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A Trader's Beginning
“So
you are thinking of joining the traders’ guild
eh?”
The
old man before you appraises you thoughtfully.
“Well, it’s not for me to
decide your qualifications, the guild leader will do that.
I suppose you come to me
for information, like many before you have done,” he
smiles.
“Information can be almost as
valuable as platinum, so today I give you a valuable gift
indeed. When starting
out as a trader, you can have a rough time if you do not
have any guidance. I’ll give you my best advice but
the final choices are up to you of course,” he chuckles.
“First, you’ll want to find the guild and
the guild’s leader. Each guild is different but it
should not be too difficult.”
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Use the DIR command to find your way around
town. DIR CHARSIMA will tell you the path
to reach charisma
training. DIR TRADER will lead you to the
trader guild. Entering a number after the destination
will
give you that many directions. For example: DIR
BANK 6, might give a response like:
Directions
towards the First Provincial Bank: East, East, East,
Southeast,
East, and South
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“After finding the guild leader, ask them about
joining the guild. Fair warning though, the guild leader
will size you up and determine if you have what it takes
to be a trader. You will be judged on many things from
your strength to your intelligence to how charismatic you
seem. If you do not match what is expected, you will be
offered a chance to train with the leader. I don’t
recommend this as it’s not his job to do this so
he charges you more for it than a standard teacher would
charge.”
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The guild leader won’t turn you down on joining
based on your race. Some races have bonuses to charisma:
Kaldar, Elf and Prydaen. Other races have bonuses
to mentals: Elothean and Gnomes. Each race has its
strengths and weaknesses but it’s possible
to advance in the guild with any race. Choose a race
that you find interesting and will have a good time
role-playing.
You have some minimums you must achieve in your
stats before joining the trader guild.
Strength:
5 Affects with burden and speed of some weapons
Reflex: 5
Affects your dodging creatures and helps avoid mishaps.
Agility: 5
Helps you be more accurate in combat and other tasks.
Discipline: n/a
Part of many game formulas. Helps you concentrate on tasks
Charisma: 9
Helps you get bonuses as a trader.
Wisdom: 9
Helps you clear your mind-state when learning something.
Intelligence: 9 Affects how much you can learn in a given time period.
Stamina: 7
Affects how quickly you tire and helps with burden.
The guild leader will train you, but charges you
more Time Development
Points and coins than you’d have to spend by going
to the various trainers around town. Spend a little
extra time doing the legwork yourself!
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"Once you have proven yourself as an
individual to the leader, you will be given a speech on
basic trading principles.
It would serve you well to listen carefully to everything
he tells you. You will have to gain knowledge of a similar
nature and prove it to him before he will promote you higher
in the ranks of the guild."
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After the guild leader finishes speaking with you,
do an EXP ALL and record what he has taught you.
You will need that many additional ranks of each
skill to gain additional circles in the guild.
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“Your guild leader should also tell you where to
get your ledger, pay close attention! The ledger contains
a lot of useful information about trading and trading activities
you have completed. You will need to make your way to the
shipment minister and order your ledger. I’d recommend
spending a bit of time reading it and getting familiar
with this valuable tool.”
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The ledger has many pages on various outposts and
trading activities. You can also study each page
to learn some scholarship.
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“Bah, likely as not, you’ll want to run off
and get started in your career before doing that. Well,
I’ll give you what I think is your best path…”
“When you’re starting
out as a trader, you have several options. Among these
options are contracts,
selling to pawnshops, tanneries and other townsfolk. I
recommend a combination of several of these activities.”
“You’ll need to hunt
some in your career to learn about your armor and weapon
skills, so find yourself
a good weapon and armor and then go hunt something that
you can skin for pelts. If you go to the tannery before
your hunt, the tanner will give you a bundling rope for
free. Rats are an excellent start to hunting and they are
not too dangerous. Attempt to skin every rat and keep the
pelts of any that you are successful skinning. After your
hunt, take the pelts to the guild and appraise them before
bundling them with your rope. Then you can go to the tannery
and sell your bundle.”
