Broomstick

Broomstick
Weapon information
Precise dimensions	5 x 1/12
Material	wood
Weight	3 3/9
Thaums/sec	6 stable / 7 talisman / 12 max
Hands	2
Commands	bash wildswing
Melee type	Polearm
Judge data

A broomstick is one of the most recognizable symbols of a witch, demanding almost as much respect as the pointy hat. Witches can use their brooms to fly about the disc, providing rapid transportation over long distances.

Other versions are the iron broomstick obtained sometimes when defeating Shelox and the custom broomstick.

Long Description

This is what a non-customized normal broomstick looks like:

a broomstick

This is an ordinary sweeping implement that consists of a long handle to which a brush of twigs is attached.  You may be able to use it to fly, but only under certain conditions.  You must be well practised in things witchy, and you must possess the wondrous, mysterious, and womanly talent called headology.
It has the hazy octarine sparkle of a magical talisman.

Appraises As

The broomstick is about five feet long and an inch wide. It is made of wood and could be used as a weapon of type polearm.

Acquiring broomsticks

Broomsticks can be found in the following locations:

The Gingerbread cottage in Skund forest. Go to the upstairs bedroom and look for a hidden closet. 'Enter' it, and take the broom found within.
The McSweeney Estate on the Counterweight Continent. Enter the Estate and go all the way north to the scullery. 'Enter' the closet, and take the broomstick.
Iron broomsticks are available as loot on killing Queen Shelox.

It might be worth noting that closets are very dark, you might want to bring a light source if you want to be able to see.

Fuelling

Broomsticks do not use GP when they make a flight, rather, they are fuelled up beforehand from the witch's GP, and that fuel is used up each flight.

Normal broomsticks have a maximum fuel capacity of 300 GP, and use up 100 GP with every flight. Thus, they can store a maximum of three flights' worth of fuel. Iron broomsticks have a capacity of 400 GP, allowing four flights' worth to be stored. Witches can 'shake' their broomstick to determine how much fuel is left, in terms of number of flights.

Up to half the witch's magic.methods.mental.channeling bonus in GP can be fuelled into the broom in a single go without risk of failure, however, there is no limit on how quickly successive fuellings can be.

Attempting to take off with 0 GP in the broom results in either no take off attempt being made or taking off and crash-landing. Attempting to take off with 1-99 GP fuel in the broom will result in the witch running out of fuel mid-flight, and crash-landing. This will break both your legs.

While it is possible to fuel in combat, it is much more difficult. You can possibly refuel a bit less than half of what you can usually do at once.

Attempting to fuel a broom with more GP than it can hold will cause the excess to go to waste, unless the broom is already completely full, in which case the attempt simply won't be made.

Fuelling a broom will automagically cause it to be held in your hands, displacing any weapons you were holding.

Broomsticks weigh the same before and after refueling.

Broom slots and recording

Each broom has 'broom slots'. Witches can 'record' a particular location in a broom slot, and then use the slot to fly back to it later.

Witches initially see 12 slots in a broom. When the broom is bonded, this number of slots changes to an amount dependent on the witch's adventuring.direction bonus, via the following table.

While you cannot see or use slots beyond your bonus, they are still there. For example, you can use stat items to increase your bonus and see/use another broom slot that disappears when your bonus lowers back to your base bonus. Unbonding and bonding works the same.

The bonus needed for each broom slot seems to increase by the amount of bonuses for the previous slot plus 5, starting with 5 for the initial 12 slots. Please clearly mark what is not confirmed in game through research.

Please add any missing bonus/slot pair that you have confirmed is correct in game on the table in the research page.

Broom slots	Adventuring.direction bonus	Amount of bonuses
12	0 - 100	101 (5)*
13	101 - 110	10
14	111 - 125	15
15	126 - 145	20
16	146 - 170	25
17	171 - 200	30
18	201 - 235	35
19	236 - 275	40
20	276 - 320	45
21	321 - 370	50
22	371 - 425	55
23	426 - 485	60
24	486 - 617 - ???	???

* The amount of bonus for slot 12 is 101, but for the formula to work we treat it as 5.

? Information surrounded by question marks is thought to be correct, but not confirmed in game. Slot 25 and above may not exist and should be confirmed in game.

Only valid fly-to locations can be recorded. Thus, they must be:

Outside
Not in a no fly zone.

When recording a location, a description may be provided. This description can make use of colour.

A witch can list her broom slots at any time by using the 'recall' command.

It is also possible to swap recorded locations or to rename what it looks like on recall.

Taking off

The witch's bonus in magic.items.held.broom determines how well she is able to use her broom for taking off and landing 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. . Taking off is also considerably more difficult at night.

There is a small period of time - about 1-2 seconds - after landing in which the witch will not be able to take off again.

In order to take off, the witch must be holding her broom, however, the broom will automagically be held on take off if it is anywhere in her carried inventory.

