TEST DRIVE MEME!

[faderifting]

What if there is no tomorrow?

Only more 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 AND NOW ALSO ADDED KINDNESS TO ANIMALS (MOSTLY).

1. IF I GET SCARED, YOU'RE ALWAYS AROUND

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. THEY SAY WE'RE YOUNG AND WE DON'T KNOW

The Inquisition has, possibly, been a little too good at dealing with the Hinterlands' bear problem, and a group of concerned citizens--including young burgeoning naturalists, farmers concerned about the effect an unchecked population of rams may have on their crops come spring, and at least one woman who claims to be directly descended from bears--has taken issue. Maybe they're blocking your character's attempt to enter a bear-infested area. Maybe they've doused your character in bear blood. Maybe the bears they have been working so hard to save have cornered them in the wilderness and they're changing their tunes.

3. WITH YOU I CAN'T GO WRONG

The Inquisition's (cough Leliana's) habit of communicating by raven works out fine, usually, but this particular raven has gone a little rogue. It's not the raven's fault! She's young, she's trying. But she has very important information tied to her leg, and instead of delivering it, she's joined a flock of identical wild ravens to hunt for food in the snow. Recover her, somehow, without hurting her and making any spymistresses angry.

4. BEFORE IT'S EARNED, OUR MONEY'S ALL BEEN SPENT

The tavern at Redcliffe remains as busy as ever, filled with locals, travelers, and Inquisition members. But this month in addition to the usual free-flowing ale and rowdy conversation there is also a contest going on. Bakers have come from across the Hinterlands bearing their very best in an effort to win a coveted ribbon and the title of Best Cake. They pack the tavern and spill out into the surrounding courtyard when the weather allows, cakes sold off tables, out of packs, small chunks given away to whoever is passing and not paying enough attention to refuse. The votes are carefully guarded by several serious looking fellows in the back corner of the tavern. In addition to traffic issues, the cake madness has also caused an infestation of large local rodents, who have appeared out of their holes to devour the many crumbs. Legend has it that if they can be humanely eradicated from the tavern before the final vote is cast, spring will come early. No one in living memory has succeeded, but you are strongly encouraged to try anyway.

5. AIN'T NO HILL OR MOUNTAIN WE CAN'T CLIMB

Hunt game so you can rescue it before other hunters get there, kill demons or maybe just try to hug it out?, dig under the snow for herbs or plant some of your own to replace what others have taken, track bandits through the snow and see if they need a hand, deal with someone charging extortionist coat prices now that it's snowing and convince them to do the right thing, fall off a deceptively tall rock into the snow and admit it was your own fault, 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 so that you can give it a decent burial, climb trees or abandoned towers covered in snow and be careful not to knock them down, rummage around in empty homes to get out of the snow but leave a nice apology note, run from a dragon in the snow and promise not to trespass on its territory again, definitely don't kill any fennec foxes, set up camp and chat around the fire about your feelings because it's snowy and cold, give yourself a pat on the back (figuratively, or even literally if that's more your speed)-- the Hinterlands are your playground.

Comments

[obi_wanmanshow]

For a moment-- only a moment, really, Obi-Wan did a little gawping of his own. Well, that was. That was certainly a new application of the Force. Another Jedi, then? Or merely...

No time to inquire. Swiftly he turned to face the latest wave, and let the natural rhythm of the fight move him back and away. Perhaps proximity was the answer? Certainly the... creatures seemed to come from that central point. The green gap in space seemed to pause, like it was taking a breath, and he risked a glance at his mysterious friend.

"They just keep coming! Any ideas?" She seemed not to have died, at least. That was something, "Or shall we try running?"

[sunshinethroughgrey]

Bethany swung her staff around, moving to take care of the demons that were trying to corner them in by using a cone of cold around them, freezing them out in a wave. Then she followed it up with a Maker's Fist, shattering them into a million different bloody fragments.

She called out to the man, holding her staff as she looked around at the demons, "I'm not sure if you're powerful enough -- but hold up the shard to the Rift. Concentrate on it, and try to close it with your mind!"

[obi_wanmanshow]

For a moment he looks at her, utterly confused under his furrowed eyebrows, and then-- Ah, "Right."

He does as instructed, focusing his mind on closing the shuddering, crystalline light. It seems to shudder, but he's no novice: the trained will of a Jedi Master is not a trifling thing. The Rift resists, shifts, then closes all in a rush.

The silence falls like a blow; the trees are silent, no birdsong, no singing insects, not even the breath of wind.

"Well," Obi-Wan thumbs the handle of his lightsaber, and the blade vanishes, "That was exciting."

[sunshinethroughgrey]

She ... honestly hadn't expected it to work, truth be told. It hadn't before. This man had to have a superior kind of focus, connection with the magic in the world around him. She gave him a faintly impressed look, before she laughs in answer.

