Longhouse

I've been to many a longhouse in my travels. From the farthest reaches of the south, all the way up to Moldatun. I've stood in more than a hundred longhouses and seen more Longshoremen than you can think about. The Sea of Hearts has lizard longshoremen, the longshoremen in the desert have dragons as friends, the pirate coves of Esplorzeni have longhouses stuffed with stolen goods and hearty food.
But, I'll never complain about stopping along the way in a little town where the longhouse is merely an extra building on the road. As long as there's a place to update my logbook and an ear to hear my messages from the Guild, I'll be happy to be here.

— Anonymous Longshoreman's Logbook

A Longhouse is the center of any Longshoreman community, there's generally only one per city, with a Master Longshoreman in charge of keeping the Longhouse presentable and the logbooks stacked and updated. This is known as the best place for an Apprentice to find an instructor, or for a longshoreman that's new in town to get a lay of the land so that they can find work.

Logbook Collection

Each longhouse has an extremely valuable collection of logbooks. These are highly detailed records of all the work done by local longshoremen to any ship that has passed through the port. This information can be used to pin down where ships or people were at specific dates or to find out damage that has been repaired and replaced on a ship.
This means that many people and organizations have an interest in gaining access to the records found inside the Longhouse. In modern times, this means that larger longhouses often contract the Wizards of the College to provide a protection via blocking magical teleportation and various methods of scrying. In return, the College is one of the only organizations with largely unfettered access to the records found within.

"What do you mean?"
"I swear it, there's a wizard in the Longhouse."
"Sure, and what's he doing?"
"Magic-y stuff! He's sitting there, eating an apple... and reading our logbooks!"
"Is he wearing a purple hat?"
"Yes, but, he's reading the Logbooks."
"That's just Amadeus, he's from the College, ignore him."

— Conversations between an Apprentice and Master

"How many new apprentices was that?"
"Well, Jarl brought two in, and Mark brought three in?"
"Oh, so it's a lot... How many do you think will make it to next year?"
"Half. These guys are taking the Bulette approach and hoping the young survive after eating each other."
"Damn, that's brutal."
"If it works they'll make Lead a lot faster than otherwise."
"And if it doesn't?"
"Lets revisit this question next year."

— Conversations between an Apprentice and Master

Place of Rest

Many Longshoreman feel at home in their local Longhouse.
This means that the Longhouse naturally acts as a focal point for off-duty Longshoremen to gather. This means that the designs are always dependent on the needs of the community, with new longhouses usually being constructed every few decades to better reflect those needs. Many Longhouses find it advantageous to incorporate dormitories and taverns into the mix. This can make a Longhouse into an affluent portion of a town that the wider community might take more notice of than otherwise.
However, they are also used for times that all the local guild members need to be gathered in one place. The prime example would be the meeting at the end of the Flood Season. This meeting is generally seen as the most important in the year, with many things happening during it. From the introduction of new Apprentices being brought on, to old Apprentices graduating into full members, to Apprentice Masters being presented for their vote.

Owning Organization

The Longshore Guild

Where are these quotes from?

Anonymous Longshoreman's Logbook is pulled from a likely apocryphal source and kept as a reference to how the group is thought to view itself instead of being thought of as an accurate representation of the views of it's members.
Conversations between an Apprentice and Master is a strictly guild only text that details a number of common conversations that new Apprentice Masters might have with their Masters. It touches on many topics while trying to maintain a level of humor without detracting from the information.