MONEY, MONEY, MONEY
- or - The fine art of salvaging.
Healers, trappers, tailors, locksmiths and thieves should probably check out the wimps are people, too. section for details on their profession to earn their first incomes. This section was written with the warrior in mind who, unlike the less violent professions, have no means of earning money initially other than salvaging. Healers may charge small fees for healing, locksmiths may seek temporary employment at Apula's and thieves...well, thieves can just steal something and hock it. You might also want to check out Seyerus' Scavenging site.
First, you need the coin...

...and the only way for an unarmed, unarmored newbie to get it is to Salvage. Now, I don't want to deny the age-old traditions of beg, borrow and steal, certainly you can make money that way. But salvage offers the you a more honorable income without risking your reputation.
In Iridine there are a variety of items that you can collect and sell to shopkeepers for money. The variety is not extensive, gathering these things can be difficult and you won't get much for them but if you work hard and stick to it you'll soon earn enough to afford your first pieces of armor. And with armor you can venture into hunting areas that offer a somewhat more generous living.
 
 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 

Unit Value in Sens Value In Denar Value in Gold Cents
Bronze Sen 1  1/12  1/300 
Silver Sterce 3 1/4  1/100
Silver Denar 12 1 1/25
Gold Cent 300 25 1
When expressing a large quantity of money Iridinians often refer to the 'talent'. It is not a unit of money (there is no 'talent coin') but it does represent a set value.
Unit              Value in Denar        Value in Gold Cents
"Talent"                   1562.5                             62
Jobs:
There are jobs available in Iridine that require no skills and pay a decent wage,
Net Cleaning
Directions: From the Toga Inn, W, SWx2, Sx3, SW, Sx2, SWx4, Wx2, SW, Wx3 (you can mark here if you like), NW, Nx3, NW,W,SW, N (through the door).
Instructions: Before you can clean nets, you will need a brush. Buy a brush for 10 denars. You can keep it, of course, so you won't ever need to buy another. To repair nets, you will need twine. You will need more twine for each repair, though, and it costs 1denar and 1 sterce. Each net you repair and clean will net you between 2-10 denar each.
To begin, get a net from the bin:
Get net from bin.
1- Buy twine
2- Get twine
3- Repair net
Repeat steps one to three until the net is repaired.
Once the net is repaired, take your brush inhand and begin cleaning it.
Scrub net (Continue until the net is clean).
Offer net to Uvol
Say to ovul change
Accept Uvol.
Viola, congratulations on a job well done!
Clam and mussel diving
Directions: Signaltower island, in Keisto's shop. From the Toga Inn, Nx2, Wx3, NW (up the ladder). You should now be on the ferry landing. Wait here for the ferry to return, if it is not already there. When it arrives, go up the ramp and wait on the ferry until it reaches the island. Then, go North up the ramp. For the island's ferry landing: Wx2, NWx2, Nx4, then through the door to the north into Keisto's shop.
Instructions: Read the sign in Keisto's shop for instructions on diving. Enter the pool by typing go pool. You will be warned that you are trying to enter the pool, just type "y" when prompted.  You will find yourself underwater. To move around use the command  string swim <direction>, for example: swim west.
Currents: You will quickly find that, the further you venture from the shack, the more dangerous the currents become. You will likely be dragged in one direction or the other for a space or two by currents. This is not so bad, except that further out from the shack you can encounter currents that stun you for a little while, making you unable to move or even look around until the stun wear off. If you are tired or needing air, this can be dangerous. If you venture far enough out away from the shack, you can even get washed up on the shore of the island (usually the northwestern  tip of the island). If this happens, just walk back down and around to the shack and go again.
While in the water, look at each area you enter. If you see a mussel or calm pick it up with get <mussel/clam>. You can use the stow command to designate your sack, or some other container, as your main container (ex: stow <sack, backpack, etc.>) and when your hands are full, you will automatically stow mussels and clams in your preferred container. This will make the process and little easier and less time consuming.
Pay attention to the game screen while diving. If you get the message that "you have been underwater for a good while and you are starting to feel the need for more air", then you need to start heading back to the shack immediately. The area beneath the shack is "shallow water underneath a plank shack". When you get here and you will find yourself inside the shack again, laying down. Catch your breath, stand up, then stand up and go pool again.
When you are too tired to risk diving anymore, or have a good enough haul that you are satisfied, just offer the clams and mussels to Keistos, then say to Keistos change, and accept Keistos to receive your pay. Good job!
[Note: Some clams have pearls in them. Don't know how much more you get for pearls, but I would imagine a good bit more. Also, don't know if you should sell these clams to Keistos or get the pearl and sell it to Mondan. When I find a pearl, I'll let you know what I discover.]
Salvaging:

