Return a marketplace herb trader?

[Brimstone Sermon]

I tinkered a little with alchemy at the start of this PC, but herbalism is derailed rather by an almost total lack of reliable access to theme reagents like Duskwood, Foxberries and Bonga Ferns. I'd love to play a herbalist after I'm back in game, but it seems I'd have to go with a druid-friendly concept.

If it was possible to buy herbs somewhere normally reachable like gwah'oul used to sell, it would mean that PCs with access to a grove wouldn't have a near-monopoly on these areas even though research would be expensive without a garden. This would let players try the system out more, without starting up the long running debate about gardening again.

[Her Imperial Majesty]

There is such an NPC already IG, though she is hard to reach. So yea, nature friendly is required as a result.
 
And the herb she gives is random as well, which doesn't really help the situation any.
 
Perhaps an NPC that sells the -seeds- of these plants would be warranted?
 
Agreed with the OP if people are confused, just adding my two cents.

[LiAlH4]

You might be surprised to hear that plants and reagents pop up in some of the most unusual places! It may require going far from Mistlocke and pilfering a druid's plantings somewhere, but they can be found.

[Aethereal]

I can completlely understand Brimstone Sermon's sentiment here. Yet, as has been pointed out before, the status quo of the herbal reagents economy ensures those truly dictated PCs reap the very potent rewards of their labour.

Now that I have put my other charater's plan on hiatus, I will admit that the whole idea for a meta-faction base, of a guarded area in the wilds that was not 100% wildling dominated stemmed from the ideas in the above linked post. Specifically, to be proactively seeking to advance one's well established garden and involving other PCs in a hopefully engaging way whilst further contributing to  our overall goal of creating a great story, which so often involves conflict between PCs.

It cannot be denied that nature based PCs have a far greater advantage and ease of access to herbal reagents to those who are not so closely associated with the wilderness, but, I can attest that it is not impossible to strive and succeed.

[MirrorMask]

Yes, i got lost (not unusual) when i used the back door to the delving and found herbal plants galore just about all over the place.  must have picked 30-40 ingredients w/o killing a single plant. So they are definitely out there.

[Mort]

Definitely acceptable. While we want IG actions to affect the gameworld, some basic services MUST remain to make the persistent world viable and fun.