The Guild of Embalmers and Gravediggers

The Guild of Embalmers and Gravediggers maintains civic cemetenes and burial grounds for the Directorship. Over the years the guild has also invested funds in the purchase of vacant plots adjacent to the New City cemetery, which members have made into private burial grounds.

This guild has a monopoly on the legitimate disposal of corpses within the Free City. Only when a certificate confirming the death and burial of a citizen is issued by the guild and delivered to the office of the Inspector of Taxes will the name of that citizen be struck from the census register (and a guild roll, if applicable) and the person cease to be eligible for taxation. It is therefore very important that the relatives of the deceased ensure that a body is passed onto the guild to avoid further tax demands (for which the immediate family will be responsible). The guild's certificate is the only proof of death that the Greyhawk Revenue Service will accept, and it is not unknown for unscrupulous members of the guild to sell these certificates to healthy citizens.

The present Guildmaster, Selczek Gobayuik, is a half-orc with great relish for his chosen profession. Preferring to dress in thick black robes, Selczek is unspeakably ugly, even for a half-orc. The social acceptability accorded to other Guildmasters has eluded Selczek-a guest who reeks of embalming fluid ceases quite rapidly to be a novelty at society cocktail parties, and perhaps he shows a little too much professional zeal in measuring up potential clients when they are all too fit and healthy. Conversational gambits such as a fixed glare and an utterance of "Didn't I stuff your uncle last month?" also fail to inciease Selczek's appeal. The half-orc and his wagon load of coffins and ghoulish apprentices also have an unnerving habit of being first on the scene whenever there is a serious accident in the city, and he is well known for his dislike of priests and their nasty habit of healing and curing people. Despite his considerable wealth, Selczek still lives over his store m the seamier part of River Quarter (location R9).