The Great Hunt bugged out
Many players have had success by guesting to another Server. The Starter instances seem to occasionally ‘bug’ out when overloaded by an influx of new players.
You can learn how to ‘Guest’ by accessing the Wiki through the link above and search for ‘Guesting’.
Good luck.
Thanks for the workaround, but an actual fix would be preferable. If ANet is even listening here…
Broken stuff should be fixed. End of story.