When taking off, the witch must designate a target to fly to - this may be either a unique named NPC or player, or a pre-recorded location slot.

To take off, the following conditions must be satisfied:

The witch must be outside
The target must be outside
Both witch and target must not be in no fly zones.
The target must not be a creator.
The broomstick must be held in either one or both hands.

Note that some NPC targets are un-fly-toable (typically, these are the same as the NPCs which are unscryable), irrespective of where they are.

Passengers, pets and minions

Witches cannot carry passengers on their brooms.

Ambulatory pets and minions must be picked up by the witch before flying, lest they be left behind. Some exceptions include the Sto Lat pets, which will automagically show up at the destination.

Flying minions (such as dragons, fruitbats and fireflies), however, will fly after the witch to her destination.

Moon dragons can be used to effectively get an extra slot - by setting their home to be somewhere interesting and then asking them to go home and flying to them when needed.

Misflights

With each flight, there is a chance that the witch will not end up at her intended destination. The chance of a 'misflight' is affected by the following:

A higher adventuring.direction bonus reduces the chance of a misflight 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. .
Lower light levels on takeoff increase the chance of a misflight 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. .
Misflights are more likely when flying to named targets than recorded locations 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. .

When a misflight occurs, it will send the witch to the current location of a randomly chosen player who is outside. Note that this location is selected at takeoff, so the witch may land and find no-one is around if that player has moved in the meantime.

An unfortunate consequence of this is that witches are more likely to misfly to groups than solo players, and groups are more likely to be in dangerous zones (such as The Snail, The Shades, etc.). Therefore it is recommended that witches have enough fuel for at least two flights before flying, as this gives them enough left to get away from anywhere hostile on landing.

It appears that flying while holding the broomstick with one hand can cause adventuring.direction to tm at high levels (up to at least 398 bonus)

In flight

After take off, witches enter the special 'flying room'. In this room, they can take no action other than look. After a few seconds, they will return to the ground. All witches pass through the same flight room while traveling on broomsticks.

Flying room curiosities

Whilst in the flying room, you may see:

Fellow witches, possibly accompanied with their trusty giant fruitbat, moon dragon, swarms of fireflies and/or flying pets.
Npc witches flying off from some danger to remote locations or a random player.
The T-shop zooming past.
Creators lounging on the clouds.
Non witches unhappily falling through the air as a result of misportalling to a flying witch and entering the door anyway. They are in for a painful landing...
Hattian priests visiting you at the wrong moment (also in for a painful landing).
Possibly people being catapulted from Sto Lat or kicked by Dunky, through they may go through a falling room (see below).

Falling room(s)

However, the flight room is not the same as the room(s) through which you fall from great heights (like when using the wrong exit in Brass Neck) or from much smaller heights like from bridges in Ankh-Morpork, for example when going down outside the player house at 8 Holofernes on New Bridge, which doesn't even hurt at all. The falling rooms notably differ in that you can twist a blue ring or fly off to somewhere else while falling through them.

Flying room bugs

Occasionally, you may find yourself stuck in the flying room. This is very unfortunate, because you cannot make any commands (such as, 'tell <liaison> Help!'). Should you find yourself in this unpleasant situation, the approved way to deal with it is:

Create a guest character
Log on with guest character
IMMEDIATELY tell a liaison 'Help, my witch character (<name>) is stuck in the flying room'.

Crashes

There are two things that can cause a crash:

Taking off with less than 100 GP fuel.
Losing one's broom mid-flight (for example, due to fumbling).

When either of the above happen, the witch will crash-land. This causes the following:

A <witch>-shaped crater appears in that room.
The witch breaks her legs.
The witch falls unconscious for a while.

Broken legs are bad for a great many reasons:

You can't fly.
You can't cast any spells that require dancing such as Jogloran's Portal of Cheaper Travel.
Your dexterity is lowered by 6 with both legs broken.
You have less mobility when fighting.
Moving with broken legs without crawling drains your strength, constitution, dexterity per movement and causes damage.
Crawling costs 25 gp per crawl and you must wait between each crawl. Additionally your dexterity is reduced by 3, but only while crawling.

To fix broken legs, you can use splint, but you do have to deal with the penalties in dexterity making it more difficult to splint. You can ask another witch to splint your legs

You can also visit a doctor who can mend legs. There are various options for doing this:

Crawl there. This is usually only an option if the doctor is very close.
Carry around portal scrolls and a blorpled ring to the doctor, ask a friend to create a portal there and crawl through(JPCT has a dancing stage which cannot be done with broken legs).
Ask for help - the witches channel can usually arrange a rescue; otherwise priests may be able to passage you to a doctor, and wizards may be able to portal you there.

Other uses

Broomsticks have a few other uses beyond flying:

Utensil

Broomsticks are utensils, and as such can be floated with Grammer Scorbic's Household Guard.

