Foreign trader

Foreign traders travel in caravans of many traders at a time. They are neither aggressive towards nor afraid of the player character. You can trade furs with them in exchange for weapons, iron armor, and other valuables they carry for trade. They will only accept furs as offers for their items when trading.

Details

Foreign traders carry items that are otherwise very difficult to find such as iron weapons and armor, and valuable jewelry. In addition, they can also carry high-quality versions of leather armor, bows, and arrows.

Foreign traders are hostile to the player when the player finds them in the Njerpez cultural zone.

Attacking Foreign Traders

Killing foreign traders can be extremely lucrative for well-armed and experienced players, but make sure not to underestimate them. Foreign traders almost never travel alone, and their companions are able to hear them in distress from far away, even when they are asleep, and will come running.

Also, as owners of high quality weapons and armors, they can be considered more dangerous than Njerpez. If you decide to kill one group, make very sure that no survivors escape, or they may return to fight at inopportune times.

Strategy

Traders will often possess master weapon skills (85-94), which means even a highly skilled and well-equipped warrior can be overwhelmed, and will face a challenge even in one-on-one combat. In version 3.63, they spawn in groups of 5-7. It is somewhat possible to stealthily kill them in thick forests, or you may find a chokepoint to force melee duels with them. When sneaking up on them, prioritize striking at their legs, which can knock them down, forcing them to stand up and waste their turn and effectively neutralizing them as a threat until they lose consciousness. Rarely, traders will lack ranged weapons, which is the safest scenario. Everyone will get alerted by your backstabbing, but sometimes thick forest disorients the trader squad and the rest of them may even become pacified again. Unless the forest is everywhere, even two ranged traders are risky to confront if you can't kill them – they can shoot even if prone and immobilized.

An effective tactic (possibly considered an exploit) for either attack or retreat is to bring plenty of branches to set fires in 7 tiles around yourself as an improvised wall, forcing one-on-one fighting. Until you hit a trader with an arrow, they won't become aggressive.

Traders can be found walking near Driik villages. A single trader might possess three two-handed battleswords, a crossbow, arrows and a spear. Do not expect to survive battlesword hits as they may be instantly fatal, possibly even through an iron helm.

Loot they carry is likely to be better than their own armor. At most they seem to only wear mail habergeon or other insignificant iron armors, but even their basic armor or clothing can still save them from otherwise fatal or crippling blows.