Test Drive Meme!

[faderifting]

You'll Never Leave the Hinterlands Alive*

Welcome to Fade Rift's very first Test Drive Meme! Use one of the prompts below or make up your own, and tag around! Have fun, try out the setting, generate samples for your app, coerce your friends into joining you.

Maybe the Inquisition sent you, maybe you came seeking the Inquisition. Maybe you fell out of a rift into this world last week and are still just trying to find your feet. However it happened, early fall finds you in the Hinterlands. Tucked between Ferelden's massive Lake Calenhad and the icy Frostback Mountains, the Hinterlands are a hilly region covered in patchy forests and small farms trying to eke out a living between the boulders. Though somewhat remote, the area is rich with game and minerals and home to Redcliffe, a bustling town on a busy trade route.

Lately the Hinterlands have also been full of mages and templars and rifts, all threatening to turn once-peaceful countryside into a dangerous warzone. The Inquisition has set up several camps and sent personnel to try to restore order to the region, unwilling to let it slip into chaos. There's a lot to be done, some of it straightforward killing bad things, some of it weird and nebulous morale-building.

1. In the Deep Dark Hills of Western Ferelden

You have turned the wrong corner, forded the wrong stream, crested the wrong hill, entered the wrong cave. Maybe you are far from camp. Maybe you are in camp. Whatever has happened, wherever you are: you are being chased by bears. Did you provoke the bears? Are they huge? Babies? Fade-touched? Mage-controlled? What are they chasing you away from? What are they chasing you into? What do you plan to make out of their hide if you kill them? What do you think they'll craft out of your hide if they kill you?

2. There I Read on a Hillside Gravestone

The rebel mages and renegade templars have ravaged the Hinterlands, skirmishes breaking out all over. It looks like you've just missed one-- great spikes of ice melt slowly in the cool autumn sunlight and patches of grass and trees have been scorched away. Three bodies are scattered about, two templars and one mage judging by their clothing. You could bury them. Or search their pockets. Or track their friends. Or all of the above, if you're feeling industrious.

3. Won't You Walk With Me Out the Mouth of this Holler

Whatever task you were actually sent out here to do, you are going to be late. One-Eyed Jimmy asked so nicely for your help finding his prize ram, Lord Woolsley. It's been in the family for years, so smart for a ram, it's a good luck charm, their business has boomed with it around, and it's lived for so long, he just can't abide thinking of it getting eaten by some mangy apostate. And then he went and offered you money, too. How could you say no? Maybe you're still wandering, asking everyone you pass if they've seen a ram that looks like it's wearing an orangey-red sweater. Maybe you've found it and are chasing it around a lake or trying to lead it back to the village for your reward. Maybe you've gotten fed up and gotten out your sword to bring Jimmy a new sweater instead and discovered that lucky Lord Woolsley is a demon in sheep's clothing. Surprise!

4. Fill Your Cup With Whatever Bitter Brew You're Drinking

Just because the region's had a rough time lately doesn't mean the tavern at Redcliffe is any less crowded than usual. Bella behind the bar dishes out tankards to refugees and soldiers, scared villagers and angry farmers, merchants traveling through from Orzammar and Orlais and families fleeing the rifts in the foothills. It's packed, basically. The Inquisition has only recently extended its influence into the region, and while some have already seen the benefit-- demons killed, fighting broken up-- others are skeptical.

5. Spend Your Life Just Thinkin' of How to Get Away

Choose Your Own Adventure: hunt game, kill demons, gather herbs, track bandits, haggle over the price of armor, fall off a deceptively tall rock, get lost circling the same hill ten times trying to find a way up to the weird glowing skull on a stick you can see is up there, climb trees or abandoned towers, rummage around in empty homes, run from a dragon, cry over how cute that fennec fox you just shot was, set up camp and chat around the fire, knock yourself out (figuratively, or even literally if that's more your speed)-- the Hinterlands are your Frostback Mountain oyster.

*Yeah, I had this stuck in my head. It's a good song!!

Comments

4 - Pre-Joining.

[blightedson]

[Being back in this tavern is... interesting, to say the least. He remembers when he and his father had come here to bargain with the Inquisitor and feels an odd sense of how much was wasted by her death.

Felix is severely weakened by the ordeal of what happened in Redcliffe and in Haven. He has a staff now, though it isn't being used to center his limited magical power so much as support for walking around.

He had come to Redcliffe to put right some of the trauma his father caused. Of course nothing like the future Dorian described happened here, but there are still some who were effected and he wants to see that fixed before he goes.

Having a moment with an old friend, though, that's for the sake of his own sanity.]

Perhaps you ought to keep more popular company, in that case.

[magistermaevaris]

Nonsense. Popularity is not synonymous with quality, as you and I should know better than anyone. You’re the best company a person could hope to have in this place, and I won’t hear a word otherwise.

[She’ll take a room full of mistrustful glances any day, if it means having a moment’s respite with a dear friend. The events that have brought them here are weighing heavy on him, that much is clear—maybe moreso than the sickness, if that’s possible. If Maevaris can ease that burden, she’ll do so happily. Any amount of relief is worth the cost.

She squeezes his shoulder, offers a well-meaning glance as she lowers her voice.]

Can I get you anything?

[blightedson]

[He smiles at her comfort. Physical touch is always important to him, especially given the fact that so many fear being too close to him. Maevaris has a way of making him feel better about his situation, even if there is very little hope for him.]

If I remember correctly they do have this broth that I can manage. You don't have to trouble yourself though.

[He wants her to enjoy herself more than tend to him. The idea is to spend time with a friend, not to be fussed over. If he wanted that, he could go spend more time with his father.]

[magistermaevaris]

I meant a drink, actually. It hardly seems fair for me to imbibe while you sit on your hands. You can still drink water, yes? Or broth in a cup— I won’t judge.

[Besides, it’s not as if Maevaris intends to march behind the counter and fetch whatever his heart desires herself. There are barmaids for that. She will, however, dote on him endlessly. There’s no getting around that. The true price of her affection.]

[blightedson]

That's perfect. [He offers her a small smile because despite everything she's one of the few he trusts to dote on him.]

Thank you.