The cemeteries in Streamside offer a promise of possible profit for the desperate and disreputable who dig up bodies to sell them to interested parties. Not that there are many interested parties—there's not exactly a huge market for cadavers—but there necromancers interested in creating undead minions, shady alchemists who will use parts for ingredients, and so on, enough at least to enable "resurrectionists" to make some sort of profit. Body snatching is, however, a risky profession—not only is it very much illegal and perpetrators will face justice if discovered, but many cemeteries are haunted by undead most of whom likewise disapprove of such endeavors. Thus there are few who stay at this vocation for long, most either moving on or falling to the law or worse. Possibly the most longstanding and successful resurrectionist in Streamside, however, is a man named Oberty Rzarl. Rzarl has been at his trade for years and has survived and even thrived, doing a brisk business with all manner of crooked character.

Rzarl has one advantage, though, that he doesn't make public—he's undead himself. He has a corporeal body; he's not a ghost; it's just that that corporeal body died a century ago—and then a few decades ago was reanimated and restored to relative freshness. Rzarl doesn't actually know what it was that raised him to undeath, but he's stopped caring; his undead state makes him impervious to many things that would harm or kill a living person, as well as giving him some special abilities—such as the ability to disassemble and reassemble himself to fit through tight areas—and he makes the most of this to pursue his chosen trade. Of course, he doesn't plan to keep doing this forever; he's been saving his money, and when he makes enough he plans to "retire" to Greenwood or another wealthy area and dabble in politics and patronage while living off his savings and investments—or, well, existing off his savings and investments; his actual living is in the past.

Rzarl's undead nature is not obvious, though someone inspecting him very closely might notice that his skin is unusually dry and his eyes somewhat dull. Other than that, he looks like a well tanned man of medium build, with his skin perhaps a bit tight over his bones but not unusually so. He has a tall nose with wide nostrils and a shock of dark gray hair with a white stripe. He speaks in a growling voice, often making the motions of spitting in contempt or impatience but without the release of any actual saliva. He usually wears practical canvas overalls with white baberies (bands fixed around the body to hold tools and objects) wrapped around him like—fittingly—shrouds.