"Oh trust me, this is just the start of the fun. Welcome to the Hinterlands, where every moment means something might jump out behind a tree and try to eat you. Welcome to Thedas, by the by. I take it you are not from around these parts."

[obi_wanmanshow]

"No, I'd say not," Obi-Wan drawls, taking in the hills, the snow, the trees and general palatial aire about it all. Is that a fox? "Although if you could point me towards the nearest starport or jump-station, I'd be grateful."

And then, as if remembering himself, he offered his hand in greeting.

"Forgive my manners; I am Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi."

[sunshinethroughgrey]

Now, Bethany is going to give him something of a puzzled look, before she speaks more slowly, "I ... apologize, ser, but I've never heard of either one of those things."

A pause, before she offered her hand in turn, shaking his firmly.

"Grey Warden Mage Bethany Hawke, it is a pleasure to meet you, Jedi Master Kenobi."

[obi_wanmanshow]

"Please, Obi-wan will do. Or, Master Kenobi, if you'd prefer to be formal," How far out from the Core must they be? Obi-wan has a bad feeling about this, and not just the jangling sense of wrongness that his Force-sense is feeding him.

This is not a place he belongs. Or perhaps, that's just the lingering effects of that... that wound in the air.

"Very well, since you certainly know this place better than I, we'll follow your lead," And he caps this pronouncement with a wry little smile, crinkling at the corners of his eyes, "After you, 'Grey Warden Mage Bethany Hawke.'"

[sunshinethroughgrey]

"Oh, I rarely decide on staying formal." Bethany flashed a grin at him that was warm and dimpled, before she waved her hand. "But only if you call me Bethany. The full title is only to get me free drinks at the tavern."

She grinned again, before gesturing for him to follow her. While they walked, she started to explain, "I don't think you're in your world any more -- we have been having this issue, where people are falling through Rifts -- that is the green tear in the sky -- from all over. I apologize, but I don't know when we'll be able to get you home either."

[obi_wanmanshow]

Interesting turn of phrase: in your world, rather than on. Obi-wan decided not to press the point; regardless of syntax, or reality, he was trapped. Whether he was trapped by these... rifts... or by the simple lack of functional transport was academic: the result was the same.

"I'm sure we'll think of something, eventually," They always do. And anyways, hadn't he been wanting a vacation? No time like the present, "Bethany, you handled yourself very well, back there. I've never seen anything like it."

[sunshinethroughgrey]

Well, honestly, she had yet to have to grasp the concept of 'planets' yet. Different worlds, yes, but she saw them more as different slices of different dimensions than anything else. Either way, she would agree with him. The result was the same.

"Eventually, absolutely. For now though ... there is a war on, and we are in desperate need of the help of the Rifters." She looked over at him, smiling once more, "Thank you! Years of training, finally paying off. I must say though, I have never seen anything like your fighting before. It was like you knew all the movements before they happened - and your sword? I ... I have never seen it's like."

[obi_wanmanshow]

"Ah, this," He unhooked said weapon from its belt-loop, and held it out for examination. It was unassuming in his hand, just a tube of metal, corrugated by the grip, "A lightsaber is a Jedi's weapon. Elegant, yes, but very dangerous in untrained hands. More to its user than anyone they're attacking, I'm quite sure."

A blade forged from live, looped plasma was asking for trouble. Unless you were guided, as so few were, by the Force.

"To answer the rest; I'm not without a few hidden talents of my own. My own years of training paying off, as you say."

[sunshinethroughgrey]

She looked at it curiously, leaning in to examine it from left to right. It certainly was ... metal, but a metal she had never seen before. Seemed to have some round ... metal things on it as well. She wasn't entirely sure what kind of magic allowed the blade to come out - some sort of Spirit Blade, perhaps? But she felt no magic coming off of it. Just heat.

"I see ... we have no Jedi here." A sympathetic look, before she brightened a little, "But we do have mages, which sound familiar. We, ah, rarely get to use interesting swords ... just staffs." And she held hers out for examination in turn. "We use them to focus our abilities."

[obi_wanmanshow]

"We're spread thin enough, true," He agreed, examining Bethany's staff when it was offered. A simple walking stick, seemingly unremarkable but for the ornamentation, and yet... "Curious. I'd like to hear more about this. Perhaps if you have a camp nearby?"

Now here was an interesting idea. The galaxy was an enormous and unceasingly varied place; even after centuries, not all garden worlds had been discovered, let alone explored. The pioneers and surveyors of the world were always finding new oddities, and this... mage business, now that held promising intrigue. Was it a new form of force sensitivity, or just a new word for old tricks? something else entirely?

[sunshinethroughgrey]

"Well, you'll find it's rather thinner here." She twisted the staff this way and that, so he could see the griffon topping it, and the sharp jeweled staff blade on the bottom as well. "In fact we do - and I shall be happy to take you there."

She wondered if the Force was anything like what she did with force magic -- just with more concentrated effort with moving one's body, and other objects, with one's mind. Would it be possible to teach this, as well?