I bought the game when it came out so I, too, could be an attractive shapeshifter.

Unfortunately, I have no idea what I am doing here so it is going terribly.

Some people warned me something was coming so I wandered off, fought some harpies, came back, and most of them (including the only merchant I found in the whole game) were dead...
The game was making little sense with the steam deck controls. Switching to desktop helped lots.

I can't tell if that merchant is supposed to be dead or not. I didn't do any of the quests relating to that whole situation but he's dead and a huge battle seems to have happened. I don't want to restart because my character is too hot 😔