First of all, you can quest for these, but don't need to, I don't think; a merchant on the south side of Shar Vahl seems to sell these regularly. Also, if you're buying this armor from the merchants, look for dingy armor. Singy armor has the exact same AC as padded but is slightly cheaper, which is defintiely a good thing for the low level people wearing this stuff who need to pinch every copper.
Edit: No merchant sells this regularly, however, the merchant who gives the quest for them is almost always selling them, because people doing the quest usually sell their duplicates straight to him.
Edited, Wed Nov 20 03:24:41 2002