Fred the Farmer is a farmer featured in the Cold War and One Small Favour quests, and the Sheep Shearer miniquest. Players can find Fred at the farmhouse north-west of Lumbridge, south-east of the Windmill and to the east of the Lumbridge sheep pen. His farm is where players can find onions, which sometimes are hard to find growing wild, especially for non-members.
If the player talks to him and says that they have seen the 'Thing', (which is actually just two penguins but he is mortally afraid of it, thinking it's a "shapeshifter") he will start to go on about grabbing chickens and running to the hills. In the end, the player will say that it is two penguins disguised as a sheep. He will ask the player if they have been "in the sun" too much, a reference to sun madness.
Fred also plays a role in One Small Favour where he is involved in obtaining chickens for that quest.
Players may go back to Farmer Fred and claim another 1,940 coins as a reward because the black wool 'sold exceptionally well'. This was added after the miniquest was reworked to make up for the fact that the old reward was 60 coins instead of the current 2,000. Claiming this extra reward completes the Fred's Shearings achievement.
Fred had to move his farm across the path, as Saradomin placed his war camp where his farm originally was.
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The "Thing" Fred sees may be a reference to the 1950s novella Who Goes There?, or its 1982 movie adaption, The Thing. The novella features a shapeshifting alien called "the Thing" that causes paranoia within an Antarctic research camp, while Fred fears a shapeshifting monster disguised as a sheep.
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