Author: Doug deJulio

by Doug deJulio (ddj@aisb.org)
Used with Permission. Do not repost without obtaining prior permission from the author.

Overview

Organizations Alignment(s): LG, LN, NG
PC Organization: Yes

Most Hospitalier organizations in the Flanaess have three primary missions: the escorting and protection of religious pilgrims, the escorting and protection of refugees, and the building and operating of medical facilities.

The unique situation and history of Keoland has resulted in different priorities for those Hospitaliers that operate within Keoland, because they do not wish to come into conflict with a Lawful and Good government.

Firstly, religions are not empowered in Keoland, and not often trusted by the people and government of Keoland. For this reason, Keoish Hospitaliers do not escort religious pilgrims.

Secondly, the people of Keoland are expected to go to their Lord for healing, so the Hospitaliers do not on their own build stationary medical facilities, in order to avoid competing with the Lords on this matter. Some local lords do call upon the Hospitaliers rather than the churches to provide their healing, and with the patronage of a specific lord, Hospitaliers may well build hospitals. In such situations, the Hospitaliers are expected to work extremely closely with the administration of the local lord, spending almost all of their time providing aid, and do not have much freedom. For this reason, this option is not suited to those who wish to travel at all.

However, with the Greyhawk Wars, the wars against the Giants in Geoff and Sterich, the people of the Ulek states driven west by the increased activity in the Pomarj, the tensions with Ket in Bissel, and other conflicts, the Sheldomar has more than its share of refugees. Furthermore, with few exceptions, the Lords of Keoland do not wish to have their own lands known as being overly hospitable to refugees -- they have an obligation to use their resources in support of their own subjects and their king, and while they may have sympathy for folk who have lost their homes, they cannot as a rule provide for them. Those Hospitaliers that operate in Keoland have taken up this responsibility. They guard and escort refugees, never keeping large groups of them in one area long enough to tax a local lord's resources to the point of being unwelcome.

Additionally, while they do not usually operate stationary medical facilities, the drive to provide medical aid is still strong. They instead provide mobile medical facilities. These are used to support the lords, rather than compete with them. For example, if a plague breaks out in a lord's lands and his ordinary healing resources cannot deal with it, he can ask for aid from the Hospitaliers. They will send wagons full of healers, surgeons, apothecaries, herbalists, and in some cases even a few individuals with magical healing capabilities. In this manner, they make certain that it is in the best interests of the lords that the Hospitaliers be left alone to do their work.

The main requirements for someone to join the Hospitaliers of Keoland are a dedication to the cause of helping others, a willingness to take the oaths and follow the rules of the order, a willingness not to jeopardize the organization's standing with the local lords (for example by unduly empowering religious pilgrims or competing with them in the matter of providing healing), and the ability to help.

Dedication to the cause and willingness to take oaths and follow rules in pursuit of this cause are the reason the organization is limited to those of Lawful Good, Lawful Neutral, and Neutral Good alignments. Even those Neutral Good folk who are not normally as concerned with following rules know that the rules are the only thing that lets them do as much good as they do in Keoland, and so they're committed to following them.

A willingness not to jeopardize the organization's standing with the local lords means having the ability to convince the local lords that despite the Hospitalier's traditional concern with religious pilgrims, the Hospitaliers of Keoland will not engage in activities that strengthen religious orders at the expense of the government. For those who do not follow any specific religion and are willing to swear oaths to that effect, this is easy. For those who do follow specific patron deities, the requirement is a little more difficult to meet. They must either have skill at diplomacy (to represent the ability to convince the lords they're willing to support them), or in-depth knowledge of or influence with the nobility of Keoland (to represent the ability to locate a lord willing to sponsor them in the organization). If a point of influence is expended, it is not necessary for it to have been earned by the petitioner -- someone else can spend the point on their behalf. In addition, any character with a Triad-approved background that indicates they're a member in good standing of a noble family can also meet this requirement. As a matter of fact, members of noble houses who become Clerics are often encouraged by their families to join the Hospitaliers rather than religious organizations.

