People and talk

Not everyone you meet wants to fight. Some creatures are people: they go about their business, talk when you talk to them, and now and then mutter to themselves. In Cēaptūn, the market town of the Ascmearc, you meet:

• the townsfolk, going about the square and the lanes on market day;
• Sister Hild, in the Mynster, the town’s temple. She cures and mends for gold (see “Services” below), and anyone may rest on the Mynster’s floor, which is a sanctuary;
• Godgifu, who keeps the Gæsthūs, the inn. She hears every rumour in the march, and the bread on her table is free to travellers. Ask her about a place (the barrows, the marsh, the mines, the volcano, the pass) and she tells you the way. You mark it on your map (“You mark the way on your map.”), as much of the country as you would have seen walking that way by day (see The overworld);
• Reeve Leofric, who keeps the town’s peace and its coin, at home south of the square;
• Factor Wulfrun, in her office. She bought and sold the ore of mines that have now gone quiet.

The people of the town are known by their names: Sister Hild says: "…". They belong to the peaceful folk (see Creatures) and never fight, not even if you attack them.

On the roads of the march you may meet people too. Villagers of the vale on their way to market have a word for the road. A pedlar with his pack tells you the news of the roads and the way east to Cealdhlāw and the ford, and marks it on your map as Godgifu does. He is one of the merchants (see Creatures), not of the peaceful folk.

Chatting

Press C next to someone to chat. If exactly one creature you can see stands next to you, you talk to that one. Otherwise the message line asks Talk in which direction? (Esc to cancel). You can only talk to someone you see. Chatting takes a few words’ time: half a normal action, 3 seconds (see Turns and movement).

• Most people answer with a one-liner on the message line: The villager says: "Snow on Beorggeat already. Early, this year." Chat again and you get another. Each person goes through all of their lines, in an order of their own, before saying one again, and never says the same line twice in a row.
• Some greet you the first time you talk to them, with a line they say only then.
• Some have more to say once you have done a quest that touches them: in Gimmwīc, Kerensa and Ysella talk of the crystal guardian once it is bound. These lines join the rest.
• Good folk turn cold to an Evil or Wicked character (see Alignment). They answer with a cold word instead of their greeting and their talk.
• Some have topics you can ask about. Chatting with them opens a small screen showing who you are talking to, what they just said, and their topics, numbered. Press a topic’s number (or move the > marker with the arrows and press Enter) to ask. Asking takes no time. The answer appears on the screen and on the message line. Esc (or C) leaves.
• Creatures with nothing to say do not answer (“The giant rat doesn’t answer.”), and anyone hostile to you is in no mood to talk. Trying still takes the time of a chat.

Some people have work for you. Their quests are topics too, listed first. See Quests.

The Strange Spirit

In the Ascmearc a strange spirit may be met by day on the roads, in the vales, on the downs, and in the woods (see Encounters). Only a bard who has reached level 30, the top of the class, and who has not yet been called into another, meets it.

It is peaceful: hail it and it stands where it is and waits. It speaks only to the good (Kind or better on the alignment scale) and looks through anyone else. Speak to it and it grants you the calling: you become a Hunter (see Prestige classes), and it fades.

It has one hit point and never fights back. Killed, it leaves no corpse and is worth no experience, and killing it is killing a peaceful good soul. The road may bring it again while the class is still open to you.

Morwenna

Morwenna reads magic crystals. She is a deep gnome who stands by a brazier on the cutting floor of Gimmwīc, near Old Tregear. She has no topics and sells nothing, but each time you chat she tells you something about the crystals: what kinds of magic each colour holds, what the rare materials do, and what consuming one does to you. Chat with her a few times to hear them all.

Services

A few people sell a service for gold: a cure, a mending, an identification, or training in a skill. Services are listed on their screen after their topics, with the price: A cure for what ails you (60 gold). Pick one as you would a topic. If there is something to do and you carry the gold, you pay (the coins go into their purse) and they do it. It takes the time of a chat.

A temple’s price is fixed, with no haggling. A healer’s or a sage’s price moves with your Presence and Negotiation, as a shop’s does: at most half off, and at least one gold. Any service you pay for trains Negotiation now and then.

• A cure ends every disease you have, even one that has not broken out yet (they can tell), and grave rot too. Damage a disease did to your stats stays. It mends a point a day as usual, or all at once with a mending.
• A mending gives back at once every point of stat damage and every point the undead drained (Drained stats). It is refused while a disease shows (“Be cured first.”), since the disease would only take them again.
• An identification (Factor Wulfrun in Cēaptūn) identifies, all at once, everything you carry that you do not know yet: the magic of every unidentified item, and the type of every scroll you have not identified. It costs 100 gold per unidentified stack. A stack of several like things counts once, however many are in it, so three unknown things cost 300 gold. The list shows the price per thing, and before you pay a dialog tells you the total. You pay for all or nothing: with too little gold for the whole lot, nothing is identified. Each thing’s true name is told as it is learned.
• Training teaches you a skill you do not have yet. You start it at a low value (5), as if you had just picked it up, and it grows by use like any other. It is offered only while you are untrained in that skill: once you have it, it is gone from the list. Alberich, deep in Fyrdelf, teaches Mining, which you need to dig at all. Eadric, the smith in Cēaptūn, teaches Metalcraft, which every smithing recipe needs. Old Tregear, in Gimmwīc, teaches Jewelcraft.
• With nothing to cure, mend, or identify, or a skill you already have, they tell you so, and you keep your gold. Without enough gold you are told “You cannot pay.” Neither takes any time.
• The Pious talent (Wayfarer) halves a temple’s price for a cure or a mending (rounded up), and its cures also mend a point of each damaged stat (see Talents). Nothing moves the price of an identification.

