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

[harthad_uluithiad]

Elves with arrows are familiar enough. Sam stops, eyeing the elf and his companion warily and wishing Legolas were here with bow and arrows of his own.

But he's too exhausted and too scared to even reply, and after a moment, the Man dismisses the elf and drops himself down to eye level. Sam takes a step backwards, still watching him - the stranger doesn't seem to wish him harm, but then, he is a Big Person, and there's just no telling.

"Nowhere much," he declares, which is true enough; it's hard to go anywhere in particular when you don't know where you are at all. He tries to make himself sound much more careless and brave than he's actually feeling, though the worried look in his eyes probably gives him away. "Ain't trespassing, if that's what you're asking. Don't want any trouble." His gaze drifts past the Man, trying to see where the elf had gone.

[kremdelacreme]

Krem's brow hovers upward subtly at the tone. Forced, covering fear that the little man doesn't want to reveal. He can't blame him for that.

"Not trespassing, no. This isn't actually anyone's territory that hasn't passed on of late. But we're stationed here to keep the fighting from encroaching on the last of the farmland here. Dunno about what else you're carrying, but from what I can see, you're not about to lay siege to Dennet's fields."

He stands and looked back at the camp, where there were several of his men crowded at the edge of the firelight watching the two of them. He nods back to it and turns to start back toward it. "Come on, you look like something the bears left behind. We can at least get some food in you 'fore you have to find a direction to go in."

[harthad_uluithiad]

None of what he says makes any sense. There shouldn't be farmland here. There shouldn't be soldiers. But there should be a river, and he supposes if that can up and leave the way it apparently has, then why can't a farm take its place?

The Man stands and starts back towards the camp, and Sam hesitates, but at the mention of food his stomach rumbles loud enough to make him blush. It's true that he hasn't had a decent meal since he left Lorien, and nothing at all since waking up here...wherever here is.

And it's cold, and dark, and he's so tired...

Finally, he steps forward, hurrying to catch up with the Man on his much shorter legs. As they near the campfire and the Chargers sitting around it, he slows. It's an odd assortment of travelers, and every one of them is staring at him with great interest. Without thinking, Sam shuffles over to the side a bit. He's not quite hiding behind Krem's legs, but he's not quite not hiding, either.

[kremdelacreme]

At least there's a river near the other side of the campsite, if that comforts Sam at all.

Upon their approach to the camp, it doesn't surprise Krem that the rest of his men are staring at them. Rubberneckers, every last one of them, when it came to something or someone new and interesting. For the moment, that was Sam.

Krem accommodates his attempt to shield himself from that, nodding shortly to the humans they pass, picking a bottle up from a stash beside where one of their dwarven men was resting beside a small fire of his own, tipping a brief salute to one of their elves, then finally settling down in front of a tent before which a pit had been dug and lined with stones, just ready to be made into a fire.

"These are the Bull's Chargers," he says after a moment's arranging himself, a supply of tinder dragged from just under the flap of his tent and arranged to be lit. There was a pot filled with bubbling stew in the center of their camp, but he wanted to speak with Sam a moment, help alleviate some of that fear. One of the other men would be by with food in a minute. "Name's Cremisius Aclassi, I'm in charge of this bunch until the Chief makes his way back to us. Most the boys call me Krem. What do we call you while you're here?"

[harthad_uluithiad]

Sam's glad enough to get away from the staring eyes of the other soldiers, though he does give the bubbling pot a longing look as they pass. The Man had mentioned food, but it seems he has a few questions first. Sam just hopes that his answers won't decide whether or not he gets some of that stew.

The first question's easy enough, at least. He furrows his brow at the list of names Krem gives him in return. Chargers? Bull? They're very threatening-sounding names, and more than that, they're as unfamiliar as everything else here. His heart sinks a little. How had he managed to get himself so very lost?

"Samwise Gamgee, at your service," he replies, the traditional greeting coming automatically before he amends it. "But most folk call me Sam."

[kremdelacreme]

"Sam." Krem nods some; now he has two very distinct Sams to remember. The thought makes him smile just a little bit. He looks up when one of the other human men comes by with a pair of bowls, casting Sam a look then raising a brow at Krem, though he didn't say what was on his mind.

"Where are you from, Sam?" he asks as he picks a spoon out of one of the pouches around his waist, handing one to Sam in kind. "This is Thedas. Fereldan. You'll want to be careful walking here, the bandits are thick in these parts."

[harthad_uluithiad]

Sam takes the bowl eagerly, his attention momentarily averted. He does take a moment to look at the stew suspiciously - there's no knowing what's really in that bowl - but hunger overcomes paranoia before long and he accepts the spoon with a grateful nod.

Thedas. Ferelden. He frowns, thinking hard and wishing he'd spent more time looking at maps in Rivendell. Neither of the names sound familiar, and he feels that same worry he'd had while wandering alone, before he'd found the camp. Well, perhaps Krem has a better grasp of just where they are. Maybe he can help? The thought is reassuring, and he relaxes a bit, dipping his spoon into the bowl.

"I'm from the Shire, but we're a long way from there by now, I reckon," he replies at last as he eats. "We've just left Lorien - the Golden Wood, if you follow me, and we were heading down the River towards Gondor and - well - Mordor."

He risks a glance at Krem at that last admission, slightly apprehensive. However the Man reacts to the name Mordor, it'll say a lot.

[kremdelacreme]

Krem was taking a moment to parse all of that. None of it is familiar to him, and it shows on his face. Maybe Sam came from somewhere else in the world that hadn't been charted here in Thedas? Or he had fallen through a rift. Stranger things had happened in recent days.

"Sorry, can't say I do follow you," he replies with a shrug, sticking his spoon in his mouth and letting it hang there. He leans forward with his elbow on his knee, looking Sam over with a thoughtful frown. "Accent sounds local, but that doesn't mean much. You're not a dwarf, not furry enough, ears are shaped wrong for some sort of elf... y'look human enough to me, 'sides being about a foot and a half too short. You from out past the Expanse maybe?" Really he just sounds like he's puzzling it out for himself, rather than directly asking Sam all of these questions.