Trader

Trader Guild
Image copyright of Simutronics Corporation
Primary Skillset:	Lore
Secondary Skillsets:	Survival, Armor
Tertiary Skillsets:	Weapon, Magic
Special Abilities:	Caravans, Trading, Market Advantages
Mana Type:	None
Barbarian - Bard - Cleric - Commoner - Empath - Moon Mage Necromancer - Paladin - Ranger - Thief - Trader - Warrior Mage

Traders are all about making money, pure and simple. The Guild rules the transportation business with an iron fist, and through contract work and playing the commodities markets, a Trader earns (or loses) his fortune.

Perhaps the most (in)famous figure among Traders was Arnile Hanskwin, Syndic of the Trader's Guild. He was known for his desire to come up with more and more devious ways to combat the efforts of those who would steal from a trader. He was especially inventive when it came to designing new trap varieties.

Official Information

Guild crest: A shield divided by a diagonal line. One half bears the stylized image of a man leading a donkey burdened with sacks of golden coins, the other, a picture of a sailing ship cresting a wave, its sail bearing the image of a large diamond

Information courtesy of Dragonrealms Website.

Guild Hall Locations

The Crossing

The distinguished Trader Guildleader Ansprahv advises young entrepreneurs from this prosperous guild hall. (You can type DIR TRADER for directions.)

Riverhaven

Inside Riverhaven's large guild hall, the noble Guild Leader Willowbrook instructs her students in commerce and finance.

Muspar'i

A grand guildhall set in the Desert City. The Guild Leader Kworlin oversees commerce in the northern most part of Elanthia.

Shard

Guild Leader Cialen administrates guild business from his office in opulent Brickwell Tower.

Ratha

Guild Leader Imaar presides over the guildhall here.

Aesry Surlaenis'a

The capable Guild Leader Seranda oversees sea trade at the Surlaenis exchange.

Outer Hibarnhvidar

The shrewd Guild Leader Raelem took advantage of a recent career opportunity and now operates out of the Guild offices in Forfedhdar.

Skillsets and Common Races

A Trader's primary skillset is Lore. Survival and Armor are secondary skillsets, with Magic and Weapon as tertiaries.

According to the DragonRealms website, Traders tend to be:

Human	25%
Elothean	22%
Elven	16%
Prydaen	11%

Crafting Affiliation

Guilded traders receive two free technique slot in the Blacksmithing discipline of the Forging skill and one free technique slot in the Artistry discipline of the Outfitting skill.

See: Crafting

Getting Started

What You Should Know

Becoming a successful trader takes patience and perseverance; regardless of what you do you probably won't be rich for quite some time. There are a lot of steps that should be taken and a lot of training one must do before he will attain a large sum of wealth.

In my opinion, Traders are the bravest people in all the provinces. It doesn't take much courage to be all armored up and weapons gleaming, hurling spells, knowing you can take out anything that crosses your path. But it takes nerve to stand there calmly while an enemy that you *know* can kill you in one hit advances on you as you wait for your caravan to move on or your pack animal to catch up

And if you do go into combat, barring enchanted items, you're reliant on yourself and your base skills and stats. No roars, no magic - just you and your opponent.

Tips and Methods

For the early circles I would recommend foraging branches and selling them to Mags at the Mongers' Bazaar in Crossing. This will lock your trading and make you a little coin at the time. She should buy up to around 5 golds' worth, but it varies. Using caravans is a terrible idea for a newcomer. The transportation fees alone will be more than you're making. It will take some time before you can use them at a profit and even longer to make the profit seem worthwhile.

Advancing in the Guild

After your initial training there are a few different methods that you could use in order to train. Even though hunting isn't a strong point of a trader be sure that you still have a healthy dose of it as you will need it to advance in the armor requirements of the guild. On top of that, you will have your survival training; this and lore can be done in a number of ways. One way utilized by many traders is to train while following your caravan to different locations. Though its not a constant, it will allow you to gain experience in these fields while gaining the trading ranks that we all love!

Contract Trading- This is a form of trading that will not reap good benefits for quite some time, however if done on a constant basis it can provide a good and steady flow of experience in the trading field. If you're going to start contract trading at an early circle it is recommended you use the pack animals rather than caravans. This is inconvenient since you can't have them lead you, but a caravan will be too expensive to afford. The longer you do this the more you will be capable of making. When you feel that you are at a sufficient amount then you can switch to caravans. Transportation fees are charged for each shipment so be sure you can afford to pay it! It takes a while but eventually you will notice more and more money building up, however don't get too excited because you wont ever reach a state where you have an unlimited flow of money. It's a fatal mistake to think that huge traders have unlimited amounts of money and is also the reason many traders quit after a period of time.

