TEST DRIVE MEME!

[faderifting]

I ROLL TO SEDUCE THE BEAR

Tucked between the massive Lake Calenhad and the icy Frostback Mountains in Ferelden’s chilly, hilly south, the Hinterlands are a region covered in patchy forests, small farms, and a bustling fishing village called Redcliffe. The region was recently the frontline of a war between mages and Templars, but the Inquisition’s military presence has restored order and is now focused on helping the locals and influx of refugees rebuild their lives. Whether you’re a recent recruit or a hardened veteran, a Fereldan local or someone who recently fell out of a rift from another world, you may be asked to go lend a hand.

I. FLOODS

A burst of unseasonably warm weather (in no way inspired by real life events) is initially greeted with relief, gloves discarded and scarves unwrapped—but followed within the week by severe flooding across the region. Maybe you’re sent out to help debris from a road or collect the bodies of those swept away. Or maybe you’re less lucky and instead there when the waters come, shepherding refugees to higher ground, or caught riding in the flow on a dislodged roof or log. Maybe there’s a bear on the roof with you.

II. TREASURE HUNTS

Given the lack of banks and lockboxes, when the people here have something they value, they often hide it—under the ground, in a tree, behind a waterfall. So here you are, with a sketch of some landmarks found on a body, trying to find… something. If you find it, it might be useful: weapons, runes, a stash of supplies. Or it might be someone’s box of racy letters and a request to deliver them to a now-married woman who will slap you on delivery.

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

[dissono]

( gervais isn't hard to find, when one sets out to look for him - 'tall, broad ginger orlesian that takes roughly seven years to get through a sentence' makes him rather difficult to miss. he looks up at the sound of another man's arrival; he pauses at his work, when he sees who it is.

he wouldn't have known anders on sight some weeks hence, but in even the short time he's been with the inquisition, this particular rebel mage looms large, occasionally in the same breath as a woman in whom he still takes some measure of pride. it does merit a pause. )

I, ah. ( he doesn't seem uncomfortable, nor uncertain of the words he stumbles over; measured, rather, wiping his hands clean with a cloth and straightening. ) I am, ah, rather, I was, was with the Spire. For, ah, for - for many, ah, years.

Not, ah, recently.

( it's hard but not impossible to be dry through his halting words. no one is recently from the spire, survivors scattered to the winds. or to here, as it turns out. he would like to think others live, elsewhere, as he did; he wonders how lucky they could possibly be. )

[justice_is_blond]

[His expression goes a little wry at the 'not recently.' No one, thankfully, is recently from a Circle.]

Of course. I meant it as a frame of reference, but it's an outdated one. A new one's in order.

[Which he considers a moment before shrugging.]

You've been around the healing tents for a time and we've not spoken before. Considering you've not shot glares my way, greeting you is a little overdue. I'm Anders.

[Known, yeah, but introductions are a good way to start. He holds out a hand.]

[dissono]

( gervais has, in fairness, probably never shot anyone a glare in his life; his face just doesn't do that. it isn't because he's such a soft-heart he's never wanted to, only - what good would it ever have done him? what attention would it have drawn that he needed? too many variables.

too many templars.

so it's to his credit that he doesn't steel himself to clasp anders' wrist in greeting, but there was never any other way for him to react, not really. other mages have adapted, he can see, have lowered their hackles or their guards, have embraced the freedom that is still so tenuously held. he ... is only a few years shy of fifty, now, and he's been alone a long time since the dissolution of the circles. there hasn't been anyone with him for him to react to in some new and interesting way, if he ever -

he doesn't know if he'll ever walk that easily, but the only pause is the one where once upon a time he'd have said enchanter first. )

G-G-G-Gervais Vauquelin.

( something about the cheekbones, the way he holds himself. the resemblance is subtle, the less one knows any of the vauquelins, but present. )