Food Merchant
Food merchants stock valuable consumable items that relieve hunger or thirst. They do not sell medicine that eases neither, worthless ingredients, or supplies you cannot eat or drink.
Not every merchant sells everything. Each trader operates within a specialty shaped by their background, their connections, and whatever the dungeon or town allows them to source. The type is established at the merchant's creation and does not change.
Food merchants stock valuable consumable items that relieve hunger or thirst. They do not sell medicine that eases neither, worthless ingredients, or supplies you cannot eat or drink.
Book merchants sell spell scrolls, books, and proficiency books. What they offer depends on your level, not your Knowledge.
Junk merchants deal in valuable odds and ends that are neither food nor equipment. Weapons and armour go to the blacksmith. Crafted components and workshop tools never appear on their shelves, but a junk merchant will still buy them from the player.
Blacksmiths trade weapons, ranged weapons, shields, helmets, armour, boots, gloves, and limb armour. Consumables and generic salvage are excluded.
Buying removes an item from the merchant's current stock and transfers it to the player's inventory. Merchant comfort sets the price between 80% and 115% of listed value. You see the exact price before you buy.
Selling transfers an accepted item from the player's inventory to the merchant's stock for 25% to 45% of listed value, with a minimum payment of 1 gold. Merchant type determines what can be sold, and the merchant must have enough gold to pay.
Theft from a merchant requires the Thief perk. Without it, you cannot try. Each attempt costs 1 Action Point.
A successful theft transfers the item without payment and improves the player's stealing proficiency. A failed theft turns the merchant into a hostile encounter carrying the remaining stock. Each attempt uses the same chance calculation from Dexterity, Patience, and stealing proficiency, never below 5% or above 95%.
The same perk, the same cost, and the same chance apply to picking an ordinary person's pocket. See People and Enemies.
A merchant's gold is a real reserve. Buying adds to it and selling draws from it. Every 50 dungeon turns, a return visit restores a level-scaled minimum reserve and brings in four new items. Book merchants also generate one to three proficiency books.
Merchants can offer healing, equipment repair, rest, food, and drink. A service appears when that merchant reaches its required level. Its level-scaled price is paid into the merchant's gold reserve.
The trade post offers category filters and direct number keys 1 through 9 to trade items swiftly. Tab cycles between Buy, Sell, and Services, while Escape concludes trade.
Merchants gain experience from completed transactions. Their comfort changes how quickly that experience accumulates, and each new level adds another stock roll.
Every transaction generates experience for the merchant. The amount is the transaction value multiplied by the merchant's current comfort band, from 35% at extreme discomfort to 175% at extreme comfort. Comfort changes experience only; it does not block a valid purchase or sale.
When accumulated experience reaches the merchant's level multiplied by 100, the merchant levels up and brings in more stock. What they stock still depends on their trade and your level.
Merchants roll personality traits at creation. Those traits decide how comfortable they are with their stock, the room, and the world around them. Their comfort is checked each time the shop opens or a trade completes.
A merchant has a history, a face, a level of experience, and a set of preferences. They do not reset between visits. Some of that carries over when the player leaves and returns.
A merchant's name, portrait, level, gold reserves, and personality traits are remembered. Returning to that merchant therefore restores the same identity and trading progress.
A merchant's stock belongs to the dungeon where you met them. What you buy, sell, or steal changes that stock, but the stock does not follow the merchant anywhere else.