The ability to help is usually represented by various sets of skills that are useful for specific tasks within the Hospitaliers.

Once all of these requirements have been met, a character can join the Hospitaliers by spending time working on their behalf. The character does not have to pay for their own upkeep during this time, as the Hospitaliers take care of their own when they're "on duty".

The Hospitaliers do have rank. There are people in charge of refugee escort units and mobile medical units. These individuals seem to report to even higher-ranking individuals who provide the communications network that the lords use to contact the Hospitaliers when aid is needed, and the information network that tells them where large groups of refugees are building up. How these higher-ranking individuals are chosen is not generally known to the public. It is not even known if they're promoted from within the ranks of the workers or recruited from elsewhere.

Philosophy and Credo

Keoland's Hospitaliers have a deep dedication to helping others. Specifically, they're dedicated to helping refugees and providing healing services. Many of them would like to aid religious pilgrims as well, but understand that doing so would create the perception that they were acting to empower the churches, and would jeopardize their ability to provide what aid they can provide. They are also dedicated to avoiding conflict with the lords and government of Keoland, as this would also jeopardize their ability to provide the aid they do. They tend not to have personal ambition, being more concerned with helping others than with advancing themselves.

Day to Day activities

Hospitaliers (while on duty) generally live in caravans in a communal arrangement. Everybody provides the services needed for everyone else's survival and needed in support of their mission.

Important Dates, Holidays & Ceremonies

Collectively, the Hospitaliers do not follow any specific religion; as a result, there are no specific holidays that are important to them. They consider their oaths of office very important, however. Oathtaking is often shrouded in ceremony.

Furthermore, when on the road, breakfast is often treated as a ceremony. Many of the divine casters in the Hospitaliers pray for their spells at dawn. Because of this, breakfast is delayed until about an hour and a half after dawn, when those who wish to participate join in a ceremonial breakfast used to strengthen the bonds of the group.

Some outsiders theorize that the higher ranks of the Hospitaliers have their own ceremonies and perhaps important dates. Lower ranking individuals within the order tend not to concern themselves with such speculation.

Headquarters & Major power centers

The life of a typical Hospitalier of Keoland is spent on the road. They do not generally spend enough time in one location to form power centers, although sometimes this occurs when a local lord uses the Hospitaliers to provide the backbone of his healing resources. Again, some theorize that this is different for those of higher ranks, and indeed it's difficult to see how they could be as well-connected with the lords as they are without some sort of power center in Niole Dra, but again the rank-and-file do not generally concern themselves with the details of this.

History

The history of the Hospitaliers begins with the Great Council of Niole Dra – in particular the Neheli Sacrilege, and the Revocation and Excommunication that followed. As a result of the Excommunication, all of the churches with membership in the Divinity Council refused to aid the government. Nobles no longer had access to healing magic.

The responses to this were varied. Some nobles openly used the services of chaotic churches that refused to cooperate with the Excommunication. Some small number of nobles made illicit pacts with churches that were participating, attempting to exchange healing for political influence. Some nobles financed experimentation in wizardly healing, occasionally with disastrous results. And some nobles sponsored efforts build a corps of secular surgeons, herbalists, midwives, and so forth, to provide healing for themselves and those they were responsible for.

Most of the nobles experimenting with surgical corps were located in and around the Duchy of Dorlin, the Counties of Marlbridge, Flen, and Cryllor, and the March of Mandismoor. Dorlin, Marlbridge and Mandismoor were dealing with diseases that would occasionally come out of the Rushmoors, and Flen and Cryllor were dealing mostly with injuries sustained in the terrain of the Jotens, the Good Hills, and the Little Hills.

As time went on, the people of these districts fared a little better than those of other districts. Nobles from other areas began to request aid from time to time. The northern nobles provided this aid, usually in return for minor favors.

