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[faderifting]

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.

Comments

[sunshinethroughgrey]

"Well yes of course you saw. You can see a seagull riding across the waves on a cloudy day." Bethany couldn't help the quiet tease, taking up a wooden spoon to dip into the stew. It was rather like Gamlin's cooking, if she didn't think about what was in it she would be just fine.

At his question, she sighed and shrugged her shoulders. She appreciated Nathaniel's protection of her -- it was justified. She had also been bitter when she had been been brought into the Wardens, her life cut short by how many years. Yet as time passed, as she focused more on the mission and in turn, was able to connect with both her sister and brother again, she had found that she could forgive and appreciate what her sister had done to save her.

Beyond that, her brothers and sisters in the Wardens looked out for one another. They showed that in sacrifice, they did not truly stand alone, even to the last. Which was why Clariel's actions were so ... strange. And frightening.

"I'm worried, Nathaniel." She murmured, staring down at her bowl. "I keep thinking of all those who didn't leave when we did. All those who did, but we haven't heard from. What is happening?" She paused, then sighed, "And I'm worried about my sister and brother. What is happening with the Rifts probably has them both swept up by now."
"I'm worried."

[pinprick]

"So am I." Nathaniel's sister is likely still in Amaranthine, along with his ten-year-old nephew. Unlike the Hawkes, they are unlikely to march to the forefront of the action. Also unlike the Hawkes, they could be sought out by the Grey Wardens if Clarel is crazy enough. Fergus said he would do what he could for them, at least.

"But this isn't the first time we've been at the desperate end of a worst-case scenario, both of us."

He turns a winking smile to her, just a flash for her eyes alone.

"We know what to do."

[sunshinethroughgrey]

She looks up at that, and reaches across the table to put her hand over his. "She's going to be fine. They both are. Clarel may be willing to sacrifice us but she's going to pull the line at hurting innocents."

At least Maker, Bethany hoped so. Or their leader had fallen farther than either one of them had realized.

She caught his winking smile, and one corner of her mouth dimpled up. "Yes, but that's usually because we were following someone into danger. This time, we're running away from it." She paused, then said with a touch of wryness, "And ... right into the larger fire. Forget I said anything, this is just like old times."

[pinprick]

"She would. I have less faith in this Erimond bastard, and how much or how little he'll tell her."

The corners of his eyes crinkle at her other words.

"You have the way of the hunted pariah already."

[sunshinethroughgrey]

She nodded her head gravely at that, still squeezing his hand tight. "We have to get to the Inquisition -- we have to warn them about Erimond. He's dangerous, and he needs to be stopped."

She gave him a bright smile, pure dimples. "Yes, plenty of practice. If we just had Carver here to complain about the weather, I would think I was eighteen again."

[pinprick]

"Maker, don't say things like that. Makes me feel old." Bethany looks like a pup to him, and she's talking about age eighteen like it was ages ago.

[sunshinethroughgrey]

"Oh, you'll always been the grumpy young Warden archer to me, Nathaniel." She dimpled at him again, but the world was a different place than when she was only eighteen. She's twenty-eight now, nearly twenty-nine. Eleven years since she and her family had run from the Blight, and nine years she had been a Warden. Sometimes it felt like forever ago, and some days it felt like yesterday.

[pinprick]

It's true, it's only been nine years. It feels like twenty, and yet he can't believe nine years are already gone. Most of his life's memories are now with the Wardens. There haven't been as many as he hoped for. His eyes are still crinkled, but he quietly reminds her:

"Mind your words. Someone could get the wrong idea."

The W-word, in particular. They are not Wardens in public.

[sunshinethroughgrey]

Dark eyes widened, and then closed as her cheeks flushed with embarrassment.

"Maker's Breath ...someone would, wouldn't they? And me getting above my station other than a common mercenary. Good thing I haven't actually got any big secrets to tell." Oh, outside of being a Mage. And a Hawke. Now a secret Warden.

[pinprick]

Besides a few understandable hiccups, Bethany has adjusted to the vaguespeak of being on the run quite well. Frankly, even the slip-ups are worth much less than being on the road with her. He's glad he can keep her nearby, look after her, and enjoy her company. She may make him feel old, but she imparts some of the vitality of youth as to keep him going.

"Everyone has secrets, Beth."

[sunshinethroughgrey]

"Oh you might. You're one of those grizzled, mysterious fellows that my friend used to love to write about." She curled her hand around her wine, taking a drink to hide her smile.

"Me, I'm as boring as they come. Just with a wild imagination."

[pinprick]

...Okay, no, she is really bad at this. It might actually be less conspicuous if they wore uniforms and pretended not to be rogue Wardens. Changing the subject.

"Should we stay the night, or get in a few more hours on the road?"

[sunshinethroughgrey]

She really is. Undeniably honest, was Bethany Hawke. She paused, before she looked outside, then back at him.

"There will be a foot of snow on the ground overnight. It will be safer to travel in the morning." She breathed in, looking around wistfully. "So, we should probably just eat, and go to sleep."

[pinprick]

As much as he hates to admit it, she's right. Sleeping in a foot of snow while it's still falling is not great.

"Food and floor it is." He pours himself wine and takes a swig. That's the only way to drink Rite Wine. "It'll be good to have a roof over our heads." They haven't had that since Highever.

[sunshinethroughgrey]

She dipped the bread in her bowl, taking a bite before she looked around the tavern again.

"Is it strange? This place makes me homesick." Homesick for the The Hanged Man. Varric would laugh until he fell to the floor. Maker she missed him.

[pinprick]

"Yes. Though I'm of rather unsound mind when it comes to Kirkwall."

[sunshinethroughgrey]

She looks over at him again, her dark eyes sad, before she reaches out and grabs his hands again. "Don't. It's done and past. You have to stop beating yourself up over this."

[pinprick]

"I've hated Kirkwall since before he ever went there," he tries, but she's right. He gives her hand a squeeze. "I could've stopped it all. Prevented everything. Do you think the Maker will judge me less than him? But you're right. It's done."

He's made peace with this.

[sunshinethroughgrey]

"Well that's fair. Everyone who isn't Varric hates Kirkwall." She says with an almost straight face, but her dark eyes roam over his. "The Maker will not judge you for trying to do the right thing. His actions were ... scrambled, but not by you."

[pinprick]

He shakes his head.

"He wouldn't have been possessed by Justice if it weren't for me." He's told her this before. She's the only person he's ever shared it with. He doesn't look upset by this, just...adding another crime he didn't prevent to the pile. How he convinced Justice that it wouldn't be so bad to possess a living host, something Justice had thought despicable before. If you gave instead of taking, I would consider you no demon.

[sunshinethroughgrey]

"If we're really going to blame ourselves for things we said off-hand? Then I suppose I am to blame for my mother's murder, because if I never convinced my sister to go and get our birthright back, she never would have been brought to the attention of that madman." She said quietly, looking at him directly. "They were both idiots. You only had the best intentions for both."