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

[romana2]

Ahhh. He regenerated. It's a thing Time Lords do.

[She goes quiet thinking how to explain it, because Adric clearly isn't asking about how or why it happened.]

It's a tricky thing to accept, even for Time Lords. But, when every single cell in your body changes, you do change a little. You get new taste buds, so things you liked in your previous body, you might find distasteful in the next.

The one thing Rassilon could never quite work out was how to stabilise the mental changes that went with regeneration. It's why we're only allowed to regenerate 12 times. Thirteen bodies.

[Shhh, we'll just ignore the Fact that Moffat screwed all of that up where the Doctor is concerned. And the fact that Moffat couldn't count. And that what the Sisterhood did to the Doctor WASN'T regeneration, so didn't count anyway, so Twelve is still Twelve hrmph.]

Through trial and error, from thirteen regenerations on, it was discovered that Time Lords became mentally unstable. So it was best to stop it at twelve. You're just experiencing one of many mental shifts the Doctor is likely to experience. And he had the Body you knew him in for a very long time. Well, as his bodies go, anyway.

[timeforgotten]

[ Doctor Who writers: a long-running tragedy. Adric listens dutifully to Romana's explanation. It's the best explanation he's ever gotten about regeneration, that much is for sure.

At least there's some comfort in knowing it's normal. A strange thing, honestly, equal parts comfort and disappointment. It was already fairly obvious that the Doctor he first met was long gone, but... well. Something he would have had to really get used to, he supposes. ]

Oh. Well, if that's all true, it certainly explains a few things about the Master. [ He's quick to tack on: ] Not that I'm inclined to believe he was ever stable.

[romana2]

[Romana sighed heavily.]

Yes. People say the Doctor burns through his regenerations too quickly. All the more for the Master. And I don't know that he was ever stable. But he and the Doctor were friends for a long time.



[OOC: There's one great line from Missy that Moffat later cut Clara is challenging Missy that she and the Doctor couldn't be friends because Missy kills people. Missy points out that the Doctor does too. "The difference is I enjoy it more. He's a farmer, I'm a hunter." Which is one of the best descriptions of those two I've ever seen and CURSES to them for removing it!]

[timeforgotten]

Were they?

[ Eugh. He's kind of glad that apparently fell apart before Traken and Castrovalva and the like. There's no forgiveness once someone's crossed the "torture you in a hadron web" line in Adric's book. ]

I almost don't know why it's so surprising to hear.

(( man, that sounds like a really top-notch line to cut! ))

[romana2]

Yes, they were.

[Romana chuckles softly.]

I'm not saying it was necessarily good or healthy. But they were friends.


[[ooc: One of the things I dislike most about Moffat, really. He cuts awesome stuff like that but leaves in garbage like "bitch is back"]