TEST DRIVE MEME!

[faderifting]

Guess.

go on, guess.

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 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. BEARIED ALIVE

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. NICE PLACE FOR A SPOT OF CAMPING

If there were an inn, which there's not, there wouldn't be room for you in it. Traveling with the Inquisition means carrying your own bedrolls, putting up your own tents, and sleeping alongside whoever you've been told to share with--no matter how much you hate them or how loud they snore. If you really can't stand it, the alternative is sleeping outside. On the ground. With the bears.

3. A BIG CRAZY LIGHT IN THE SKY

Not everyone thinks the Breach was a bad thing. In the southeastern mountains, a burgeoning cult has taken up residence in Winterwatch Tower to wait patiently for the Maker to reach through the tears in the veil and gather the faithful to his bosom. They're a little kooky, maybe, but harmless, and they're happy enough to share their wine and lager with travelers in the area. The demon-spewing rift behind the Tower, on the other hand... Too bad the Herald didn't close that thing before she bit it. Watch your step.

4. TROUBLE IN THE DEEP

The Carta is everywhere, but it's here in force, occupying dwarven ruins in a chasm behind a waterfall. Inquisition forces have already cleared most of the smugglers out of the hold, but there's still a vault to break into, bodies to loot, and old texts to search through for anything worth adding to the Inquisition's growing archives. Also: darkspawn. Sorry.

5. 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.

Comments

[fadefractured]

Karl's eyes narrow a bit as he realizes the motion was taken the wrong way. "No," he protests. "That's a terrible thought. You helped break the Circles. You proved we don't have to allow abuses. Your actions encouraged the vote which lead to the rebellion." His voice is still coarse and he doesn't clear it. He's too much of a coward to expose too much of himself.

"Without you Meredith would have been able to kill every mage in the Gallows without a fight. I was there. I had a cell. There were no windows. For days I'd hear nothing but my own thoughts and the scraping of the food they shoved at me..." His voice fails then and he has to cough to clear his throat.

[justice_is_blond]

He hesitates for a moment, but the man's continued explanation, along with the cough, have Anders taking a seat again.

"I'm sorry. I'm glad you're out, but I'm sorry. Can I help? Because your throat and that cough don't sound that good." It's hard, after being in a cell, alone. He knows that well, and it explains the way the man's bundled up and withdrawn; anything could be a trap or a hallucination.

"Or I've some herbs that can be used for a throat-soothing tea." Despite the pain of the man's situation, there's some joy to be found from his words. Here's evidence of another mage who made it out of Kirkwall, someone who was saved by Anders' actions and the blocking of the Rite.

[fadefractured]

You aren't doing him a kindness by hiding, the thought comes to him without him conjuring it and he realizes that so much of him agrees.

After a moment, he chuckles very softly. The sound of it driven by just how endearing it is to see that Anders can still fuss over someone who might as well be a stranger. The thought that even after everything he has faced Anders can still manage to care is wildly comforting. "No, thank you," he says. His voice is clearer now.

He's quiet for a moment, thinking things over. When he speaks now his voice is much more himself, not hoarse or low. He's able to speak without coughing.

"Do you remember how many Tranquil there were in Kirkwall?" And there were so many, especially towards the end. "They let some out to sell their wares, but many more were kept in the Gallows, out of sight. They thought that Tranquil couldn't get bored or suffer so they thought nothing of keeping us locked up. When the chaos started, they didn't come for us right away, mostly because they thought we wouldn't escape on our own. They couldn't imagine we would have the will to survive." He knows using 'we' gives a lot away, but he can't help but still group himself in with with the Tranquil. Even if Mercy gives him back his connection to the Fade and his emotions, he still has the brand. His mind is still fractured in so many ways. He'll probably never be the same again.

"Once we were out, the chaos took so many. Templars attacked indiscriminately. Even if you were sundered you were still considered a danger. People want to blame you for that. Never mind that it wasn't your hand holding those blades. It wasn't you who took that time not help the citizens of the city but to hunt down any mage. And it certainly wasn't you who put us in those cells to start with."

[justice_is_blond]

He goes still as the man resumes talking, knowing the voice and struggling to place it because the only context he can put it in is impossible. Not only did he end the life of the man speaking, there were no emotions left to him. The chuckle is impossible.

It feels like time has frozen and driven cold claws into his chest and his throat. Breathing is hard, thinking is hard, talking near impossible. A list of cruelties rattled off, in the voice of someone he'd felt more for than he'd ever dared say. He'd left Karl for dead. Stabbed him and left, and if he hadn't killed him he'd doomed him to more Tranquility, and that hurts.

Several moments pass before the man with Karl's voice stops talking and Anders realizes he's done. His ears are deceiving him, he knows. It's just similarity. That doesn't make it hurt less.

"It's easier to blame one single person." His voice sounds strange to his own ears, and he can't take his eyes away from the covering over the man's head. He's wrong. He's very, very wrong but Maker what if he could hope one single time? Except hope what? Somehow Karl not just survived a mortal blow but then overcame Tranquility? Just how many impossibilities did he expect Karl to perform?

"Makes it, makes it mean you can, concrete." Apparently coherence is another impossibility. Anders takes a breath and tries again. "A concrete target means you can easily pin the blame and rouse anger in the direction you want. I'm convenient. If they focus the populace on one mage, they're not upsetting those very few who support mages in general, and they're still stirring against mages anyway. And I..." He trails off, unsure if he wants the answer to this question or not. There's a great mess of emotion in his voice when he continues talking. "You know my name. But I haven't heart yours."

[fadefractured]

Karl looked up then, and then reached up to pull back his hood. "Anders..." he says after a moment. "I know this has to be hard for you, but it's me."

He watches Anders carefully, worried that this might be too much for him. He knows there's a lot to explain, but for now they have to get this part over with. He has to finally face what happened to him a bit more, instead of letting himself hide in the dark.