Shattered Kingdoms

I just started playing not long ago, I havn't had much experience with muds. I have read most of the help files but there are still a few things I can't figure out.

1) How do you buy multiple items? I use help buy and it said to type buy x.item, but whenever I do that it it just tells me that the vendor doesn't have any of that item. the closest i got was attempting buy 2.goose (to buy 2 roasted goose) but I ended up with buying a single beef stew... so I don't know what happened there...

2) How do I talk to npc's there are times where it says that I should ask certin npc's about certain things, but I can't seem to actually acomplish this, for example the stable boy said to ask him about caring for your mount but I can't seem to accomplish this.

3) One of the vendors was selling a blue-steel dagger, attempting to buy blue-steel dagger, and buy "blue-steel dagger" resulted in not being able to purchase it, I was finally able to buy dagger, but that left me with a training dagger and a blue-steel dagger in my inventory, which I am now unable to differentiate between.

4) Just outside the training area there was a grate, I was able to enter the grate by typing grate, but then once I was in the grate typing exits showed S-Tunnel Other-A large pipe... but I was unable to determine how to exit through the pipe...

1) buy <item> #
2)sayto <keyword>
3)wear 2.<item> 3.<item> etc (works with look and examing also)
4)not sure

If you have more questions, you can PM me on the forums and I can see what I can do to arrange helping you learn in the game a bit more.

Personal suggestion on the buying of items:

Some shop keepers have multiple items with similar keywords. I would suggest you buy based on list number instead of keyword. In that case, if you wanted to buy five of the second listed item, the syntax would be buy 2 5. You can only buy up to 10 of a given item at any time, and always make sure you have room in your inventory for all of the quantity you wish to buy.

An addendum to answers already given...

1) use ObjectivistActivist's recommendation....unlike with McDonald's employees, can't go wrong with ordering the number of the item...they'll never say "You want the number 2? which is that, the glass dagger or the steel dagger? Joe! Which one's the number 2??"

...so yeah, "buy <list num>" for just one, or "buy <list num> <qty num>" for more than one.

2) when quest NPCs talk to you, they'll highlight (emphasize) certain keywords....
(paraphrasing) Iserken says to you 'I have several *jobs* available"....then you'd say something like "What kind of jobs?"....that NPC is programmed to trigger another bit of convo by hearing the word "job" or "jobs"....in the case of the stable boy, try asking about "mounts" or any particular keywords he says like "riding" (if that's one of them, i forget if it is)

3) If you're unsure which is which in your inventory, LOOK at each one to verify them.
"look dagger"...."look 2.dagger"...also if you type "inventory" (or "inv")...whichever is closer to the top is the first one, the next one with same keyword is 2.<word>...OR as native said, try using a different keyword...most items have at least 2 or 3 words to identify them. Typically the noun or adjective..."a blue-steel dagger" can be chosen by "blue" or "dagger".

4) Make sure you have "auto exits" turned on (check by typing "auto" to get the toggle list)...when you enter a room, notice what exits there are..."w n s e grate"...then you can judge by the room text (in the case of the sewer entrance) that the "pipe" is what has the "grate" leading back to the street. if you lose the room descrip in the spam, just type "look" to see the room again. (can shortcut with "L"...my L key will probably be the first to stop working on my keyboard lol)

Sometimes (not always), room.<item> will target the one in the room; e.g., 'unlock room.tower' will hit the tower exit instead of your tower shield.