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allthisshitisweird2016-03-02 10:14 pm
faderifting) wrote in allthisshitisweird2016-03-02 10:14 pm
Entry tags:
TEST DRIVE MEME
A kingdom of isolation, and it looks like
it's the 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. WILL IT EVER BE WARM AGAIN WE JUST DON'T KNOW
1. AND THE BEARS THAT ONCE CONTROLLED ME CAN'T GET TO ME AT ALL
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. In case you hadn't guessed, it's still snowy.
2. LET IT GO
At first it sounds like a folktale, passed around tavern hearths and campfires after a few too many tankards. An evil witch with a heart of ice atop a frigid mountain fortress, casting endless winter upon the land, turning those who oppose her into snowmen. But it turns out it's true-- or at least partly. Maybe. Sort of. If you can weed through the stories, the common threads are these: several locals and travelers claim to have been accosted on the back roads through the hills by a female mage who used ice magic to trap them and steal their belongings, sometimes freezing solid those who tried to fight back. Some said she claimed to own the land, others that she was collecting a toll, and several that she cackled wildly about ranted about endless winter. Whichever version you choose to believe, there seems to be an apostate who needs dealing with. Perhaps you'd like to wander the roads in the guise of a wealthy traveler and lure her into an ambush? Scout the caves in the hills and try to track her to her lair? Make a friendly visit and recruit her to the Inquisition?
3. LET IT GO
The Hinterlands are dotted with lakes and ponds and streams, nearly all of which are frozen solid. The locals sometimes travel this way, pushing goods across on sledges, or strapping blades to the bottoms of their boots to skate, carrying messages and supplies or just racing when the weather is clear. Some enterprising souls have even attached sails to their sleds or runners to their rowboats and skitter across the ice hoping not to tip over or stray off-course into rocks. There are other hazards, too: in some places the ice is deceptively thin, and you may come across a stranger unlucky enough to have lost a boot or gotten a leg stuck or fallen through altogether. Maybe you're the unlucky one, treading icy water and calling for help.
4. I AM ONE WITH THE BLAH BLAH BLAAAAAH
The tavern at Redcliffe is rid of both cakes and rats, but is still filled to the brim with rowdy drunks. Tonight they are both rowdier and drunker than usual, and something sets someone off. Maybe it's you, maybe it's the guy next to you, maybe it's someone all the way across the room and you don't even see it happen, but suddenly the entire place is engulfed in a knock-down drag-out glass-smashing chair-swinging bar fight. Dive right in, pick a side, pick no side, get caught off-guard, hide under a table, try to sneak out, it's up to you but you'd better decide quickly.
5. THE COLD NEVER BOTHERED ME ANYWAY
Hunt game, or kill demons, dig under the snow for herbs, track bandits, open a streetside scarf stand in Redcliffe, 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, climb trees or abandoned towers covered in snow, rummage around in empty homes to get out of the snow, run from a dragon, definitely don't kill any fennec foxes, set up camp and chat around the fire, sing a rousing solo about your love of the weather, do whatever the hell you want-- the Hinterlands are your endless frozen playground.
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More like woke up in the snow, but I won't rule out falling from the sky at this point either.
[ He frowned at the idea there were others like him, people pulled from other regions of space and dropped here. Was it a phenomena? He didn't see a native like Malcolm - and be assumed he was native - having the technological means to do it themselves. ]
And it's just me as far as I know, Mr....?
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Seeker Malcolm Reed, ser. If you can stand the cold for much longer, perhaps we shall ride to the Crossroads? To at lease procure you a blanket or a coat. [He doesn't make it a habit to bring anything more than absolutely necessary if he's out by himself. And he's not sleeping out here on his own.] Skyhold is in the mountains where it's even colder, believe it or not, but rest assured that the castle sits on hot springs to make it much more temperate within the castle grounds.
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[ With all the running for his life, he hasn't had much time to take stock of any physical changes to himself. He frowned and looked down at his hands, jerking somewhat in shock when he did, indeed, see a bit of what looked like a green gem in his palm. What the hell? How had that gotten there? And from the sounds of it anyone who popped into this world like he had had one too. Gingerly he brushed it with the tips of his fingers, wincing at how swollen and sore it felt. Damn it, where was Bones when he needed him?
Whatever it was, it would have to wait for later. He'd get no answers if he froze to death and that was definitely not on his list of ways he wanted to die. Right up there with being bear chow. ]
I'd appreciate the help, Seeker. And whatever I can do to pay you back, I will.