Commodity Trading- This form of trading can be used at a younger age with significantly less risk. This is also another great way to lock trading, buying goods from certain outpost and selling them at another. However, the entire risk is on you when you use this method. To trade commodities just go into the Crossing, Arthe Dale or Leth Deriel trader outpost and read the commodity boards. They will list the items they have and their prices. Beside the item will be a word such as "surplus". This refers to the amount they have on hand currently. Be sure to be careful what you buy because if an outpost has a surplus then they will not take any more of that product.

Other methods- Most of the following methods usually can't be used as consistent modes of training, but can be useful if you find someone in need of the service. Selling pouches is actually a very quick way to lock the trading of any trader. However, this is dependent upon people needing pouches sold. If you get the chance, however, it's a good way to train. Your charisma and trading skill will determine the amount you are capable of receiving for your pouches. Most traders gain this ability around circle 12. Selling bundles is also another way to train. This isn't as effective as pouches and generally isn't as common, but it can still work. Also, with the new teaching system, if you can find a trader in the market tents who will be around a while to teach, a class can also benefit you greatly. You can also train up certain lore and survival skills while sitting and listening, so take advantage and utilize your time to its fullest extent. Obviously this will not yield you any profit.

Guild Abilities and Breakdowns

Pack Animals and Caravans

Traders can rent pack animals or caravans to transport goods between guild outposts, the staple activity of the Trader Guild. To rent a caravan simply go to the room with the clerk and RENT CARAVAN. The initial cost is 400 kronars at any Zoluren outpost. If you accidentally start a contract or shipment without a caravan you will automatically be defaulted to a pack animal. You may upgrade this buy simply asking to rent a caravan. A storage box is included with every caravan rental once a Trader achieves 35th circle, and can be used like a mobile vault. If the caravan starves to death with items in its storage box, the items will be transferred to the next caravan that is rented. Trading contracts cannot be canceled, but they can expire. If your contract expires before you can deliver the goods you can still give it to the shipping clerk of the intended destination to have the crates removed from your caravan (though you will not be paid for the delivery). If for some reason you lose the contract and you just have crates piled up on your caravan that you want to remove you can PUSH CRATE ON CARAVAN so the one you want to get rid of is listed first when you look at the caravan. Then you can PULL CRATE ON CARAVAN to dump it.

Trade Route Justice

When a trader catches anyone stealing from them on a trade route they can run to the nearest outpost and accuse the culprit of stealing. This will allow the guild to send out thugs who will basically beat your thief to near death and leave him there. Be careful though because this ability cannot be used if they are not caught on a trade route. Meaning if you are in the grasslands out past the west gate or in town traveling to the NRT then you wont be able to accuse.

Syntax: ACCUSE <person> - see the list of current Outpost Locations

Caravan Drivers

One of the more often used abilities of a caravan is to use it to lead you places. When doing this you will automatically follow the caravan and stay with it even during round time. This makes it easy to train while the caravan is moving. You have to be on a trade route for this to work however, the current places you can get led to are as follows: Leth Deriel (Will lead you from the ferry to the Bower Gate, Crossing (will lead to the northeast gate, or to the ferry from Bower Gate), stone clan (will lead to the trail in Beisswurms), Dirge (will lead to the path directly on the trail to the town gate of Dirge).

Syntax: TELL <caravan> TO LEAD TO <location> - see the list of current Trade Route

Corpse Hauling

Caravans and pack animals can also be used to tie deaders to, this is especially helpful in the fact that it can drag people out of places that people can't drag out of by hand. Normally this is the case at the barricade in rocktrolls and the trail in beisswurms.

This ability is learned from Guild Leader Cialen in Shard. (Ask Cialen about corpse)

Syntax: TIE <caravan/animal> TO <player>

Caravan Loss and Recovery

At the current moment and time there is some talk about traders being able to purchase a caravan for their own personal use but nothing is confirmed as of late. When looking for a caravan go to the stable closest to the area the caravan was originally lost in. Locations are in leth, stone clan, dirge, and crossing. They will not be the normal stables used to keep horses in. When a caravan is dead your guild will give you a very harsh lecture then you will be charged an additional amount to all your contracts for a very long time. So be careful and take care of those caravans!

RECALL CARAVAN in an attempt to remember where they parked. The results can vary based on both the recall ability of the trader and the distance from the caravan.

Recall Caravan is simply a tool for traders who may have left a caravan briefly to attend other matters and forgot where they left it. NOTE: It is not part of the main Recall system, and does not award experience as a result, nor is it likely to. The verb recall was used simply because it made the most sense.

Caravan Spook

Caravans and Pack Animals have the ability to drag you from combat. There is a small potential to be hurt from the attempt.

