What are mounts?

Mounts are things that you can ride, like horses.

There are several stables located around the mud, in Costello Village, in Neria, in the Four Worlds and even in Snake City! These stables are places where you can buy your very own mount! They are not cheap, but not very expensive either. Each stable sells different types of mounts. For instance, in Costello Village you can buy a horse, or a winged horse called a Pegasus. The plural form of pegasus is pegasi. Visit each of the stables and read the sign to find out how much they cost and what type of mounts you can buy there.

Each stable sells a normal mount that can only walk on the ground, and a special mount that can fly. The flying mounts cost more. The stable also sells feedbags. A feedbag is a small bag that, when given to the mount, is tied to their head to help them eat. Mounts can get very hungry and they need to eat at least once every one hour and forty minutes that they are with you.

Calling your mount
When you buy a mount you will be given a flute. When you play this flute your mount will come to you. Just enter:

Play the flute

However when you first start you can only call your mount to you from inside a stable. As your skill in riding increases, (enter 'show skills' to see your riding skill), then you will be able to call your mount from almost anywhere. If you have already called your mount but have lost him, try playing the flute again. As your skill in riding increases you will be able to call your mount from anywhere in Costello!

Mount commands
Important: punctuation (commas, question marks, periods) are very important with mount commands. Please check your typing carefully if a command doesn't work.

Mounts can also carry you very quickly from one stable to another. When you first start off you will only have one stable known. You can find out what stables your mount knows how to travel to by entering:

say mount, what stables do you know?

You don't have to use the word mount, any of the mount's names will do. For example, if your mount is a snake, then you can enter:

say snake, what stables do you know?

if you name your snake Bob, then:

say Bob, what stables do you know?

is fine. We will talk about naming mounts later.

Asking them what stables they know will give you a list of what stables you can travel to. They start off with only knowing one stable, which is their home stable. Remember it well because they can always travel to their home stable from anywhere in Costello without getting hungrier. We will talk about hunger later on as well.

With a low skill in riding you can only travel to stables from other stables. As your skill in riding increases you will be able to travel to a stable from anywhere in Costello!

If you want your mount to remember a new stable location then enter:

say mount, remember this stable as (name) please.

Name will be the name that is recorded in your mount's mind and what it responds to when you ask it to travel to the stable.

To travel to stables that you already know just enter:

say mount, travel to (stable) please.

Where (stable) is the stable you want the mount to take you to.

You can name your mount anything you want, just enter:

say mount, I would like to name you (name) please.

Then you have to dismiss and recall your mount, if you enter:

say mount, you are dismissed

the mount will return home. If you play your flute again, it will come back. When it comes back it will have its new name. You can use this name to command it.

For example, if I had a baby dragon mount, and I entered:

say dragon, I would like to name you Chris please.

When I dismissed it and called it back again, it would be named "Chris, Xellinus' baby dragon", it says my name ( Xellinus ) there so when there are many people in the room, we know whose mount belongs to who. With this name change, the mount will respond to Chris, for example :

say Chris, how hungry are you?

will command my mount, Chris, to tell me how hungry he is. Hunger is very important. After one hour and forty minutes of activity, that is if they have been called and are with you, a mount requires food or it will die. This is very important to check. The stable masters sell feedbags, and refill them as well. Each feedbag holds enough food for ten meals for the mount. The more things you and your mount do, the faster your mount gets hungry. If you travel to stables a lot, it will be hungrier faster. Be sure to watch how hungry your mount is because if it dies you lose it and you have to buy a new one.

Mounts can search your local area and sometimes find something special. Once an hour you can ask your mount to search for an item.
If you enter:

say mount, search here please.

then your mount will try to search the local area for something. The better your skill in riding, the better chance you have of getting a special item. Searching makes them hungrier, so be careful.

Your skill in riding goes up when you do things with your mount, like traveling to stables or searching for items.

If your mount is with you then you can type:

info mount

to get a list of commands.

Good luck and have fun!

Pets

Pets are very useful and very fun to have. What are they for? A lot of different things. There are four different types of pets: cats, dogs, birds and ferrets.

You can buy a pet in Frol's pet shop in the Costello Village. Look at the sign to see what pets you can buy and what commands you can use in the pet shop. When you buy a pet you will be given a statue which is like a small copy of your pet. To summon your pet to you, you need to press the statue's head.

Each type of pet has a special action that is different from the other types of pets. They also have special attacks in combat. Each type of pet has multiple breeds. Breeds are different types of the same animal. Each breed of animal is special in their own way. Each pet gives an increase to a different skill. For example, hawks give a bonus to your spear skill. Each pet also has a special damage type that can use when they fight. For example, siamese cats can do energy damage as a special attack. They use these special attacks randomly in combat.

Pet commands
Important: punctuation (commas, question marks, periods) are very important with pet commands. Please check your typing carefully if a command doesn't work.
First lets learn how to command your pet. This is very similar to commanding your mount if you have one. First you say it's name followed by a comma then followed by the command. You must use the 'say' command to talk to your pet.
For example, if you want to know how hungry your cat is then you enter:

say cat, how hungry are you?