Alberich

On the fifth floor of Fyrdelf, the first of its deep caves, a dwarf keeps a little square chamber with a heap of gold dust in it. He is Alberich, and he is not quite right in the head: he counts his gold, talks to it, and watches your hands. He fights no one and never leaves his hoard. Ask him, and he teaches you Mining for 500 gold (a little less or more by your Presence and Negotiation, as a healer’s price is). Bring a pick-axe.

Eadric the smith

Eadric keeps the smithy on Cēaptūn’s market square (Shops), beside the smith’s fire and the anvil. Besides selling arms and armour, he teaches Metalcraft for 2000 gold, a little less or more by your Presence and Negotiation, and less again with the town’s goodwill. You start it at 5. Without it you cannot temper or forge anything at an anvil.

Ceolred, the smith’s apprentice

Ceolred is Eadric’s apprentice. He stands beside the smith’s fire in the smithy and sells nothing. Talk to him and he recites what his master has drilled into him about the materials: which are hard or soft, light or heavy, which hold an edge, which rust, which take a spell well or badly, and which are hard to work. He tells it in words, never numbers; the exact figures are in the tables on that page.

Old Tregear

Old Tregear works the cutting floor of Gimmwīc, the deep gnomes’ town. He teaches Jewelcraft for 1500 gold, a little less or more by your Presence and Negotiation. You start it at 5. Without it you cannot cut a gem.

Goodwill

A town remembers who helps it. Every quest you complete for one of a town’s people earns it goodwill, and its people’s services get cheaper: 5% off per quest in Cēaptūn. Its people are Sister Hild, Reeve Leofric, Factor Wulfrun, Godgifu, Wat One-Eye, and Eadric the smith, so the Weyfarers’ Gilde’s work counts too. A quest you do again counts again. Quests from elsewhere, such as Holtwīc’s, do not count. You are told when it rises: “Cēaptūn’s folk think the better of you.”

• The goodwill comes off last, after Pious and any haggling, and the price is rounded up. One quest takes Sister Hild’s 60-gold cure down to 57 gold.
• It stops at 100% off: after twenty quests the town’s services are free. They are listed as (free), you pay nothing, and a free service does not train Negotiation.
• Only services get cheaper. Shop goods keep their prices.

The pedlar’s offer

The pedlar met on the roads (Encounters) carries one thing worth more than pins and needles. He offers it for a fixed price: take it or leave it. Ask him about Your wares, listed after his topics with the price. A dialog shows the item, its affixes in words, and the price, with Buy it and Leave it. The item is already identified, since a pedlar knows what he sells.

• What it is: a rare item of any kind loot holds, but no ammunition. It has four affixes (half the time), five (35%), or six (15%), and is made at an item level of your level plus four, at least 4. Loot is rare one time in fifty, most often with three affixes, and at the depth’s level, so his is much better.
• One of three uniques: one offer in fifty (2%) is instead one of the three unique items only pedlars carry: the Brosinga Mene, the Eorcanstān, and Grendles Grāpe. Each is offered at most once a run. Once all three have been offered, his offers are rare finds again.
• The price is fixed and never haggled (Presence and Negotiation do not move it). It is the item’s value plus 15 gold per affix per item level (four affixes at item level 5: its value and 300 gold), or 1500 gold for a unique.
• Buying pays him, puts the item in your pack, and takes the time of a chat. It is a deal, so it trains Negotiation and Presence as trade does. Without enough gold the dialog only lets you leave it, and you are told “You cannot pay.” Leaving it costs nothing, and he keeps it for you: ask again while he is near.
• One offer per pedlar: once you have bought it he has nothing more (“That was the only one I ’ad”). The same pedlar met again on the road still has his. Another pedlar brings another offer, made when you first talk to him.

Muttering

Now and then, while they go about their business and you are within a few cells, people mutter to themselves. The townsfolk grumble about prices and the ash, Sister Hild prays, and Godgifu hums over her work.

You hear it like any other sound (see Hearing). If you see them, it comes with their name (The villager mutters: "Ash in the well again."). If you do not, it is a voice from somewhere (You hear a voice to the north: "…"), and if it was faint, you do not catch the words. Muttering never wakes you from a rest.

Getting past

You never have to wait for someone to move out of your way. Walking into a creature that is not hostile to you swaps places with it: you step onto its cell, and it steps onto yours (“You swap places with the deer.”). That takes your step’s time, and it does not cost the creature its own turn.

It lands on your cell as any step lands. A trap you stood on goes off at it, and ice that held you may not hold something heavier. Afterwards it walks back to where it stood (waiting beside the spot while you are on it) and carries on with whatever it was doing.

A few will not make way. Then the move takes no time, and the message says why:

• Some never budge, and some keep their post: a shopkeeper keeps to the door of their shop (“Eadric doesn’t budge.”). A character trained in Escape artist can wriggle past most of these, but never a shop’s keeper.
• Someone who cannot move at all, under too heavy a load, does not budge either.

Wriggling past. If you are trained in Escape artist, someone who keeps their post or never budges does not stop you. The step becomes a check, with no action of its own. You roll your Dexterity modifier plus the skill’s bonus against 11 plus their Willpower modifier. The bonus is the same as for slipping bonds: +8 at 100, +12 at 200. If you make it, you swap places (“You wriggle past Eadric.”). If you fail, the step’s time is spent and you stay where you are. Each try may train the skill (half the time).

Wriggling does not help with a shop’s keeper, who never lets you by, with someone who cannot move at all, or while swimming.

If you cannot see what is in your way, you only learn that “Something is in the way.”, or that you swapped places with something.

Moving into a hostile creature attacks it instead; see Combat.

See also: Quests, The Ascmearc, and The Weyfarers’ Gilde.