In CY –84, a virulent plague swept out of the Hool Marsh, cutting a swath through what today we call Salinmoor, Gradsul, Gand, and other southern districts. The panicked nobles turned to their northern allies for aid as a group. The northerners took advantage of this situation, withholding their aid until promises for several political favors had been secured. In this case the favors were minor, but King Lanchaster II saw the possibility for abuse in the future.

In early CY –83, he founded a national order of Hospitaliers, independent of any particular nobles. The Hospitaliers were forbidden from holding land as a group on their own, and were charged with providing medical aid to all of the king's subjects. They were also charged with upholding the authority of the local lord of whichever territory they found themselves in. This is the origin of their strange chain of command – since a local Hospitalier is more likely to have a good working relationship with a particular local lord, any Hospitalier operating in a facility administered by another is duty bound to follow the rules of the highest ranking member attached to that facility, and not the highest ranking member present.

The result, over the decades that followed, was the consolidation of the various medical corps of the northern lords into a highly mobile group capable of traveling to where medical aid was needed and delivering it. They also developed the ability to protect themselves while traveling. This is the origin of their association with mounted combat, and their forming into a martial group. Even though they became adept at fighting, they had a mandate to provide healing and to uphold the authority of the nobles. As a result, they almost always took captives alive and turned them over to the local authorities, a practice which continues to this day.

During the reign of King Malv III (the Explorer, CY 7 to CY 49), small groups of Hospitaliers were often called upon to travel to many new areas they were unfamiliar with. Some of their very well developed healing lore spread to other peoples at this time. In addition, some groups of Hospitaliers with certain unpopular views migrated to the outer edges of Keoland's territory. In particular, some Hospitaliers saw their fundamental mission of healing as binding them to gods such as Pelor. Such folk hid in the outskirts of the kingdom, where their quiet piety would be harder to detect.

The various wars that took place in the following centuries created a large number of refugees. Tavish I saw a solution in the Hospitaliers. He modified their charter to include caring for and escorting these refugees. This was fortunate timing, as the reign of Tavish II resulted in an unprecedented number of refugees.

In CY 483, Tavish IV negotiated independence for Keoland's vassal states. Apart from the political ramifications, there was a brief period of mass migration. Religious folk who wanted to take a greater part in their government tended to flee to the newly-freed regions, and those loyal to the Keoish crown tended to move back towards the center. This is important to the Hospitaliers on two levels – they were the ones responsible for escorting those who migrated, and some of them participated in the migration themselves. Most of those claiming allegiance to various specific Powers left Keoland at this time, in a series of migrations called The Pilgrimage. In memory of this event, those Hospitaliers outside of Keoland modified their charter to include escorting and caring for religious pilgrims of all types, and those Hospitaliers within Keoland emphasized their refugee-escort duties a little more strongly.

This is where their respective priorities stand to this day. Most people alive today, including elves who are still young adults, have not seen the priorities of the Hospitaliers of Keoland change in their memory.

Allies

The Hospitaliers of Keoland have many allies, but do not call upon them for aid. They consider the lords of Keoland to be their strongest allies, for without the support of the lords, they would not be able to fulfill their mission.

Even when Hospitaliers are providing aid to a lord, they do not make demands of that lord. If, for example, they require access to a noble's private forest to gather herbs to help combat a plague, they present themselves to the lord and explain that they will be unable to provide as much aid if they cannot gain access to the herbs in that forest. They do not directly ask for the lord's help -- they allow the lord to draw his own conclusion and freely offer it. This prevents even the vague appearance of parasitic behavior, and also allows the lords to appear more generous in the eyes of their subjects.

The Hospitaliers often escort outcasts to the village of Haven. As a result, many of the citizens of Haven can give first hand reports of the care the Hospitaliers give to those refugees under their care. In addition, some other organizations help refugees get to the Hospitaliers, and the Hospitaliers are grateful to the folk of these organizations for helping them in their task.

