Fox Hunt

UPDATED: June 24th, 2020

LOCATION: northwest corner of Aspen Grove and down the path (25932)

a youthful seasoned trapper

>ask trapper about entry

The trapper says, "With a sunburst marker in hand, just head toward the treeline and I'll escort you in.  You'll only have roughly 90 seconds to find the fox once inside, so you'll want to be quick.  Ask me about OBJECTIVE for more details."

>ask trapper about objective

The trapper says, "Once inside, you'll want to OBSERVE your surroundings, if you're perceptive, and TRACK the fauna of the woods, if you're astute.  Once you think you've found something, SEARCH.  You can OBSERVE and TRACK the same area, since the animals do move around.  If you were able, you'll have caught the fox!  No worries if you don't, though, we'll pay you raikhen for other animals that you've caught!  The woods are full of wildlife!  Here's the catch though... you only have roughly 90 seconds to be in there!  Once you search, it's over, so choose wisely."

>ask trapper about fox

The trapper says, "The fox is constantly moving around.  When you don't see anything, that's when you'll want to check the area more closely.  Sometimes you won't see it at all, but when you do, try to follow it."

>ask trapper about animals

The trapper exclaims, "Every search should result in finding something, the key is to be smarter than the fox.  If you find one of the smaller animals, like a mouse or shrew, the fox tricked you!"

>ask trapper about rumor woods

The trapper says, "The woods are quite vast.  It should be safe in there, but don't stay too long or you might get frostbite."

>ask trapper about payout

The trapper explains, "You'll want to talk with a rugged veteran trapper inside about payouts."

>ask trapper about bugle

The trapper explains, "You'll want to talk with a rugged veteran trapper inside about the bugle."

a rugged veteran trapper (inside cabin)

>ask trapper about rumor woods

The trapper exclaims, "The woods are full of wildlife, and we're paying top raikhen if you want to join us in the sport of fox hunting!"

>ask trapper about fox

The trapper says, "The fox is very smart, you might think you've found it, but it uses other animals as bait.  When you don't see it trotting around, that's when you want to OBSERVE or TRACK it.  We pay the most for foxes, but we'll still give you raikhen for your efforts with the other fauna you might catch."

>ask trapper about animals

The trapper says, "There are foxes, of course, but there are other things you can catch in the woods.  Mice, voles, shrews, and muskrats will earn you the least raikhen, but we'll pay more for weasels, ermine, minks, and ferrets.  The fox is your best payout though!"

>ask trapper about payout

The trapper explains, "We pay raikhen and offer a gunny sack with a small trinket for your efforts, such as guild voucher packs, feather-shaped charms, pallid grey salve, and few others things.  If you're lucky, you could end up with a brass bugle."

>ask trapper about bugle

The trapper explains, "If you're lucky enough to get a bugle, you'll be able to call a wild fox to be your own.  The bugle is quite rare, and the person who calls the fox for the first time will own it forever."

Forum Post by Wyrom (6/17/20)

http://forums.play.net/forums/GemStone%20IV/Paid%20Events:%20Adventures,%20Quests,%20and%20SimuCoins/Rumor%20Woods/view/517

The experience that you earn by TRACK, OBSERVE, and SEARCH has all been increased. You earn 10exp per TRACK and OBVERSE and 25exp for SEARCH. You can TRACK/OBSERVE as much as you can in the allotted time (90 seconds). Both incur a 5 second roundtime, so plan wisely!

We've added an extremely rare prize, a brass bugle, which can summon a pet fox. You do not need to find the fox to be awarded a bugle. The bugle will be inside your gunny sack after leaving the fox hunt. If you do not have a free hand, it will be placed on the ground when you exit (like arena packages at Duskruin).

Each run through the fox hunt will award raikhen and an additional item. The prize pull (outside the bugle) are the following items:

an Adventurer's Guild voucher pack (2 uses)
a blue feather-shaped charm (1 use)
a squat jar of pallid grey salve (1 use)
an urchin guide contract (10 days)
an Elanthian Guilds voucher pack (2 uses)
a brass and gold sphere (1 for each town) [removed in Platinum]
a small glowing orb (1 use)

Forum Post by Wyrom (6/3/19)

http://forums.play.net/forums/GemStone%20IV/Paid%20Events:%20Adventures,%20Quests,%20and%20SimuCoins/Rumor%20Woods/view/141

I updated the messaging on the fox hunt, when you see the fox trotting around, so it's not such a wild goose chase. The fox can no longer run clear across the woods in one action. If you see it trotting around on the east side, it will stay on the east side. If you see it trotting up the mountain path, it will stay up the mountain path. And if you see it trotting around the west side (the biggest side), it will stay over there. You aren't guaranteed to see it trotting around, and there is no training needed to see that messaging. The only thing training will improve is with TRACK and OBSERVE. Nothing with that has changed.

