The Bear Hunters

Description
The Bear Hunters are a band of 5 drunken hunters standing in a wooded area Southwest of Fort Ranik before The Searing. Their names are Benton, Senssa, Bruse, Neihl, and Dannel. Benton is extremely drunk, and will only say "*hic*" if you try to talk to him. Talking to any of the others starts a quest to slay a bear within 3 minutes.

They sometimes play a game of "Blood, Sweat, and Tears" which prevents you from talking to them until one of them messes up. Blood, Sweat, and Tears is the only time Benton will say something other than "*hic*."

Directions
Starting out of Fort Ranik, head Southwest. The purple route is easiest to follow: take the path from the Fort, then take the fork right. Follow this path until you pass the pond on your left, then head South to Point B (the Hunters). The downside to this route is that you must fight half a dozen Skale Broodcallers and a few Giant Needle Spiders along the way.

The green route is slightly harder to follow, but much nicer when you get used to it because you only run into 2 or 3 enemies. To go this way, take the left route when the path forks, towards the small circle of stones. Directly West is a hill with a slope you can walk up. It switches back, then comes to a fork (point A). At this point there is a crest, making it easy to miss the way down. Just stay left over the crest and there will be a slope down the hill. When you are at the bottom, head West-Northwest to the Hunters. You may aggro a bear; avoid killing it by running away to the hunters. If you don't lose it, you may try to run around some more (avoiding the trees as there are plenty of Giant Needle Spiders waiting in them) or bear the brunt of the attacks and heal.

The Quest
Note that this "quest" will not generate an entry to your Quest Log and also not show any objective locations (i.e. where to find a bear) on your map. This quest can be repeated as many times as you like, and can generate a large stash of Hunter's Ale.

The hunters will ramble for a short while bragging about their hunting feats. As soon as they finish, a timer will appear in the top center of your screen counting down from 3 minutes. To speed things up, you may head for a bear as soon as you have started the quest, but avoid killing it until the timer has started.

When you have slain a bear, return to the hunters and talk to one to receive a Hunter's Ale. Before you may start the quest again, you will have to wait. The only thing they will say for about a minute after you receive the Ale is "Drink!"

Tips

 * There are 2 bears near enough to complete the quest: both are directly East of The Bear Hunters. They can easily be found by holding down the "Ctrl" key while looking towards the East. Only kill one bear at a time: you get one Hunter's Ale per completion.
 * There are 2 more bears west from the group, but it requires going past a large amount of Grawls. If you have a strong character that can run past that amount of Grawls, this is a quick way to get 2 extra ales. You can also kill the Grawls in the way, but it would be quicker to simply go for the original 2 bears many times.
 * There are also 2 bears near The Healing Spring. Although it is difficult to reach the bears, kill one, and return to The Bear Hunters in less than 3 minutes, it is possible and does count towards finishing the quest.
 * If you want, you may bring a partner along for the quest. You get a Hunter's Ale for each person every time you slay one bear. Just make sure you are both in range of each other.
 * If you are with a partner, this trick will give you more time to kill a bear and run back, making it easier to get the bears that are farther away.
 * 1) Player#1 stays near the Hunters, but does not activate the quest.
 * 2) Player#2 gets in position, right next to one of the farther away bears, then player#1 activates the quest. This eliminates the time wasted running to a bear.
 * 3) Player#2 kills the bear and runs back to the Hunters. Player#1 must wait until player#2 is near the Hunters to collect his ale, otherwise player#2 will not get an ale once they talk to the Hunters.

Quotes
One says: Pass the mug... The rest chime in: And string your bows!''
 * Bears beware
 * Where Benton goes!


 * Sometimes "Benton" will be replaced with your name after slaying a bear.

One says: Someone poke Benton, I think he might be dead. All: Naaah.

One hunter: Did you hear that? Another: What? First hunter: Sounded like a bear! Second hunter: Just be quiet, it will go away.

Hunter: I'm going to go kill a bear.
 * The hunter who says this will then walk off a short distance, tripping a lot saying "#$%#!!", stand there, then return to the circle. And say "That was even bigger than the last one."

Blood, Sweat, and Tears Rules
This is a simple number substitution game where
 * Blood = 3
 * Sweat = 6
 * Tears = 9

For any number containing one of these digits, substitute the corresponding word. For example:
 * 3, 13, 23, etc. will all translate to Blood
 * 30, 31, 32, etc. will all translate to Blood as well

When there are two (or more) digits that are substituted with words, both words must be used. For example:
 * 33 = Blood Blood
 * 36 = Blood Sweat
 * 39 = Blood Tears
 * 63 = Sweat Blood
 * 96 = Tears Sweat
 * 639 = Sweat Blood Tears

This game is fairly simple and probably shouldn't be played while sober, or else it could take forever!

Trivia
Blood, Sweat and Tears might be a reference to the rock band Blood, Sweat and Tears. It is also a variation on the drinking game "buzz" in which people must say "buzz" on numbers with multiples of 7 and numbers that contain the number 7 itself.

Videos
How to Get Drunk in Pre-Searing Ascalon (Shows Route A, the faster way to get to the hunters)