There are three ways to scavenge. One is skinning the pelts from those animals that you kill yourself. This is a great way for warriors to scavenge, of course. Since you are going to be killing critters anyway to improve your fighting skills, you might as well skin what you kill to earn the money you'll need to pay for that training. I recommend skinning the pelts from whatever corpse you come across in the meantime as well. Take every opportunity to supplement your income. If you are a warrior and have hunting as another skill set, this work great. Not only do you get skill points for fighting, but also for skinning. Not to mention successfully skinning an animal mean you get paid more for the pelt than you would for a "damaged" one. Be aware, though, that this will eat into your total skill point gain for the day.
Another way to scavenge is to simply run from one hunting ground to the other searching for dead critters to skin. Other characters tend to leave their kills behind without skinning them. This means you can get a sackful of pelts in no time without ever lifting a weapon. This method works best for those without fighting skills, especially for hunters.
Finally, there are a variety of items that can be sold to the junk dealer (see below) for very little coin (individually, anyway). Such things as clubs dropped by brutes in the alley hunting grounds, items of clothing from both thugs and brutes, arrows dropped by bandits in the bandit woods, etc. Again, they don't pay very well individually, usually around one sterce each, but a sackful can often get you a couple of hundred denars. I don't have a list of things that the Junk Dealer will buy, but you can assume that almost anything you find lying on the ground that's not made of metal (most of these can be sold to metal-working shopkeepers for more money) or part of an animal (which Caprarius, the carcass buyer pays more for) can best be sold at the junk shop.
Pelts, shells, feathers and hides are usually only found in the hunting areas. Now when characters get to a certain level they usually stop skinning their kills, the money it gets them is less interesting to them than the experience they get from the fight. So, you'll often find unskinned animals in abundance on the signaltower island and in the sewers and dumps. Characters with the hunting basics skill set also gain skill points from skinning as well as higher income from pelts, hides, shells and feathers.
Rats, dump hounds, rodents, osecars and fluvitar pups have pelts. Sewer snakes, and all other kinds of snakes, have hides. Rock crabs and snappers have shells. Angry sea gulls have up to six feathers.
Caprarius, the Carcass Buyer, buys all of these animal parts.
Thug items are found in the alleys west of the Toga (see Directions). Again, most players hunt the alleys merely for the experience and usually leave items from thugs and brutes laying around. Thugs usually carry a pouch with a small amount of coin inside which most characters leave on the corpse. If you are lucky, you may also find their dagger still there as well, which can be sold to Thimaro the Tin dealer for about 15 denar. Brutes have clubs which can be sold to the Junk Dealer, though they only get you about one sterce each and can get heavy in bulk. Both thugs and brutes usually have clothing that doesn't weigh much and, if you can get a lot of them, can be worth a decent amount from the Junk Dealer.
Bandit items can be much more profitable, but are an extremely dangerous scavenging choice. Bandits often have locked chests among their belongings. Many skilled characters have chosen locksmithing as a secondary skills so that they can open these chests themselves as soon as they get them. Nonetheless, even empty chests are often left lying around on the floor of the bandit woods because they are so bulky (you can't fit more than one in a single sack or backpack). These empty chests can be sold at Apula's shop and school, Riverside Locks, for about 15 denars. If you are lucky enough to find a locked chest, however, you can expect a good chance of making more than that. Locksmiths will usually charge a small fee (20 denar for chests, 30 denar for jammed chests, I think?) for opening locked chests. There is almost always a small amount of coin inside locked chests, and often a gem or two that can be sold at Mondan's Gem and Jewelry Shop.


