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allthisshitisweird2016-01-01 03:35 pm
faderifting) wrote in allthisshitisweird2016-01-01 03:35 pm
Entry tags:
Test Drive Meme!
New Year...
...Same Old 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, the first days of the new year find 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.
STILL WITH ADDED SNOW.
1. SHOULD OLD ACQUAINTANCE BE FORGOT
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 still snowy.
2. WE TWO HAVE RUN ABOUT THE SLOPES
Farmers have been forced to abandon their homes after a series of vicious attacks by wolves. Packs of them are roaming the foothills and stalking paddocks and even roads seemingly without the usual wariness of humans. Inquisition agents and local volunteers guard travelers through the affected region, hunt the wolves through snowy woods, and track them back to their cavernous lair in the edge of a canyon. Only eliminating the demons that lurk there will free the wolves from their influence and allow the area to return to normal.
3. AND PICKED THE DAISIES FINE
Winter snows freeze and bury the ground, but the need for healing herbs is as great as ever. Stockpiles are thin after the chaos of the last year, and Corporal Vale is desperate enough to send people out to search caves and hollows and cliffsides and beneath overhangs for any plants still clinging to life. The weather is brutal, the search tedious, the footing often treacherous, but that last patch of Crystal Grace could be a key find. Getting it requires clambering up a slippery hillside and stretching up to a ledge and hoping whatever creature lives in that foxhole beside the plant isn't at home, but it's worth it, right?
4. WE TWO HAVE PADDLED IN THE STREAM
With many roads through the hills and ravines blocked by deep snow, some crazy, desperate few have begun traveling by river. The ice is thick and jagged along the shores but in the center the water rushes, just deep enough for a shallow draft boat lightly laden. Supplies are carried down from the passes toward Redcliffe this way, a white-knuckle process that you, for some reason, have become involved in. Maybe you were hired to help fend off the bandits that haunt the calm shallows and try to demand tolls for passage, maybe you're paying your way downstream by helping port both boat and cargo around the steep falls, the mist so thick and cold it coats whatever it touches in a thin sheen of ice. Maybe riding a glorified canoe through rocky rapids and narrow gorges just sounded like a good time. Don't rock the boat!
5. WE'LL TAKE A CUP OF KINDNESS YET
It is still snowing, and the tavern in Redcliffe is still the closest and warmest place to duck into to wait it out, and not only is it packed to the gills but it seems that the First Day celebrations have continued within long past the dawn of the second day. 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 Fereldans they can't bring their dogs inside, every few minutes the group in the corner breaks into a traditional First Day song that will be stuck in your head for weeks, 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.
6. 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 yourFrostback Mountainoyster, topped with snow.
'someone who loves you' ... no no.
Someone back from the dead. Or is that you? Not really sure now.
hahaha
...Stark? [That was him, right? It's been a while and Bruce--well. He doesn't like to assume, generally.]
Re: hahaha
That's the name. Surprise - look whose is not dead! [He held his arms wide, before he smirked and went back to adjusting his device.] Don't you know it's dangerous for impressionable mages to be wandering around?
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[The tone is dry but the silent implication is there all the same: don't talk about it. He's not near any camps but Bruce doesn't want to risk it all the same. He came to the Inquisition to help without the need of his abilities of a mage, and he intends for it to stay that way.]
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[Tony smirked, shaking his head a little as he finished tweaking the odd looking crossbow sort of thing in his hands.]
Seriously, how have they not caught you yet? You're a horrible liar.
[Yeah, Tony, no. You can see through him. YOU. No one else.]
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[Since, he had to, you know, save your life. Sort of against his will.
He turns his attention to the... whatever it is that Stark's gotten out, eyeing it with great suspicion.] And I don't think that's a good idea.
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So - I am now in debt to you. Pretty much forever.
[He twisted the firing mechanism into place, arching an eyebrow at Bruce.] None of my ideas are bad. Just some of them are before their time.
[He clicked on the trigger, and a bolt of flame spat out.]
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I was only doing my job. [That's what he says instead before he glances over to the contraption Stark has, watching as he shoots out a bolt of flame onto the snow.
--and sure, it does melt the snow, but it doesn't stop there and sinks into the grass below as well, and Bruce quickly starts to kick snow onto the flames in a bid to make it stop.]
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[He 'hmm'ed at the gout of flame, before going to adjust the trigger again.]
Sticky. Need to level back on the amount of flame. Lesser rune of fire?"
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[He moves around too often for it to be useful, and its more of a nuisance to carry it all around. Plus Bruce would rather see something like that put to better use helping people who deserve more help than he does.
Once he's managed to put out the fire with the snow Bruce looks back at Stark with a minor frown.] I'd rather you not shoot that anywhere any longer.
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[He looked down at the device, before rolling his eyes.]
Oh, come on, it was test number one. Literally. It will work better now I know where the kink is. You need to stop being afraid of science, Bruce.
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[Probably a useless argument by now though, so Bruce drops it and looks back at the contraption in the other's arms.]
And I'm not afraid of it. [Not many things scare him so much these days - not when he's had to face things worse than death. But Stark's methods has always been... explosive and Bruce'd rather not risk anything.]
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[He smirked, as he lifted the contraption again.] Then you won't mind if I give this another go?"
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[Says it as plaintively as he can. He doesn't want Stark to be indebted to him, and he doesn't want to owe Stark anything either.
At the question he gives the contraption another glance, and then does his best to not make a face.] Just don't burn anything.
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[Tony adjusted the trigger again, and then a light stream of fire came out of the end of the device. He swept it, once, to the snow. letting it start to melt before he turned it off to keep another fire accident from occuring.]
See? Just kinks.
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As long as you don't cause an actual fire.
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[He melted more snow, and then tucked the device back on his wagon.] There you go, herbs a plenty.
[A pause, and a pointed - ] You're Welcome.
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[His tone is dry, but once the snow is properly cleared Bruce bends down to pick the herbs, only taking the ones that are mature and leaving the growing ones alone.]
But thank you, nonetheless. [Even though he really didn't have to do that at all.]
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[He gave him a bright smile, as he tucked the device away and took the bottle back off his wagon.]
And you're welcome. [He took a swig, leaning against the wagon.] You need a ride?
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I'm alright, thanks. [There's still herbs to pick and all. Not to mention that Bruce doesn't want to hold Stark up to wherever he wants to go.]
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... and the rest of your people are, where? Listen, you're a mage and I've got no doubts you can handle yourself. That you survived makes that clear. But if you don't tell me that you've got some sort of camp, with armed people around? I'm gonna assume I am going to need to get you someplace safe. Like Redcliffe. Me, I'm heading north to the Inquisition, so I'll take you as far as you want to go. Least I can do for the guy who saved my life.
pssst your reserve was Howard not Tony
You're heading to the Inquisition?
[That, he did not expect. It's definitely surprising.]
And edit!
[He took another swig on his bottle.] So come on, I'm burning daylight, Bruce.
\o/
[The confusion is apparent, and Bruce has every reason to be confused - after all clearly they had both gotten out alive, more or less. Was there still somebody after him? Or...]
What happened?
Re: \o/
Fade rifts happened.
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