The sewers under most major cities are poorly designed(mostly because of haphazard growth), old and decaying and infested by the forces of chaos. All of these things lead to clogging. In many cases the pipes are too small to allow another race to work comfortably or at all. This leads to the selection of halflings as the maintance crews. The work is dangerous mostly because of the threat of chaos mutations. Hobbits are not particularly brave and tend to perfer a comfortiable life. For both these reasons the job pays pretty well. Of course if the problem is large enough a elementalist is contacted for to use his skill with earth and water to fix the problem. The apprentices are rogue class, the masters are academic. The corps tends to favor daggers and hand crossbows with the strings either enchanted against water or covered in a coating of wax that breaks off when the weapon is drawn back. These weapons are used to defend themselves from small chaos mutantions while they beat a hasty retreat back to the dwarven gaurd who is stationed as near as possible to the work site. As a compromise between the two some carry several throing knives. The masters are of an engineering bent and can discuss the way stone and earth handle stress as an equal with an architect or elementalist and could also talk shop with the wizard about the way flowing water behaves. There are very few of them but they overlap a lot with the personality type that adventures so having this open to player characters is not unreasonible. For all of you who are wondering why the dwarves don't do this...they do these guys just handle the smaller spots that the overweight and underflexible dwarves can not reach. By the way I erred on the side of making them power gameible rather than wimps.
Hydrologist's apprentice Entrances: Rat catcher, elementalist, begger, stonemason, stonemasons apprentice, labourer, tomb robber, sapper(if it were possible for a halfling to be a sapper) Exits: Hydrologist master, Same as entrances except sapper. 25% of all hydrologist apprentices have be dosed with a potion of perminent effect which is a guild secret and causes them to gain +10 yards to night vision and to lose most of there sense of smell including their all of there ability to detect foul odors. Both of these effects are consider beneficial by the guild's members. Optionally you can give the PC the option of drinking this at the start of this carreer.
Advances: WS +10 , BS +10 , S+2 , T+2 , W +2 , Dex +10 , Cl +10
Skills: Immunity to disease 25% chance of Stonegineering* 75% chance of swim 10% of scale sheer surface Flee! 30% Specialty weapon-hand crossbow 30% Specialty weapon-throwing knives 30% of contortionist(not showoffish but does give additional bonus to getting through small spaces) trappings: 1d3 Hammers sledge hammer 1d6 iron spikes 1d6+3 yards of rope 1d4 Cold chisels pick Storm lantern 2 gallons of lamp oil flint and steel 3d6 wax coated fire starters 1d3 suits of perminently stinky(-10 fel) full length heavy linen clothes designed to be comfortable even in cramped and unusual positions. These havve extra padding on the elbow and knees to facilitate crawling. The waistband laces together so that it will not come open even when crawling on the stomach in any direction.
* all of you who insist on not creating new skills should replace this with 25% each of stoneworking and engineering. This skill gives a +30 to construct tests when working with stone (as the combination stoneworking+engineering would). However it gives no skill with wood and no ability to create decorative elements. The motto is"If it would collapse, it is not blocking the sewages flow and its water tight, Leave it we don't care how ugly it is." It does give limited plan reading ablity, any level of structural complexity is comprehesible but complex joints is wood, things that involve motion, decorative complexities, and exotic matterials may confuse them.
Hydrologist master These double as the rescue crews for when halfling are trapped or hurt(they are intensly loyal to there crews) WS +20, Init +10, Int +10, Dex +20, Cl +20 skills 20% of scale sheer surface stonegeneering 30% chance of SW- hand crossbow 30% chance of SW- thrown weapon First aid(first type of use under heal wounds) 5% chance of SW- two-handed (some find the sledge hammers they use as tools have a habit of reducing chaos creatures they are applied to to bloody pulps) 5% of excelent vision(perhaps another potion) Trappings: Same as apprentice plus Paper and technical drawing equipment in water proof case Beeswax to rub on paper to make it water proof after it has been drawn on 3d6 yards rope
a set of 1 to 6 force ratio pulleys designed for lifting injuryed hydrologists or large stones. One end is design to be attached with up to three spikes to the surrounding rock the other has a harness that works for both halflings and small bolders. Both ends also has a ring for other attachments.
Basic first aid herbs and bandages and instuments in water proof case
3d6 bombs coated with wax in water proof case(to bust up major blockages into managiable chunks and to stop swarming chaos creatures)