Syntax: TELL <pack animal/caravan> SPOOK

Kregkeirels

Found only on the island of Aesry, these stalwart pack animals are there to assist island Traders with carrying their wares, similar to the storage packing crates found on mainland caravans. They are rentable at two locations on Aesry by Traders of at least 35th circle. One stable is near the Trader guild hall by the docks, and the other is near the city.

Commodity Trading

Only Traders have access to the commodities market, allowing them to speculate on price fluctuations between cities and provinces. Currently there are only three working commodity pits in Elanthia: Crossing, Arthe Dale, and Leth Deriel.

Table of Commodies Commodity Trading

Market Advantages

Traders receive a better price when purchasing from shops with shopowners and when selling items to a pawnshop, gem buyer, or tanner. Increased Charisma also increases profit.

Trader Markets

Traders of at least 20th circle may rent market tables located in The Crossing, Riverhaven, Shard, Muspar'i, Aesry and the first tier of Ratha. Traders of at least 30th circle can rent their own Shops in the plazas located in The Crossing, Riverhaven and Shard. As of the release of the Trader Shops, stalls, which are currently only located in The Crossing, have been closed.

To remove a disruptive adventurer from a market place, two Traders of at least 20th circle or a single Trader at least 10 circles higher than the target must ASK GUARD FOR THE REMOVAL OF (person). This will also work on fellow Traders if they do not have a table rented in the building.

Tables

The cost per table is a couple gold for four hours of rental. Each table can hold up to twenty items. Traders can purchase one rental ticket per hour, therefore it takes three hours to claim all four tables in a room. To rent a table, ASK MONGER FOR TICKET and PUT the ticket on an empty table. If left unattended for even a couple minutes, rented tables are covered by a tarp courtesy a market attendant. Goods should be removed from the table before the rental ticket expires, or else there is a storage fee of several gold. ASK MONGER FOR GOODS within 48 hours to recover your items.

Stalls

With the introduction of Trader Owned Shops, the stalls have been closed, possibly permanently. The price for a stall is 10 platinum Kronars for 10 days of rental. Stalls contain three tables, each holding up to twenty items. All tables may be used immediately upon rental. To rent a stall, ASK MONGER FOR STALL and PUT the ticket on an empty stall. Unlike regular tables, stall tables can be left unattended and will not be covered until someone attempts to price or buy an item. To remove an unwelcome guest, ASK GUARD FOR THE REMOVAL OF (person). You can also OPEN and CLOSE a stall while standing outside of it. Once your rental expires, you must wait 10 days before renting another stall.

Trader Owned Shops

More information coming soon.

Auction Halls

Traders of at least 30th circle are able to use the auction halls located in The Crossing, Riverhaven and the guildhall in Ratha.

GRAB the gavel to begin. START BID <amount> to start the bidding on an item. TOUCH GAVEL to toggle the suspended bidding. PUNCH the table to start the bid close (going once, twice, etc). HUG GAVEL to abort a bid in process. DROP GAVEL to give up control of the auction tools. KISS GAVEL to send out a crier announcing the auction. (charge to this service) TAP the table to toggle room silence.

Each item is done on an individual basis, meaning you will have to restart and grab the gavel for each individual item. There is a time limit of 15 minutes for each item, if the item is not bid off within this time limit your item will be turned into a box where you can retrieve it.

Horse Trading

Traders of sufficient skill and circle (25) can buy and sell horses with other adventurers. This ability is most frequently used to facilitate transfer of a horse from one person to another. Traders also have an Instruction Technique, Advanced Riding, to teach.

Gem Pouches & Shops

Traders of appropriate skill and circle (approximately 12th circle) have the unique ability to sell gems in bulk via gem pouches. In addition to selling the gems in bulk Traders also receive a higher profit on their sales than the typical adventurer, up to 35% for a high-level, high-charisma Trader using Speculate Finesse. Traders are also able to UNTIE POUCH in order to split the contents of one pouch into another and COMBINE POUCH WITH SECOND POUCH to merge 2 tied pouches together.

Traders of at least 50th circle and that are a citizen of the province can finance remote gem shops, including gem shops in Horse Clan, Rossman's Landing, Throne City, and M'riss. To finance a gem shop ask the clerk about FINANCE. To retrieve your sales ask the clerk about SALES. The purpose is to make a profit from the sales and to earn a significant amount of Trading skill when reselling the gem pouches received from the financing.

Traders also have the ability to GATHER gems to move them from one container to another. This verb will move all gems of a particular type into a separate gem pouch, which must be in your other hand. For example, GATHER RUBY IN MY POUCH would take all rubies from your first pouch, and move them into your second pouch.

Fur Shops

Traders are also able to sell bundles at a higher profit than the typical adventurer as with the gem pouches. To facilitate this, fur packing crates are available for purchase at the Stone Clan and Fayrin's Rest outposts and will hold 100 skinned items each.

