[A-RP] [SI:7] Stormwind Bureau - Old Dogs, New Tricks

Argent Dawn
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Hello, everyone! It’s a blast from your relative past, Stormwind Bureau!

What IS the Stormwind Bureau?

Formally known as the Stormwind Bureau of Intelligence & Logistics, Stormwind Bureau is a joint initiative between Alliance High Command and SI:7 - Joining spies and bureaucrats, soldiers and agents all under the same banner.

What do you offer?

Simply put? SI:7 RP with a twist. Stormwind Bureau’s first iteration was a labour of love and dedication to themes and motifs found within World of Warcraft, but it was always the member’s nuances and even exposition to outside material that truly shaped the guild and dictated it’s direction.

Yeah, but. What do you REALLY offer?

Stormwind Bureau’s activities will depend mostly on three initiatives;

Cutthroat: Assassination, pure and simple. These will be, for the most part, DM’d events that will take Agents all over Azeroth and beyond. While there can always be exceptions where a player character would be a Cutthroat target, it would be with both parties’ knowledge and consent.

EK R&R: Drawing upon the ties between SI:7 and the Explorers’ League, the Eastern Kingdoms Reliquary & Repository sees Agents play the role of exporer in missions where the goal is the retrieval and containment of potentially dangerous artifacts, for monetary compensation and the Alliance, of course!

Stormwind Bureau Outsourcing Initiative: From which a majority of interaction with the greater community will arise, the Outsourcing Initiative is encompassed by both an external and internal component. The external component sees the Stormwind Bureau and their Agents as employable by other friendly groups and individuals for a pre-agreed duration and objective, while the internal component enables the Stormwind Bureau to hire and contract the services of those same groups and individuals in order to carry missions of a larger scope.

Ranks?

Ranks have a linear progression as follows: Reserve → Cadet → Agent → Officer → Justicar. With Reserves being the odd OOC Alt or player character under the Outsourcing Initiative and Cadets not yet having completed their training and introductory period.

Uh. Can I join up?

Most certainly. With all races and classes being considered. The process, however, is more than just shaking someone’s hand and slipping into a Stormwind Tabard - Not all characters will fit in, and a Cadet’s training serves exactly as a way to figure out if both the character and player feel like Stormwind Bureau will be a good fit for them.

Contacts?

Be it IC or OOC, feel free to contact Testaros/Caudillo or Jeyce.

Thank you for your time and for reading this far! Hope to hear from you, Argent Dawn.

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Are the boys back in town?

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Some of us are washed up (perhaps OOC and IC both…) but after months of reminiscing about the good old days, we decided to give this business another shot. We’re taking this thing slow, our approach was always to seek quality rather than quantity.

So if you’re looking for some Spy/Assassin RP to spice up your day, don’t hesitate to contact us! We’d love to provide you with a stage for some interesting character development and most importantly, fun and exciting roleplay!

It doesn’t matter to us if you’re a newcomer or a veteran to roleplay either. As Testaros mentioned in the OP, we offer a ‘slice’ of what you may get involved in when staying with us during the recruitment/trial process so that you know what you’re getting your character into.

Other than that, it feels really good to be back. I’m happy, excited and (cautiously) optimistic about our future!

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Nice to see you guys back, do gods work :ok_hand:

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Perhaps it is time to return to the game after all :eyes:

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It’s always great to see old guilds making a comeback to kick around for once more. Best of luck with your guild and its initiatives and hope to have more interactions with you!

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Time for more [REDACTED] adventures. At least until [REDACTED] think we’ve been [REDACTED] them, which is of course only [REDACTED].

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Looks dope. Would your guild be open to cross faction tension?

Edit*
“where the goal is the retrieval and containment of potentially dangerous artifacts”
An example of the sort of tension or rivalry i was thinking about

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I won’t say no, one of our goals with this comeback is to ensure that we provide the people in our guild with as many varied roleplay opportunities as we can so that they can pick through the type of content they’d want to engage in. If someone wants to partake in all the stuff that we’ll get involved with, great but if someone only wants to log in to say, participate in our DM’d events, that’s good too.

Bottom line is we’re open to setting up plotlines and rivalries so long as it stays within the concept of our guild and clashes with the opposing faction, be it through a ‘scripted’ PvE event or a PVP experience certainly meets that criteria!

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The wages earned by their sacrifices were self-evident; To be shoved into a dusty corner, forgotten and best left unmentioned.

This was the lot of the Stormwind Bureau of Intelligence & Logistics. Routine was to become their mistress and their biggest concern would be something as trivial as a paper cut.

Still…

Some would struggle against the proverbial collar that they had been lulled into wearing, a feeling that was as true and strong upon their founding as it was now, even as little more than a ramshackle of jaded individuals.

