The Familiar became fairly complicated, so here's a basic
sort of FAQ, in addition to what they are supposed to do.
 
Where are they and how can I get them?  In "buying" form, the
Grimlok Familiar is a "Grimlok Familiar Egg".  These are
miscellaneous items that can be bought and sold (600 ea).  A
dealer NW of the Balmora silt strider, stocks 5 of the eggs per
"Barter" session.  His name is "Egan, Mage's Familiar Supplier"
and he's a Wood Elf.  He has 3K gold on hand and buys/sells only
miscellaneous items. When buying a familiar egg the player also
receives a "Notes on Mage's Familiars" scroll that reads:
 
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Mage's Familiars:
 
The Grimlok familiar also exists in a
form you can put into your inventory,
as a Grimlok Familiar Egg. This
enchanted item will spawn the
Grimlok familiar when dropped.

The created familiar will "bond" with the person
that spawned it, bestowing a special power
upon the person. In addition, if the familiar dies,
it will mortally wound that person (a blow of
roughly one third the person's total possible
health due to the "psychic link" between
the owner and the familiar).

Familiars need affection to survive. If you are
out of sight of a familiar for a period of three
consecutive days, the familiar will collapse from
grief. As the familiar will be comatose, it's gift or
special power bestowed will not be active. If
you do not return to the familliar before midnight,
it will die of loneliness. A collapsed familiar will
be found on the ground. Once you activate it,
it will get up and it's special power bestowed
will be restored.

Because familiars require affection, a person
can only have so many of them before the
person's ability to be compassionate is
exceeded. A person can maintain a
maximum of four of the familiars.

Familiars come in one of seven types which
each have a corresponding special power
bestowed it's owner:

Jogger's Familiar: restores fatigue.
Hiker's Familiar: provides Feather effect.
Mage's Familiar: fortifies maximum magicka.
Adventurer's Familiar: provides Night Eye
and Waterbreathing.
Freedom's Familiar: provides protection against
paralysis.
Priest's Familiar: provides Sanctuary effect.
Quicksilver's Familiar: fortifies Speed.

A familiar can be commanded by activating it.
You may command a familiar to "follow",
"stay here", "check health", or "return to egg"
If a familiar is commanded to follow, it will fight
beside you in combat. In addition, just
by following you, your familiar is benefitted by
an accellerated rate of recovery. Familiar's that
fight beside you for an extended period of
time will advance from the experience...
the familiar will gain more maximum health.
In addition, the Familiar's attack and
defense spells will become more powerful.

Returning a familiar to it's packaged form
(egg) will result in the loss of receiving the
familiar's gift. However when the familiar is
released once again the familiar's gift will be
restored. Familiars in packaged form (egg)
do not get lonely, so they won't die or
collapse from grief.
 
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Ok, I've got an egg(s) now what?

Dropping an egg will initiate a sequence that creates an actual
Familiar.  In other words, taking an egg from inventory and
clicking on any non-container or non-inventory area (dropping the
item) will cause a Familiar to be created.  This sequence then
occurs as follows:
 
1) Inventory is automatically closed.
2) The dropped Egg disappears and after a short delay you hear
a kind of an unpacking / hatching noise.
3) In the rough direction player is facing, reduced to simply N, S, E,
or W, the Familiar appears "summon" type visual effect. If the area
is blocked, the Familiar will appear ON the player.
4) A message comes up indicating the player is "bonded" with the creature:
 
You have bonded with this creature. Be warned:
if it is neglected it will die. If it is killed or dies
from grief, you will be mortally wounded...
 
This message is not the "OK" variety, so the summon effect can
proceed smoothly without interruption.
 
Familiar Creation Notes
1) The Familiar appears with "follow" mode active.
2) If the player already created four Familiars of the same type,
the egg will simply appear as dropped by the player, with
the following message:
 
You have too many Familiars....
you don't have enough compassion left
for more.
 
3) At the moment of creation a random "gift" is chosen
for this Familiar and given to the player, these are as follows:
 
Familiar "Nickname"    / Player Gift (CE Enchant)
Jogger's Familiar      / Restore Fatigue 2 Points
Hiker's Familiar       / Feather 100 points
Mage's Familiar        / Fortify Maximum Magicka 0.5xINT
Adventurer's Familiar  / Night Eye 25 points, Waterbreathing
Freedom's Familiar     /  Resist Paralysis 25%
Priest's Familiar      /  Sanctuary 30 points
Quicksilver's Familiar /  Fortify Speed 25 points

In addition, the "name" of these player constant effect
(CE) enchantments is the nickname + Gift... such as
"Jogger's Familiar Gift".  More on the "nickname" later.
 
