”
   • “Life comes before the debt.”
   • “The honest record remains.”

7. The lay witness presents a practical case involving divided duties.

8. The candidate explains what the Compact requires and what it forbids.

9. The candidate opens the door or places a hand on its latch.

10. The vow is entered into the Open Ledger.

Divine Manifestations

The rite does not require a miracle.

Reported manifestations include:

• warmth in the candidate’s hands;
• clean water after the basin should have clouded;
• the temporary relief of an old pain;
• a door opening without being touched;
• or an unusual stillness at the threshold.

Such manifestations are respected but do not replace training, conduct, or accountability.

Violations

Serious violations include:

• refusing urgent care for payment or status;
• falsifying a treatment, death, or supply record;
• surrendering a guest without witnesses;
• stealing relief stores;
• exploiting patients;
• coercing labor from protected guests;
• or concealing a dangerous outbreak.

Sanctions may include:

• retraining;
• restitution;
• temporary suspension;
• removal from office;
• public correction;
• permanent expulsion;
• or referral to the appropriate court.

Records

Temporary Slate

The Temporary Slate records immediate intake information.

It may use:

• a stated name;
• a physical description;
• a place of origin;
• a case number;
• or “name withheld” when disclosure creates danger.

Care Ledger

The Care Ledger records treatment, significant changes, transfer, departure, and death.

It is restricted to care staff, authorized record-priests, and authorities presenting an accepted legal basis.

Open Ledger

The Open Ledger records:

• recognized houses;
• vowed members;
• suspensions;
• public corrections;
• shared supplies;
• emergency deployments;
• and referral agreements.

It does not contain ordinary private patient details.

Unnamed Register

The Unnamed Register preserves:

• descriptions;
• personal effects;
• scars;
• languages;
• symbols;
• testimony;
• and circumstances connected to people whose identities remain uncertain.

Supply Ledgers

Supply ledgers are open to inspection by local communities.

Patient names are not required to prove that food or medicine was used.

Financing

Mercy Houses are supported through:

• temple donations;
• local offerings;
• grain allocations;
• public contracts;
• reconstruction funds;
• guild contributions;
• foreign gifts;
• household subscriptions;
• donated labor;
• recovered building materials;
• and payments from patients able to contribute.

A donor cannot reserve emergency beds for private use.

A wealthy patient may pay for a private room or specialist treatment when doing so does not displace urgent need. Payment does not purchase authority over the house.

Authority and Limits

A recognized Mercy House may:

• control entry to protect patients;
• require weapons to be peace-bound or stored;
• separate contagious or violent persons;
• refuse private access to wards;
• document attempted removals;
• issue treatment and referral letters;
• request escorts;
• call funerary or identity authorities;
• file a Compact complaint;
• and bar representatives who repeatedly violate house procedure.

A Mercy House cannot:

• imprison a person for debt;
• conduct secret punishment;
• issue criminal judgments;
• void a marriage;
• restore citizenship;
• confirm inheritance;
• order resurrection;
• conscript workers;
• command military units;
• seize a town;
• or claim permanent jurisdiction over surrounding neighborhoods.

Relationships

Healing Houses of Veyra

The Mercy Houses are Caerlon’s largest regional expression of the wider Healing Houses of Veyra.

They share medical knowledge, religious practice, training, and traveling personnel with foreign Veyran institutions while retaining Caerlonian governance.

Hope’s Return

Hope’s Return is a specialist affiliate, training partner, pilgrimage destination, and referral complex.

It does not govern the Mercy Houses.

Ashleaf Record-Priests

Ashleaf record-priests advise on names, damaged documents, death records, family tracing, corrections, and testimony.

Mercy House records are not automatically Ashleaf property.

Morvane’s Funerary Houses

Morvanite houses receive the dead, advise on burial and proper passage, and help resolve disputes over remains.

Heartplain Assembly

The Assembly supplies grain and political support.

Frequent disputes concern allocation, settlement legitimacy, public kitchens, and whether food relief is being used to influence local votes.

Crownward Reconstruction Ministries

Crownward ministries provide contracts, buildings, road escorts, and supplies.

Mercy Houses resist ministry attempts to control patient records, appoint stewards, or use access to refugees as political leverage.

Marcher Concord

The Marcher Concord protects dangerous roads and escorts field teams.

Conflict arises when searches, closures, emergency requisitions, or suspected infiltrators collide with the Open Door Compact.

Highharbor League

The League supports port clinics, maritime relief, and quarantine infrastructure.

Mercy Houses oppose efforts to make treatment dependent upon cargo claims, debt status, or cooperation with political investigations.

Refugee Councils

Refugee councils supply workers, representatives, testimony, local knowledge, and political pressure.

In many camp-born communities, the Mercy House and refugee council are inseparable parts of civic life.

Public Disputes

Central Standards or Local Authority

Crownward healers and administrators favor stronger standardized procedures.

Heartplain, Elderidge, and Marcher houses warn that distant standards can become control that ignores local necessity.

