Post: #4

You can give to the npc the pickaxe using, in his @Create, ITEMNEWBIE=i_pickaxe_anim. Doing this, it will be inlootable and if the npc is killed the item won't be dropped.
Alternatively you can do:
ITEM=i_pickaxe_anim
ATTR |= attr_newbie
In this way you give at the npc the pickaxe and add it the newbie (inloot) attr.

Also you can manipulate the TIMER, using TIMER={5 30}, so time between anims is a random number going from 5 to 30 and furthermore the npc has more time to walk around. If you want to force its walking around behaviour, in the wiki there are functions like WALK, RUN, MOVETO, GOTO or something similar, i don't remember precisely now, just give it a look!
(If you want to force the npc walking around i can expend more words on that, even if i think it's better do let it follow the default ai, which also make it walk around. Maybe we can work on the maximum distance it may reach from the spawn point, which is HOMEDIST).