Interacting with a Familiar
There are a variety of ways to interact with a Familiar.
Primarily these are "activating" it to give it orders, or
"activating" it to wake it up.  If neglected, a familiar can
"collapse" from grief, in which case it will be on the ground,
and will require "waking up".  Otherwise, activating a familiar
initiates giving it orders...
 
Giving a Familiar Orders
Activating the Familiar will bring up a menu with the appropriate
nickname however... along with the commands you can give a
Familiar.  These are "Follow", "Stay Here", "Check Health", and
"Return to Egg" (or box or ball, depends on familiar type).  Due
to this menu interface the familiar has no "dialog".
 
1) Clicking "Follow": this will enable "follow" mode.  NOTE:
"Follow" mode has to be active if you wish the familiar to fight
for you.
 
2) Clicking "Stay Here" will plant the familiar at that spot, at it's
current position, facing, and height.  It will not fight for you in
this mode.
 
3) Clicking "Check Health" will result in a brief message
displaying the percentage of full health and current health value
for that familiar.  In addition, the level of the familiar is
shown (20-35) which has two decimal places indicating how close
the familiar is to it's next level.
 
Waking a Collapsed Familiar Up
If the player receives a message that one or more familiar's have
"collapsed due to grief", those familiar's "gift"s will no longer
be benefitting the player, as the familiar(s) are in a coma laying
on the ground.  Once the player activates the comatose familiar,
the player will receive a short message the familiar is happy to
see the player, and the familiar will turn to the player (in "follow"
mode).  The familiar's gift will be reactivated for the player at
that time.  Note that if there are two familiars with the same
gift, and either is not comatose, the gift will be active.  The
"collapses due to grief" occurs the third midnight the player
has not been in the same area as the familiar.  Not waking
a comatose familiar up but being in the area (within sight,
basically) will stave off the familiar's dieing of "loneliness"
but will not restore the familiar's gift.
 
Leveling
Each level award amounts to immediate full heal, with an
additional 20 to maximum health, plus enhanced spells.
 
Attacking a Familiar
A familiar will not fight back if the player attacks it.  In
addition, it will automatically enter "follow" mode.
 
Familiar Death
A familiar that dies in combat (either by the player or enemy) or
dies from "loneliness", will vanish, in addition to causing the
player roughly 1/3 of his maximum health in damage.  The latter
represents the "bond" between the player and the familiar, and
occurs the fourth midnight the player has not been in the area of
the familiar (within sight, basically).  The player is given a
brief message when this happens.

Notes
1) The player can get the message a familiar has died from
"loneliness" and take the 1/3 max health damage, but the player
will still need to travel to where he was last with the familiar
if the player wishes to "free" up that familiar "slot" for
another familiar.  This is a function of game mechanics, as the
familiar in question really does exist and is not deleted until
the player visits it.  I don't forsee a solution here.
 
2) A special effort was made to have "OK" type messages for the
"maintenance" messages such as "Your Adventurer's Familiar has
collapsed from grief!"  as these can potentially come in numbers
and would not all be seen or be given appropriate consideration
without the "OK" button use.  In addition, these messages will
"wake" the player up when received if the player is sleeping.
 
3) The global "maintenance" script will unload (stop) if there
are no "active" familiars of that type (note however, dead
familiars must be visited to make them "inactive").  This feature
was included to help keep things running clean, if for some
reason the player decided he/she could do without familiars.
 
4) I put in a wait if a familiar is killed in combat as crash
protection, so only one familiar dies at a time.  This gives the
player a small time (2.5 seconds) to gobble a heal potion (to
counteract the familiar's "death blow" effect).  For example a
nuke goes off, all familiars die...  if the player has four or
more familiars, he's definitely toast from "psyhic bond death
blows".  But with this delay, he/she's got 2.5 seconds per
familiar to recoup.  This is in contrast to a familiar dieing
from grief, which is applied back-to-back on the player (four
familiars die of grief = player instant death).
 
5) The color of the familiar is restored as well as level, gift,
and health when it is "re-hatched" (hatched again after having
"returned to egg").

Three colors of Grimlok!