allthisshitisweird | Test Drive Meme!

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Bruce isn't entirely sure if he can agree with that. Sometimes the best course of action is to not take any action at all, for at times taking action would only further escalate the situation. Such as what happened in Kirkwall. Whoever did that, Bruce can probably guess the why - but that didn't make anything better. It just made things worse.

But arguing isn't what Bruce likes to do, especially with things like these. He doesn't broach the subject any further, quiet as the other man investigates some of the plants nearby them.]

I just do whatever I can to help. [He inclines his head as the man stands up, then glances over towards what he can discern as a bunch of plants and such growing together.] Let's try there next.

[Whatever he can to help. It is an admirable goal, and Justice approves. If everyone sought to do the same, this side of the Veil would be much better off. But they don't, Anders knows. Many don't bother even trying.]

Right.

[Sometimes there's the press of Justice to push the conversation into more serious areas, a desire for confrontation and changing of others' opinions. Right now, though, Justice seems content to watch and rest and bide his time. Anders needs to be able to gather herbs, after all, and a little company makes this a safer task.]

You've been in the valley long? Or are you more recently come?

[What would bring a surgeon with the knowledge of herbs here? Is it simply compassion? Or is there more behind it? Anders leans toward the latter - there are few who act out of compassion alone.]

[With the other's approval Bruce starts to make his way towards the spot he had pointed out, continuing with their conversation while they move.]

Just recently. I arrived here with the Inquisition.

[Bruce normally doesn't travel out of Skyhold, preferring to stay within the walls for its safety (of a sort) and to attend to the numerous refugees that were there. But supplies were getting short and Bruce couldn't wait for the garden to grow quickly enough, which is why he had come down all the way here.]

The Inquisition.

[The repetition is thoughtful as they approach the plants. It's something everyone's heard about by now, unless they've been living in a cave. ...Which he had been, for a time, but only while he wrestled back some control over himself. They were of absolutely no help or use to anyone like that, and Justice had finally seen the sense of moving about and at least acting like they weren't an abomination.]

How's that... working, exactly?

[On one hand, he's heard it's at least safer for most mages than wandering around, but on the other, it's headed by the man who had been Meredith's right hand. The one who had had to know Karl, since all of them came from Kinloch. After all he'd seen in Kirkwall, it's very difficult to have faith in mages being treated as equals there. As people.]

With all of the factions?

[The flowers are edible, and he brightens momentarily as he plucks a few of the buds. These will go well with the potatoes he's got in his pack, which means he's set for dinner.]

It's been fine, personally. [He went there to do what he wanted to do and he got it. Of course, having so many people around is sort of a first, but Bruce tries his best to deal with it all. If he couldn't even handle that much, then he wouldn't even have gone to offer his services as a surgeon in the first place.

He sees the man take some flower buds to presumably use later, glancing back up at him to further answer his question.] Sometimes there are disagreements but everyone remembers why they're here. [To help Thedas. To protect it from the threat of Corypheus. Everyone's paths may be different but their goals are all the same, and everyone should remember that.]

Test Drive Meme!

i am already loving how they are such foils to each other /deadcats

Same here!

/lies down here and stares into the distance FEELINGS

I'm so sorry for the delay.

no prob! also forgot but justice is always free to notice the hulk lol :'|