Test Drive Meme!

[faderifting]

No, Seriously, You're Never Getting Out Of Here

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.

NOTE: We will not have an App Help/Enable Me meme this month, but anyone who has questions about OC concepts or AU adaptations is welcome to ask for assistance on the Mod Contact page.

1. WHERE THE SUN COMES UP ABOUT TEN IN THE MORNING

QUESTS COME AND GO BUT BEARS ARE ETERNAL: 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. THEY MOVED DOWN SOUTH OF REDCLIFFE

NICE PLACE FOR A SPOT OF CAMPING: If there were an inn, which there's not, there wouldn't be room for you in it. Traveling with the Inquisition means carrying your own bedrolls, putting up your own tents, and sleeping alongside whoever you've been told to share with--no matter how much you hate them or how loud they snore. If you really can't stand it, the alternative is sleeping outside. On the ground. With the bears.

3. AND THEY LAUGHED AND SANG A NEW SONG

Hey, there's a big, crazy light in the sky that craps out demons! Let's worship it!: Not everyone thinks the Breach was a bad thing. In the southeastern mountains, a burgeoning cult has taken up residence in Winterwatch Tower to wait patiently for the Maker to reach through the tears in the veil and gather the faithful to his bosom. They're a little kooky, maybe, but harmless, and they're happy enough to share their wine and lager with travelers in the area. The demon-spewing rift behind the Tower, on the other hand... Too bad the Herald didn't close that thing before she bit it. Watch your step.

4. NO ONE EVER KNEW THERE WAS LYRIUM IN THEM MOUNTAINS

TROUBLE IN THE DEEP: The Carta is everywhere, but it's here in force, occupying dwarven ruins in a chasm behind a waterfall. Inquisition forces have already cleared most of the smugglers out of the hold, but there's still a vault to break into, bodies to loot, and old texts to search through for anything worth adding to the Inquisition's growing archives. Also: darkspawn. Sorry.

5. AND THE SUN GOES DOWN ABOUT THREE IN THE DAY

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.

Comments

[spiritlost]

"Of course," She said with a nod of her head, before slowly standing herself - sweeping the fur around her before picking up her staff. Despite her words, she did not wait - or at least, didn't seem to, stepping away from the camp fire and over towards the cliff, her back to the party, before she stood still. She waited, then, for him to join her.

"Are you troubled?" She asked once he did, not turning around to look at him, but still gazing out over the hinterlands, blue in the moonlight. "Is that why you ask?"

[dreadinquisitor]

He tugged on his boots and tied them quickly, loping the laces once around his calf before knotting a neat bow. He gathered up his blanket, holding it about his shoulders, and followed after her, breath pluming white in the chill.

"I might have been remembering too," he murmured with a small, lopsided smile, "but no, not troubled. I only asked because you seemed sad and if I could help-- perhaps with talk and a stroll...." His head tipped, smile pleasant. "I'm happy to be of service."

[spiritlost]

She looked at him silently for a long moment and then smiled - soft and small.

"You are kind," she decided. "And I hope the memory a happy one. Mine... There is no use dwelling upon it. I still have hope that what I have lost has not been lost forever. That, for now, must be enough."

It wasn't, and it couldn't be, but grief was not for strangers, however kind. Nadja had been trained to be the council for her people. It was not right, to seek council from outsiders. She had Runa.

But she couldn't help the wish to offer her own.

"But I am happy to speak of other things, or to help you remember, if that is what you wish."

[dreadinquisitor]

"It is," he assured her, and it was true. Whatever it had become now between him and Gavin, the memories of what they'd been then, were still good. It was still one of the best times. "But we can talk of other things. How did you come to be in the Inquisition? You're fairly new, aren't you?"

He didn't recall seeing her around the fire before, and he was certain he would have remembered.