Test Drive Meme!

[faderifting]

You'll Never Leave the Hinterlands Alive*

Welcome to Fade Rift's very first Test Drive Meme! Use one of the prompts below or make up your own, and tag around! Have fun, try out the setting, generate samples for your app, coerce your friends into joining you.

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, early fall finds 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.

1. In the Deep Dark Hills of Western Ferelden

You have turned the wrong corner, forded the wrong stream, crested the wrong hill, entered the wrong cave. Maybe you are far from camp. Maybe you are in camp. Whatever has happened, wherever you are: you are being chased by bears. Did you provoke the bears? Are they huge? Babies? Fade-touched? Mage-controlled? What are they chasing you away from? What are they chasing you into? What do you plan to make out of their hide if you kill them? What do you think they'll craft out of your hide if they kill you?

2. There I Read on a Hillside Gravestone

The rebel mages and renegade templars have ravaged the Hinterlands, skirmishes breaking out all over. It looks like you've just missed one-- great spikes of ice melt slowly in the cool autumn sunlight and patches of grass and trees have been scorched away. Three bodies are scattered about, two templars and one mage judging by their clothing. You could bury them. Or search their pockets. Or track their friends. Or all of the above, if you're feeling industrious.

3. Won't You Walk With Me Out the Mouth of this Holler

Whatever task you were actually sent out here to do, you are going to be late. One-Eyed Jimmy asked so nicely for your help finding his prize ram, Lord Woolsley. It's been in the family for years, so smart for a ram, it's a good luck charm, their business has boomed with it around, and it's lived for so long, he just can't abide thinking of it getting eaten by some mangy apostate. And then he went and offered you money, too. How could you say no? Maybe you're still wandering, asking everyone you pass if they've seen a ram that looks like it's wearing an orangey-red sweater. Maybe you've found it and are chasing it around a lake or trying to lead it back to the village for your reward. Maybe you've gotten fed up and gotten out your sword to bring Jimmy a new sweater instead and discovered that lucky Lord Woolsley is a demon in sheep's clothing. Surprise!

4. Fill Your Cup With Whatever Bitter Brew You're Drinking

Just because the region's had a rough time lately doesn't mean the tavern at Redcliffe is any less crowded than usual. Bella behind the bar dishes out tankards to refugees and soldiers, scared villagers and angry farmers, merchants traveling through from Orzammar and Orlais and families fleeing the rifts in the foothills. It's packed, basically. The Inquisition has only recently extended its influence into the region, and while some have already seen the benefit-- demons killed, fighting broken up-- others are skeptical.

5. Spend Your Life Just Thinkin' of How to Get Away

Choose Your Own Adventure: hunt game, kill demons, gather herbs, track bandits, haggle over the price of armor, fall off a deceptively tall rock, 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, rummage around in empty homes, run from a dragon, cry over how cute that fennec fox you just shot was, set up camp and chat around the fire, knock yourself out (figuratively, or even literally if that's more your speed)-- the Hinterlands are your Frostback Mountain oyster.

*Yeah, I had this stuck in my head. It's a good song!!

Comments

[gatheringstorm]

You might want to back up!

[Korrin, having spent her life as a mercenary blasting opponents with a variety of elements, is somewhat less limited. Switching to fire, she unleashes one explosion after another underneath those bears. She'd feel sorry for them, but well. They started it. They always do.]

[stumbling]

[Fire's not an element he's especially skilled at wielding, but he knows how he can help increase the damage she's doing even further. He backs up, judging how much space they have before he turns to call to her.]

You as well.

[He gives her time to back up before he casts his next spell, summoning a highly flammable pool of grease under the bears. A brutal but highly effective tactic.]

Can you ignite that?

[gatheringstorm]

[Seeing the summoned grease pool, Korrin flashes a grin.]

Absolutely.

[One Immolate spell later and that pool goes up in flames, enveloping the bears. Their roars nearly deafen her, but it's worth it when the nearest one, still on fire from her earlier spell, drops to the ground.]

[stumbling]

[He's not sure which is worse. The anguished roars or the smell of burning flesh. He almost regrets his actions, but then the first one falls. They can do this. One bear is half as dangerous, and the remaining one is severely injured already.

It doesn't take much to finish it, and once it falls Daylen stands there with his staff hanging limply by his side, not even seeming worried about the presence of a qunari. At least not for the moment.]

They're dead.

[gatheringstorm]

That they are. Good work, with the grease.

[That's not one spell she's bothered to learn, but seeing the results has Korrin reconsidering. She gives the dead bears no more than a passing glance, but looks over her current companion.]

Are you hurt at all? I'm no healer, though I have potions. You're welcome to one, especially after not running and leaving them to me.

[stumbling]

Thank you. I usually use it for escape, but you seem to have a talent for fire.

[He glances down at his palms which are slightly bloodied, but he has no other injuries.] No. Thank you. I can heal myself.

[Which he does immediately with little trouble. He is a healer, so he sees no sense wasting potions for something so minor.]

I didn't expect a qunari to be so generous. If you need healing I'd be happy to help. You can save your potions for another time.

[gatheringstorm]

[Okay, she'll say this once just to get it out of the way.]

