Questing 101

Questing 101
This is just a simple 101 guide to help with the various quests in Derlith.
There are various types of quests throughout the world, and it's not always apparent that a perm has a quest. Your best course of action for finding quests is simply to talk to every perm you come across, and sometimes even regular monsters. See help talk for more info.
The first and easiest type of quests are the ones given by perms with the (!) as an indicator. For example:
You see Tormenos the Barkeep (!)
These perms usually have an easy talk string with the keywords being hidden in the sentences they provide themselves.
(94 H 55,397X): talk tor
Tormenos the Barkeep says something in minotaur.
Tormenos the Barkeep says to you, "Have a drink! Well, if I have what you want in stock that is."
(94 H 55,397X): ask tor stock
Tormenos the Barkeep says something in minotaur.
Tormenos the Barkeep says to you, "Seems we've been having a pest problem. Something's been dipping into my ale! "
By continuing the talk string Tormenos will eventually give you the quest which will appear in your quest log (type quest). Be aware that sometimes the last keyword to get the quest might not be in the sentence itself but related to the question the perm asks. For example Rollo's quest in highport he asks you to help him and you get the quest by typing ask Rollo yes. Another example, but without an easy talk string is as follows:
(143 H 24 M 57,703X): ask c soon
Cyrus the Trader says to you, "Yes, yes, they'll be coming in soon. I wish you wouldn't pester me like that. Show me some respect!"
(143 H 24 M 57,703X): ask c show you some respect
Cyrus the Trader says to you, "Back in my younger days, people respected me. I was a brave ranger. Do you believe me?"
(143 H 24 M 57,703X): ask cy i believe you
Cyrus the Trader says to you, "As an elven ranger, I hated two things, and I hope they all die."
(143 H 24 M 57,703X): ask c what did you hate
Cyrus the Trader says to you, "I hate dark-elves and vampires! I had to stop my adventures though."
The next type of quest is the perm trade quests. These quests usually don't give you a quest that appears in your quest log, the talk string for these also isn't always located in the talk string itself. Sometimes you may need to read the room description and figure out what you might have to ask logically. For example:
(76 H 52,423X): ask tr gargoth
Tristanawae the Sorceress says to you, "I can show you the way...but for a price, of course, not everything is free."
Tristanawae the Sorceress grins evilly.
(76 H 52,423X): ask tr price
Tristanawae the Sorceress says to you, "I want you find me a wren-engraved lyre - I haven't heard any good music since my sailing days."
(76 H 52,423X): ask tr lyre
Tristanawae the Sorceress says to you, "I'm sure some poor bard somewhere will have one lying around; search the square in Niamei."
Her talk string ends there, finding the item and trading it to her will give you the reward. The reward itself could just be an item that helps you find a location or it could be a trade item that another perm is looking for. This particular perm also has a completely separate trade quest, the keyword used to start that talk string is found through a different perm altogether. There are many other perms like this.
Some quests in Derlith are also repeatable, either right away, daily or weekly reset. You'll notice if it is by seeing a green ! or ? instead of yellow. There are also quests that have multiple steps where you can only access the next step by completing the first. For an example of this read about Niamei in the leveling guide on this wiki.