[ He kicks his way out of the drift and into shallower snow, coming to stand closer to Malcolm and his horse. He touched the animal and nearly sighed for how warm the beast felt, especially to frozen fingers. ]
Lead on if you would, Seeker Reed.
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Just Jim is fine.
[ He wasn't scared of riding, but he had to admit it had been awhile since he had ridden anything alive and with a mind of its own. Riding a motorcycle was nothing like riding a horse. But following on foot in the snow would prove tiresome rather quickly and he was sure come with a frostbite on at least one toe. Not the best way to start his stay on a new planet. So he gripped Malcolm's hand and somehow got himself on the back of the horse, perhaps much less gracefully than he would have hoped, but at least he was on. He slid his arms around Malcolm's waist, already grateful for the warmth of the horse between his legs and Malcolm's back. ]
So, tell me more about this "Skyhold", will you? So far I have it's a castle built on top of hot springs and its home to people like me. What was the term you used? Rifters?
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Or we would be, if there was any peace to keep. The world is...chaotic, at the moment. And we are the only force on this continent content to do something sensible about it all.
Skyhold itself is still in a bit of disrepair, but given the previous headquarters was destroyed, it's a fair sight better. [He presumes. He hadn't been to Haven while the Inquisition was there, though he'd been through the area perhaps once before, or twice. What a shame...]
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[ Kirk listened quietly as he adjusted to the rolling walk of the horse. From the sounds of it, the Fade could very well be a sort of rip in space-time. They were rare and dangerous, but the Enterprise has only just left on its mission. He didn't think there was one reported within so close a range of several major systems. And it didn't explain the gem in his hand. ]
Chaotic how? As in a lot of wars going on, or does it have something to do with the Fade I'm supposed to have come through?
[ He needed as much information as he could get now, so he would not be quite so flat footed when they made it to this Skyhold, where he suspected he would be bargaining for quite a few things. Something called the Inquisition didn't exactly inspire images of mercy and helpfulness, though he had to remind himself that that was personal Earth history biased. And that whatever was translating for him could just be substituting the closest word he would understand. ]
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One time is an accident, two times is coincidence, and three times is murder.
[ Well, this was a hell of a mess he'd gotten himself into and he wasn't even sure he could reach the Enterprise. Did they know he was gone? Could they even do anything about? No point in pondering the what ifs, just do what he could in the moment. Which was cling a bit tighter to Malcolm when he felt himself slide a bit to much to one side. ]
I have a feeling I'm going to need those hot springs once we get to Skyhold.
[ His thighs would be burning later, he could feel it. His legs were not meant to spent so extended a period apart. ]
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[The dog trotting alongside looks up at Malcolm with first a look of pure attention before lapsing into a doggy grin.]
You would like the company.
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[ Kirk looked down at the dog and wrinkled his nose at her. She would like to see him suffer. She had been far to amused by his fall into the snow, he was sure. ]
I think I'll take my chances back here. I have a feeling my boots will need to last me once we get where we're going. But, yes, horses aren't exactly my speed. We didn't even have any when I lived on my uncle's farm.
[ Idly conversation, inane even, but it was soothing in its own right as he watched the scenery drift by. With every crunch of the horse's hooves into snow, it sunk in that he was definitely very, very far from home. ]
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[Malcolm is not normally one for idle chatter, but it will fill time. And help him get to know a Rifter. He inherently doesn't trust them, but he'd like to give them a chance.] Cattle, then? Rams, druffalo perhaps? Or just crops on yours and not much else?
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I think I can still count myself lucky. Everything is pretty much luckier than zombies.
[ He didn't really believe in them, but what the hell did he know? Strange new world, ravenous bears - the most dangerous thing he could do would be to dismiss what Malcolm was telling him. ]
No, we were just crops, though I can't say my Uncle had much of a green thumb. We rotated what we grew each season - helps the soil and all.
What's a druffalo?
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Druffalo, they're big, shaggy, horned, thick-headed, not very bright, slow grazers until you annoy one. I don't have to tell you what to do when an angry animal of any kind comes charging at you. Apparently.
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[ Huh. Sounded like a buffalo then, but he was willing to bet it differed somehow, like those bears that had been trying to eat him. Well, he thought it was eat him. Either way he wanted nothing to do with them. ]
Survival 101: Don't let the angry animal catch you.