Shops

Some rooms are shops: a room full of goods, with a shopkeeper standing by the door. A general store sells a bit of everything, and a specialty shop sells one kind of thing. Every shopkeeper has a name, and every shop has a sign: “Ælfric’s General Store”.

Cēaptūn, the market town of the Ascmearc, has two shops on its square:

Ælfric’s General Store sells everything but arms and armour: food for the road, angelica root, candles, rope, a pick-axe, potions, scrolls, and cloaks.
Eadric’s Smithy sells weapons, bows and slings, arrows and bolts, armour, helms, shields, gloves, and boots. The smith’s anvil stands in its corner.

These two kinds of shop are found only in the town. The table below lists them as the town store and the smithy.

Dungeons have a shop now and then. About one level in six has one, in a room with a single door. It is never in the caverns and never in the room you arrive in. Each dungeon has its own odds, kinds of shop, and keepers (see the table under Special rooms).

Money

Gold coins ($) are the money. Every object is worth some gold, given in the “Worth” column of the objects table. A gem, or an item set with one, is also worth what the gem is worth (see Gems). Junk such as rocks is worth nothing, and nobody buys or sells it. A magic item is worth more than a plain one (see Magic items below). Prices are the only numbers a shop tells you.

Buying

Step into a shop and its keeper greets you:

Welcome to Ælfric's General Store!

Everything lying on a shop’s floor is for sale while its keeper trades with you. Look mode, and the message when you step onto something, give the price: “a dagger (for sale, 45 gold)”.

Picking something up does not buy it. It adds the price to what you owe (“You pick up a dagger (unpaid, 45 gold).”), and your pack marks it “(unpaid, 45 gold)”.

Pay with p. Paying takes no time. It pays for everything you owe from the gold you carry, and then the goods are yours. If you do not have enough gold, put something back by dropping it in the shop.

What you use up, you have bought. If you eat food you have not paid for, you still owe for it. If you eat food lying on a shop’s floor, its price goes on what you owe:

Ælfric says: "You eat it, you buy it: 47 gold for the angelica root."

You cannot put back what you have eaten. Pay for it, or sell the shopkeeper something first.

Leaving

A shopkeeper does not let you out of the door while you owe money. Step toward the door while you owe anything and a small window asks first:

If you have the gold: You owe Ælfric 47 gold. Choose Pay 47 gold and leave (y) to pay and step out in one move. Choose Don’t pay (n, or Esc) and Ælfric steps into your way: “Ælfric steps into your way: you haven’t paid.” You are pushed back one step into the shop.
If you do not have the gold, the window says what you owe and how much you have. Go back is the only answer, and you are pushed back the same way. Put something back, or bring more gold.

Being turned back takes as long as a step. If you are holding a movement key, you stop at the shop’s edge instead of being asked.

Selling

Drop something in a shop, and if the shop buys that kind of thing, its keeper makes an offer: Ælfric offers 15 gold for a scroll of light. Choose Sell for 15 gold (y) to be paid from the keeper’s purse. The thing stays on the shop floor, for sale. Choose Keep it (n or Esc) to keep it. A shop has no use for what it does not buy, and you cannot leave such things lying there. A shop pays only part of what a thing is worth, and always less than it asks for it.

An item worked at an anvil is worth more for each improvement, and half as much while it is damaged.

Rotten food is worth nothing (see Food). A keeper sniffs at it and will not buy it at any price. Food that rots on a shop’s floor is no longer for sale.

Prices

Each kind of shop asks a share above an object’s worth, and pays a share of the worth for what it buys. Several things move prices:

Your Presence moves prices in your favour, or against you if it is low.
The Negotiation skill, if you are trained in it, makes you pay less and get offered more.
Shopkeepers are good folk, so your alignment moves their prices too. A saint pays a little less, an evil character more.
A merchant’s Haggler is the one class ability that changes prices.

