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

[fadeish]

Hah.

( the other woman's willingness to help a stranger communicates a lot about her character, much more than their short exchange so far would be able to convey. that's one of the reasons why Astrid takes the offer. she stares at the seat first, of course, tilting her head a little bit like she's contemplating the concept of a stool. what is a stool actually for? what is it that gives it its inherent stool-ness? sitting upon it? it sounds like a good idea to try it out. )

Thank you, ser. Maker take him, I hope so. I don't know where else someone with so little common courtesy could show up. Probably not the Chantry, wouldn't you think? ( after setting her staff against the bar and sitting down her self, she kind of just. stares at a staff member and waits to get their attention. a tavern is a new experience! )

[lettersfromhome]

You might be surprised. I can't remember the last time a holy calling necessarily kept someone from having atrocious manners. But you would think, wouldn't you?

[ Mia clucks her tongue, taking another sip of her ale. It's watered-down, but one had to expect as much from a heavily-trafficked tavern like this one. Had to make the supplies last, didn't they?

Her eyes linger on the staff but for a moment. This is the first time she's dealt with mages quite so closely, used to the idea of them all being in a Circle. But none here have given her any trouble.

That's something, at least. ]

[fadeish]

I do wonder... ( she trails off because, for a moment, she does think about the many templars she has known. it wouldn't be fair to call them all out-rightly ill-mannered, but there have been a handful of brutes she'd rather have never met. though there's also been ill-mannered mages, of course, hence her current predicament. She sighs, and then turns her attention to Mia.

speaking of manners has reminded her that she has her own set; the reaction that her staff gets is so mild, so nice compared to what other responses she has provoked recently, she's further inclined towards affability. )

Is that any good? ( she indicates the ale ) If you feel like another round, please let me know, it's the least I could do. But please don't let me keep you here longer than you intended to stay. ( these are dangerous times so being where you plan to be before nightfall seems like a rather good idea. )

[lettersfromhome]

I think I intend to remain here for a time, honestly. I'm making better time than I thought I might.

[ Though the journey has been wearying, certainly trying. It isn't the first time she's made her way across country for her family, though, and she isn't inclined to complain. Not having a horde of Darkspawn at her back is certainly preferable.

She understands what it is to be chased, hounded. Perhaps that's why she doesn't eyeball the mage like a threat, when she seems so put-upon already. But her own feelings on the conflict are quite complicated. Particularly from a familial standpoint. ]

I wouldn't say no to another drink. You look as though you could use one yourself.