Security Screening

Military authorities want Mercy Houses to conduct stronger identity and infiltration checks.

House workers argue that turning healers into interrogators drives vulnerable people away and produces unreliable testimony.

The Cost of Miracles

Some donors prefer funding resurrection, miraculous healing, and prestigious specialist care.

Many house stewards argue that food, clean water, ordinary medicine, rehabilitation, and safe childbirth save more lives.

Permanent Refugee Settlements

Mercy Houses often possess the best records showing how long displaced communities have occupied land.

This makes them important witnesses in disputes over whether a camp has become a lawful town.

Staff Exhaustion

Many workers have served through war, epidemic, winter shortage, and reconstruction disaster.

Moral and physical exhaustion remain among the network’s greatest public dangers.

Donor Influence

Nobles, guilds, governments, merchants, and foreign temples all fund Mercy Houses.

The Compact limits their authority, but wealthy donors still attempt to influence construction, specialist appointments, ceremonies, and relief priorities.

False Doors

Fraudulent shelters sometimes display Open Door marks to attract refugees, laborers, donations, or political protection.

The Common Table investigates false marks aggressively because the network depends upon public recognition.

Player Access

Characters may enter the Mercy House network as:

• patients;
• companions;
• refugees;
• pilgrims;
• guards;
• healers;
• cooks;
• scribes;
• translators;
• couriers;
• advocates;
• construction workers;
• investigators;
• escort personnel;
• or volunteers.

A house may ask adventurers to:

• escort medicine or grain;
• protect a patient transfer;
• recover a missing ledger;
• investigate stolen supplies;
• locate separated family members;
• carry a closure notice;
• defend a Field Door during evacuation;
• inspect unsafe construction;
• expose a false Open Door;
• recover personal effects from a ruin;
• accompany funerary attendants;
• or provide neutral witnesses during a disputed removal.

Character Connections

A character connected to the Mercy Houses might be:

• a former patient;
• a child raised in Refuge Row;
• a Veyran healer;
• a Halvenite kitchen worker;
• a Morvanite funerary attendant;
• an Olyrran name-clerk;
• a Selarite road chaplain;
• a Thalaran quay attendant;
• a veteran undergoing rehabilitation;
• a refugee-council representative;
• a former Field Door guard;
• a medical courier;
• a Mercy House builder;
• a person whose identity was preserved by an intake slate;
• someone expelled for violating the Compact;
• or someone seeking a record that proves another person survived.

Pathfinder Second Edition Integration

The Mercy Houses use standard Pathfinder Second Edition Remaster rules.

Medicine

Trained staff may use applicable Medicine actions, including:

• Administer First Aid;
• Treat Wounds;
• Treat Disease;
• Treat Poison;
• and other published Medicine actions available to the healer.

Access to a Mercy House does not mean every worker has the same proficiency, feats, tools, or magical abilities.

Magical Healing

Larger houses may provide divine, primal, occult, or arcane healing appropriate to their staff.

Availability depends on:

• settlement level;
• house resources;
• the level and tradition of available spellcasters;
• rarity;
• material requirements;
• cost;
• and current demand.

Ordinary houses do not provide unlimited magical healing.

Equipment

Recognized houses normally maintain healer’s tools and common medical supplies.

Specialized prosthetics, alchemical medicine, assistive items, rare treatments, and magical items depend upon local access.

Downtime

Characters may use downtime at a Mercy House to:

• Earn Income through Medicine, Crafting, Religion, Society, or another appropriate skill;
• receive long-term care;
• assist records work;
• repair equipment;
• help with kitchens or stores;
• research a public case;
• or build relationships within the network.

Use normal PF2e DCs based on the settlement, institution, task, and relevant level.

Referrals and Access

A recognized referral may provide an appropriate narrative basis for access to:

• uncommon medical training;
• specialist healers;
• resurrection consultation;
• assistive items;
• rehabilitation services;
• religious instruction;
• or an appropriate feat, item, archetype, or service.

A referral does not waive prerequisites, rarity, cost, or campaign approval.

Encounters Within a Mercy House

Adventures involving the network may use:

• social encounters;
• influence encounters;
• research;
• chases involving evacuation or patient transfer;
• hazards involving fire, disease, collapse, flooding, or crowd pressure;
• and ordinary combat encounters when a house is attacked or unlawfully entered.

Violence inside an occupied house must account for patients, civilians, restricted movement, medical stores, exits, and evacuation routes.

What the Mercy Houses Represent

The Mercy Houses do not claim to have rebuilt Caerlon.

They claim something narrower and harder to dismiss:

When people arrived hungry, wounded, unnamed, frightened, or carrying the dead, someone opened a door.

That act did not settle Caerlon’s disputes over crowns, land, law, resurrection, military authority, or religious legitimacy.

It changed who possessed the standing to participate in those disputes.

The Mercy Houses of the Open Door are not Caerlon’s church.

They are the reconstruction network that taught much of Caerlon to ask whether an institution had earned authority by what it did when people came to its threshold.