================================ The Town Level ================================ The town level is where you will begin your adventure. The town consists of nine buildings (each with an entrance), some townspeople, and a wall which surrounds the town. The first time you are in town it will be daytime, but note that the sun rises and sets (rather instantly) as time passes. --- Townspeople --- The town contains many different kinds of people. There are the street urchins, young children who will mob an adventurer for money, and seem to come out of the woodwork when excited. Blubbering idiots are a constant annoyance, but not harmful. Public drunks wander about the town singing, and pose no threat to anyone. Sneaky rogues hang about watching for a likely victim to mug. And finally, what town would be complete without a swarm of half drunk warriors, who take offense or become annoyed just for the fun of it. Most of the townspeople should be avoided by the largest possible distance when you wander from store to store. Fights will break out, though, so be prepared. Since your character grew up in this world of intrigue, no experience is awarded for killing the town inhabitants, though you may acquire treasure. --- Stores --- To enter a store, simply move onto the entrance, which is represented by a number from 1 to 9. Once inside a store, you will see the name and race of the store owner, the name of the store, the maximum amount of cash that the store owner will pay for any one item, and the store inventory. The price of items on sale depends on their base cost, how well your and the store owner's races get along*, your Charisma, and the innate greediness of the store owner. Some shop- keepers have really small purses, which can force you to sell valuable items for a pittance. On the other hand, these same people hold plenty of sales. Occas- ionally, shopkeepers retire, and the store comes under new management. * Everyone likes their own race best. * Elves and Dwarves detest each other. * Nobody loves a Half-Orc or Half-Troll but another orc or troll. You will also see an (incomplete) list of available commands. Note that many of the commands which work in the dungeon work in the stores as well, but some do not, especially those which involve using objects. Stores do not always have everything in stock. As the game progresses, they will get new items, so check from time to time. Any item that you sell them will eventually be sold to another adventurer. Note that the inventory of a store will not change while you are in town, even if you save the game and reload. If you have a lot of spare gold, you can purchase every item in a store, which will induce the store owner to bring out new stock, and perhaps even retire. Store owners will not buy harmful or useless items. If an object is un- identified, they will pay you some base price for it. Once they have bought it they will immediately identify the object. If it is a good object, they will add it to their inventory. If it was a bad bargain, they simply throw the item away. In any case, you may receive some knowledge of the item type. Bargaining: If you toggle the auto-haggle option off, you may bargain with the store owners for items, which allows you to get noticeably better deals with only a small amount of effort. When bargaining, you enter prices you will pay (or accept) for some object. You can either enter the absolute amount, or precede a number with a plus or minus sign to give a positive or negative increment on your previous offer. Once you learn how much to increment or decrement your offers by, you will be able to avoid insulting the shopkeepers, and possibly even getting thrown out of the store. After you have bargained with a shop- keeper long enough, and forced him down to his final offer often enough, he will recognize that you are such a superb haggler that he'd might as well give you the best possible price without argument. The more expensive the item is, the less likely the store owner is to assume that you are a good haggler. The General Store ("1") The General Store sells foods, drinks, cloaks, torches, lamps, oil, shovels, picks, spikes, and ammo. All of these items and some others can be sold back to the General store for money. The Armoury ("2") The Armoury is where the town's armour is fashioned. All sorts of pro- tective gear may be bought and sold here. The Weaponsmith's Shop ("3") The Weaponsmith's Shop is where the town's weapons are fashioned. Hand and missile weapons may be purchased and sold here, along with arrows, bolts, and shots. The Temple ("4") The Temple deals in healing and restoration potions, as well as blessing scrolls, word of recall scrolls, some approved priestly weapons, as well as prayer books. The Alchemy shop ("5") The Alchemy Shop deals in all types of potions and scrolls. The Magic User's Shop ("6") The Magic User's Shop deals in all sorts of rings, wands, amulets, rods, and staffs. The Black Market ("7") The Black Market will sell and buy anything at extortionate prices. However, it occasionally has VERY good items in it. This store often sells large quantities of useful scrolls or potions, and stacks of magical devices. This is where you turn abundant gold into useful gear. The shop- keepers are not known for their tolerance... Your Home ("8") This is your house where you can store objects that you cannot carry on your travels, or will need at a later date. You may check the contents of your home when in the dungeon using one of the options available through the '~' command. The Bookseller ("9") This shop carries all low-level spellbooks, and will purchase any book you find.