Faded gold, luster lost to cynicism.

Still…

Perhaps they could still be something more than a cautionary tale, surely there was some wisdom to be imparted with those that would take their mantle after they were gone, even with all the blunders.

It was a little thing, yes, but it was something more to look forward to. Rather than the insurmountable piles of paper they faced each and every day, neatly stacked and ordered like organized hosts.

Perhaps…

Not all of the old documentation had been shredded or disposed off, somewhere in the myriad boxes and folders that occupied SI:7 sat a treasure trove, doctrine and methodology.

Cutthroat, the Outsourcing Initiative.

Perhaps…

Thank you for the interest, everyone!
Stormwind Bureau’s Discord as well as the foundations for their first mission since being reactivated should be well done by this week.

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Speaking of bureaucracy, while we apply the finishing touches on the stuff Testaros has mentioned, we’d like to show off something else. Paperwork is (fortunately or unfortunately, depending on who you ask) something every Agent has to go through and we wanted to make the process as smooth and at least a little fun as possible. I have to admit that redacting stuff has always been a bit of a guilty pleasure for me and now it looks better than ever!

The google docs format is a leftover from one of our older projects that we worked on where we wanted to add some flavour to our, I guess you could call it, paperwork RP and make these documents look a little cool and ‘official’, something we’d like to carry on to this new iteration of SB.

Hope you like it!

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The reinvigorated Stormwind Bureau’s first foray into the field after years. Can they still make the cut? Who knows.

Priority RED: Operation Star-Warrior

A Draenei and Officer of the Grand Alliance has been taken.

With reports placing Artificer Me’tor just outside Thelsamar after a night of carousing, suspicion arose three days after the Vindicator did not report to his post

Later investigation has had locals report of a scuffle concurrent with the disappearance of Me’tor, citing an unknown number of assailants. Follow up accurately places him in what is now known as the “Twilight Highlands”

While that might lead us to believe Artificer Me’tor is now in the hands of the Twilight Hammer or some other similar sect, confirmation of the group’s identity is now required in addition to the prime directive, the rescue of Artificer Me’tor.

Rescue Artificer Me’tor, ascertain the identity of those that took them and then dispose of those very same individuals, lest they live to share whatever secrets he cannot keep to himself.

Signed,
Testaros Silvertouch.

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Memo: Project Red Occular

As you are likely aware the recent political events have left the [REDACTED] relationship
in a particularly unusual state. The continued absence of [REDACTED] (herein referred to
as White-Gold) has left the current status of any peace in a state of flux. Popular rumour has taken root in places (less loyal places) that there is currently a crisis at the heart of the Alliance.

While faith in the [REDACTED] (herein referred to as Light’s Blade) remains high, and is a popular icon in his own right, these persistent rumours, likely from the same wellspring as the [REDACTED] thugs rose from is hard to stamp out.
Additionally the absence of White-Gold has lead to the possibility that the [REDACTED] were somehow in concert with the Banshee Queen.

To this end, the movements of the Forsaken in Lordaeron have been put under observation as per [REDACTED] (herein referred to as True Fang) 's suspicions.
Our field agents have reported back interesting developments. Without the Banshee Queen, the Forsaken are in a crippled state of self-identity. It is quite possible in this state that they may be [REDACTED] or at worst easily [REDACTED]. True Fang has made it clear that we cannot trust the Forsaken overtures until genuine moves at peace are made.

The [REDACTED] that governs the Forsaken with their supposed “Desolate Council” has been particularly intriguing to our purposes. This “Pallid Lady” seems far more amenable to Alliance interests, though we maintain a healthy level of scepticism to anyone from the [REDACTED] bloodline. (It should be noted that the shared faith and similar backgrounds of Light’s Blade and this Pallid Lady may help maintain a peace in name at least.)
In particular the offer to [REDACTED] from [REDACTED] has been met with pleasant surprise, though it remains to be seen if this is anything but gesturing.

Nevertheless, the Red Occular project will remain active, monitoring - where directed - all communications and traffic of interest coming in and out of [REDACTED] lands. Our grasp on [REDACTED] only grows stronger with each passing week. Our assets only increase as well.

King's Honour.
Signed,
Protector.
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Doubts and Regrets

Papers. Documents. Folders. Redactions. Reports. Files. Bureaucracy.

For Ryan Jeyce, that was his escape from reality, a chance to free himself from the clutches of his mind, to silence all of those thoughts and have a moment of respite from the feelings of guilt and failure which plagued him.

He surrounded himself with the words he wrote and transcribed as if they were a protective cloak, shielded against the darkness that crept towards him. He felt safe in this new mundane life of his, he had developed a deep appreciation towards this routine he lived through, day by day.