Forum Post by Wyrom (6/1/19)

http://forums.play.net/forums/GemStone%20IV/Paid%20Events:%20Adventures,%20Quests,%20and%20SimuCoins/Rumor%20Woods/view/91

Full disclosure on rewards you will find outside raikhen.

• an Adventurer's Guild voucher pack - 2 uses.
• an Elanthian Guilds voucher pack - 2 uses
• an urchin guide contract - 10 days
• a squat jar of pallid grey salve - 1 use
• a blue feather-shaped charm - 1 use

These are valued at ~16 SimuCoins each. They drop 98% of the time. The other 2% you can get a Chronomage sphere, which is valued at 95 SimuCoins.

Platinum and Shattered has slightly different rewards for the rarer drops, but the common ones are all the same.

Forum Post by Wyrom (6/1/19)

http://forums.play.net/forums/GemStone%20IV/Paid%20Events:%20Adventures,%20Quests,%20and%20SimuCoins/Rumor%20Woods/view/89

The fox hunting activity is slightly different than the usual search, search, search methods, so I figured I'd give some tidbits on how things work there.

When you come to a room with a trapper outside of a cabin, this is the room where you can enter the hunt. The trapper in this room has details in ENTRY and OBJECTIVE in the question set. There are some other questions you can ask to. The trapper inside the cabin also gives some different wording that can be helpful.

Once you GO TREELINE, you have 90 seconds to rush around and try to find the fox. If you're trained in perception, use OBSERVE. If you're trained in survival, use TRACK. If you don't have training in either, it becomes more RNG, but you still have a chance. It's just less RNG with training. If you're wondering how much, it's either 1x or 2x trained, not X ranks.

You can TRACK and OBSERVE multiple times per room if you want, what you're looking for is to find signs of a fox in the area, or no sign at all. If you're seeing paw prints, that's the generic messaging, and that means there are small animals there(mice, voles, shrews, or muskrats), which are the lowest rewards.

Sometimes you'll be able to see the fox trotting around. You don't see when it enters your room, but you do see when it moves away. If you stop seeing it moving, there is a high chance it's in your room.

The average for the fox hunt is slightly lower than jousting, but it's also much faster.

Hopefully this helps clear up some questions. Feel free to ask more.

GENERAL NOTES:

- if you run out of time you'll do an auto search

- if you observe/track and search right after going in, you'll still come away with something

- if you observe/track and there's nothing in the room but you search anyways, you'll still come away with something

- the reason the above two notes are true is because each room has an animal in it, even if you don't see it (perception/survival training just makes seeing the paw prints faster)

- A fox trots south! -- messaging to highlight

- A fox climbed down a massive rock formation, loping off! -- more messaging to highlight

- With a keen eye, you observe your surroundings and find many signs of a fox in this area. -- search here

- raikhen range: 100+ish for the small reward, 125ish for the medium, 150 for a fox

- the goal is to observe/track your way around the place, hopefully seeing the fox and following after it, to either see paw prints and move on or signs of the fox

SPOILERISH NOTES:

• repeatedly observing/tracking the same room without moving will change the messaging between "paw prints" and "no signs" (may take a couple of tries to get it to switch)

• if you do the above to get the messaging you want, and then do nothing else and just let time run out, you'll still get the reward based on the message (even if you get the message seconds after entering the grounds); this is also true if you let time pass and then force a search

• entering the grounds, moving somewhere, and doing absolutely nothing in that room will result in a 100ish reward animal

• observing a room to "no signs", going somewhere else, and then returning and searching the room will result in a 100ish reward animal

• based on the above notes I suspect the rooms are assigned the "paw prints" message when you enter the room, and then the message only switches when you observe/track (versus being on a random timer)

• further research makes it seem that there is a flag put on the character that starts at "paw prints" and can switch each time you observe (see below tests)

• go inside, observe a room to "no signs", go to another room, wait out the 90 seconds not doing anything, go back to the "no signs" room, search.. get a 125 animal

• go inside, observe a room to "no signs", go to another room, observe it to "paw prints", immediately go back to the room you made "no signs", search.. get a 100 animal (I did this one in 10 seconds total)

• go inside, observe a room to "no signs", go to another room, wait a while, search that room (without having observed it), and get a 125 animal

SPOILERISH MAP Fox Hunt Map by Arianiss