40d:Liaison

Liaisons are emissaries from different civilizations that will sometimes accompany traders to your fortress. They can have different names (Humans will send a guild representative, dwarves will send an outpost liaison), but their functions are the same. They will only speak with your expedition leader/mayor and ask which goods you would like to have sent with their next caravan (for a higher price), and inform you what goods they would like to buy from you the next time, which they too will pay extra to purchase.

If your leader is dead, then you must assign a new one using the n screen before the liaison arrives or he/she will leave without a meeting.

Make sure to turn off all labor for the dwarf who needs to meet with the liaison, even the 'harvest all order', because your leader tends to walk away from the meeting and liaisons will eventually get depressed or go berserk if they do not get their meeting. This also causes a message saying "A trader went away unhappy" although it's unknown if this has any current in-game effect.

If you are desperate to complete a meeting, consider locking the door on the meeting room until the meeting is complete. You don't even have to catch both in the office, the liaison is so keen on his burocratics, he will happily shout through the door. A sleeping dwarf leader can be woken up by deconstructing his bed, althoug this will often generate an unhapy thought.

The meeting can take place before, after and even "during", that is, between, trading sessions.

The meeting usually consists of 8 screens with breaks, the breaks giving your leader a welcome opportunity to walk away from the meeting. Don't think you are done until the liaison confirms it and says farewell!

Conducting a meeting in a public place can generate an unhappy thought^[Verify]. Conducting a meeting in the leader's private office can generate a happy thought^[Verify] based on the quality of the room^[Verify].

Oddly enough, liaisons don't need to eat, drink or sleep. There is a statement from one of our mayors on this:

Ironblood: "This damn human thingy keeps following me around, suckling on me when I pause for too long. I think it's a foreign custom, but I dare not emulate. He's all disgusting and clean. Though his clothes are almost completely rotted off..."