Weapon

Broomsticks can be used as a weapon of type polearm. They judge as 'very good', and can be used to bash.

Note that Imperial guards don't consider broomsticks to be weapons (clearly, they are simple sweeping implements), and hence will not confiscate them.

There are advantages and disadvantages to witches using a broom in combat:

Advantages

The broom is a fairly good weapon.
You always have a means of escape ready to hand
You don't incur additional burden from carrying broom and weapon.
The broom is not recognised as a weapon on the Counterweight Continent (aka Agatea) and its cities (aka Bes Pelargic), therefore no weapons permit is needed to carry it and it will not be confiscated.

Disadvantages

The polearm skill depends on two parts constitution and three parts strength, neither of which are stats witches typically have much of.
There are better polearms that can be used.
If your broom is filched or breaks due to combat damage, you have nothing to fly with.

Decoration

Broomsticks can be painted with a brush and an (opened) tin of paint.

paint <broomstick> with paint in <container>

Once painted with a <colour> a normal broomstick then looks like this:

a <colour> broomstick

This broom consists of a long handle, which has been painted <colour>, and a tail of bushy twigs.  You may be able to use it to fly, but only under certain conditions.  You must be well practised in things witchy, and you must possess the wondrous, mysterious, and womanly talent called headology.
It has the hazy octarine sparkle of a magical talisman.

It can then be referred to as <colour> broomstick, which is helpful when dealing with many broomsticks to recognize which is which.

Syntax

Flying to remembered locations

Both of these commands have the same effect:

fly to <number> on <broom>
engage <number> with <broom>

Flying to named targets

fly to <target> on <broom>

Fuelling the broom

fuel <broom> with <amount> gp

Determining how much fuel is left

shake <broom>

Recording locations

record <location> as <description> on <broom>

Erasing locations

erase 1 on <broom>

Listing stored locations

recall from <broom>

Swap recorded destinations

swap 1 and 2 on <broom>

Change the location's description shown in recall

rename 1 as <description> on <broom>

Setting broom takeoff message

Verbose by default. This should also affect what others in the room see.

set <broomstick> [to]

Verbose:

You seat yourself on your broomstick.
With the flamboyance that only a witch could have, you adjust your <clothing> and prepare for liftoff on your broomstick.  Unfortunately, the effect is somewhat spoiled when you start running up and down to bump start your trusty steed.  At last you succeed, and take off with a WHOOSH!

Brief:

You seat yourself on your broomstick.
With the flamboyance of a witch, you jump start your broom and splutter off into the sky.

Messages

Failure to take off

Target doesn't exist

Your broom splutters a bit, then rests quietly in your hands.

Target is a (no destination set) broom slot.

Your broom revs up as if ready to go, then falters and goes passive in your hands.
Your broom splutters a bit, then rests quietly in your hands.

Target is in Pumpkin Town.

Your iron broomstick splutters a bit, then rests quietly in your hands.
Your kind isn't welcome in Pumpkin Town.

Target is in a no-fly zone or otherwise not fly-toable.

Your broom splutters a bit, then quivers questioningly.

Target is indoors

You attempt takeoff on your broomstick but have to abandon the idea because your destination is indoors and you would have trouble landing in the confined space.

Witch is indoors

You attempt takeoff on your broomstick but have to abandon the idea due to the confined space.

Fail magic.items.held.broom skillcheck

You trip over a cat, tree root etc.

Flying to the current room

You jump onto your broom and into the air... and land again with a thud.

Flying within 1-2 seconds of a previous flight

You are still suffering from jet lag from your previous flight.

Fuel reserves

The following are the messages a witch gets when she shakes her broom:

400 GP left (iron broomstick only)

You shake the broomstick vigorously and from the sloshing inside you guess that there is fuel enough for four trips.

301-399 GP left (iron broomstick only)

You shake the broomstick vigorously and from the sloshing inside you guess that there is fuel enough for three trips.

300 GP left

You shake the broomstick vigorously and from the sloshing inside you guess that there is fuel enough for three trips.

200-299 GP left

You shake the broomstick vigorously and from the sloshing inside you guess that there is fuel enough for two trips.

100-199 GP left

You shake the broomstick vigorously and from the sloshing inside you guess that there is fuel enough for one trip.

1-99 GP left

You shake the broomstick vigorously and from the sloshing inside you guess that there is not enough fuel for even a single flight.

0 GP left

You shake the broomstick vigorously and, from the complete lack of sloshing inside, deduce that it's quite empty.

Broomstick

Contents

Long Description

Appraises As

Acquiring broomsticks

Fuelling

Broom slots and recording

Taking off

Passengers, pets and minions

Misflights

In flight

Flying room curiosities

Flying room bugs

Crashes

Other uses

Utensil

Weapon

Decoration

Syntax

Messages

Failure to take off

Fuel reserves

See Also

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