If you give an item to a denizen, do they hold onto it until they are killed?

Antreus

Anyone on the ground who can attest to this as being fact? Barring the rate of decay of course.

Addama

I think this depends on the denizen and the item.

For example, obviously quest denizens that you give quest items to do not drop those items.

A lot of denizens will return items that you give them if they're not relevant.

A few hold on to items you give to them, I'm not sure if they'll drop those items if you then kill them.

And one I can think of picks up items off the ground and will drop those items if killed.

Kayeil

Sometimes they hand it back, sometimes they don't. I remember when my character was a young Cyrenian I accidentally gave an item to the wrong denizen and they kept it unil they were killed in a raid by an enemy. Then a citymate found it and returned it to me.

Ourania

If you give the wrong item, like a journal etc, and the denizen doesn't give it back, it is worth talking to the denizen itself and asking for it back. If they don't, you can use ISSUE ME, but be warned, it is not a solve all. Sometimes you just need to figure it out

Melodie

If you give a denizen a very important item, you can honestly try to talk to the denizen and see if they'll return it - I once handed a House denizen in the Sylvans some armour for customing it, except it was the wrong denizen. I was freaking out for a bit, but then the denizen finally handed it back after a few minutes (ty to whoever did that by the way).

If nothing else, you can also always ISSUE ME about it. Again, best reserved for items of severe import.

Keldrik

Addama said:

I think this depends on the denizen and the item.

For example, obviously quest denizens that you give quest items to do not drop those items.

A lot of denizens will return items that you give them if they're not relevant.

A few hold on to items you give to them, I'm not sure if they'll drop those items if you then kill them.

And one I can think of picks up items off the ground and will drop those items if killed.

There's at least one denizen who drops his mini-quest bling when you kill him after giving it to him. It's no use once he's dead anyway, though. I suppose you could wear if you wanna look fancy.

There's a guy in a cave who snatches things up. He'll drop some of it when killed, though not gold (so kill him first if you want your full loot) and not the bodies related to his little quest. Come to think of it, none of the body-accepting denizens drop them when killed... you can't have your gold and your essence too.

Some denizens will take stuff from your inventory if they kill you; the items can be reclaimed by killing the denizen who took it (if they don't just kill you again, that is), even long after. While massacring a village I once received the journal of a citymate who regularly gets himself killed by some of the denizens in this category.

Herenicus

Items still decay in the hands of a denizen, which may account for some sad situations where nothing if left to retrieve from a corpse.