Test Drive Meme!

[faderifting]

'Tis The Season...

...To Still Be In The Hinterlands

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.

NOW WITH ADDED SNOW.

1. I CAN'T BEAR THE COLD

You have turned the wrong corner in the snow, forded the wrong stream in the snow, crested the wrong hill in the snow, entered the wrong cave in the snow. Maybe you are far from camp, in the snow. Maybe you are in camp, which is also snowy. Whatever has happened, wherever you are: you are being chased through the snow by bears. Did you throw a snowball at the bears? Are they huge and snow-dusted? Babies burrowing through the snow drifts and coming for your ankles? Fade-touched in addition to snow-touched? Controlled by cold mages who are hiding in the snow? Popping up out of the snow like a game of whack-a-mole? What are they chasing you away from in all of this snow? What are they chasing you into, other than more snow? What warm things do you plan to make out of their hide if you kill them in the snow? What do you think they'll craft out of your hide if they kill you in the snow? P.S. It's snowy.

2. GIVE ALL THE TOYS TO THE LITTLE RICH BOYS

Winter came. The villagers are freezing. Recruit Whittle totally saw this coming. Now he might have sent you haring (get it) across the countryside in search of supplies that apostates or bandits may have hidden in caves and crannies. He might have handed you some sticks and told you to build a fire. He might have eyed your nice coat with a contemptful gleam that suggested you'd better find some blankets if you didn't want to have your own clothing requisitioned. Nobody's freezing to death on his watch--except maybe you, if you're really bad at finding hidden caches. In the snow.

3. DON'T SHOOT ME SANTA

The sky is beginning to darken and white snow continues to fall, but you and the supply wagon you're protecting should make it to the little Hinterlands village before sunset. The wagon is laden with food, blankets, and other sundry supplies, and so it's important to stay sharp and alert as you make the trecherous journey. And for good reason: an arrow is fired from the tree line and topples an Inquisition soldier from his horse. Beset by bandits, will you manage to fight them back? Or do they overwhelm your troupe and you are forced to flee? Or, perhaps, you could attempt a negotiation, knowing they could be as hungry as the people you protect.

4. DOES THEDAS HAVE FIGGY PUDDING?

It is not only snowing, it's blizzarding, and the tavern in Redcliffe is the closest and warmest place to duck into to wait it out. Unfortunately, half of the Hinterlands had the same idea. The Gull & Lantern is so packed with thawing visitors that it's hard to walk from one side to the other, the owner has given up on telling these Fereldens they can't bring their dogs inside, and that lady in the corner is almost definitely someone you've tried to kill before, or vice versa. But there's a fire going, and the bartender seems to think that giving everyone half-price drinks might prevent a brawl instead of causing one, and there aren't any demons indoors, so it could be a lot worse.

5. WILDCARD

Hunt game in the snow, kill demons in the snow, dig under the snow for herbs, track bandits through the snow, deal with someone charging extortionist coat prices now that it's snowing, fall off a deceptively tall rock into the snow, 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 in the snow, climb trees or abandoned towers covered in snow, rummage around in empty homes to get out of the snow, run from a dragon in the snow, cry over how cute that fennec fox you just shot in the snow was, set up camp and chat around the fire because it's snowy and cold, knock yourself out (figuratively, or even literally if that's more your speed)-- the Hinterlands are your Frostback Mountain oyster, topped with snow.

Comments

[qunari]

It's a good move, strategically speaking. Girl knows how to manuever around these assholes. One less thing to worry about as he makes himself the target for the bandits.

"Come on. I haven't got all day."

When one of the braver ones emerges to take a shot, Bull's waiting for him. He shifts, bears down one shoulder to take the swipe on his armored side, before using the momentum to swing about, cutting a gouge through the man and sending him falling back into the brush with a gurgle.

The scent of blood in the air causes something to click in his brain, that eye narrowing on the next bandit to step into line of sight. Old trick from Seheron. They stop being people, start turning into targets. The ones with good sense will run.

The rest don't get mercy, don't even get a second thought.

[the_effect_she_has]

Well, apparently they decided to take the Iron Bull at his word, because the assholes went from one at a time to, 'Oh Maker if we all charge him we might have a chance'. A few run - Katniss can hear them crushing across the snow.

Of the ones alive - she knows Bull could probably kill all of them without a blink. The man is fast, deadly in a way that means he's a warrior first and that means first and last blood.

Katniss, however, realizes that if Bull is correct, they'll need one of them alive. So as they come charging down the snowy bank, arrows start to fly, leaving two of them looking like pincushions, two more heading down to face Bull, and one?

One falling to the snow with an arrow through his knee, screaming. Katniss emerges silently, putting another arrow through the hand that is still reaching for his sword, before she kicks him solidly over to his back, keeping an arrow trained on him as she waits for the Bull to finish up.

"I'd stay down if I were you." Is her simple advice to the cursing warrior. "I don't know The Iron Bull well, but he appears to be in a Mood."

[qunari]

A Reaver in action is a terrifying thing. That's by design, in part. Intimidate the enemy, scare them into making a mistake. But he'd be lying if he said that's all it was, tactics. The truth is always uglier than that.

He's prying his weapon loose from the last of them when he notices the squawler under Katniss's boot. Hefting his weapon onto his shoulder, he nods curtly in her direction before slowly dropping to a knee. The pain in that leg is an old one, and he ignores it.

"That doesn't look so good. But you made out better than your friends back there. You want to start talking now, the Nightingale's agents might go easier on you."

A lie, but he barely blinks.

Truth is always uglier.

[the_effect_she_has]

The nod to the Iron Bull is cool in turn. She's no Ben Hasrath agent - she doesn't know how to pry information out of people like a pebble in a horse's shoe. What she can do is not give anything away when need be.

So with her perfectly icy expression, she keeps her shot poised right at the man's chest.

The man gives away his first tell, by starting to curse in Tevene. Katniss's exresspion doesn't change, but she does comment to the Iron Bull.

"Oh, Venatori. You might want to change that 'go easier on you'. She hates Venatori."

And at that, the man freezes, and begins to babble in Common, "What? No! I'm no Venatori, I'm just from Tevinter! We ain't no Venatori! They just hired us to ... to ... "

[qunari]

"'Vint mercenaries. Thought they were a bit too well-armed for the run-of-the-mill bandits." Bull snorts, rising to his feet. "He's not going to know anything worth saving his skin for. Putting one of those in him now might be kinder."

The measured look he gives Katniss says otherwise. Give the man time and he'll spill his guts, anything he knows of value. Just let sense overwhelm the fear, just for a moment.

[the_effect_she_has]

Katniss met Bull's gaze, and nodded as she pulled back the arrow another inch, making it a full draw. "I'll send it right through his skull. Unless he twitches -- then I can't promise anything."

"WHAT?!" The man is howling now, and he's trying to jerk away and yet he can't.

Katniss lets out an aggravated sigh. "See? He's going to mess up my shot. I'll probably end up putting it in his throat and it will take him forever to die. Wolves will probably get him first."

"WOLVES?! They didn't say you'd leave us to be eaten to no wolves! God Maker-saken templars !! I knew we shouldna taken money from them! They're all red and and just as mad as you Inquisition!" The man is practically screaming at the top of his lungs.