House Brask
House Brask is the great Velkris name in private force: mercenary work, caravan protection, warehouse security, bodyguard contracts, debt enforcement, strikebreaking crews and armed escort companies. It is one of the five merchant houses of the Council of Factors, led by the scarred hobgoblin Tor Brask, and its saying is “If Brask guards the door, someone paid for fear.” It is world-brief canon only; the party has not met its retainers, and the one mention at the table is a passing remark about hobgoblins in session 19 [3].
Overview
House Brask is Velkris’s name in private force. By the world brief it is one of the five merchant houses of the Council of Factors, each of which dominates one major industry; Brask’s is private force, mercenary contracts and debt enforcement. Its factor is Tor Brask, a scarred hobgoblin known for short contracts and shorter warnings, and its saying is “If Brask guards the door, someone paid for fear.”
The house has not appeared in play, and the party has not visited Velkris.
Known traits
- Work. Mercenary work, caravan protection, warehouse security, bodyguard contracts, debt enforcement, strikebreaking crews and armed escort companies (world brief).
- Place in the city. The brief says Brask “handles private force where the Veil is too slow, too public, or too polite”: the Order of the Veil is the city’s masked public enforcement, and Brask is the private layer behind it.
- Bonded service. In the brief’s account of Velkris’s slavery, House Marr is the institutional spine, Brask is the enforcement, and the High Registry and House Orlan supply the paperwork.
- Not stated. The brief does not describe Brask’s size, dress, equipment or doctrine, or where its companies are based.
Relationships
- Council of Factors. One of the five houses; Tor Brask sits for it in the Silent Hall.
- Order of the Veil. The brief puts Brask in the gap the Veil leaves, where it is too slow, too public or too polite.
- House Marr, House Orlan and the High Registry. The other parts of the bonded-service machine in the brief. No other tie between the five houses is described.
Notable named figures
- Tor Brask, factor: a scarred hobgoblin, known for short contracts and shorter warnings (world brief).
History in the campaign
Session 19: A Penitent Priest, an Unmade Leash, and the Pixie in the Dark
Main article: Session 19
While the DM explained that humans are in the minority in larger cities such as Velkris [2], Terry asked whether the house of Tor Brask is run by hobgoblins, and the DM answered “It is.” [3]. Terry joked that he had searched his wiki for the word goblin [4]. No retainer or factor appeared, and the house was not otherwise named.
Status
As of session 23. Off-screen and unvisited. The party has not met a Brask retainer, and the house has been named at the table only in that one aside.
See also
- Velkris
- Council of Factors
- Tor Brask
- Silent Hall
- Order of the Veil
- House Marr
- House Orlan
- House Tallow
- House Vaunt
- Greywater River
- Duskwatch