Riverpullers Guild

The Riverpullers Guild is a labor guild operating in the waterways on the east side of the Kingdom of the Isles in Betrayal at Krondor. Its members are referred to as Riverpullers.

History
The Guild previously controlled shipping of merchandise and other cargoes in the rivers around Romney and Silden, but were recently pushed out of Silden by the splinter Guild of the Romney. The Riverpullers raised fees in Romney to recoup lost income from Silden, but the Glazer's Guild and the Dyer's Guild refused to cooperate and contracted the splinter guild to handle their shipping instead. The Riverpullers, claiming a royal grant of exclusivity to the river, blockaded Romney and burned two of the splinter guild's rafts, killing three Glazers and the local chief reeve of the Dyers.

Holding the north side of the Ursine Ford and stalemated by the craft guilds holding the southern side, the Riverpullers agreed to negotiate, but their leader's uncompromising stance left the impression that they didn't want the feud to end. They claimed that their royal charter also entitled them to seize all goods unshipped due to the conflict as duty for breach of agreement, although the local solicitor had informed their leader that this went outside of Kingdom custom and nobody outside the guild had seen the charter document.

The uprising and blockade lasted for several months, with the Riverpullers taking measures to control the activity of the other labor guilds in the area.

Chapter 1
The party learns of the trade conflict from Mitchel Waylander, who has been trapped on the south side of the bridge by the Riverpullers' blockade. Waylander explains that the siege has left the river nearly deserted, with nobody "fool enough" to sail strangers to Romney and only skilled hagglers surviving the local price increase. While the conflict is as serious as an outright invasion -- Seigneur Locklear agrees that no faction, regardless of charter, has a right to shut down an independent Kingdom town like Romney against its will -- the Riverpullers have de facto free rein since the local Duke cannot act without support from the Ironmonger's Guild.

In Romney, one guild leader hints that the head of the Riverpullers may have been assassinated by another guild leader, but does not provide the supposed assassin's name.

Chapter 2-3
Returning to Romney, the party learns that the Riverpullers suffered a setback when the King's men arrived from Bas-Tyra to support the craft guilds. With the Duke of Romney mediating to keep the feud from getting worse, the head of the labor guild has agreed to an uneasy truce, but measures are still being taken to avoid a full-scale guild war.

Meanwhile, the bridge on the road north of Romney is occupied by armed men heading south to support the Riverpullers. They demand to know whose side the party is on, shouting partisan insults and appearing ready to attack each other, but James recognizes the bait and refuses to be conveniently drawn between the "opposing" sides.

Trivia

 * Mitchell Waylander describes the head of the Riverpullers Guild as "a hard old crat."
 * While the guild is first referred to as "Guild of the River puller," it is called the Riverpullers Guild in most subsequent dialog. A misspelling subsequently arises in the game text with "breach of agreement" rendered incorrectly as "breech."