I guess this is a bug, and apologies if it's been posted before, but if you're feeling a little "gold challenged" early in the game you can put the squeeze on a certain character for what looks like an unlimited sum. Of course, you should think twice about unbalancing your game, and the hard core gamers surely wouldn't be tempted.
But if you're the casual type of player who just enjoys pretending to dress up in leather armour and kill a few goblins, and you really can't wait for that new hat or stack of potions that you can't quite afford yet, then maybe scamming him for a few hundred wouldn't hurt?…
I found this out by accident, but when I tested it again on my second time through the game it still worked. So maybe it works for everybody?
- [+] SPOILER
- The shopkeeper in Rockhammer can give you a quest to retrieve some money that the dwarf Logi in the mine owes her. If you ask him for the money he'll offer you a quest to kill all the scorpions in the mine first. Straightforward enough if you do it in that order.
However…. if you kill all the scorpions BEFORE talking to him for the first time and making the deal, then the conversation option still comes up to tell him that the mine is now clear of scorpions. He'll then give you 300 gold anyway. And then keep giving another 300 every time you tell him. You can still then activate the quest from him and he'll give you yet another 300, and you can complete the shopkeepers quest too. Surprisingly, provided you've scammed him a bit first, you can then accept his quest from him, get the offered 300 for the debt, and still keep scamming him later.
I didn't test it extensively, but that's how it worked for me anyway. And I didn't bleed him too dry, or use him as a permanent bank … I just took him for a few extra hundred to cover basic start-up expenses. It was tempting to keep him in reserve for later withdrawals but in fact I never needed to call on him again. The game seems to provide more than enough gold to do the job.
CAUTION!!!! I've since found out the hard way that exploiting this bug locks you out of level 2 of the mine!
One of the conditions for the door to level 2 to open is completing Logi's quest, which never officially happens if you get the gold from him before the quest (either accidentally or deliberately). So it's a clear choice between potentially unlimited gold or some more XP and goodies. Not a big deal either way, and scamming him was kind of fun. But level 2 had some fun too….