The Hospitaliers of Keoland are friendly to individual Clerics who have the Healing domain, and often attempt to recruit them into their ranks. They avoid forming formal relationships with any of their churches. Clerics who do join Keoland's Hospitaliers are generally either nobles or care more for helping people than for ambition; being members of this organization, their prospects for advancing within their church hierarchy are not very good.

Since the Hospitaliers help try to keep the roads safe, some members of the Guild of Teamsters and various merchant houses look upon them favorably.

Rivals

The main rivals of the Hospitaliers of Keoland are those who feel that they are neglecting some duty to provide aid to religious pilgrims and their duty to provide healing directly to the people. There consist primarily of groups that are not native to Keoland and do not understand its political climate. These groups oppose the Hospitaliers, but the Hospitaliers do not return their hostility.

In addition, the Divinity Council is not on friendly terms with the Hospitaliers. The Divinity Council would rather that the lords be forced to turn to the churches for healing resources. The fact that the Hospitaliers of Keoland neglect the traditional responsibility of escorting pilgrims adds insult to injury.

Foes

The Hospitaliers do feel great hostility towards those who revel in pain, suffering, slaughter, and disease, and those who prey on weak travelers.

Thus they are even more opposed than most to the churches of Erythnul, Hextor, Incabulos, and Nerul. As a matter of fact, the Hospitaliers might have enemies that they don't know about. If a hidden sect or secret cult to a god like Tharizdun or Vecna were to exist, they would almost certainly oppose the mission of the Hospitaliers.

The Hospitaliers have been known to hunt down bands of highwaymen, but prefer to take them alive and deliver them to the local authorities.

The Scarlet Brotherhood is also opposed to the mission of the Hospitaliers. The Brotherhood is devoted to racial purity, and would like to seek the weaker races die out. The Hospitaliers provide their aid without concern for race, and are in fact quite dedicated to helping the weak survive. For similar reasons, the church of Wastri opposes the Hospitaliers as well.

Requirements

Must be of Lawful Neutral, Lawful Good, or Neutral Good alignment.

Must be a resident of Keoland.

Must fulfill one of the following requirements:
no patron deity or formal membership in a church
5 ranks of "Diplomacy"
5 ranks of "Knowledge: Nobility"
expenditure of one point of influence with the nobility
Triad-approved noble background

Must have a total of six ranks of skill in any of the following combinations (divided in any way, but at least one rank in each skill), representing various roles within the organization:
Doctor: "Healing" and "Profession: Herbalist"
Pharmacist: "Alchemy" and "Profession: Apothecary"
Caravan Worker: "Animal Handling" and "Profession: Teamster"
Caravan Guide: "Intuit Direction" and "Profession: Guide"
Caravan Guard: "Ride", "Listen", and "Spot"
Refugee Support: any two Craft or Profession skills that can be used to provide basic necessities, such as "Craft: Tailor" or "Profession: Cook"

These skills are regarded by the organization as more useful than the ability to provide magical healing. Magical healing is extremely effective for individuals, but cannot be used to help large numbers of people. A Cleric with the Healing domain can help a few people dramatically, but then his healing resources are expended. A skilled doctor with the right materials can continue treating dozens and dozens of the sick and injured for hours on end.

Must expend 5 TUs. It is assumed this time is spent as part of various Hospitalier mobile facilities, either in refugee escort or in a mobile medical unit.

Benefits

Basic Benefits

A member of the Hospitaliers, if not attached to a lord's hospital, is assumed to travel significantly, for purposes such as "Knowledge: Geography" checks.

The Hospitaliers take care of their own. A Hospitalier who is under the effects of a disease can, before or after an adventure, spend time under their care. They are entitled to the aid of a healer who will help them with 7 Healing checks per TU so spent (one per day) with a net +10 bonus to the healing checks. If the disease is cured, an additional TU must be spent to help replace some of the work and resources consumed in helping the character.

