Burial in City of the Dead

[dolifer]

Seriously awkward moment: When I go through a series of smotes praying and preparing for a burial in the City of the Dead... And next I see, "The ground is too hard to dig through."

I'd suggest allowing things to be buried in the outside rooms, as well as the various tombs and such lain throughout.

Thanks!

[Dranso]

There is a serious lack of space within the City of the Dead in Waterdeep. Most of the graves, shrines, mausoleums and tombs are owned by the wealthy already. There are even portals that lead to burial grounds in other dimensions. Probably no room for burying the average Joe adventurers corpse.

[Terageld]

Where are the common people of the Deep buried? I hope it's not Rat Hill.

[Larethiel]

Usually, the dead of Waterdeep were buried in the City of the Dead. There are different memorials in the City, also on FK that reflect and house different people, the poor and humble simple people among them. I have always thought of that place as being somewhat similar to those overcrowded burial grounds of big cities such as Paris, London or Berlin during the 18th and beginning of the 19th century but being more beautifully designed like parklike Highgate or Frankfurt Main Cemetery, Père Lachaise, Monmatre. But of course, being located in Faerun, the City of the Dead has more readily available "storage" space and a not temporarly limited lifetime of a plot.

[Yemin]

So..., the cenario is that the city itself is almost too full to bury the average person but there are portals to other dimensions? Just plonk another kelemvorite NPC at one of the places or move the female one inside and have her *move* the corpses but in reality the code destroys the corpse and everything in it. or buries it or whatever. Fluff is that its moved away and slotted in one of these dimension

[Ungtar]

So..., the cenario is that the city itself is almost too full to bury the average person but there are portals to other dimensions? Just plonk another kelemvorite NPC at one of the places or move the female one inside and have her *move* the corpses but in reality the code destroys the corpse and everything in it. or buries it or whatever. Fluff is that its moved away and slotted in one of these dimension

Do not apply logic and common sense to Greenwood's world.

Madness leads down that road.

I see it like the big cemeteries of really old cities. Remember the scene from Hamlet with the gravediggers? They're digging a hole to bury someone and are coming up with the bones of previous people who were buried there. This was before the age of embalming so corpses didn't last very long in the ground. A few years and all that was left was teeth and maybe a handful of bone fragments.

[Benorf]

There is a serious lack of space within the City of the Dead in Waterdeep. Most of the graves, shrines, mausoleums and tombs are owned by the wealthy already. There are even portals that lead to burial grounds in other dimensions. Probably no room for burying the average Joe adventurers corpse.

There's a problem with that statement. Keep in mind that the single most lucrative business in any D&D world is adventuring. Dragons have more wealth than kingdoms, and adventurers make it their point to go out and take all that stuff for themselves.

Even low level adventurers rake in the cash. 10 goblins in SRD have enough coin/items on them to afford buying a house. Not an exaggeration.

[Dranso]

the single most lucrative business in any D&D world is adventuring.

Good point. I tend to forget that 100 plat is a chunk of change. Perhaps there is a way someone can pay to have a corpse buried in the City of the Dead? If you bring the NPC a corpse and pay a fee he can take it from you. More than likely the guardians there wouldn't want you to just go around digging graves all over the place.

[Ungtar]

Realistically though, let's have a show of hands of all the people who have tried to bury someone there. Anyone? Anyone other than Dolifer, whose IC behavior would lead him to do this? I'm betting this was some one-off individual roleplay.

As far as burying player corpses, why? Don't bury me! Raise me! I had enough trouble when some well meaning person moved my corpse from the place where I died to some random temple on Toril. I don't want to have to wonder if I'm being buried somewhere as well!

[Harroghty]

Great initiative, Dolifer. I apologize that this didn't work out for you.

The reason why the City of the Dead is impervious to burials is that most of the rooms there are sector CITY because they are paved trails, gravel trails, or stone monuments, etc. Changing the sector for those rooms would have other functional consequences. As some others have suggested, there is not usually digging burial in the City of the Dead these days; most bodies are sent through portals in the various mausoleums to other planes.

The best simple fix for you is to smote or emote your burial ceremony.

[dolifer]

Realistically though, let's have a show of hands of all the people who have tried to bury someone there. Anyone? Anyone other than Dolifer, whose IC behavior would lead him to do this? I'm betting this was some one-off individual roleplay.

As far as burying player corpses, why? Don't bury me! Raise me! I had enough trouble when some well meaning person moved my corpse from the place where I died to some random temple on Toril. I don't want to have to wonder if I'm being buried somewhere as well!

I have actually tried to do it once or twice in the past, just never got around to posting about it. And yes, no burying PC corpses! Haha. They were all NPCs, I swear! XD

Changing the sector for those rooms would have other functional consequences. As some others have suggested, there is not usually digging burial in the City of the Dead these days; most bodies are sent through portals in the various mausoleums to other planes.

Very understandable. ...Although now I kind of want to be one of those inter-planar gravediggers.

Thanks!

[Vaemar]

Realistically though, let's have a show of hands of all the people who have tried to bury someone there. Anyone? Anyone other than Dolifer, whose IC behavior would lead him to do this? I'm betting this was some one-off individual roleplay.

Lol, once when Dirhara was very noobish, she was killed in Rat Hill, but since she was under level ten she returned to life instantly. Therefore she went to her body and tried to bury it. First she tried in the City of the Dead, five emotes to bury the body with honour and such, and... you can't bury here! Then she thought, I've died in Rat Hill, I'll put it there in the trash. She did half Waterdeep to go back to Rat Hill, again you can't bury here. Eventually she buried her corpse in the sewers.

[Gwain]

I agree with Harroghty. The city of the dead is mostly a quest area and show piece for old history etc. It's actually a combination of two older areas that were merge to fit into the game world better. With the majority of player corpses going into the conservatory and the ability to quickly cremate or sac mobile corpses, places like the city of the dead are mostly for rp now and not function.