Oblivion:Shady Sam

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Shady Sam spends his days outside the Imperial city selling poisons and other "Shady" objects.

Shady Sam is a merchant who can be found just outside the Imperial City walls, about 100m north east of the Chestnut Handy Stables. He is there day and night. He sells poisons, potions, and lockpicks. He is also one of two vendors who sell Skooma in Cyrodiil; the other being Nordinor. He is somewhat rare among friendly NPCs in that aside from his greeting, he has absolutely nothing to talk about. (Though you can invest in his "store" when you become an expert at Mercantile.)

Shady Sam is also the proud owner of one of only three Black Hoods in Cyrodiil, a valuable item for enchanters. He won't sell it to you, so if you want it you'll have to loot it from his corpse, reverse-pickpocket a zero-weight helmet or enchanted hood onto him and return later to steal the hood (athough the hood does not actually count as a stolen item), or use the Skull of Corruption Glitch to take one from his clone. Murdering him will not count as a murder or even be noticed by the Dark Brotherhood. As such, you can simply murder him to get his rare Black Hood.

If you are having trouble finding him, Shady Sam is found in one of the indentations in the wall surrounding the Imperial City. Go to the Chestnut Handy Stables, face the gates that go into the Talos Plaza District and take a left, follow the wall around the Imperial City, and check in each indent. Shady Sam will be in one of those. He wears a Dark Shirt, Black Wide Pants, Leather Boots, a Black Hood, and carries a leveled shortsword, as well as some gold.

[edit] Bugs

• Shady Sam is one of only three service providers in the game who cannot be persuaded, limiting your options for how to increase his disposition towards you. This also means that it is more awkward than usual to access his barter menu. On the Xbox 360 and PS3, the down control does not work; you must instead use the left or right controls (either via the thumbstick or direction controls).