Rune guardian

A Rune guardian is a pet (familiar) that can be received after completing the quest Rune Mechanics. The original purpose of the Rune guardian was to protect the Mage Training Arena. Players may refuse the opportunity to own a Rune guardian.

Unlike most pets, Rune guardians need to be "revitalised" rather than fed. Revitalisation takes place when the Rune guardian is in a Runecrafting altar. Note: you must have the Rune guardian out when you enter the altar to revitalise. It can be placed in the Player-owned house menagerie, where it can also be revitalised. The Rune guardian has only one stage of growth and is fully grown once you get it.

If you don't revitalise the pet for long enough, so that its hunger reaches 100%, it will run away. A new Rune guardian can be obtained from Apprentice Clerval in the Mage Training Arena. But if you drop the Rune guardian in a Non-Member's world, you have to retrieve it by asking the Pet Owner in Taverley about stray pets.

Currently the only way to deliberately get rid of your Rune guardian is to use the right-click "dismiss" option on your summoning icon below the logout button.

One very efficient way to revitalise a Rune guardian is to use the Ring of duelling and pick the duel arena option to travel to the Fire altar, which is only one to two clicks away, also if the player has a menagerie with a pet feeder it can be revitalised there.

Colours
As of 23 March, 2010, you can change the Rune guardian's colour by visiting any altar with exception of the Ourania Altar, and using the Rune guardian on the altar. It will change colour to a colour related to that altar. You can not change it back to a 'normal coloured' guardian, but you can put it in your Menagerie or dismiss it and then talk to Apprentice Clerval to get a new grey one. Players can use this to display their achievement of getting all the requirements to visit an altar - for example, black rune guardians require completion of Mourning's Ends Part II. It is possible to change the colour multiple times. Rune guardians are also capable of changing the colour of your infinity robes. Use your robes on an elemental altar with the rune guardian out to change them. To change them back to original colours, use them on the rune guardian. This only works on the four elemental altars (earth, air, fire, water).

Note: Dialogue does not change with the colours

Trivia

 * When asked for help with combat, the Rune guardian says, "You must lash out with every limb, like the octopus who plays the bongos." This is a reference to a line said by The Sphinx in the movie "Mystery Men".
 * The player then replies "I thought it was penguins that played bongos." This is a reference to Ping & Pong.
 * Another of the Rune guardian's responses, "He who questions training only trains himself in asking questions", is a direct quote from The Sphinx in "Mystery Men".
 * When using the "Talk-to" option, the Rune guardian sometimes says "Have you ever thought that, whenever you examine an item, that item is also examining you?" This is a possible reference to a quote by Friedrich Nietzsche -- "When you stare into the abyss the abyss stares back at you", or a reference to (Soviet) Russia reversal jokes or Antimetaboles, like: "In America you listen to the radio, in (Soviet) Russia the radio listens to you".
 * It is possible to store one of every kind of rune guardian inside a POH menagerie by colouring one, storing it, and then returning to Clerval for a new one.
 * If you talk to the Entrance Guardian with the Rune guardian out, it will comment on your success in making one and speak to it.
 * When used on a runecrafting altar, it will float above it and the player will get the message "You hold the rune guardian to the altar and feel the magic changing its essence."
 * If you feed your pets at your Menagerie, it also feeds the Rune guardian, which is supposed to be required to be fed at a Rune altar.
 * Although the rune guardian is revitalized by being near a rune altar, it will still get hungry if you stand near one.
 * Even though the Rune guardian changes colour at every single other runecrafting altar there is, if you use on the Ourania(ZMI) altar, nothing happens.
 * There is a glitch where if you talk to the pet store owner in Yanille and ask about missing pets with your Rune guardian in the bank you will receive a new one along with the one in your bank. This has not been fixed. This only works if the Rune Guardian(s) in your bank are colored. If you have a default gray one, the pet store owner won't have the option to ask about stray pets.
 * If you drop a rune guardian on a non-members world, it will be dropped on the floor like an item. While it is on the ground, it looks like a disembodied rune guardian head.

Rune guardian