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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]

The staff spins and hits the ground, sending out a spray of cold past the warrior, to freeze the wolves in their tracks. Then the staff whips around again, dropping a shield atop the warrior as she calls out, "If they won't run, well, I suppose we'll make them regret it!"

Then she sees the warrior's face, and her dark eyebrows raise together in shock. She doesn't waste time though, merely gestures with her staff. "Get to it, Hansen! The frost is already starting to melt!"

Clearly, there would be time for warmer greetings after they had taken care of the pack, and whatever had driven it on.

[twelvelabours]

You what, now? That earns a quirked brow, but not a look, because he can recognise the voice.
"Right you are, Hawke," and there's an amused sort of quality to his voice as he sets himself to work, and when a mabari belatedly bolts into the fray as well, his mouth curls into something of a grin.

"Took your bloody time," he mutters to the dog, and Max barks in a way that is a little indignant, because clearly!! He had dog things he was doing. Digging and sniffing and eating, all that important stuff.

Wolves are quick work, next to darkspawn, even if there is something wrong with this situation. Between Max and Herc, there is a mess splattered across the snow and his armour, Max's jaws bloodied with his efforts. Guts and glory, wasn't it? Save for there were a lot of guts and not a lot of glory in just about every day of his life, since even before the Fifth Blight.

Herc has his foot pressed onto one of the beast's ribs, draws out his sword, and looks towards Bethany - only to see that Max is already running over in search of attention. "Glad to see you're still in one piece."

[sunshinethroughgrey]

It is a sad, sad truth, Hercules, but Bethany has a surprising lack of smack-talk for her opponents. Still, what she lacks in good, witty one-liners in battle she makes up for with pure magical talent. She easily moves around both Hercules and Max, her staff and her hand weaving spells one right after another.

It is quick work, and Bethany lets out a quick breath to regain some of her will as she looks around at the ... well. Carnage. She makes a face, shaking her head, "Something has gotten into these animals, and it wasn't blood lust."

She looked up, to see Hercules looking at her. She gave him a dimpled grin, before she knelt down in front of Max, calling out to him, "Come here, you big pup. Did you miss me?"

She rubbed the mabari behind his ears, before looking back at Hercules, "Glad to see that you are, too. Are you on the run as well ... or did you miss the orders from Clarel?"

Or are you here hunting for me? was the unspoken question.

[twelvelabours]

With a shake of his head, Herc looks over the scene. It's barely worth stripping them down for leather or meat, not when things have been so strange, and when the wolves themselves seemed infected by whatever madness was sweeping through Thedas. "It doesn't look like any kind of madness I've ever seen in an animal before," he admits, crouching down for a moment to inspect.

But enough of Herc being boring and serious - of course Max missed Bethany, if his happy yodel-bark is anything to go by, and the way he immediately flops onto his back to request belly rubs, never mind the snow. "That pup'll drool all over you, if you give him half a chance." Max whines a protest, and gets a look from Herc. "You behave yourself, for the lady."

There's a slight tug at the corner of his mouth at the question, and his gaze drops a moment. That it's come to this, their order that is so dedicated to protection tearing itself apart. It's an affront to all that the Wardens are meant to be, what they have stood for and against for centuries past.

"I'd sooner fight for the people looking to end the madness, than against the people who've had my back," he eventually allows, satisfied with the state of Stiker Eureka before returning it to its sheath, one hand resting at the hilt. They are neither of them wearing their uniforms, but Herc might just be the one looking a little worse for wear.

[sunshinethroughgrey]

"It's possession, if I had to take a guess. But I've never known a demon so desperate to connect that they would take over a pack of wolves." Bethany shook her head, dark eyes moving to the forest around them. "We'd best keep an eye out."

So she givs Max his belly rubs, scratching his belly as she slid her gaze over the bushes again, before looking down at the dog with a quiet,, "Well he can drool if he wants. He makes me miss our puppy - but he's with Carver right now. Good thing, too. He needs to be kept out of trouble."

