Cooper's Guild

The Coopers’ Guild is always kept busy. Many things that go aboard ships in Waterdeep’s busy port, notably pickled fish from the Fishmongers’ Fellowship and the wares of the Vintners’, Distillers’, and Brewers’ Guild, require its barrels. Members of this guild cut, steam, and shape the wood, and form and weld the metal (from hoop stock supplied by the Most Careful Order of Skilled Smiths & Metalforgers) of the bands, of barrels themselves, and charge 5 silver pieces to 5 gold pieces per barrel, depending on the size (from foot-long hand-keg, with rope handle, to 20-foot-long cellar cask; most produced are 1-gold-piece, 10-gallon barrels).

Long ago, Waterdhavians (and others on the Sword Coast) discovered that one of the best ways to smuggle things in and out of kingdoms is in sealed barrels, so the Guard inspects barrels at random, paying the guild a “resealing fee” of 3 silver pieces per barrel. A guild member caught smuggling will be fined heavily (usually 50 gold pieces). One caught with a dead body or two in a cask will be imprisoned, and may lose his or her guild membership (such membership losses are quietly restored by the guild when imprisonment ends)—and yet this happens constantly; most guild members cannot resist the “free gold” they are offered for doing so. Seventy-five gold pieces or more is expected, per barrel of contraband.

Entrance: 30 gp; upon acceptance by majority vote of the members
Dues: 3 gp/month

Public Agenda

Livery: Brown caps and cloaks, with blue and green trim lines at the hems
Contact: the Master

Assets

Coopers’ Rest, Pressbow Lane, Dock Ward (D31)

Type

Guild, Craftsmen

Leader

Rugglar Tossarim

Location

Coopers’ Rest

Controlled Territories

• Coopers’ Rest

Notable Members

• Rugglar Tossarim