The Junk Dealer
A shop near the Dumps that buys...well...junk. Sandals, wooden clubs, clothing, who knows what else. The location of the Junk Dealer's shop is part of your starting Marks (i.e. you can walk to it from any main cobblestone road.) Beware, though, if you offer the dealer a sack full of stuff, expect that all the items in the sack will be purchased. In other words, don't leave your weapon or coins or anything else of value in the sack. If you do it will be bought, and not for likely more than a sterce or so. And you won't get it back. Only offer items that you want to sell.
Skinning:
To skin an animal use the following command strings. You must be holding a knife or dagger to skin.
*To skin all the animal parts from an animal: Skin <animal>, repeat until all parts have been skinned.
*To skin a specific animal part: Skin <head/pelt/whatever> from <animal>.
Get <part> and put it in your sack/backpack/whatever and continue on salvaging.
Selling to shopkeepers:

*To sell a pelt to Caprarius, a torch to Sesquillicus or a dagger to Thimaro type:
Get <torch/pelt/head/whatever> from <sack/backpack> (or wherever you're keeping it).
Offer <head/pelt/torch/whatever> to <Cap, Ses or Thim>.
When they have accepted the item type:
"cap change or "ven change or "thim buy
They will offer you coin or, perhaps, a small sack of coin:
Accept Cap/Ses/Thim
A shortcut if you have a sack full of items to sell is to simply offer the entire sack to the shopkeeper. They will take what they want from the sack and put the empty sack on the counter. However, make sure that you have something in the sack that they DON'T want or they will keep the whole sack.
*To sell leather armor to Venina or daggers to Thimaro:
Thimaro and Venina not only buy these items but they repair them also, so when you offer your goods to them they will ask whether you want them to buy it or repair it. Of course, you want them to buy.
Offer dagger to Thimaro or offer armor/helmet/pouch to Venina
When prompted answer "ven buy or "thim buy
Then, as usual, when they have received the item(s):
"ven change or "thim change
accept ven or accept thim
Apula will simply accept chests without the repair/buy query, but the exchange is otherwise the same.

You can also show <head/pelt/dagger/whatever> to <shopkeeper>. They will tell you how much they will pay for the item.
 

Handling money
Splitting sums of money: Here's a situation that's going to drive you absolutely batty until you get the hang of it. Paying other characters sums of money. Now, shopkeepers and trainers take your money automatically. But other players can't. So how do you get 50 denar out of the pile of 250 in your sack to buy that cool flowing green sagum from your buddy Dorinius? The split command makes this possible. If your have a hand free and a pile of coins in some container about your person, just use the command string: split <type of coin you want> <number of coins you want>. Example: In the above situation you would use the command string split denar 50. This would put 50 denar in your hand, ready to offer them to Darinius.
Split coins & ungroup coins: If you have a "pile" or "handful" of various different coins you may have to ungroup coins to divide them into the different types first (sen, sterce, denar, cent).
Both of these commands and command strings are best done while your coins are in your sack, back or pouch (or other container). Trying to do this inhand may quickly leave you without a free hand to complete whatever transaction you are attempting and causing some confusion about which amount is in which hand. I once split 25 denar from about 100 inhand and offered the 100 to someone without realizing until much later. Needless to say, I lost 75 denar in that deal.
Share <coins> with <person or persons>: This is a real shortcut and time saver. If you have a certain amount of one type of coin inhand you can "share" it with another person, or even more than one person. For example: If you have 100 denars inhand and use the command string share denars with Darinius it will split the denars evenly with you and Darinius (50 denars for each of you). You can share with more than one person, too. Example: share denars with darinius, minos and heltonius (25 denars for each of you). Or you can share unequally, offering more of a share to one person by mentioning them more than once. Example: share denars with darinius, darinius and minos (25 denar left in your hand, 25+25=50 to Darinius and 25 to Minos).
Bank transactions: You can also sell <item> to <character> for <#> <coin type>. The prospective customer will be queried (i.e. "Aerinicus offers to sell you a flowing green sagum for 200 denars."), to which the character can accept <seller> if they agree. This will deduct the amount from the purchasing character's bank account and deposit it into the seller's account automatically, though you can only do this inside a bank (such as Senida's Bank).
* Thanks to Antaeus for the first three parts of this sub-section and, especially, the share command, which I had never even heard of!