4. THE COOPERS' GUILD
Master: Rugglar Tossarim (4th level fighter, Master Cooper)
Headquarters: Coopers’ Rest, #255, Pressbow Lane,
Dock Ward
Livery: brown caps and cloaks, with hem-lines of blue
and green as trim
Entrance: 30 gp (upon acceptance by majority vote of the
members
Dues: 3 gp/month
Contact: the Master

The Coopers’ Guild is 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 hoopstock
supplied by The Most Careful Order of Skilled Smiths &
Metalforgers) of the bands, of barrels themselves, and
charge 5 sp to 5 gp per barrel, depending on the size
(from foot-long hand-keg, with rope handle, to twentytoot
long cellar cask; most produced are 1 gp, 10-gallon
barrels). Long ago Waterdhavians (and others up and
down the Sword Coast) discovered that one of the best
ways to smuggle things into, and out of, kingdoms is in
sealed barrels, so the Guard inspects every so many barrels
at random, paying the Guild a “resealing fee” of 3 sp
per barrel. A Guild member caught smuggling will be
fined heavily (usually 50 gp). 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 hp or more is expected, per barrel
of contraband.