She looks at him solemnly for a moment, before her dimpled smile flashes again. She gives Max another pat on the belly, before rising to her feet. Hooking her staff onto her back, she went over to Hercules and wrapped him into a hug. "Oh Maker, am I glad to hear you say that. I didn't want it to be you, or any of my friends."

[twelvelabours]

A quiet, thoughtful sound, a nod, before Herc moves away from them. "Seven, all up," which is an oddly worded agreement, but an agreement all the same.

Herc has always been happy enough being quiet, save when he has something worth granting voice, and it's a nice break from the usual silence of his travelling to find company. Moreso when it's a known ally, and better again when someone can be counted as a friend. Not all his friends were so talkative as Bethany, mind, but he's no objection to it. Better on long journeys, in his experience.

The hug is more of a surprise, though Herc is glad to return is, laughing quietly as he does. "No worries on that count, at least." And he eases back, hand on Bethany's shoulder. "Where are you headed?"

[sunshinethroughgrey]

Her lips quirked up, honestly of all the phrases she had missed from Lothering, that had to be the oddest. Still, she understood him perfectly. She was becoming quite the translator from gruff into words.

She leaned back away from him, her cheeks slightly pink, "Sorry - it's just been so long since ... well. Since I've seen another one of us who isn't trying to drag me back."

She nodded, off to the North. "Off, to Skyhold. To the Inquisition. I don't know if my sister or brother are there ... but it seems to be the safest place."

guh sorry had a busy couple of days

[twelvelabours]

"I'm never going to turn down a hug," Herc replies with a quiet laugh. "Just don't tell anyone. Hate to mar my rugged reputation." So very conspiratorial, of course, and he is so very in danger of accepting hugs being what will ruin him. Not the song of the Calling, which he has felt on the edge of for so long, and not beautiful women stealing his knives and his coin, no, but hugs.

Hercules' gaze follows her nod, expression sobering a little. Not knowing where family was, that could be about the worse thing. One is his hands grasps Bethany's shoulder, heavy, as if reassurance or solidarity could be offered through contact. "We can travel there together."

Totally understandable!

[sunshinethroughgrey]

"Oh, of course not. Your deadly secret weakness to hugs shall die with me." She crossed her heart, before she made a face, "And I really hope that doesn't become literal any time soon." Because she would rather much not die, thank you.

She looks back at him, as his hand comes down on her shoulder. She smiles, covering his hand with her own, squeezing tightly, "Thank you, Herc. I admit, I feel better when we travel together."

[twelvelabours]

It's enough to get a grin from him, even in these grim circumstances, and he's about to say thank you when Max interrupts with a loud, cheery bark and a whine at Bethany's joke - those Mabari and their understanding things. "We haven't forgotten about you, mate," Herc says with a roll of his eyes, shaking his head at Bethany because, really, he can't take this bloody dog anywhere. And then, to Bethany: "Don't worry, I'll out my secret if I must."
What better way to keep someone safe than talk about hugs, eh?

"Then we're agreed." Max runs around them, barking happily, and Herc gives Bethany's hand a final squeeze before drawing away. "I went by Redcliffe, earlier today. Do you need to gather anything, there, or push on?"

He did not, admittedly, think to stock up on lyrium potions or anything of the sort.

[sunshinethroughgrey]

Bethany looked down at Max, a smile appearing on her face as she ran her hand over his soft, bristled fur. "Absolutely haven't forgotten about you. Who is going to protect me from all the wolves out here? I know I can only count on you, Max." She dimpled, then looked back up at Herc, "Oh good. Nothing to be ashamed of in a hug. Especially since I give such uncommonly good ones."

She shook her head, hefting her own bag. "I already have. They had more than plenty, what with all the mages already traveling to the Inquisition."

A look around. "And we'd best get going - the sun will fade soon and we'll have to find shelter out of the cold for the night."