Shopkeeper

Shopkeepers tend shops. They are relatively tough for low level characters and therefore excel at preventing shoplifting.

Shopkeepers are generated with (1000 + 30*d100) zorkmids, a skeleton key, and some or all of a wand of striking, a potion of healing, a potion of extra healing, and a wand of magic missile (a d4 is rolled and that many items are generated starting from the beginning of that list).

Should a character die in the hands of a shopkeeper, or be killed while there's an angry shopkeeper around, any possible Bones files will be generated with the player's grave empty - the possessions are all inherited by the shopkeeper, who must be killed in order to search the loot.

For chaotic human players shopkeepers have a strategic value in that they are one of the only sources of a human corpse in the early levels, which can be used to automatically convert an altar for chaotic humans.

Ways to kill shopkeepers easily
There are some ways to kill shopkeepers very easily, even when you have only a low level character. By killing shopkeepers early in the game, you're able to get a lot of money.

One possibility is that you have a cloak of magic resistance (e.g. if you start as a wizard) or an amulet of reflection and get invisible inside the shop (by putting on a ring of invisibility, drinking a potion of invisibility or taking off mummy wrapping if you have permanent invisibility). The shopkeeper will not leave his position in front of the door while you're invisible. Now you're able to attack the shopkeeper easily by range attacks (e.g. spells, wands, launchers, darts etc.).

The easiest way to kill shopkeepers is to zap them with a wand of polymorph. Often they will polymorph into a weak creature that is unable to zap wands against you.

Messages
Messages will appear if you die or #quit while you are inside a shop, or while you are on the same level as an angry shopkeeper. Substitute the name of your shopkeeper for Shkname.

The text "wakes up and" appears in the message in the case of a paralysed or sleeping shopkeeper. The text "comes and" appears in the message if the shopkeeper is more than two squares away from you.

References: shk.c, shk.c

Encyclopedia entry

 * See the encyclopedia entry for human.