My first official duty as part of the Inquisition was to gather my merry band and head to the Hinterlands of Southern Ferelden to meet with a Revered Mother of the Chantry named Giselle. Unfortunately, upon arrival I was informed by an adorable Inquisition Scout named Harding that Mum was smack in the middle of the fighting between the rebel mages and the Templars.
Scout Harding, my sister in the Freckle Fraternity.
The Crossroads, where the fighting was thickest, was due west of my position. There was a path leading directly to it so I, naturally, turned the opposite direction as soon as possible. Here's a tip for any aspiring adventurers out there: if there’s a place you have to go, and no time limit to get there, go everywhere else first. At least, everywhere that won’t get you killed. Like, for instance, if there’s a dragon flying around, don’t go there right away. I learned that lesson the hot way. But, getting back to the point, there will always be people to help, evils to smite and treasures to find in the places surrounding your intended destination, so make sure you find them first. Then you can do whatever important, but not time-dependent, thing you were there to do in the first place. So, we’ll get back to the search for Mum later. I’m sure nothing bad will happen to her while she’s stuck between two dangerous factions of preternaturally powerful humanoids hurling bolts of lightning and holy flame at one another.
I mean, what could go wrong?
Just like I thought, there was a lot to do in the Hinterlands, to the point that you could easily get bored if you just stayed there and did everything instead of going somewhere else for a while. But, there was plenty of excitement to be had. For example, I discovered a cult of people who worshipped the Fade rifts. Or thought they could appease them with prayer. I’m not sure, it wasn’t all that clear. Anyways, they were staying in a camp inside of an old ruin that had a rift in it. As in, a thing with demons coming out of it. Now, there are only two ways that came about: One, they settled there before the rift opened, then didn’t move out once it formed and started spawning demons. Or B, they settled there after the rift had opened and started spawning demons and they somehow avoided slaughter. Either way, they were stupid and I closed the rift before they all died, which proved to them that I was more amazing than the rifts all along. So, they might worship me now, instead. I don’t really know, it’s still not clear and I was only sort of paying attention, to be honest, but, they promised to help out, so, the job was done and it was time to move on.
Seriously, someone thought this was a good idea.
When I was done with that side trip and various other adventures that, while fun, are not worth chronicling, I made my way to a place called the Crossroads to meet up with Giselle. After smashing my way through a bunch of mages and Templars who had the misfortune of being between me and Mum, I met up with the holy woman I’d come to meet. We chatted, she was surprisingly okay with the whole elf-mage-Herald thing, and after running a few more errands to make sure the refugees at the Crossroads were as safe and sound as possible, we headed back to Haven to regroup, with Giselle in tow.
