Phantom Animat pet

[Philomorph]

I got the animat pet a few days ago (game time) and used it for a minute to see what it looked like, but then I put it away in the stash with the rest of them. I don't use any of the pets because I play with TAB turned on to highlight searchable items and the constant name plate annoys me.

 

Anyway, I just entered the Cliaban Rilag Level 1 area that you get to through the underground stream (opting to climb out at the first location). When the level loaded, I found myself standing in a cave with an invisible Animat pet. I can see his name plate floating around, acting just like a regular pet.

 

I even summoned my real animat pet and now I have two of them! the "real" one looks and acts normally and his nameplate has a slightly blue background. The "fake" one's nameplate has a more neutral/brown background color.

 

Also, after summoning the real pet, a third nameplate appears that says *NameError*

 

That third plate slowly falls down the screen a bit then disappears.

 

Exiting to the main menu and reloading the game didn't help... the phantom pet reappeared shortly after loading the save.

[Philomorph]

After reloading this save a few times, and even loading a previous one from before I went into the tunnel, it looks like the phantom pet is either already waiting for me, or is spawning suddenly when I start moving away from the area. It looks like he spawns near the tree, which is by the searchable spider web to the right of the tunnel you come out of.

 

I also noticed that my real animat pet sometimes gets stuck on the scenery and can't pathfind a way to the stairs. Wild speculation: someone was testing pathfinding and left a pet construct laying around and he's binding to my party.

[Khalid the bear]

had the phantom animat pet for a while, but somehow managed to get rid of him (dont remember how though, sorry)

[Philomorph]

Turns out he disappeared when I zoned out of the Cliaban Rilag and went back above ground.

[rjshae]

Too bad you can't let your pets roam free in Brighthollow. They'd bring some life to the place.