Fruitbats

Fruitbats are just another wonderful part of the Witches Guild. Though the wizzies do have a similar spell which creates a cloud fruitbats are certainly more secure and reliable. Some Witches choose not to have a bat, others choose them as pets, and others (like myself) really rely on them to reduce burden levels. However, the most important thing to remember is: Fruitbats Are Forever, Not Just For Hogswatch Night.

Here are some things you should prepare yourself for:

1. Fruitbats get very hungry! Or can at least. Because you have decided to take on this responsibility you now also have a responsibility to feed your bat. There are various fruit stalls and shops Disc wide, any Disc map should have them listed. Fruit does rot though so either you'll need Mama Blackwing's Potent Preserver (excellent for fire and water TMs) or find a pickler (which I recommend, fruit lasts much longer). If you have enough skills you can tempt your bat into eating which is also nice for TMs. If however, you let it starve, it will drop all your items and fly away. This will ALWAYS happen at the most disasterous of times. However, the easiest place to gather fruit are at free locations such as the Bad Ass apple orchard or the Djelibeybi melon fields.

2. Fruitbats must receieve unique names, that is, no other player or NPC on the Disc can have the name. Unfortunately, after you've named your bat, if a player logsin with that name the poor creatures head will explode and be replaced with a new head. Here you'll have to rename it. When this initially happened some people seemed to be playing some cruel tricks to make the heads explode but this seems to have stopped occuring somewhat. However, it's always quite a nasty shock when their heads explode.

3. Bats which are quite strong and can carry things can also become burden. Be sure to watch it because they do indeed fumble. However, they have been PK checked so people can't steal or slip things to them. However it still may be possible to "make" them burdened for the purpose of fumbling.

4. As in the spell help files if you have important items on a bat that goes borked the item will not be replaced! Keep irreplacable items in your own inventory/pack you're carrying/vault.

To get a fruitbat you need: Mother Harblist's Fruity Flyer
This is deemed as one of the higher level/bonus spells so please be patient with it.

A few pointers on getting it:

Bats come in two varieties: male and female. As far as I know this is entirely random.

Once you have one use "name <fruitbat> <name>".

5. And for those of you who enjoy "dressing up" there are now two locations that are available to dress your bat up. One is available only a few rooms inside of the Snail in Bes Pelargic, CWC. This is a nondangerous area so no worries about nasty nitsuni... just don't wander too far in. However, if you're more particular of what your bat wears there is now a very nice cottage tucked up Razorback way. The cottage belongs to a certain Elmira, a Witch with a hand at stitching that will create custom clothing for your bat.

6. Another very important thing to get is a whistle which can be achieved from Hilta's or Mama Diksha's stall and have this bonded with your fruitbat. If you lose your fruitbat you can often "blow whistle" and it will return to you. Otherwise you may choose to fly to it.