TEST DRIVE MEME!

[faderifting]

Surprise, Beartch

Bet You Thought Etc.

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.

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.

I. DRAGONS

There is a dragon in the Hinterlands. Everyone knows this. It's difficult not to notice when a dragon flies overhead with a mouth full of screaming sheep (alas, the poor dead sheep) or scorches your fishing boat and makes you swim for it (alas, the poor soaked fishermen). But she's only rarely sighted, and her lair is as of yet unknown, if "yet" is defined as "the moment before this exact moment, right now." Because you've found her. She is, at this very moment, screeching so loud it rattles the cliff sides that are trapping you in her territory and raining fire down over the only clear path of escape. She and her two dozen children don't care if you only wanted some elfroot and spindleweed. They also don't care if you have a sword. You look way more delicious and less woolly than a sheep.

II. CROSSROADS

In the year since the Inquisition's formation, the Crossroads have changed. Most of the refugees from the Mage/Templar War have moved on--if not back home, to new places--and there's been some progress rebuilding the homes and fortresses ruined by the war. Very few people are still living in caves. But rather than quieting down, the Crossroads have begun to bustle. Between the Inquisition's locally stationed forces and the increasing number of travelers and merchants now that the roads are safer, there's enough business to support a tavern with a few rooms for rent, and the Crossroads are becoming a trading post in their own right rather than a dot of houses on the path to Redcliffe--a great place to stop for a drink, to buy basic weaponry, or to unload all of the bear skins you've collected.

III. BEARS

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?

IV. CRYSTALS

Members and trusted agents of the Inquisition are given access to one of the Inquisition's stores of ancient, mysterious sending crystals, allowing them to communicate instantaneously by voice. It's magic. And a magical excuse to ask everyone what their favorite constellation is in the middle of the night.

Or to call for help because you've been treed by bears.

Either way.

V. MISCELLANEOUS

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

Bartholomew Fatima | Xenogears | Rifter

[awildsmile]

I

Dragons weren't exactly a new thing to Bart, Duneman's Isle was crawling with them, but few idiots went out into the dunes to rumble with dragons without a Gear. Okay, Bart was that kind of idiot, but there was treasure on that island and he was a pirate, it only made sense! But he didn't go alone and he was hardly trapped, he could run if he wanted to, not that he liked running, but it was nice to know that he could.

He wasn't too concerned about himself, he could fight that wasn't a problem, it was anyone who just happened to find themselves in this situation with him that was a potentially collateral damage. Bart was good at protecting himself, and much as he liked to and tried to protect others, he was infamously bad at it, he had a terrible habit that included firing at friendly vessels that looked like enemy vessels. He couldn't exactly guarantee anyone's safety.

That didn't mean he wouldn't try very hard.

"Hope you know how to hold your own in a battle, it's gonna be difficult enough fighting all these bastards without having to cover your ass too," a full grown dragon and a bunch of babies? Not to mention dancing around all of the fire momma is so graciously whipping around their arena. Yeah, his hands are full here.

II

Okay dragons, dragons were evil, more so than he actually remembered them being on his world. Where he came from they were solitary creatures, you fought one and that was it, no nests, no dragonlings. It was a fair fight! You know, from a certain point of view.

This dragon scooped Bart up with her tail and catapulted him into the nearest wall of rock. Good strategy, but he was aching all over now and he was a complete mess of cuts and bruises, but he was alive and that was the point. He might not have magic and potions, but he had ether and once he found out the monster breathed fire he could counter it with water. It helped. It kept him from getting several nasty burns.

Might have shocked a few onlookers who'd, quite possibly, had never seen someone manifest a tornado of whirling water. Or it could be this thing about magic, not that what he did was magic, but it sure looked like it.

Whatever, he was too tired and was in the process of trading what he could from his spoils of that particular battle (scales, teeth, hide) to a miserly merchant who clearly liked to take advantage. Perhaps it was because he wasn't from this world. Or maybe he did this with any foreign element, the man spoke with a funny accent and he wore a ridiculous mask, and there was something pretentious about him that inspired a desire to snap the merchant like a twig.

He didn't like being looked down on and he didn't like being underestimated

"Look, I might have been dumped here last night, but I wasn't born last night, I know when I'm being lowballed. You can either give me what it's worth, or I can give you a black eye, that's an exchange I can get behind," not that Bart would fight him over spilled milk, but he definitely would over an unfair trade.

II

[thesteelwolf]

A large (but gentle) hand rests on his shoulder from behind, connected to an equally large horned woman that leans around him to offer the Merchant a friendly smile that has slightly too many teeth to be entirely without bite. "It is upsetting to see a dishonest merchant trying to take advantage of a valiant warrior. You would not wish to upset either of us, would you?"

The strangeness of the south is not lost on Issa, but one benefit to the Bas that wandered about hawking their wares is their rather uniform reaction to a friendly Qunari towering over them. Either immediate compliance- or a stuttering terror that is typically followed by, well. Doing as she asks. All the more so when she smiles, elbow idly resting on the saber on her hip. Not even a threat but- it is read that way and it has yet to cause trouble. Well. Trouble she cannot handle. "He is tired, I am tired, you are being particularly troublesome. I think you give a fair price and in return we get out of your hair."