Much like mounts, pets get hungry too. You can feed them with the feedbag that you can buy at any of stables around the world. Just give the feedbag to your pet and they will eat from it and give it back to you. Remember to feed them often. If you don't they may die. See below for more information about pet death.

You can also find out how happy your pet is. This is just like asking how happy your pet is. So if you have a cat and want to know how happy it is then just enter:

say cat, how happy are you?

Happiness is very important to pets. You must always keep them happy. Stroking your pet will make them happier so if your pet looks unhappy try stroking it:

stroke the cat.

The happier your pet the better their special abilities are. For example, cats can tell you how strong an enemy is. The happier your cat is, the more information they give you. Your skill in animal lore also affects how much better your pet's actions are. If your animal lore skill is high then your pet will be stronger. To see your skill levels type:

show skills.

Animal Lore is near the bottom of the list.

If you don't need your pet and want to return them to a safe place then you must dismiss them. For example if you want to dismiss your cat then you just enter:

say cat, you are dismissed.

You can also name your pets. For example, if you have a cat and you want to name her Joy, then enter:

say cat, your name is now Joy.

Now just dismiss and summon your pet again and she will have a new name.

You can also command your pet with this new name. For example, if you want to see how strong your pet named Joy is, then enter:

say Joy, how strong are you?

This command lets you know what level your pet is, how much experience it has and how much it needs until the next level.

Pets can raise their levels!

They get more powerful the more often you have them out. So play with them often.

If you want your pet to attack an enemy then you can tell it to do so. For example, if I wanted Joy to attack the dragon I would enter:

say Joy, attack the dragon.attack

However, be careful as your pet may be killed and then you will have to buy another one!

Pet birds
Now let us talk about pet birds. These winged creatures can carry items to your bank and to other players! This is great because if you ever need to deposit something in your bank but do not have the time to run all the way there.

To send an item to your bank just enter:

say bird, deliver my <item> to the bank please.

For example if you wanted to send a sword to your bank then you would enter:

say bird, deliver my sword to the bank please.

Once you get your animal lore skill high enough and your pet is happy enough then you can have your bird deliver items to other players. Just replace "the bank" with the players name. For example if you wanted to send a shield to a player named Chris your would enter:

say bird, deliver my shield to Chris please.

Birds also randomly blind your enemy during combat so watch out for that!

There are four different breeds of birds:
Eagles give bonuses to the riding skill and do holy damage.
Hawks give bonuses to the speak skill and do air damage.
Parakeets give bonuses to the bow skill and do electric damage.
Toucans give bonuses to the flail skill and do sonic damage.

Pet dogs
Lets talk about dogs. Dogs are man's best friend, or so the saying goes. These dogs are strong companions that all have the special ability to scout the area and tell you if they find any monsters. The higher your animal lore and the happier the dog then the more information they reveal to you. To get your dog to search the area enter:

say dog, please search the area.

During combat dogs randomly slow down the enemy.

Dobermen give bonuses to the axe skill and do blugeoning damage.
Labradors give bonuses to the warhammer skill and do earth damage.
Rottweilers give bonuses to the mace skill and do order damage.
Setters give bonuses to the shield skill and do acid damage.

Pet cats
Now let's talk about cats.
Cats are small and fast pets. I am sure you know what a cat is. They come in four different breeds, siamese, tabby, persian and calico. All cats have the ablity to sense how strong an opponent is. For example, if you wanted your cat to tell you how strong the dragon is you would enter:

say cat, how strong is the dragon?

Remember the better your animal lore skill and the happier they are, the more information they give you.

During combat your cat can stun the enemy. This happens randomly so just watch.

Calico cats give bonuses to the stealth skill and do fire damage.
Siamese cats give bonuses to the dodge skill and do energy damage.
Persian cats give bonuses to the elude skill and do slashing damage.
Tabby cats give bonuses to the dagger skill and do stabbing damage.

Pet ferrets
Ferrets are cute and silly creatures. They look like smaller and longer cats. These pet ferrets are known for doing unexpected things. When you ask your ferret to dance for you then something random will happen. Sometimes they give you a bonus to one of your player abilities, like your strength or intelligence. Sometimes they heal and magically feed all other pets in the room. Then on rare occasions gold will magically appear.
Ferrets can only do this every once in a while. The happier the ferret and the better your skill in animal lore, the sooner they can dance again. To make your ferret dance simply enter:

say ferret, do a dance for me.

Ferrets will also randomly poison the enemy during combat.

Butterscotch ferrets give bonuses to the awareness skill and do stabbing damage.
Sable ferrets give bonuses to the the healing skill and do cold damage.
Silver ferrets give bonuses to the evocation skill and do slashing damage.
White ferrets give bonuses to invocation skill and do force damage.

Pet death
If your pet goes too long without food, or takes too much damage they will die. It is sad but true that even pets can die. So be careful with them. If one of your pets dies then you will have to go and buy a new pet. They will start off at level one and be less powerful.