Shopkeeper

**Shopkeepers** are a group of NPC found in *Barony* which sell and purchase various items with the player in exchange for gold. They are also quite resilient and adept at magic casting, defending themselves from attacking monsters and becoming hostile towards players if they provoke him.

## Description

Shopkeepers are typically friendly NPCs found throughout the dungeon layers, providing human players (or monsters under the effect of Polymorph) a place to trade their unused items in for Gold, or to spend some gold in order to obtain items that they are selling.

They are found inside their shops, large generated structures that are often square or rectangular in shape, which contain one or two shopkeepers at a time. Larger shops also come installed with a treasure chest filled with various items.

Each Shopkeeper will have a select store type once the player enters the floor, each with its own niche type of item to sell to the player and often with a limited ability to sell one’s items to the Shopkeeper for Gold due to a lack of interest. There are a few exceptions to this, such as General Stores, which accept any items, or when the player has achieved mastery in the Trading skill.

### Trading Skill

When trading items, a character’s Trading skill will increase. Increases to this stat allows players to purchase items from Shopkeepers for less money, and sell their items for better payments. Higher skill will also produce different dialogue from the shopkeeper compared to lower skill, with a more begrudging tone as the shopkeeper must provide fairer trades to an experienced player.

## Strategy

When attacking a Shopkeeper with friendly fire enabled, or when seen by a Shopkeeper as any race other than Human or Automaton, the Shopkeeper will become hostile and start attacking the player.

Once provoked, the Shopkeeper will attack the player mercilessly, frequently casting bolts of Magic Missile and chasing after the player at a moderate speed. They also sport an exorbitant health pool, and cannot be paralyzed by potions or beartraps, making combat exceptionally dangerous for any point of the game.

Like most other caster-type enemies, they are especially prone to being baited around an obstacle that they cannot fire through, where when they turn the corner the player can nail them with a charged melee hit. Since every cast immobilizes the Shopkeeper in place for a short time, hiding behind a corner and repeating the process will lead to a dangerous but reasonable challenge. When giving chase, they are also vulnerable to the damage that beartraps can tack on, as well as fire traps.

If defeated, a Shopkeeper will drop a moderate sum of gold and half of their inventory.

### Post-Dungeon Shopkeepers

To keep Shopkeepers dangerous as the player grows in power during their adventure, Shopkeepers found after completing the main dungeon will be significantly more difficult to battle and loot.

In Hamlet, Shopkeepers will cast Bloodletting which will heal them, as well as having their health pools become so inflated that melee or magic attacks are rendered nearly useless against them. These serve very much as outliers to how Shopkeepers scale through the rest of the game, mostly serving as a reason for monster players to leave Hamlet via the sewers.

However, all shopkeepers have a weakness to poison, and shopkeepers in Hamlet are no exception. Use poison arrows, potions, or spells to deal enough damage to them to kill them.

Shopkeepers can also be forced to fight among themselves with a Ring of Conflict, though their magic resistance means it might take a while, especially in Hamlet. Without a ring, you can get one to start a fight by hitting another with a spell. Either way, be careful. Minimize carry weight, equip magic reflect gear, and prepare a hiding spot in case you need to lose aggro.

Shopkeepers found in the Caves or the Citadel are tough but much more fair, casting Drain Soul instead of Magic Missile, as well as having even more health than normal shopkeepers found in the normal dungeon.

### Trading

A clever player can grind their Trading skill to Legendary very quickly using the Torches that line most floors of the Dungeon. Torches can be taken from the wall and gathered in large quantity to be sold to a Hardware Store or General Store in order to quickly gain many levels. The torches can then be bought again, and resold, until the player either runs out of Gold or reaches Legendary in Trading.

Gaining Legendary trading early results in gaining a large amount of experience, as well as the ability to sell any found Gems and equipment that would otherwise be left behind to any shopkeeper.

The largest downside to this strategy is that large amounts of Torches will weigh your character down, though they can be simply left in the spawn room until you locate and secure the exit. This strategy also relies on finding a shopkeeper that will accept Torches in the first place.

## Mysterious Merchant

In the sewer system of Hamlet, there is a unique shopkeeper that is not hostile to monster players. He serves under the Merchant’s Guild, searching for artifacts that were stolen by Baron Herx, notably the Mystic Orbs.

The player can deliver any unused Mystic Orbs over to this merchant in exchange for a single purchase from a selection of very powerful and rare items. This includes other artifact weapons found in the dungeon, such as Khryselakatos or Sharur. The variety of items sold depends on which orb color is returned.

* For the green orb you can buy yourself a Khryselakatos, a quiver of hunting ammo or a quiver of piercing ammo.

* For the red orb you can buy yourself +3 blessed crystal swords, axes, spears or maces.

* For the blue orb you can buy yourself an enchanted feather or a Sharur.

## Trivia

* In the game’s files, the change in messages between low and high Trading skill are described as “shopkeeper sells item at an unfair price” and “shopkeeper sells item at a fair price” respectively.
* The list of shopkeeper names contains twenty-six different choices, one for each letter of the alphabet.
	+ The name Error is very likely a reference to Zelda 2, referencing a character of the same name.