Gongsters

The guild responsible for the management of the waste generated in Morton. They are one of the oldest guilds in the town and were one of the prime movers in the establishment of Guilds Care , though many of the town's inhabitants remain distinctly sniffy about them despite the fact that the Duke has always been the guild's patron. Their responsibilities relate to the supply and disposal of the town's water and the consequent quality of the River Durran.

Structure

The Gongsters are organised into three divisions.

The Tunnelmen

The Tunnelmen are responsible for the construction, maintenance and regular operation of the three sets of sewers that support the city. Initiates into the Tunnelmen will normally begin their careers supporting the storm sewers, where the major risk is flash floods, before graduating to the foul sewers or the trade sewers. Within the tunnelmen there is a small core who construct such new tunnels as are needed. Where this is as part of redevelopment it will normally be done by cut and cover but under the older areas this is deep tunnelling. Whatever the truth behind the rumours of monsters in the sewers that have been trained to attack those who put foul waste into the storm sewers or trade waste anywhere but the trade sewers, it is the tunnelmen who know it and they treat it as a trade secret.

The Treaters

The treaters manage the treatment facilities housed in vast chambers under the ground. Some of these precede the latest expansion of the city and are now underneath the outer districts of the eastern part of the town, others are under the open countryside. They use a variety of technologies to digest the waste reducing it to a potent fertiliser known as Nightsoil. These technologies are for the most part their trade secrets though their mogfish farms in the artificial wetland near the discharge to the river are well known.

The Seers

The Seers oversee the use of the sewers ensuring that waste is disposed of as it should be and not dumped in the river. They are distinctly unpopular in the tanneries and the port districts as the strict discipline they operate under makes them as immune to bribery as the tunnelmen are to bad smells. Roughly half of the Seers are former tunnelmen, who have the opportunity to spend the latter part of their careers away from the grime and danger of their former calling. The remainder spend their entire time with the Gongsters overseeing the use of the system and they include a number of learned students of biology and ecology as a result of their extended interest in the river for its own sake.

In addition to these core parts many of the independent cess-porters, those who take people's waste from their homes or workplaces to the disposal points, are associated with the Gongsters and have a membership with them as well as the Porters. This suits the guild for it helps them keep an eye on how waste is being managed on a day to day basis.

Public Agenda

To manage Morton's waste disposal systems (see Waste Management in Morton ) to ensure the provisions of the Treaty of Durranmouth are adhered to. They also have responsibility for the town's water supply as this relies on much of the same technology and skills.

Assets

The guild maintains a guildhouse located near the Tannery district and owns a significant amount of the land outside the town, along the northern bank of the River Durran. They also own the sewer and water supply network though it is difficult to imagine how these could be sold, other than perhaps to the town as a corporate body.

History

The Gongsters have been in existence since the second century - the Treaty of Durranmouth created a need for wider organisation of the business of waste disposal and the Gongsters evolved to meet this, initially starting out as cess pit diggers and cleaners. As the town grew and the need to manage the water flowing into the Durran increased, they moved from being a typical trade guild to more of an engineering concern with the construction first of the storm sewers and later (some 500 years ago) the first parts of the foul sewers.
Initially these were primarily just a means of moving the point of discharge far enough down stream as to avoid poisoning those who had to drink from the river under the terms of the Treaty, but gradually they began to develop the techniques for not just treating the sewage but actually turning it into a money making concern. Increasing industrial contamination of the foul sewers resulted in the development of the trade sewer system and today the Gongsters primary activities relate to the extraction and sale of useful materials from the town's waste streams.

A few years back when the family was ill, I dumped a few buckets o'cess in the storms. That stopped pretty quick I can tell you - the last time I swear I saw summit like a dragon down there a-glaring at me and the following morning there were three seers at the door a-wanting to know what I was upto.

— Arrock Enna Caddick, Tanner, Morton

Type

Guild, Professional

Established

153 MD

Alderman

Cadu Amry Harrick

Motto

Waste not, want not