The Cartographers ' Guild

Maps and charts are always in great demand from the military, the Directorship, merchants and, of course, adventurers. The Cartographers' Guild maintains one of the greatest collections of geographical and topographical information in the whole of the Flanaess. The membership spends much of its time in copying and updating maps and charts, or checking the accuracy of new information gleaned from travelogues and merchants' tales.

The guild's entire membership is employed al the guild headquarters (location F9). Apprentices normally spend the first years of their training making fine parchment and preparing dyes and inks, before finally being admitted to the Guild Library and beginning the arduous process of copying and checking the maps themselves.

The present Guildmaster, Master Cartographer Jawan Sumbar, is an aging gnome who has spent much of his 643 years satisfying a wanderlust that has taken him from the Sea of Dust to the Spindrift Isles. Fascinated by maps and charts from an early age, Jawan eventually settled in Greyhawk and joined the Cartographers' Guild simply to be able to study the vast collection in the guild archives. Jawan's firsthand knowledge of many of the more distant regions of the Flanaess stood him in good stead, and he advanced rapidly within the guild hierachy.

The guild jealously protects its collection of maps and travelogues and will not allow any non-guildmember access to its library. Players must refer all questions to a member of the guild, who will then conduct research on their behalf. For game purposes the guild should be treated as a sage whose resources are such that Geography, Astronomy, Geology & Mineralogy, and Topography & Cartography are considered its specialist fields (although a particular guildmember may not be a specialist in all these areas, someone in the building will be able to fill in the gaps).

The Cartographers' Guild will purchase maps and travelogues from adventuring bands and is always interested in even the most fragmentary sketches and plans of dungeon complexes. The guild is also especially interested in any information on the other planes of existence and will pay premium rates for any maps. Adventurers are also employed to mount expeditions into uncharted regions (most especially the Sea of Dust and Hepmonaland) and to trail-blaze potential new trade routes (the latter information subsequently for sale to the Merchants' and Traders' Union).

The guild is especially interested in dungeon maps for one particular reason: Whenever guild funds are low, the guild's mapmakers copy a few "treasure maps" from accumulated dungeon plans, embellish them with extra treasure rooms and promises of riches to come, and then take them out and hawk them around the Free City's inns and taverns.