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Make sure you have armor that covers all of your
body parts before hunting. ASK <tanner> FOR ROPE to
get a free bundling rope. After killing a rat,
SKIN RAT to skin each rat and then put the
pelt in your backpack. You can APP PELT to
appraise each
pelt before bundling. ASK <tanner> to APP
BUNDLE and then SELL
BUNDLE to sell your skins. You’ll
learn armor, weapons, some survival, appraisal and
trading from these activities. If you sell bundles
for others, always whisper the amount you can get
to them before selling to make sure the price is
okay with them.
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“Keep this in mind also,
make friends when you hunt. Those friends may someday
let you sell their pelts or gems
to get themselves a bonus to their earnings. This is a
good rule in any activity; make friends along the way.“
“Some of your friends will be hunting goblins and
musk hogs before you do, so ask them if you can come out
and gather up some of the fallen items from the hunt. Goblins
drop cloaks, short swords and other items that most hunters
ignore. These items can be taken to the pawnshop and sold
for coins. You won’t get rich from it but every coin
counts and you can appraise each one before you sell it.”
“Goblins and musk hogs are a lot tougher than rats
so be careful in this area and retreat from them often
if they engage you. You can also ask other hunters in the
area if you can have the items lying on the ground. They
probably won’t mind you taking them as long as they’re
not gems, coins or boxes of some sort, but always ask before
gathering items.”
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DIR PAWN will help you find the pawnshop
once you’re
back in town. Selling to the pawnshop will teach
you trading and you can also learn appraisal by appraising
the items before selling. APPRAISE MY <item>,
then
ASK <pawn shop owner> TO APP MY <item>,
then SELL MY
<item>. A good rule as a trader is ‘appraise
everything’, just ask someone before you appraise
them as it’s considered polite to ask first.
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“You say you’re wanting to earn a bit of trading
without hunting? Well, there are ways to do that too. Make
your way outside of town and forage for sticks; the northeast
gate near Crossing is a good place for this. You won’t
find a stick every time you try to forage but keep trying.
You can appraise the sticks just like any item and put
all that you find into your backpack. You can also learn
some mechanical lore if you want to carve the branches.
Branches are sometimes too big to fit in a backpack but
you can grab one for each hand before you stop foraging.
Take the branches and sticks to Mags the firewood peddler.
Mags conducts business outside the Collegium of Reflex
training. Mags will buy all your sticks and branches. If
you’re in Haven, look for Maisey, she’ll buy
herbs from you.”
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You can learn Foraging, Appraisal and
some Trading skill
from the above methods. It’s a good thing to
do between hunting sessions. A DIR REFLEX will
help you find Mags quickly!
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“Finally, you can trade contracts if you’re
not satisfied with the above methods. I do not recommend
this initially as you need to be able to forage grass for
the pack animals, pay for the contract and the guild fees
that are attached to it. If you practice some of the earlier
methods, you will already have a few coins to do this with
and some skills that will aid you in contract trading.
However, if you do decide to run contracts, familiarize
yourself with the locations of all the outposts first.
You’ll need to find where the Dirge and Stone Clan
outposts are and try to trade in the Crossing area to start.”
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Never underestimate the value of a good map. You
can easily regret not obtaining one when you’re
near Dirge and trying to find the outpost but are
lost.
Crossing: This is where you start. You can type
DIR TRADER in town to find the guild. When you deliver
contracts here, you need to enter the guild at the
shipping doors, which are west and north of the guild
doors.
For other trader outposts throughout
Elanthia, check out some fan created map
or Trader
websites!
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“Ask any minister at any outpost for a contract to
start trading. Read your contract to determine where it
is to
be delivered and head that direction. Get another contract
at each outpost you pass along the way. You can only get
one contract from each outpost but you can have multiple
contracts being delivered at the same time. When you get
to a delivery destination, turn in your contract to get
paid. If there is a bank in the town, head there and deposit
your coins to help avoid theft.”
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ASK MINISTER FOR CONTRACT to get a contract,
you’ll
then need to GIVE CONTRACT TO CLERK to have
the shipping dues and goods loaded onto your caravan. GIVE
CONTRACT TO CLERK at the destination to be paid.
Bank often, the fewer coins you have on you, the
less coin that
can be stolen.
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“Some advice on pack animals, feed them fairly often.
