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

[doneisdone]

"Every Templar for miles is going to see this and know there's an apostate here for the slaughter," Teren informed her, "aye, I'd put it out if I were you. Start a proper fire, child, then all you'll have to worry about is the bears."
She cast a glance over her shoulder and up, listening. They were alone, for now, though she was prepared to disappear if anyone else arrived.

[bookish_lioness]

She didn't know how to respond to that. At all. Templar? Apostate? Slaughter?

"Er-... I don't know what you think I am, but I'm not an apostate," she brought up, even if she did move to extinguish the flame. The prospect of being slaughtered didn't sit well with her. "I know about the bears, though, and I'd frankly rather not deal with them. Is there a village nearby? Or perhaps I can build a regular fire while you tell me about these Templars."

[doneisdone]

Heartened by the girl's willingness to listen, Teren approached a few more steps, then stooped to crouch across the smoking embers and offer her a flint.
"You're one of them who came from the rifts, aren't you," she guessed, still unsmiling but not entirely unkind, "aye, there's a small trading village not too far from here, and Redcliffe, though the times have been rough on them and I've heard tell the mage revolt is in full force there." She watched Hermione build the fire in whatever way she chose, not interrupting unless it appeared the girl needed help.

"Templars are the mage hunters, and you'd do well to hide any magic inclinations until you're safely out of here. They've all been battling it out for weeks, 'round here, after one mage saw fit to blow up a chantry."

[bookish_lioness]

She accepted the flint, though she would be able to start a fire easily enough without it. She was about to say as much, too, but then that guess gave her pause. "You mean this," she asked quietly without really needing to ask, looking down at the palm of her hand. "I thought it was a Killing Curse when I first saw it, even though it couldn't have been. I thought this was all a dream. I think part of me still does... though I don't imagine I'd be as sore as I am if that were the case."

Sighing softly and hoping that she'd get some viable answers sooner rather than later, she got out her wand, casting a quick Incendio on a small gathering of kindling to start an easy fire. At least she could still do simple spells without making too much of a fool of herself.

After quietly processing everything the other woman was telling her, she looked up and asked her, "Then... mages are witches and wizards, and these Templars hunt them? Why? Aside from one of them blowing up a church?"

Persecution against wizards and witches wasn't unheard of, but considering that she'd just come from a world where it was the non-magical individuals and their brethren who'd until recently been in the most danger, it seemed like a bit of a switch.

[doneisdone]

Teren didn't know these terms-- Killing Curse, Incendio-- and she watched the girl with narrowed eyes, still not showing alarm over the difference in language. She'd heard of these folk coming through the holes in the sky, though this was only her second encounter with one.

"No, child, a witch is another thing," she answered brusquely, "often a mage outside the Circle, a woman who practices primal magics. And I know not the term wizard, but what you've done here is the work of magi." She cast a glance around again, always listening. "The Templars are their keepers, holding them in towers and away from the common folk, for their protection and ours. Not that protection has much to do with it anymore, not these days."

[bookish_lioness]

Hermione blinked at the response, not so much for its brusqueness, but for the incomprehensible information it contained. A witch was a specific type of magic user here? And no one knows what a wizard is? And, most importantly, "They're being locked away? Is it just for knowing magic or because they'd done something? I can understand it if they'd actively done something wrong, but if they hadn't, surely there's no reason to keep them locked up!"

[doneisdone]

Teren watched the girl measuredly. She understood, in a way, that a foreigner might not quite comprehend why they did the things they did here in Thedas-- and now that she considered it, there was no gentle way to explain.
"I don't presume to know the ways of mage and templar," she said, "but I expect it's to do with demons, and their ease of possessing the unwitting."

[bookish_lioness]

Again, this raised more questions than what it answered. Though she knew about the Judeo-Christian idea of demons and possession and all that sort of thing (of which she had no proof and so could only assume it was superstition), all demons were in her world were a class of magical creature, and as far as she knew, they didn't go around possessing people. Hurting them, yes. Killing them, certainly, if one couldn't leave their territory in time. But possession?

"I'm afraid I don't understand," she said carefully. "Do templars think that anyone who can use magic is possessed by a demon?"

[doneisdone]

Teren sighed. If nothing else, the rifters would be a bother for how little they knew of the world.

"Can be possessed," she corrected, "if they were all possessed outright, either they'd all be dead or we would."

[bookish_lioness]

"And non-magical people can't be possessed?" she asked, knowing that she was wearing thin on this woman's nerves but still needing to know all she could about her current situation. "But surely no mage would want to be possessed? Can't they learn how not to be?"

After all, that's what schools like Hogwarts exist for, to make sure children grow up knowing how to be responsible about their magic.

[doneisdone]

"...that's why the Circles exist," Teren explained, but was beginning to question the whole thing in her mind. She had seen non-mages possessed, but they were the ones who'd do the most damage under the influence of demons. "But I can't claim to know all that much about it, not being a mage myself."

[bookish_lioness]

Considering that for a few moments, Hermione tilted her head curiously as she eyed her. "If you're not a mage, and Templars are known to keep non-mages safe from magic, shouldn't you be more wary of me? I mean, you have no reason to be, of course - I'm not particularly dangerous unless someone's life is at stake - but it just seems as though magic is generally more... controlled here. It doesn't set you on edge?"

[doneisdone]

Teren watched her carefully, a small smile playing onto her thin mouth. She shook her head.
"I know a desperate apostate when I see one, child," she explained, "had that been the case, I would not have approached at all."

[bookish_lioness]

"An apostate meaning... an unruly mage?" she asked, putting the proper definition of the word in context as best as she could. "Are they generally dangerous, or are they just anti-Templar?"

[doneisdone]

"A mage outside the Circle," Teren corrected, "and there are as many views as there are apostates. But of late, many have gone against Templars, and the fighting has been bloody." She uncorked her waterskin and took a pensive sip from it. "...can't say I entirely blame them, though they can be dangerous to meet these days."

[bookish_lioness]

Frowning deeply as she parsed it all out, Hermione remarked, "Well... all things considered, I suppose I could be thought of as an apostate, insofar as I'm a magic user without a Circle. But if there's fighting going on, it's a good thing that you came across me rather than anyone who would think ill of me for that. Thank you, then."

Realizing that she hasn't made proper introductions, she offered, "I'm Hermione Granger."

[doneisdone]

Teren took her hand and gripped it firmly. "Teren von Skraedder," she replied, "of the Grey Wardens."

[and we can probably leave it there since we're in now? :O may we meet again]

[bookish_lioness]

Managing a small smile as she shook her hand, Hermione replied, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Ms. von Skraedder." She might not know what the Grey Wardens are, but she's going to assume that could be a conversation for another time.

[Yes, definitely! Hermione's going to have all the questions! :D]