The bear hunters
| The bear hunters | |
|---|---|
| Section | Ascalon Quests |
| Campaign | Prophecies |
| Given by | Dannel, Bruse, Neihl, or Senssa in Regent Valley (pre-Searing) (Ascalon (pre-Searing)) |
| Type | Minigame 
|
| Map(s) | |
 (Click to enlarge) | |
The bear hunters is the one of two minigames available in pre-Searing. Kill a bear in under 3 minutes to get some Hunter's Ale.
Game mechanics[edit]
- Talk to any one of the hunters (Dannel, Bruse, Neihl, or Senssa) except for Benton, to start. At times, the hunters will not speak with you, especially if they are playing Blood, Sweat, and Tears.
- Kill a Black Bear and return to tell the hunters of your success within 3 minutes.
Reward[edit]
Tips[edit]
There will be no quest arrow to follow, so you will have to find a bear on your own. There are a total of six bears in the zone. The easiest are the pair just to the east of the hunters. Kill only one and return. There are also pairs to the northwest by the river, and west near the Healing Spring. There are a large number of Grawl between you and these bears. If you go after these, you will need to clear the way first before accepting this challenge to make it in time.
In a party of two, you both get ale for one kill as long as you are both in range when one of you gets the reward. Having a partner get into position to kill a bear before you take the quest can speed things up greatly. Wait until your partner gets back into range to accept the reward.
You can repeat this as many times as you like. There will be a delay of roughly one minute before you can pick this up again, as the hunters extol you to enjoy your bounty, unless you can talk to them quickly enough before their song begins.
Again, there are six black bears in Regent Valley and you can reach, kill and return in time to accomplish the quest for all of them. While the clock runs for 180 seconds, there are approximately 20 seconds of dialog before the clock starts for a total of 200 seconds from initiating the quest to failing to complete it in time. The longest run is to the healing spring; you have about 20 seconds to spare. On the other hand, be sure not to kill either of the eastern bears before the clock starts.
The blood, sweat and tears round runs about one second for each number and stops at 50 or on an error. Talking to the hunters during the round does not change when it will end and sometimes causes the quest to mess up. Just get close to one of the hunters (not Benton) and face so you can see all the participants. Talk to your selected hunter as soon as the counting ends.
Dialogue[edit]
The lines spoken below always appear in the same order, but the NPC who says them depends upon whom you speak to first.
Initial dialogue[edit]
- "Ahh, *hic* another challenger!"
- "My companions and I are the greatest hunters this land has ever known."
- "Benton over there once killed a bear faster than I could drink a shot."
- "Yes, he's good."
- "Ahh, Yes. I'm better of course."
- "Think our new friend here is a great hunter? If you can kill a bear and return to us within three minutes, we'll share our drink with you."
- "All right then. Here's an ale for you. Go into the forest and kill a bear, then get back here within three minutes."
- Or, if you've done this once already
- "Back for more? Alright then, here's your drink. Get going!"
Intermediate dialogue[edit]
- If you haven't killed a bear yet
- Hunter 1: "Don't stand around chatting up the trees friend. Get out there and kill a bear!"
- If you fail
- Hunter 1: "What! No bears left?"
- Hunter 2: "I suppose Benton killed them all."
- Hunter 3: "Well, better luck next time."
Reward dialogue[edit]
- Hunter 1: "Well, isn't that something. A dead bear in under three minutes. Here, you can have my ale!"
Notes[edit]
- When you complete this quest, the hunters substitute your name for Benton's in their song.
- A 2-ale run takes about 5 minutes (24/hour).
- Take advantage of the Igneous Summoning Stone; the imp can help clear paths, but be careful not to let it near any pair of bears too soon.
- Although there are six bears in the area, players have reported killing as many as five: start west immediately after starting the challenge without stopping for other battles.
- This can be done with low-level characters: take healing, don't over-aggro, and (if you do) skip any non-bear battles.
- There are multiple routes to each of the bear locations, use the one with the fewest enemies for best results.
Bug.Some players report that one of the two nearby bears vanishes under rare circumstances. This happens sometime between slaying the first and returning after restarting the timer for the second and there appears to be no way to get it to reappear. Some believe the bug only occurs if the player's inventory is full.
