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

[hornsup]

[ She's actually one of the people he's kept an eye on the most, not, as some might suspect, for lewd purposes, and definitely not for Qunari purposes, either. Her meal had been cheap and she'd been hunched over it like it was her last. Her body language even sitting down had clued him into the timid way she moved when she approached him. The Iron Bull was watching her because if anyone tried to fuck with her and managed to hurt her, and he missed it? He'd feel partially responsible. He doesn't know her from Andraste, but she's clearly on her own.

He's pretty good at pretending like this is the first time he sees her. There's no point in spooking her. No visible weapons, but she's moving like she has something hidden in her skirts all the same. Thing is, she's probably more scared of him than he should be of her. His movements are lazy and open; she's got nothing to fear from him. ] Hello. Can I help you?

[spellwisp]

Yoooou already did, actually.

[ So, the drawn out words are a dead giveaway as to her state of inebriation, but still. She's speaking clearly enough to be heard even over the din of the crowd. ]

I wanted to say thank you. For the drink. I know it isn't like you bought it for me special or anything, but... [ She dips her head down and scratches the back of her neck, self-conscious. ] Thanks. Thought you might want to know it made somebody's day.

[hornsup]

[ Drunk and timid. Definitely easy prey for someone who wasn't exactly nice. ]

I do. Thank you. You should sit down, join me. [ It's not safe for her to be alone, but he's not going to push her, either. If she says no, he'll leave it at that and just keep an eye out for her. ]

[spellwisp]

[ She looks stunned at that - she clearly hadn't expected an invitation to join him. She actually hadn't expected him to be necessarily gracious about her thanks, but she hadn't known what to expect at all. He seems friendly enough. If he meant her harm, well, he wouldn't have to be lulling her into any false sense of security. He has every physical advantage. All these considerations weighed, Alfsigr finally nods her head and settles herself in the closest available seat to him. She doesn't flop down like someone completely comfortable, or like she feels she got her way, but like someone grateful for the offer and the company. ]

I'm Alfsigr. [ That leading vowel is drawn out slightly, not intentionally. ] Who am I owing my thanks to?