A member of the Hospitaliers is familiar with the procedure for petitioning a Lord of Keoland for healing aid, and knows or can discover which types of aid are available in which locations and which lords are most open to providing such aid. By spending one TU, they can locate someone from whom to purchase at the normal DMG price any healing or curative spell of up to 5th level, up to and including "Raise Dead". By spending 13 TUs, they can locate someone from whom to purchase at 10% greater than the normal DMG price any healing or curative spell of up to 7th level, up to and including "Regenerate". They do not gain any discounts on the casting of these spells; they merely know where to go to find those who can order that they be cast. This aid is generally a favor granted by some lord who has recently benefited from the Hospitaliers' services. These may be used by a Hospitalier character on behalf of those who are not in the Hospitaliers, but in those cases both characters must pay the TU cost and the character receiving the aid will owe a favor to the noble who provides the aid.

A member of the Hospitaliers gets a +2 circumstance bonus on Diplomacy checks with any ex-refugee who has found a new, permanent home due to the aid of the Hospitaliers. Many such individuals reside in the village of Haven. This benefit does not apply to any NPC unless their background specifically indicates that they received aid from the Hospitaliers.

Builder Book Benefits

Defenders of the Faith

Prestige Classes: Hospitalier

Unusual Paladin Mounts: riding dog

Feats: Divine Cleansing, Divine Resistance, Divine Vigor, Divine Shield, Reach Spell, Extra Smiting, Improved Shield Bash

Magic Item Creation Formulas: "Equerry's Armor", "Battle Rod", "Goad of Mastery", "Arm of Nyr", "Bracers of Binding", "Sacred Scabbard".

Hospitaliers have access to the formulas for the following spells as long as they are active members: "Blessed Aim", "Burial Blessing", "Divine Flame", "Divine Sacrifice", "Divine Zephyr", "Flame of Faith", "Lesser Telepathic Bond", "Sweet Water", "Unfailing Endurance", "Weather Eye", and "Zeal". Characters only have access to spells on the class list for their own class; this benefit does not for example give paladins access to the cleric spells listed above.

Sword & Fist

Feats: Dual Strike, Eyes in the Back of Your Head, Hold the Line, Pin Shield, Prone Attack, Rapid Reload, Remain Conscious, Shield Expert

Magic Item Creation Formulas: shields with the "Arrow Catching" attribute, weapons with the "Merciful" attribute, Potion of False Life, Ring of Mage Armor, Vest of False Life

Because of its use in driving animals as well as its use in subduing foes without slaying them, Hospitaliers have access to the weapon "Mighty Whip".

Tome & Blood

Feats: Subdual Substitution (all varieties)

Other Benefits

The skill "Healing" is considered a class skill for as long as the character is a member.

When using Hospitalier medical facilities and assistants, the character gets an additional +2 circumstance bonus to healing checks, above and beyond the bonus granted for using a healer's kit. This benefit is only available when such facilities are explicitly written into a scenario.

Costs

Hospitaliers must expend 5 TUs every year working in caravans and escort missions, helping the cause of the Hospitaliers, in order to maintain any benefits.

A Hospitalier of Keoland must be a resident of Keoland. If they ever change their home region to a region other than Keoland, their status as active members ends immediately.

While in a camp, caravan, or permanent facility being run by the Hospitaliers, they must defer to the highest ranking member of that caravan, even if that member's rank is lower than their own. It is particularly worth noting that this mandate does not just apply to other Hospitaliers of Keoland; if a Hospitalier finds himself in a Hospitalier facility in Geoff, he must defer to the Geoffite Hospitalier in charge even if Keoland is at war with Geoff.

Furthermore, some of the benefits of the Hospitaliers require an additional expenditure of TUs.

Hospitaliers assigned to stationary facilities do not generally have any TUs to spend as they wish, and for this reason this option is not open to PCs.