The animated items aren't meant to have much (if any) loot. They can drop tiny replicas of themselves as loot, and there's a small chance they might grab something else (runestones/etc). Their loot isn't guaranteed, it's like a 40% chance I think, somewhere around there?

LOOT and SEARCH are the same mechanic, so there's no difference in which verb you use -- the SEARCH verb literally just calls to the LOOT verb behind-the-scenes. Also, confirming that LOOT does work:

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>loot
You search the miniscule fork.
The fork was carrying a colorful elbaite runestone and a tiny replica bronze fork!

>loot
You search the miniscule spoon.
The spoon was carrying a sky-blue imnera runestone and a tiny replica brass spoon!

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As near as I can tell, they're working as intended! They're just not very lucrative creatures at all. Being low level, folks should be in and out pretty quick and can move on to higher paying stuffs.


Zadraes

Man it's been a long month.

I figured that out after a couple days. My average haul out of there was around 1 find per hour I think. Just got lucky on the 3rd or 4th one I fought.

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I'm a badger, I be badgerin'