Harmless enough - Just keep your sticky fingers off the postcards.
The Gift Shop Clerk (Voiced by Stephen Stanton in English, Yasuhiko Kawazu in Japanese) is a character in The Cave. He runs The Cave Gift Shop, and is the first NPC the player encounters, besides the The Cave itself. Whilst he seems normal enough (Although a bit shifty), the curious nature of his gift shop (Trading Objects of Desire rather than selling tacky merchandise) hints that he is likely a lot less 'normal' than he lets on. Then again, no one who weeps openly about trinkets is likely to be terribly normal anyway.
Story[]
Encountered almost immediately after the first drop in The Cave, he is encountered weeping loudly, stating that The Cave is closed due to lack of trinkets in The Cave Gift Shop. Before the player can leave however, he quickly cheers up, suggesting the player go to the Employee's Only Back Entrance (Using a giant Novelty-Sized Key) and find three trinkets. Upon meeting his quota, he allows the spelunkers to enter The Cave, apparently nonplussed about the angry Crystal Cave Monster someone's keeping in the back.
Met again at the very last section of the game, he'll inform the player of a new set of trinkets, which coincidentally happen to be each spelunker's Object of Desire, but will only give them in return for a trinket of equal value. After traversing the mostly packed-away Employee's Back Entrance (Which was slightly more filled with fire and brimstone than before) and 'borrowing' trinkets from The Miner, The Hunter and The Hermit (Gold Nugget, Monster Trophy and Spanky respectively), which each spelunker trades for their own Object of Desire.
If pressed however, The Gift Shop Clerk will be willing to take back a character's trinket - However, he maintains a strict 'No Refunds' policy. This additional choice effects whether a character receives the 'Corruption' ending, or the 'Redemption' ending.
Trivia[]
- According to The Cave, he's been probably been dipping into the till.
- During the first search, the default three trinkets to be found are the Jeweled Skull, the Thespianship Award, and the Cursed Guitar. However, if, during any playthrough, any of the characters failed to escape The Cave, their skeletal remains and Object of Desire will often replace one of the default trinkets.
- Apparently found The Clown to be annoying.