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[Avin]

It was the strangest thing.

Merchants showed up for trading like normal, the liaison messages come up and I quickly look through them and them, moments later I see the message that my fort and the surrounding lands have been made a duchy. I go to start trading but the merchants are nowhere to be found. The log shows when they showed up, when they started to unload their goods and then never another message from them. Looking through the units list I see that there are three creatures listed as merchant, two yaks and a caged animal. The yaks gave no indication that they were moving but now are nowhere to be found and the caged animal is no longer listed as owned by the merchants.

I'm playing in version 42.03 and I was mainly wondering if this is something that people have seen before. If people have seen it before is there anything about it that may cause future problems for this fort or is there anything I need to do because of it.

[Halnoth]

I have seen this before. I had it happen with humans first and I thought it was because they were scared of the blood at my fort entrance. Later I found a pile of merchandise that I had missed before. I think one of the pack animals died of old age and this causes the merchants to think they are under attack and leave. Look for a pile of crap laying around.

[Antalia]

I was playing 42.03 yesterday and the following happened:

• The elves came to trade.
• A wererhinoceros suddenly appeared at the trade depot.
• Everyone at the trade depot except two elf merchants pretty much instantly exploded in gore.
• (I locked down the fort, waited for the wererhinoceros to become a harmless kobold, and sent my military to dispatch it.)
• Apparently the corpses of the elf merchants were forbidden. I failed to notice for several months. There was a lot going on.
• The human caravan arrived with a huge number of wagons. Delight! I instructed the dwarves to send all our worn socks to the depot.
• The human caravan rolled right over the dead giant in the road, seemingly without a worry.
• The first member of the human caravan reached the depot, halted, and the entire caravan threw it into reverse. They left the map at speed.
• "What's wrong?" I wondered. I had no combat log. I read the wiki and learned corpses at the depot can frighten the traders. Well. I had about four forbidden, rotten elf merchant corpses at the depot. That made sense. I wouldn't want to trade somewhere like that either!
• I reclaimed the corpses and my dwarves hauled them away. No caravans have fled since.

I think something similar may be what happened to you.

[PatrikLundell]

Seconding Antalia, I think you probably have sapient bodies (or parts thereof, including a half a tooth) lying around. Merchants, but not their guards, get horrified at the sight of half a goblin tooth, toss the goods they're hauling (including cages containing animals) and bolt, bringing the rest of the caravan with them. All of this is done without any indication except an exclamation mark above the head of the offended merchant if you happened to watch him at the time.
Thus, the corpse stockpile should be well out of sight of the caravans.

[Avin]

~ you probably have sapient bodies (or parts thereof, including a half a tooth) lying around.

I can assure you I absolutely have bodies "laying" around.

I guess I'll need to get that cleaned up.

[martinuzz]

carvans get spooked by sentient corpses (perhaps animal corpses too, but I don't think so). The wagons literally get scared to death and desintegrate, causing the rest of the caravan to pack up and leave before they even have properly arrived at your depot. You'll find some missing wagons in you dead/missing list. You can search for and unforbid the wagon's contents for some free goodies. Can be solved by making sure caravans won't path past where they can see the corpses (put your (y)corpse stockpile behind wall and doors)

[Avin]

Yep, that's differently what happened here. Sure enough there's a Wagon listed as Missing and a pile of goodies forbidden on a pile with some wagon parts. The only strange part is that where this wagon was found there are no bodies anywhere near by that could have caused an issue. I'll have the bodies cleaned up before the next group of merchants arrive and hopefully this won't happen again.

[PatrikLundell]

And you're sure your dorfs haven't cleaned up some mess in between the caravan bolted and you searched the area? Also, you may want to take a look to see if something is stuck up in trees.

[omega_dwarf]

I thought the usual deal is that the wagon's scuttling itself didn't cause the bolting and the fear, but was a product of it. Some merchant (probably at the head of the column) saw a corpse, flipped his shit, and everyone turned around; some pathfinding problem caused the wagon you found to scuttle (running into a wall, overlapping other units, something of that kind.) It's possible that an animal flipped out and scuttled the wagon that way. I've never heard of the wagon itself being scared (although I'm aware they are treated in some respects as creatures.)

[Antalia]

You'll find some missing wagons in you dead/missing list. You can search for and unforbid the wagon's contents for some free goodies.

Finally, an explanation for that crazy pile of random, forbidden junk in the road after my merchants fled!