Honesty Virtue!

[Dermott of LS]

...

That would certainly be more fun than the grind I foresee in my future *laughs*

Then don;t play it as a grind, just grab the items as you're out doing other things, then when you have a decent number of them, make an evening out of returning them all and begin again.

Unless the decay is too fast, this seems to be shaping up as a "secondary" or "passive" quest, something you do in the process of doing other things.

 

[Viquire]

I picked an item up and if memory serves I got a system message that my time was limited, three or four hours?

 

[Frarc]

I picked an item up and if memory serves I got a system message that my time was limited, three or four hours?

We have three hours to turn them in.