Today, Dofni and the gang -- Blackwall, Varric, and Solas -- went to the Storm Coast while Cullen's troops put up some watchtowers around the Hinterlands. Dofni wanted to see if this mercenary group, the Bull's Chargers, were as good as they claimed.
Side note: While in the midst of collecting shards and peering through astrariums, and killing deepstalkers and spiders, Dofni figured out the secret to keeping the requisitions officer from pestering her every time she got near the camp!
Dunno how good a fighter this Iron Bull fella really is -- we kinda had to step in and save his ass -- but he's definitely big. Dofni had to look wayyyyy up while talking to him. At any rate, we hired him to join the Inquisition, then promptly sent him and his company back to Haven to sort out payment details with Josephine. There must have been a two-for-one sale on the Storm Coast today because we then recruited the Blades of Hessarian for the Inquisition, too. Varric suggested that when we got back to Haven, we should pit the two groups against each other in a contest of skill, like the proving back in Orzammar that he'd heard about. He further suggested it'd be good for morale, and also to give our new army a taste of dwarven culture. Dofni promised to bring it up at the next war council, but told Varric not to start counting his betting slips just yet.
From the Blades of Hessarian encampment, we headed due west further into the forest and found a path cut into the rock. Following it led us to ancient unmarked tomb that appeared to be of dwarven construction. It was full of deepstalkers as well, but at level 8, they're hardly worth the effort anymore. In the Tomb we found this:
so jumping all over the rocks to get through that path was worth it. Never saw that shield before. 
Then we went back to the coast to resume our spindleweed harvesting and shard collecting, and we saw the mighty high dragon, Vinsomer, first try to bite, and then zap, the head off a giant.
Didn't dare get any closer than this, heh. Was a good thing too, cuz Vinsomer took a backwards leap just before flying away and ended up just on the other side of that boat
Somehow the giant was still alive, but on his last legs, so we kinda creeped over to see if maybe it'd drop dead before we got there, but no such luck. He must have realized that we witnessed his embarrassing manhandling because he dropped a rock on Dofni's head before she could close the distance to finish him off. The rest of the gang took care of him though, and we got even more loot, including a nice ice staff for Solas.
And that's where we are at the moment, on our way to close a few rifts and try and find the astrarium cave, as well as a few grey warden-y things for Blackwall. Am kinda hoping to level up a couple more times before going back to the Hinterlands to take on the three great bears, and that rift down by the river.