allthisshitisweird | 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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Shaking her head, Korrin grins at getting a laugh out of him, however subdued. A minor victory is still something. "Warrants for who? No one saw us that was willing to rat us out. Officially, we departed earlier in the day. Hell, for some of the company, that was even true. We just left, caught up to them and behaved as though we'd never left. Shokrakar -our leader- didn't say anything afterward, but she kept smirking at us. She knew."

"Your crew was lucky! I can only imagine the sentencing for that kind of villainy," he noted with a smile that slanted around his pipe. He paused, took another drink... and seemed to struggle a moment with something. He looked like a man wondering at the wisdom of what he meant to say.

"Sokrakrr... Am I saying it right?"

"Almost! Shokrakar. It means 'rebel', fitting for someone who escaped the Qun. She's the strongest person I know, not to let that crap break her down. I was damn lucky to get recommended to her; none of the other groups I worked with really compare."

Which isn't to say that some of them weren't fun in their own way, but the Valo-Kas is family.

"Shokrakar," he clarified, letting the consonants roll off his tongue like something new and pleasant to taste. "'Rebel'." He seemed to pause as if to commit all this to memory.

"I've never seen or heard of such a thing; but I suppose if slaves can escape the Imperium, than others might flee the Qun. Is it ha--" he paused, corrected himself after puffing thoughtfully on his pipe, "What grew your interest in the work? And why.. of all places.. here?"

That he bothers to ask about the pronunciation and correct himself raises him a little higher in Korrin's estimation. She's not used to people caring enough about her kind to bother with getting the details right. Then again, if anyone else knows what it's like to live on the fringes of a human-dominated society, it would be an elf.

Staring into her drink for a moment, she then takes a lengthy swig before finally answering. "Some of my company were attending Divine Justinia's Conclave, as security. They died like everyone else did when the Breach happened...except the Herald, of course. I was nearby, working another job. I couldn't just turn my back after what happened, so I stuck around. Not just for their sakes, but for mine. I live in this world, too, you know. It'd be pretty inconvenient if Corypheus ruins it all."

His brows drew together, and his eyes widened a little as he considered her more seriously, lowering the pipe.

"Maker's breath. I heard--" Demons, dead, dark things, so much magic, and the world's been falling apart ever since... His mouth had gone too dry, and the tavern felt suddenly far too dark. But he sucked in a breath, and looked down at his own hands.

"I'm.. very sorry. I know it's... coming from a stranger, all but insignificant. And I think that's... that staying, like you are, for the reasons you are... it's very noble."

Korrin nods grimly, knowing well enough what he must have heard about the Temple of Sacred Ashes. Even those who weren't on the scene afterward -or withing spitting distance of a rift- only had to look up at the sky to know that something horrific had happened. The images never quite left her, though she won't get into detail with anyone other than those who were also there and understand. Some horrors need not be shared.

Upon being called 'noble' she shrugs and smiles, appreciating the compliment even as it doesn't fit her, from her viewpoint. "It's pragmatic, but...thank you. I know how to fight, have been doing it all my life. Going back up north would be a waste, especially since you know that shit will spread if left unchecked. I'm not a fan of running away from problems when they're only going to bite me in the ass later."

TEST DRIVE MEME

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sorry for the wait! work has been intense these last few days!

no problem!