Wayhouse
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| Laws of Hospitality
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| Accepted throughout the world, with local variation, the heart of Hospitality is reciprocity. As a guest, you respect the host, and the host respects you in turn.
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As a host, the Wayhouse promises to:
- Be courteous to guests, offering shelter, rest and a good meal.
- Be generous without stinting. We all have bad days. Don't scorn someone for needing charity.
- Do no harm to guests without their knowing permission.
- Do no harm to guests' belongings, materially or otherwise, while on the premises. Should damages be incurred, the person acting as host must offer recompense.
As a guest, you promise to:
- Be courteous to your host, accepting shelter, rest and sustenance with good grace.
- Be generous to your host, forgiving unintentional offenses and not lapsing into greed.
- Do no harm to others without their knowing permission.
- Do no harm to the Wayhouse, materially or otherwise, while on the premises. Should damages be incurred, you will offer suitable recompense, be it monetary, Wyrdspun or bartered in kind.
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The Wayhouse is a public neutral ground and temporary living area maintained at MT07 by the Waykeepers, one of the Fate's Harvest subgroups.
While it is staffed and watched over by members of the Freehold, all non-members are welcome, and are expected to contribute to the best of their ability while they stay there. There is no fee to stay at the Wayhouse beyond shared responsibility to each other. There are no servants and there is no room service. It's not a hotel. It's a wayhouse, a reliably safe location for strangers to stop on an unsafe road.
It is designed to be a place where those outside of the Freehold can come, knowing they will not be harangued or molested or attacked. The leaders (i.e. the Waykeepers) enforce polite conduct. If conflict occurs, it may take the form of a duel, agreed upon by both parties. There ARE no sneak attacks permissible. See the sidebar on hospitality.
This is enforced by the Hospitality's Hold goblin contract, which applies bonuses/penalties to actions meant to uphold/break hospitality.
If you see someone breaking the rules, please take note, because they WILL get slapped with said penalties. Duels do not violate hospitality, as they are agreed upon by both parties.
(When no PC Waykeepers are present, an NPC Waykeeper is assumed to be there with the minimum (+1) level of the Contract active.)
Hospitality's Hold (GotU p.28)
Host gains +1 to +5 on all actions related to upholding Hospitality.
All actions not related to upholding hospitality are penalized by the same amount. Host chooses this number when activating the clause.
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| Violators are marked for a number of months equal to that bonus. Marks vary depending on personality/kiths of the Host, but any fae creatures/Changelings/humans touched by the Wyrd who see the mark immediately know that they are a sign of punishment/violation for breaking faith, that their bearer did not respect Hospitality.
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| Breaking Hospitality under the same instance of the Contract twice (i.e. twice in the same day at the same location) will extend the duration of the mark, but not add a new one. There is otherwise no limit to the number of marks of violation you may bear.
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Anyone aware of Faerie who follows Hospitality is welcome at the Wayhouse.
To be very specific:
- Freeholders are welcome.
- Non-freeholders are welcome.
- Fae-touched humans are welcome.
- Ensorcelled humans are welcome.
- Enchanted humans are welcome.
- Hobs are welcome.
- Hedge beasts are welcome.
- True Fae, too, are welcome.
- A Keeper could walk right in, have a nice snack of baked beans and nachos while watching Saturday morning cartoons, and it would still be a violation of hospitality to attack them, just as it would be a breach of hospitality for them to attack you. They would be afflicted with the mark the same as anybody else.
That degree of neutrality and mutual safety is explicitly why it exists, and, incidentally, why the Waykeepers exist. They are required to hold themselves to a higher standard, required to have such a finely honed understanding of the Freehold's laws, because they are constantly exposed to outside threats which could cause them to break said laws. It is not a cushy friendly desk job, and the Wayhouse's neutrality is zealously upheld when threatened.
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