They are doing work for you so treat them well. If you
decide to rent a caravan instead of using a single animal,
you will pay more, but you can have it lead you around
to some places. It will mainly stick with the main trade
routes, you’ll need to lead it past dangerous areas.”
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FORAGE GRASS and GIVE <animal> or GIVE
CARAVAN to feed them. TELL
CARAVAN TO LEAD TO <destination> will
allow them to lead if you are on a main trade route.
A caravan will not lead to Tiger or Wolf Clan; you’ll
have to lead them.
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“When you finish trading, make sure you return your
animal or caravan. If you don’t, the animal or caravan
will be gathered by the stable and you’ll have to
ask the clerk and the stable to get them back. They charge
a storage fee so this could be expensive if you’re
young.”
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Go to a clerk in any outpost and RETURN CARAVAN or RETURN <animal>.
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“When you’ve been promoted after joining the
guild, you can also try your hand at commodities. To do
this, you need to find the commodity pits. Currently, you
can find them in the Crossing, Arthe Dale and Leth Deriel
guilds. More commodity pits are likely to open someday.
To work in commodities you need to read the commodity board.
Then, you can buy a quantity of one of the listed commodities.
Take these commodities to another outpost that needs them
and sell them. You really need to do some research and
look around because supply and demand on commodities fluctuates.
Without proper knowledge, you may buy some commodity, only
to get to another outpost and find that they have a surplus
of it already.”
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At second level, you can buy and sell commodities.
When in a commodity pit, READ BOARD to
see what is selling. You can BUY 1000000 to
see how many they’ll sell you (basically
you’re
ordering more than they have to see how many they’ll
sell you). Then BUY <amount> <commodity> to
purchase the amount you want. Take the commodities
to another outpost clerk and SELL <amount> <commodity>.
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“Later in your career, you can run interprovincial
contracts. These contracts are for trading between the
main Guildhalls: Riverhaven, Crossing and Shard. While
these contracts pay more, they also take longer to deliver.”
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You can do interprovincial contracts at 5th circle
but will likely find them more profitable later in
your career.
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“Other options include the trader shops. Some Guildhalls
contain a shop where only a trader can purchase merchandise.
An appraising eye can spot objects that can be sold at
a handsome profit to those not having access to such a
resource.”
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Trader Shops are also accessible at 5th circle.
The higher you are in the guild, the better your
price on items. It’s best to go to the shop
with no coins and GET <item> first, or you
might accidentally purchase an item. The items in
the shop also rotate, so stay in the shop awhile
and watch for new inventory to show up as old inventory
is rotated out.
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“When I grew more experienced in the guild, one
of our Guild leaders taught me a very useful skill. I was
taught how to speculate on certain things and therefore
obtain better results. When you get older, be sure to talk
to your Guild leaders; you never know what you might learn.”
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At 8th circle, you can learn a new ability. SPECULATE
FINESSE is one of the first speculating abilities
we gain. It can help you obtain better prices in
some trading activities.
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“We traders are even helpful in endeavors not relating
directly to profit. After I had proven myself capable with
a caravan, I was taught how to tie a dead person to it
so that I could then drag them for clerical or empathic
assistance.”
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One of the Guild leaders will teach you to tie corpses
to caravans. You can then drag the corpse somewhere
for help. Pay close attention to how you’re
instructed to tie and untie the corpse. Also keep
in mind that the corpse may suffer a bit of damage
from being dragged behind a caravan down the route.
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“Later in your career, you’ll be able to sell
gem pouches for customers, sell items at the market tables
and run auctions for clients. Remember to always make friends
wherever you go, today’s hunting partner will be
tomorrow’s gem seller or supplier for your auction.
As your customer base grows, so do your profits!”
“The last piece of advice that I have for you is
to watch your time. Time is coin and your time is valuable.
If you take on a job, make sure you have time to complete
it. A trader is only as good as his or her reputation.”
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Contracts and some activities take time to perform.
Monitor your time so you don’t end up with
contracts that you can’t deliver due to time
constraints.
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“Well, based on that last
piece of information, this is where I wish you well young
friend. It is time
for you to go out and make your wealth and your future.
I wish you safe paths, much luck and good profits!”
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