Difference between revisions of "Pet"

Revision as of 04:54, 13 January 2011

Pets are animals that will follow you around. They can be picked up. Wearable pets work differently.

Types of pets

Most pets are bought in pet shops, but some are aquired in other ways.

Mrs Puddlesocks' pet shop

This shop is on on King's Way in Ankh-Morpork. You specify the name when you order, and can order male or female pets of the following types:

• cat (Witches will find they get a special version, rather than the tabby...)
• chicken
• dog
• duck
• rabbit
• owl
• hawk
• sheep
• frog
• raven

Note: these pets will not follow you into a passage room.

You can "pluck" feathers from ducks and chickens.

Swamp Dragons

The Sunshine Sanctuary for Sick Dragons on Morphic Street in Ankh-Morpork sells swamp dragons. Unlike other pets, these don't necessarily appear in the owner's room upon login (possibly if they've been told to stay somewhere).

If attacked, they will explode, dealing a lot of damage^[1] and leaving a crater. It's possible that players and NPCs in the room will dive out of the way and avoid damage.

Rats

There is a rat shop on Lobbin Clout in Ankh-Morpork. Rats can be ordered here with the desired coat colour and type, eye colour, and name. Names can't be changed later.

Pet rats can also be asked to ride, giving you a line in your description:

She has a beady-eyed <colour> rat peering out from behind her head.

When you're tired of this, they can be asked to walk.

They will scurry into your arms, appearing in your inventory, if they see a dwarf, cat, or dog.

Sto Lat pets

A fresh and airy pet shop on Hill Street in Sto Lat sells fairly expensive cats and dogs. Pets bought here can be named after you buy them, and renamed with the "name" command.

The shop owner will not always sell you a pet, however:

Peter Periwinkle says with a Sto Plains accent: I can't in good conscience let you take her when you've got so many pets already. What are you thinking? This is a pedigree, full-blooded tsortean cat we've got here, not some menagerie canary.

Behavior

These pets can be "ask"ed to do things; "syntax ask" will give you a list.

Cats bought here will occasionally disappear on their own errands (they seem to appear next to another player when they do this). They'll also attack small birds and rodents.

The wolfhounds are protective of their owners, and may join in fights (although not always  research If this has been marked on a page, it's because there was something that probably isn't known, that the person who edited the page thinks could be found out. Perhaps you could figure this thing out, and be famous evermore. ). They'll also attack wild boars and wolves whether or not they've actually attacked their owner. Note that "wolves" includes Sergeant Angua (possibly any werewolves).

Poodles (all dogs?) will attack cats that soul aggressively at them, which the stray ones in Ankh-Morpork do.

Grooming

Dogs' fur will become disordered and acquire burrs with time. You can get rid of the burrs and make their fur smooth by brushing or grooming them with a pet brush (this requires a little bit of skill in crafts.husbandry.animal.grooming). You can do the opposite--make their fur more disordered and introduce burrs--by using the "ruffle" soul on them.

After being brushed, poodles can also have their coats cut into different shapes; the shop sells clippers as well as a book showing different styles. This requires skill crafts.arts.sculpture (a bonus of around 146 is enough for an easy clip). The syntax to clip them is:

clip <pet> into {ankhian saddle|jacket and pants|genuan|lion|bell bottom|teddy bear} [clip] with <object> 

Afterwards, they look something like this:

A tall, elegantly shaped dog with a proud gait and rather aloof dark eyes, this creature is nothing like his smaller, yappy cousins.  His grey coat has been clipped into a professional lion cut, with a proud mane covering his neck and shoulders, and round pom-poms on his tail and ankles.  The clip looks very recent, as the hair has not yet begun to grow back.
He is in good shape.
He is sitting.
His fur is brushed into a perfect display of ordered curls.

However, the exact appearance depends on the style chosen and how long it's been since you styled them--the line after the style description changes with time as the style grows out (the time it takes for it to grow out varies somewhat, but styles last several hours):

• The clip looks very recent, as the hair has not yet begun to grow back.
• His fur is just starting to grow back.
• His clippings are getting fuzzy around the edges.
• His haircut is almost lost under the surge of new growth.
• His grey fur has been allowed to grow out unclipped. (Style has disappeared entirely.)

A failed clip:

Someone has made a horribly botched attempt at clipping this poor beast's grey fur.  Better hope it grows out soon.

A failed clip doesn't go through all the stages, and will just disappear entirely after several hours.

After the clip grows out a little bit (which takes a varying amount of time--it could be twenty minutes or it could take an hour or two) you can clip again. This is true whether or not the description says it's grown out, and whether or not you botched the clip.

They can also be dyed different colours, with dye being sold for &&&&&&&&&&+10000 A$25 for a single-use tub. They need to be wet for it to work, and the syntax is "dye <living> with <object>". This appears to require some skill  research If this has been marked on a page, it's because there was something that probably isn't known, that the person who edited the page thinks could be found out. Perhaps you could figure this thing out, and be famous evermore. , as it's possible to fail and simply waste the dye:

You try to dye the woolly grey poodle, but just end up getting sky blue dye everywhere.

