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[Kametec_Housen]

I have merchants stuck on my map. They just froze in their tracks, for some reason, and they are just sitting there.

Here is what happened chronologically, in case it matters:
New embark, a heavily forested flat savage forest, with no z change whatsoever on the entire embark. There is a river running across northern border and murky pools litter the area. During first year, I get the "Wagons has bypassed your inaccessible site" message. That tells me it's that time of the year, so I plop down a depot and wait for the merchants to come and unload. I then trade them a pile of worthless bone crafts in exchange for two iron anvils and ten assorted logs. At this point, I call off my trader and stop paying them attention.

Then I get a message saying that they have embarked on their journey. But now it is mid winter and they are still around. It looks like they moved a couple of tiles and just stopped. The depot is also covered with some junk they haven't packed yet. I checked combat log and found out that a marksdwarf hit a giant mantis twice. Once on the embark day and once a day later.

But that is all. There are no corpses, no obstacles, no wagons, no messages. And the merchants are just standing by their pack animals, doing nothing.

Have you seen merchants behave like this? How can I get them to leave? What could have caused this?

[bloop_bleep]

It looks like one of their wagons scuttled, dropping their stuff on the floor (that's probably the junk you saw in the depot), causing them to stop in their tracks. The giant mantis might have done it, in fact.

[Mort Stroodle]

I've had a somewhat similar problem but likely with a different cause. My human caravan was scared off by (I think)badgers and dropped their loot, leaving the map. In the years since, they haven't come to trade at all. I left the chest there in hopes that they would pick it up next year without any hard feelings (because apparently badger defense is my responsibility) but they just never came. I eventually decided to unforbid it but I don't think my dwarves have actually taken anything yet even though its been like a year since I did so. Anyway is this intended functionality? Like do caravans stop coming for a while if you don't defend them? My dwarven caravan has been coming every year and the elven caravan stopped coming years ago when they declared war (as expected). I've been checking the civ screen and the humans have not declared war on me.

[bloop_bleep]

I've had a somewhat similar problem but likely with a different cause. My human caravan was scared off by (I think)badgers and dropped their loot, leaving the map. In the years since, they haven't come to trade at all. I left the chest there in hopes that they would pick it up next year without any hard feelings (because apparently badger defense is my responsibility) but they just never came. I eventually decided to unforbid it but I don't think my dwarves have actually taken anything yet even though its been like a year since I did so. Anyway is this intended functionality? Like do caravans stop coming for a while if you don't defend them? My dwarven caravan has been coming every year and the elven caravan stopped coming years ago when they declared war (as expected). I've been checking the civ screen and the humans have not declared war on me.

That actually might be the same reason. Wagons can get scared and deconstruct, dropping everything they were carrying on the ground. You might not be getting any caravans because any items that the caravan doesn't have when it leaves the map that it had when it entered count against the calculated profits; maybe the humans just got too pissed at you to come back.

OP, could you perhaps check the "dead/missing" tab in the units screen? There might be a "wagon" entry there.

EDIT: Actually, there is another bug with caravans where they sometimes get stuck just outside the map edges, so that could be the cause. Merchants are just really, really buggy right now, it seems.

[Kametec_Housen]

It looks like one of their wagons scuttled, dropping their stuff on the floor (that's probably the junk you saw in the depot), causing them to stop in their tracks. The giant mantis might have done it, in fact.

Some scaring might have happened, but no wagons were involved, because they haven't come in the first place. Dead/missing tab is also blank, apart from two butchered horses.

[Mort Stroodle]

In my world, the wagon was in the dead units list, and in every year since they've sent a liason, a few guards labeled as merchants, but no caravan and they don't trade.

[PatrikLundell]

For the case where merchants never come back, the DFHack script fix/stuck-merchants.lua might help, but it likely won't do anything about the OP problem.

[FantasticDorf]

Something similar happened to me in the new version, firstly they were attacked by giant grey langurs, guards dispatched and traded as normal but then completely refused to leave and horses & merchants were scattered around. Second time they came soon after a goblin siege and wouldn't leave again presumably by being intensely scared of the bodies.

Having them be 100% protected all the time is virtually impossible.

[Kametec_Housen]

They eventually packed up and left. Took them 3 years to do it though.

[nuget102]

You could always let them come in through the caverns then again,  I don't know of that works anymore...

[PatrikLundell]

You could always let them come in through the caverns then again,  I don't know of that works anymore...

Nope. They can leave through the caverns, but not enter.