None of this is ever shown as a number. You see only the prices. Shops sell and buy by item class:

Shop	Sign	Sells	Buys	Asks	Pays
General store	Grimbold’s General Store	melee weapons, missile weapons, missiles, shields, body armour, helmets, cloaks, gloves, boots, light sources, tools, materials, food, potions, scrolls, wands, and rods (scrolls of identify always)	melee weapons, missile weapons, missiles, shields, body armour, helmets, cloaks, gloves, boots, clothing, light sources, tools, household goods, materials, food, potions, scrolls, wands, rods, and gems	150% of the worth	30% of the worth
Town store	Grimbold’s General Store	cloaks, light sources, tools, materials, food, potions, scrolls, wands, and rods	cloaks, clothing, light sources, tools, household goods, materials, food, potions, scrolls, wands, rods, and gems	140% of the worth	30% of the worth
Weaponsmith	Grimbold’s Forge	melee weapons and missiles	melee weapons, missiles, and materials	130% of the worth	40% of the worth
Armourer	Grimbold’s Armoury	shields, body armour, helmets, cloaks, gloves, and boots	shields, body armour, helmets, cloaks, gloves, boots, and materials	130% of the worth	40% of the worth
Smithy	Grimbold’s Smithy	melee weapons, missile weapons, missiles, shields, body armour, helmets, gloves, boots, and materials	melee weapons, missile weapons, missiles, shields, body armour, helmets, gloves, boots, and materials	130% of the worth	40% of the worth
Gem dealer	Grimbold’s Stones	gems, rings, and amulets	gems, rings, amulets, and materials	125% of the worth	45% of the worth
Outfitter	Grimbold’s Outfitters	materials, tools, light sources, food, and potions	materials, tools, light sources, food, potions, and gems	130% of the worth	35% of the worth
Provisioner	Grimbold’s Provisions	light sources, tools, food, and potions	light sources, tools, food, and potions	120% of the worth	30% of the worth
Alchemist	Grimbold’s Apothecary	potions (potions of healing, glowcaps, sprigs of moonwort always)	potions and materials	140% of the worth	40% of the worth
Fletcher	Grimbold’s Fletchery	missile weapons and missiles	missile weapons, missiles, and materials	125% of the worth	40% of the worth

Theft

Walking out of the door can never be theft. Leaving a shop owing anything any other way is, for example through a wall you have dug open. You are asked first: pay and leave, leave without paying, or stay. If you leave without paying, the shopkeeper shouts “Stop, thief!”, turns hostile, and comes after you. The goods you took are yours, stolen.

A shopkeeper you attack turns on you the same way. So does one who catches you picking their pocket with the Steal skill (“Ælfric catches you stealing. "Stop, thief!"”; see Stealing). A purse lifted unnoticed leaves the shop open, but the shopkeeper cannot pay for what you sell until they have gold again.

Shopkeepers are tough, quick, and well armed. Stealing is always your choice, and the town stays safe unless you make it otherwise. An angry shopkeeper trades no more.

While you owe for something, you cannot shoot or throw it.

A dead shopkeeper

When a shopkeeper dies, the shop is abandoned. What lies on its floor is free for the taking, and so is the keeper’s purse.

Magic items

Magic makes an item worth more, so shops ask more for it and pay more for it. A keeper knows only what you know:

An item’s rarity shows at once, so a magic or rare item is worth a share more than the plain item, identified or not.
Each affix adds gold once the item is identified. The higher the item level its tier is found from, the more it adds.

Identifying an item before you sell it gets you a better offer. What you pick up in a shop stays on your bill at the price it had when you took it, even if you identify it before paying.

The share is added first, then the affixes’ gold, then a maker’s mark’s half again on top. A dagger is worth 30 gold. As a magic item it is worth 45 unidentified, and 45 + 75 = 120 once you know it is Sharp with its first tier.

The first table gives the share by rarity. The second gives the gold each identified affix adds, by the item level its tier is found from (Prefixes and suffixes lists each affix’s tiers).

Rarity	Worth added
Magic	50%
Rare	100%

Tier’s item level	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
Gold per affix	75	100	125	150	175	200	225	250	275	300	325	350

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