This helpfile contains information about those tasks you are able to give out to young foragers (see HELP FORAGERS) whom you have taken into service, to do your bidding in return for lessons secrets. If you are keen to find out about tasks you may perform yourself, for personal gain/experience, you may wish to look through HELP QUESTS, HELP BADGES (if you are an apprentice), HELP EARNING and similar info files from the earlier sections in HELP INDEX.

Giving out a task to a young forager is done via TASK <forager> <taskname below> [<further information>] command, e..g. TASK FORAGER POISON JEGGA 50 (or FG POISON JEGGA 50) to tell the youngster to go find you fifty of the jegga poison. FG is a further abbreviation doing the equivalent of 'task for the loyal forager in my location (or abroad)'. Young foragers can be given many concurrent tasks - the number pursued at the same time rising as you develop a closer bond and greater trust with the young'un through successfully completed exchanges.

NOTES:

It is wise to not overload your forager, so giving out more than a few tasks concurrently may confuse him. He works faster with less tasks, so you will gain time by not overburdening the fellow.

The more difficult the task, the longer your forager will take. The foragers use methods available to mortals (albeit it very quickly) so they cannot conjur up items out of thin air, nor information from nowhere. Sometimes they will pause. You may impatiently summon them back but if you leave the forager alone, he will keep his eyes open and recommence a task when its completion becomes possible.

It is worth keeping up-to-date on what tasks your forager is able to complete, based on the teachings you have given him, via the FG LESSONS command (when he is in front of you). More complex, more singular tasks require greater teaching levels than simple foraging, etc.

THE TASKS THEMSELVES:

Syntax: TASK <forager> HERB <herb name> <number to find>

Syntax: TASK <forager> POISON <poison name> <number to find>

Charges the youngster to seek out and bring back herbs (or poisons) of the specific type, returning when he has foraged enough to satisfy your needs. The herbs/poisons brought will be freshly picked and newly prepared.

Syntax: TASK <forager> POTION <potion type> <number to find>

Tells your young forager to go find a potion of the specified type (see HELP POTIONS) and continue to trawl the land until he has accumulated the number specified. The foragers will source potions with at least forty sips and typically between forty and sixty quaffs.

Syntax: CHARM <charm to look for> [<specific magicitem preferred>]

Sends the young forager about the task of finding items charged with the specified charm - in a certain specified item, if desired - as cheaply as possible. See HELP CHARMS for a list of charms available. If you include a specific item it may take longer to complete the task. Foragers will only select items with between two and three hundred charges. NOTE: it is often not possible to source your designated item type - and the forager will typically choose to fetch your preferred charm over your preferred item-type.

Syntax: SCROLL <charm to look for> [<number to find>]

Gives the young forager the task of finding charm scrolls containing the specified charm (see HELP CHARMS for a list) as cheaply as possible.

Syntax: ARMS <weapon/armour> [<ore preference> <quality 1-100%>]

Here you tell your young to beg, buy, borrow or scavange a weapon/armour to match the type you specify (e..g.. a dagger or a helmet). You can - if you wish designate a metal/ore type (see HELP METALS) and a percentage minimum to denote how good the weapon/armour needs to be. NOTE: you must either specify no ore/quality percentage or both ore and percentage together as per syntax above. Quality is simple enough: 1% would be interpreted as pretty much any weapon/armour of the type, while 100% would be only the finest in the land (unlikely to be sourced out. One should be realistic here. If you ask too much of your forager and he is unable to source anything suitable he WILL keep seeking; and may seek indefinitely and thus become unavailable for other tasks. Teachings required increase for higher quality, one task per 10% quality requested (e..g. 50% quality requires 5 "arms" tasks).

Syntax: RUNE <rune type>/CHARM/TALISMAN [<number to find>]

Tells the young forager to get hold of runes of the specific type as speedily as possible. See HELP RUNES for a list of runetypes available and their functions. The more rare the rune, the more difficult to source, the longer the forager will take to complete the task. As with all other tasks they are unable to create/conjur the produce out of thin air; the runes must be sourced by player-available methods (albeit extremely quickly and without the hassle of sourcing them oneself).

Syntax: STEED <steed type> [<quality percentage>]

Asks the young forager to scour the land and use all his contacts to source out a steed of type specified. If you list a quality percentage, your acolyte will do his utmost to fetch a steed whose health/prowess fits your request. NOTE: every 10% of quality level requested represents the equivalent of one steed task, so asking for a 30% quality steed is a 'three task' endeavour, while asking for a 100% quality steed is a 'ten task' mission.

Syntax: BIRD <bird type> [<quality percentage>]

This command will encourage your young forager to look around the land for a bird of your chosen type, ideally one not too rare for him to be able to find. If you list a quality percentage this will determine the strength or training level (in the case of carrier pigeons) of the bird brought back. NOTE: every 10% of quality level requested represents the equivalent of one birds task, so asking for a 30% quality bird is a 'three task' endeavour; just like STEED above.

Syntax: CRAFT <special crafted item number>

There will be occasions when you wish to hasten the completion of a specialised craftsmanship item (see HELP CRAFTSMEN) since they tend to take many months of regular city/guild craftsmen activity to finish. This simple task sends in your young forager to speed up the workers. Each time you send in the forager you will ensure the item is completed a month sooner; final month aside, where the specialist artisans must work at their own pace to wrap up the work.

Syntax: QUESTS <village/city/area/guild/CCC> [GOLD <gold to use>]

It may be that you are keen to do more quests (who knows, after all, what rewards may come of their completion?), or that you have an inkling there are quests/secrets waiting to be discovered in a certain area, village, city, or from a certain CCC. The young forager can be charged with the task of finding out more and reporting the information he discovers back to you, his mentor, when he has done so.

Syntax: PURPOSE <specific artifact> [GOLD <gold to use>]

Often you will come into contact with artifacts you know to be special in some way but be unable to discover precisely how or why or what acitons are necessary to make an artifact work. The young foragers can be used to discover the oft-hidden purposes of a certain artifact. It is wise to include the artifact and its number, e..g. crown323 instead of just crown - to avoid confusion with the wrong crown.

Syntax: EXPLAIN <quest name> [GOLD <gold to use>]

Many quests are mysterious or involve processes long-since forgotten by your friends, fellow guildmembers, fellow citizens, etc. This task charges the young forager with the purpose of finding out - as far as possible - what needs to be done to perform a certain quest. Not all quests will be of a type the youngster can discover details about but for those he is able to pinpoint (e..g. using the DISCOVER QUESTS task above) he may also be able to gather info enough to educate you precisely how the quest is successfully performed/completed.

Syntax: ARTIFACTS <village/city/guild/area> [GOLD <gold to use>]

Sometimes artifacts important to you will be stashed away, out of reach or in unknown generic looking locations (according to your locating abilities). This task tells the young forager to go on a mission to find all artifacts held within a village, city, guild or area. It may give you info necessary to pinpoint secrets you did not otherwise know, many artifacts of strange and wondrous import; or nothing at all, if there was nothing to discover!