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

[quietblade]

Dual-wielding templars. That's a new one.

[The warrior looks somewhere between impressed and annoyed. The kind that carried around the big shields to not get hit by fire and other magic were fairly slow because of it. Dual-wielders wouldn't be.

He wasn't exactly slow, but two-handed weapons were always a little less fast than one-handed swords. He would have to put on extra vitaar and some armor.

Taas is already making plans. Apparently he's doing this.]

Alright. We have a deal. I kill these men, you see my skills and you pay me what I'm worth.

[equanimiti]

[A deep sigh leaves Zargabaath. Just how did this come to be? He taught the five too much. If Stannis and Taashath dared to face these Templar head on, they'll be marching into their deaths. The two would do better taking them out one by one than fighting these rats at their full numbers.]

Very well. [He nods to Taashath before turning his gaze to his fellow knight-commander.] This is a debt I shall repay, Stannis. If you lack the manpower to kill these rats, I will lend you my best to assist in the hunt.

[theonly]

You've already paid it.

[ And now he has to admit it aloud. His eyes give a roll like it is a troublesome thing to have to say. One will hope that what he says will be wrong and the rats will decide to not bunch up on them. ]

And you shall make rest here in the tavern. [ The best that Zargabaath has will make the task easier and faster. Also, his comment is not so much a question as a statement. What is going to be happening. ]

[quietblade]

[Now he keeps quiet, letting the men battle pride against pride. It wasn't his business.

It was an interesting opportunity, this offer. Taas rarely did bounty hunting work because of his hearing impairment, but a chance to do something other than just stand around was appreciated.

Even if it would be dangerous.]

[equanimiti]

[That same tired look he gave Stannis earlier is back in full force but with a hint of relief in those grey eyes. As much as Stannis may grump about, one thing is admantely certain; he's a good man. Zargabaath knew this when he first heard his quip against the praise and honours the Chantry doused him with.

"I didn't do it for the Chantry."

A laugh nearly escapes him as he thinks back on that interesting introduction. While some think valor comes in the form of a handsome knight upon a white horse, Zargabaath knows that valor can appear as anything; even as a smart mouthed knight-captain with a sullen eyes and a frown beaten face.]

Very well. [He replies with a nod clearly surrendering to Stannis's insistence. Zargabaath finds it difficult to argue when he has one foot almost in the grave. The man needs his rest.]

I'll tell my men to send word to the tower to give you the support you need. Other than that, I shall linger here for a time.

[theonly]

Fair enough.

[ He steps back away from Zargabaath. His hand slides away from the hilt of his sword, like he had thought things would come to blows. Stannis does not ask for more of a definitive answer that the other knight-commander will rest, but instead takes a step forward toward the Quanri that they have hired. ]

I never liked sellswords. But you lot have honor and I shall give you that alone. [ A repeated statement of earlier and making certain that he is "heard" before he steps to walk toward the door. It is time to begin the hunt of renegades. Nothing to be anxious or excited about. It is one's duty. A knight-commander deals with their own and he will have their heads removed from their bodies by the end of each battle. ]

[equanimiti]

Stannis! You speak too freely!

[A near gasp of a sigh almost escapes Zargabaath once the grumpy bastard says that last bit. He gives Taashath apologetic grimace. Surely Stannis didn't mean to offend the sellsword, surely.]

Pray forgive the Baratheon for his unprecedented harshness, Taashath. His tongue likes to run away with him at times.

[That's putting it mildly.]

[quietblade]

The large warrior breaks out into a rumbling laughter at those words, raising a hand to placate Zargabaath and show he wasn't upset. He didn't take offense; quite the opposite. This could be interesting.

"I will not disappoint, Knight-Commander," he says with a grin. "We will destroy these renegades."

Calmly, he follows Stannis, hoisting up his axe into the sheath on his back.