I'm not qunari, but a vashoth. Never grew up under the Qun, never wanted to and I'm a mage, so you can probably see why. They don't exactly treat them well.

[To put it mildly. She shrugs, looking herself over but....]

Thanks for the offer, but the blood isn't mine. These aren't the first bears I've encountered today, and I have a feeling they won't be the last. Between them, rift demons, templars and bandits, the Hinterlands is an...exciting place.

[stumbling]

No. I've heard that.

[Even as someone who believes there's a need for mages to be closely guarded the little he's heard of qunari mages seems harsh. Of course, he doesn't think the qunari who don't follow the Qun are much better than their counterparts. It seems a bad idea to argue that now though given his present company, and it's not as though he knows much about them.

Not that he managed to look particularly reassured by what she's just said anyway.]

I'd prefer it to be a little less exciting truthfully. I'm starting to think it might have been better to travel elsewhere.

[gatheringstorm]

[That brings out a small wry smile and she shakes her head.]

You're not going to find much better anywhere else, honestly. It's chaotic everywhere these days, even in lands where the Inquisition has a presence. The village is relatively stable, though. If that's where you're headed, I was going there anyway to resupply.

[She wrinkles her nose, glancing downward at the bear corpses.]

Ugh, that smell of singed bear fur is going to linger on my armor, I just know it.

[stumbling]

That would probably be wise. I don't think I'm well suited to this living wild.

[He doesn't feel like an apostate should really be around so many people, but the bears are one close call too many and it's not as though his staff and robes aren't enough of a warning of what he is already.

He winces at that, after all it's really his fault the bears were burned so thoroughly.]

I'm sorry. Burning them was the best thing I could think of. I hope it doesn't ruin it completely.

[Or his robes for that matter. It's not as though he has many of them. He lifts a sleeve gingerly to his nose and sniffs. It isn't pleasant.]

[gatheringstorm]

It shouldn't, it just gives me one more reason to dislike them. And there's no need to apologize, you did what you could to defend yourself. I'll never criticize that. Besides, some of those demon remains are even worse.

[If only she didn't know that from personal experience. Stepping away from the dead bears as she has no interest in bear meat, she nods in the direction of the village.]

Sounds good to me, I could use a break from all this. I'm Korrin, by the way.

[stumbling]

So I've found. I try to avoid the demons now.

[There are too many to take on by himself, especially since they seem to keep on coming and he's been unable to find any way to close the tears they emerge from. He still wishes he could find out more about it, find some way to stop them, but he's had little success in approaching them.]

Daylen. My camp is on the way if you don't mind stopping briefly. I left my mabari to guard it.

[gatheringstorm]

Sensible.

[She nods, not unwilling to fight demons in general but some that come through those rifts are particularly nasty. There's no sense being reckless, after all, or encouraging it.

Mention of a mabari perks her up a bit and she smiles.]

Not at all. I don't own one myself, but I've never minded mabari for company. After you....

[stumbling]

[He's relieved she doesn't mind. She's shown no interest in harming him, but he'll feel much better the have the hound by his side all the same, and it's not as though he can leave him.]

Thank you. He's not the best tempered beast, I'm afraid, but he'll do you no harm so long as he doesn't see you as a threat.

[gatheringstorm]

[Korrin has a huge soft spot for pets, for all that she considers her own lifestyle incompatible to having one. She'll take what furry company she can get, and she nods at the warning.]

He has nothing to worry about from me, other than possibly a treat. What's his name?

[stumbling]

[Despite his nervousness at being around her that pulls a quiet laugh from him.]

Then he may take to you quicker than most. He's greedy. His name's Dougal.

[It's then he realises he hasn't even introduced himself yet.]

Mine's Daylen.

[gatheringstorm]

[Oh, yeah, introductions. Korrin probably should have remembered that, but oh well. Easily fixed. She nods politely.]

Korrin Ataash, of the Valo-Kas...and now the Inquisition. Some of my company were covering security at the Conclave. I've been here ever since, killing demons and whatever else threaten the refugees.

[stumbling]

[He starts to say something that may have to do with the quality of the security there, then stops himself, looking alarmed. He clears his throat, praying she may not have noticed his near slip.]

You're a mercenary then?

[gatheringstorm]

[Fortunately for him, Korrin didn't catch enough of that to take offense--and she would, the Valo-Kas are family. Even the ones who force bad poetry on her.]

It's what Vashoth and Tal-Vashoth are known for, isn't it? Though in this case, it's not really about the money involved. Good people died, some of them my friends. I can't just walk away from that as though it didn't happen.

[stumbling]

[He hums concedingly, turning to start the short walk back to his camp.]

I lost friends too. So many lives were wasted. If the Chantry hadn't named them heretics...

[As it is, he's had to walk away, though he's found nowhere else since.]

[gatheringstorm]

[She nods to that with a grim expression.]

No kidding. I just hope that knowing what we do now will be enough for us to get our act together and do something about the one who caused this mess. Southern Thedas can't afford to keep tearing itself apart.

[stumbling]

It's chaos. Nobody should have to live like this.

[Granted he hasn't seen much of Thedas before all this happened, but it has to be better than this. Anything is.]