Trainable pets

Lacerouse' pet shop on Sapphire Street and Trade Street in Genua sells trainable pets. You specify the name when you order, and can order male or female pets of the following types:

• alligator
• dog
• monkey
• mynah bird

The shop's helpfile explains how training works.

Moon dragons

Moon dragons cannot be bought. To get one, you need to go to the Morpork Mountains (near Nowhere) or the Carrack Mountains (near Bleak Prospect) and wander the terrain until you spot one you like. Then, you need to brush it with a brush^[2] and then give it one of the mushrooms that grow in the area. You may also use souls such as SERENADE dragon, or PET dragon to help this along. Unlike pets bought in shops, you can only have one moon dragon at a time, as they will attack each other.

Moon dragons respond to some verbal commands:

• "Stay"
• "Follow/Down/Come"
• "Sit"
• "Perch/Ride"
• "Sing"

Uniquely, moon dragons can be asked to "remember here [as home]", and can afterwards be asked to "go home". You can change their "home" with the same syntax. Also uniquely, if left somewhere they will eventually fly back to you.

They can also be asked to ride or perch, which adds a line to your description:

An indigo moon dragon is perched on her shoulder.

When riding, unlike when they're in your inventory, they do not add to your burden. Moon dragons may have different chats, depending on whether they're perched on you or standing in the room.

When your dragon is with you and someone tries to attack it, it will flutter onto your shoulder before it can be harmed. If you're dead and your dragon is threatened, it will jump into your ectoplasmic body and spit at its aggressor from its safe spot. If it's not in the same room as you, it'll fly to you. Therefore, it appears the only way to kill your moon dragon is if you attack it (or fail to steal from it, etc.), hide when someone tries to attack it while it's not perched on you, or by unconventional means, like the catapult in Sto Lat.

Tabby cats

Finally, an "<adjective> tabby cat" is a quest reward. These come with a name (which you can see with "detail my pets", or by buying it a collar at Mrs Puddlesocks' pet shop).

These respond to verbal commands:

• "Stay"
• "Follow me"
• "Sit"
• "Lie"
• "Stand"

It seems they can only understand Morporkian.

Note that while these follow, they don't follow into passage rooms^[3].

The fishermen in the Ankh-Morpork dock appear to dislike tabby cats, and will try to kill them.

Pet behaviors

All or most pets will occasionally perform souls or remotes, although non-wearable pets only do this when they're not being carried. Some will also respond if you do certain souls at them, like pet or scratch.

Pets may react if you throw a pet ball for them:

throw <object> for <pet>                   
throw <object> to [the] <direction> for <pet> 

These can be bought in the Sto Lat pet shop, and unlike most objects, they can be given to pets to carry.

Keeping track of pets

Your pets will appear in the room with you whenever you log on (if you were carrying them when you logged off, they may appear in your arms). You can use "detail my pets" to get a list of your pets and whether they're alive.

They will automatically follow you, unless you've told them to stay, but they may be kept out of restricted areas (such as priest/follower rooms, guarded areas, or vaults) if they're following you and not being carried. Moon dragons and Sto Lat dogs can follow more closely, though, and will appear in the room anyway. However, if unheld moon or swamp dragons are seen by npcs within the Ankh Morpork Assassins' Guild, they will be moved to the gate, and those seen by npcs beyond the metal door in the Thieves' Guild will be moved outside to the Street of Alchemists.

Keeping pets safe

Some otherwise non-aggressive npcs will attack pets. These include (but may not be limited to):

• Kess of Sek, who will pursue and then attack cats. She will also attack (but not pursue) an owner who picks the cat up.
• hunters in the Sto Plains, who will attack cats, ducks and probably most other pets.
• fishermen in the Ankh-Morpork docks
• Ninjas in Bes Pelargic will attack Sto Lat dogs and possibly others

If you're going to be around these NPCs, it's best to either leave your pet somewhere safe or carry them.

If your pet does die, the ritual Raise Dead Pet will bring them back to life. It is performed on the bereaved owner, so the corpse is not necessary.

Killing pets and haunting

If you kill your pet (or someone else's), that pet will haunt you. This has the following effects:

• You will see terrible visions of the pet, causing you to wimpy out of the room every twenty seconds.
• Your maximum social points get knocked down to 1. After a few minutes they increase to 2, and doing things that use social points (souling, telling) seems to increase your maximum as well, for some reason.

The haunting lasts about fourteen minutes, although the message you get implies that you can stop it with the Raise Dead Pet ritual.

Note that this doesn't happen if someone or something else kills your pet.

An example of what haunting looks like.

Note that if you consign your pet and then kill it, Raise Dead Pet won't be able to bring the pet back and therefore won't stop the haunting.

See also

• Raise Dead Pet
• Wearable pet
• Minions

External links

• Discworld item help: Pets

Footnotes

1. ↑ Enough to kill someone with only 500 hitpoints, anyway.
2. ↑ This appears to take crafts.husbandry.animal.grooming -- a bonus of 129 seems more than enough. It's possible it uses crafts.husbandry.animal.breeding, but if so only a very low bonus (57) is required.
3. ↑ Anymore.