Traders of 50th circle or higher can finance remote fur shops, including the fur shop at the docks on Aesry Surlaenis'a and the North Roads caravansary outside Dirge. To finance a fur shop ask the clerk about FINANCE. To retrieve your sales ask the clerk about SALES. The purpose is to make a profit from the sales and to earn a significant amount of Trading skill when reselling the bundles received from the financing.

Shardstar Shipping

In order to promote trade between the islands and the mainland, Shardstar Shipping allows Traders to ship items from one of their locations to another for a small fee. Currently, there are shipping locations in The Crossing, Riverhaven, Aesry Surlaenis'a and Ratha.

Speculate

Traders have a series of Speculate abilities that are taught by various guild leaders: Syntax: ASK (GUILDLEADER) ABOUT SKILL

Speculate	Circle	Guild	Details
Finesse	8	Riverhaven	Increases ability to get higher profits on sales of gems, bundles, and pawn items. Also gives more elaborate emotes to various verbs(smile, bow)
Coin	12	Muspar'i	Allows you to throw a random coin you are carrying and possibly stun your target. CAUTION - You lose the coin!
Chaffer	45	Ratha	Allows you to publicly announce the sale on an object. The messaging differs based on the type of object as well as the target character.

Hirelings and Criers

Hirelings are a new thing to the guild, you have to be in a town where their services are offered to hire one. What hireling you get depends much on your circle, but there's still a random factor in for which one you'll get.

Syntax: HIRE <TYPE> (where TYPE is one of the following)
ATTENDANT
LOCATE (Attained at 8th Circle)
CRIER
MESSENGER


Here are the basic commands, there may be more for higher circled traders, i'm not sure.

ATTENDANT: groom, dry, perfume, cologne, rope, pouch, pack, goods, follow, stay, leave, dismiss, and cost.

Please be aware some services incur a onetime cost for each use. For a list of prices for services, ask the hireling about cost.

Criers can be used in order to let the city know that you have either a stall or a market table open for business. There is a charge for this service though, the criers have two forms of usage. First is they can alert all people in the city that your stall or table is open. In order to do this you must HIRE CRIER TOWN CONFIRM. This service will cost you 2500 kronars. The second service they offer is to not only alert the town of your presence but to go into neighboring hunting areas and send out messages there to. The actual range of this isnt yet confirmed, to use this feature just use HIRE CRIER HUNT CONFIRM, there is a charge of 5000 kronars for this service.
LOCATE: Ask the hireling about help and he or she will give you instructions and cost to find someone.
MESSENGER: Ask the hireling about help and he or shee will give you instructions and cost to send a message to someone (within city limits).

Circle Requirements

Circle	Trading	Appraisal	Lore	1st Armor	2nd Armor	1st-2nd Surv.	3rd-4th Surv.	5th-6th Surv
1-10	4	3	12	1	1	1	1	1
11-30	5	3	16	2	1	2	1	1
31-70	6	4	19	2	1	2	2	1
71-100	7	5	21	2	1	3	2	2
101+	8	6	26	2	1	4	3	2

• Lore total is taken from Trading, Appraisal, Mechanical Lore, Scholarship and Teaching.
• Any survival can be used to fill in survival requirements except Scouting, Backstabbing and Stealing.
• Shield does count as 1st or 2nd armor.

Rumor System

The rumor system allows you to gossip with certain NPCs throughout the realms. ASK (NPC) ABOUT/FOR RUMOR and WHISPER (NPC) (your rumor) to have your rumor reviewed by a GameMaster and possibly added to the system one day!

Tools of the Trade

Traders have a number of role play and functional items in game available to them.

• The Abacus - items that allow all Traders to quickly calculate the conversion between the 3 currencies.
  
• Handbills - sold at Chispin's Handbills in Therenborough, these are pre-printed items to hand out to your customers.
  
• Ledgers - a vital tool given to each Trader upon entering the guild, these work similar to spellbooks with chapters and pages covering many facets of the Trader's business. Reading will provide the basic information on each page, and studying each page will teach a very small amount of scholarship and appraisal.
  
• Embroidery - while open to all guilds, Traders receive a large bonus to the quality of the stitch, as well as the ability to use a number of Trader-only patterns. See also Embroidery Shops for patterns and supplies.
  
• Trader Jewelry - while wearable and usable by all guilds, when a Trader appraises these uncommon pieces of jewelry and decorative items, they see a large amount of information on the gems, metals and craftsmanship of the components. Due to the large amount of information given per piece, these items teach appraisal higher than basic items.
  
• Banquet Halls - while a Trader will get no experience for renting one, these locations can be rented by a Trader for parties, public gatherings, etc. Banquet Halls also include a gambling room with a fully functional craps table. Currently there is a Hall in the RiverHaven Trader Guild.

Miscellaneous Information

• Trader Titles
• Trader-only Shops