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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 your ~~Frostback Mountain~~ oyster, topped with snow.

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Bethany's eyebrows rose, but she worked with enough archers and battle situations (thank you, big sister!), to know when to fall back a little to let the archers have their targets. Or rather, archer.

Nathaniel wasn't going to be pleased she picked up a friend, but what was she to do? Leave the couple to demon-possessed wolves? Absolutely not. She'd never forgive herself if she let innocents die.

She glanced over at the archer - a ...strangely dressed woman, before she gestured to the wolves. "Go for the ones further out from the flames! They haven't been touched yet!"

Another shield snapped up around both of them, as she went into the satchel at her side for a lyrium potion.

Lara tried not to look at the staff as the woman cast - focus, Lara - willing herself keep her attention on the danger. She could ask later.

"Where's the demon?" she called back, sidestepping as she drew again and took aim.

Focusing was good. It was what Bethany was doing, after all. She lifted her staff once more, brown eyes searching the darkness.

"Out there, I suspect. Once we create a hole between these blighted beasts, we can finish off the demon itself."

She frowned as she considered her actions, and decided going with a standard would be best. So up her hand went, then brought the staff down hard on the ground, showering out ice to freeze the beasts into place so the woman could hopefully bring them to a shattered end.

And so she did, the once vital wolves splintering and cracking into white-blue pieces as her arrows struck them. A clever trick for sure. She could have used this woman a few days ago, when she was trudging through the wild mountains of Siberia, the wolves waiting seemingly every time she turned around.

"Can you do that one again?" she asked as the last wolf-sculpture shattered and the remaining members of the pack ducked into the trees (likely to try and circle, she moved to follow them).

Bethany sucked in a breath, feeling her energy returning to her as the woman finished off the wolves, one by one. She glanced over at her, before her lips quirked up.

"Now that I've had a chance to breath, absolutely. Let's just be cautious - we don't know what's beyond the bushes." She followed after the girl, making sure to throw up another shield, her staff at the ready. "I hope those people got away safely ... did you see them heading for the main road?"

"They were going the right direction," Lara replied quietly, her head tipped slightly to try and catch any noise over their voices and the crunch of snow. "I crossed it on my way to you."

She didn't like not knowing where the demon was. She'd learned the hard way just what they were capable of, and the other one that had gotten out of sight had--

"Oh shit!" Her feet were suddenly torn out from underneath her, the ground opening and the leering, skeletal beast leaped up in a flash of sickly green light.

"Maker be praised - young people who listen." Bethany said with a faint smile, before it faded into a more serious expression. "Right, let's hunt the demon down - "

She lets out a gasp as the demon explodes out from the ground, knocking the other woman to her back. Still, hesitation in battle was the difference between a dead Warden and a dead Darkspawn, so her arm came up and ice came out of the end of her staff, freezing the demon in it's place while she prepared a fire spell.

"Roll out of the way, quickly!"

She didn't think, muscle memory and instinct and the woman's words guided her out of the way. Tucking her limbs in, she rolled to the side out of the immediate path of the demon and then up onto her feet, already reaching for her bow even as she unfolding.

"Do it!"

Bethany tucked her staff behind her, balancing her body as she raised her fist up in the air. She found the will, dragging it through the Veil to take the force of magic down on the demon like a hammer from the Heavens themselves. The demon shattered into a thousand pieces, frozen shards flying across in a blood soaked splatter.

She swung her staff back around, before she turned to the young woman, concern flashing over her face, "Are you all right? Were you hurt?"

"I'm fine," Lara shook her head, eyeing the frozen chunks speculatively before slipping the bow back over her shoulders. She brushed snow from her armor and ran a hand quickly over her hair in case any demon had gotten in it, then her eyes turned to the other woman, no less curious.

She'd been told about the magic, and the people who welded it, but seeing the impossible made real was always an experience.

"That's really impressive."

"Oh, good. I've got a pretty controlled circle of effect on that particular spell, but it's always better to be safe than sorry." Bethany gave her a cheerful smile, as she leaned on her staff and caught her breath.

"Thank you! It's all in the wrist. Oh, and loads and loads of practical practice." Her smile was a touch secretive, before she went to offer her hand, "Beth, from the Circle of Lothering. Who are you?"

Circle, she recognized from her (far too brief) history lesson - the place where mages were trained; but Lothering, not so much. (She resisted the urge to pull out her copy of the map to check.)

"Lara," she replied. "I'm--"

She hesitated a moment, recalling the warning to be cautious. Even if they had just helped each other, there was always the chance that could change. She reached to take the hand carefully.

"Not from around here."

Edited 2016-01-09 14:35 (UTC)

Most people didn't even remember Lothering, and didn't know enough about the Circles to know there had never been one there. Bethany used it for her cover, and it worked more than well.

"Well, I guess that makes two of us." She gave the other woman a smile, before she looked around, "Did you come here with a group of people? If you have a camp, you should return to it."

"I'm here with the Inquisition," Lara explained with a breath (saying it was still something she was getting used to). "They heard about the wolves, and the demons, and they're trying to stabilize the region."

Among other things.

"Are you going to be alright?" she asked, Beth's obvious talent aside.

"The Inquisition?" Bethany suddenly brightens at that, "Well, you're just the organization I was looking for. I've come to join."

... and find her fellow wardens, but that's besides the point.

"Once I've got my energy back up." She stated, smiling a little wearily, "Fighting demons and wolves isn't something that I usually do."

"Really?" Lara's eyebrows went up. Given how she herself had sought out the Inquisition, it wasn't unusual, but still a little surprising.

She paused a moment, looking at Beth again, then she turned and pointed, "Their closest camp is in that direction, by the lake. I think they're going to be here for a while."

"Yes, really." It was going to be the best place to find her sister and her brother. She could trust Carver to find where the adventure was, and her sister? Would naturally be in the thick of everything.

She looked in that direction, and dimpled at the other woman. "Thank you -- you're too kind. Do you need help getting back to your own camp, or are you on patrol?"

Lara's mouth twitched gently. "And I didn't offer to walk with you yet," she joked softly. "I was tracking the wolves. I don't -- really understand everything that's happening here yet, but that I know I can help with. Now that they're gone..."

She was free to head back, at least until another report came in.

"Would you like me to show you?"

"Oh, well, I was going to offer to walk with you ... " She grins, dimples flashing as she looks sheepish. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to take over your mission."

She stood up straight.

"I would be delighted, actually, and if you need someone to go through another round? I'd be happy to help."

Lara shook her head.

"You aren't. I offered to help wherever I could, so this is part of it." Then she smiled and nodded her chin toward the still frozen chunks of demon. "And I will definitely take that kind of help in return. That is amazing."

Bethany shrugged her shoulders, her tone a little sheepish. "Well, as they say, 'magic is meant to serve man'. Fairly certain demon destruction falls firmly in that category."

She dipped into a faint bow, "After you, fellow warrior of wolves."

A soft snort; a low laugh.

"I can't say I disagree, whether they do or not," she said.

Turning, she gestured for Bethany to follow.

"This way."

"What, man or magic? Both are something of an unpredictable thing." Bethany joked, as she followed after the woman. "So how did you come to join the Inquistion, Lara?"

"Either," Lara replied with a small, amused lift of her shoulders, armor clinking gently.

At the question, she paused, considering carefully before looking back at Beth.

"...I need help, and the Inquisition seems like the only thing that can."

"Oh, I would have to agree with that. Of course I would have to say that about us too." She looked at the other woman, tilting her head to the side.

"...Well, I suppose that makes two of us." Maker knew she could use help trying to find her sister and Carver.

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