But he wasn’t allowed to dwell in this blissful recluse of his for long. No matter how much he protested and argued that he’s fine doing what he did, more was demanded of him. Two years he managed to hide away and foolishly seek his twisted idea of “peace”, unwilling and unable to face his doubts and regrets.

Still, he found strength in his most important responsibility. Family. Even if he struggled to find the desire to fight for the Alliance, he would never give up the fight for his son’s future.

“I made you a promise.”, he called out to the empty room he was in, nothing but the light of the candle rested on his desk to accompany him.

The agent glanced at the small stack of application forms awaiting his perusal. To Ryan Jeyce, they signified a chance to escape this prison of the mind he had found himself trapped in.

If the Stormwind Bureau deserved a second chance, then perhaps he did too.

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My brother, we both know that room wasn’t empty.
It never is.

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Asset.
A resource that can be made to be of profitable use.

The web that their particular Bureau was part of was part of a vast network, a sprawling, often cacophonous, rabbit warren of idiosyncratic traits.

Fools playing the pliant public and observing unknowns, feigning incompetency and weakness. Show weakness while hiding strength, a classic strategy.

Faceless, nameless informants feeding endless data and reports on the movements of suspicious and questionable individuals. Total surveillance, total monitoring, all while the masses are unsuspecting.

Enforcers, large and small each with the skill-set suited for their particular role. Liquidation. Retrieval. Clean-Up. Integration. Active Measures. Some were employed without ever knowing who truly hired them.

Specialists, for all those areas of expertise not covered by the main Company. Across the world, of differing identities, religions, even ostensible loyalty. Knowledge is blind and employing such knowledge in service of the Crown was permissible, if not publicly acknowledged.

For Protector, the nom de guerre, the pseudonym as all Agents of the Crown are given - the array of Assets in their books was dizzying at first. Some were reliable, others had quirks of their own to manage. But every one of them had a role to play. They all did.
After all, what hope of a peaceful and orderly society was there when malevolent actors intruded from all sides, in all manner of insidious methods tried to tear down the Alliance, the only bastion of proper, just and civilised society on their world? For sure, his colleagues and he were not always the most civil, but oft-times it needed the firm hand of a decidedly uncivil man to steer the proper course of nation and defend its people.

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The Worth of It All

Every evening he returned home, Ryan Jeyce spent a few minutes watching his son sleep. It was a ritual of sorts for him, one he did for the comfort of his mind. A proud smile softened up his otherwise stoic and serious expression. Despite everything he’s done, the things he did for his King and Kingdom, there was something good in his life. Something he had to offer that wasn’t violence and death.

His son would be better, he had to be.

Your friends were unable to answer my questions. You do not have to suffer as they did. Please, tell me what I need to know.

Romulo was taught to be polite no matter the circumstance he found himself in. It was one of the ways he respected the memory of his parents. Maybe, despite it all, they would have been proud of him, he thought to himself, as he stood in front of the kneeling cultist, the spy’s armour covered in blood.

He dismissed those thoughts quickly as his work wasn’t quite done. As an SI:7 operative, he knew how to extract information from the stubborn and unwilling. He had the experience. He took no pleasure in it, of course, even when he was dealing with irredeemable lost causes.

It took longer than he anticipated, but in the end he got the information he wanted. As a sign of his gratitude, Romulo swiftly ended the cultist’s fading life and left his corpse among the others the agent interrogated before. There was one other den of snakes he had to deal with. Then, he’ll be able to come home and see his son again. Romulo smiled behind his mask, it was a comforting thought.

Perhaps there was some worth in it all.

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His First Assignment

Having followed Alleria’s teachings, Nothelon sought to prove himself and the quality of his people to their new allies. The Fourth War was his chance. Fighting alongside the 7th Legion in the battlefields of Kul’Tiras and Zandalar, he harnessed the powers of the Void to do exactly as he was taught: protect Azeroth and the Alliance.

Yet the war was now over and his services did not seemed required any longer. At least not in the same capacity as they were during that time. He found himself back in Stormwind, searching for a new way in which to serve and perhaps for a new home.

He found that not on the frontlines of far away lands, but in the shadows of Stormwind’s polite society. A place where his abilities may not be frowned upon as dangerous and heretical, but rather be seen as an asset. His knowledge of the Horde and its various people’s too. He still found himself in service to the Alliance and perhaps most of all the Crown of Stormwind, albeit in a different manner.

And then his first assignment came. Rumours have drawn his attention and that of his colleagues to Redridge. Having went there he watched and listened. Blood was shed and another threat has been averted, for a while at least. Though it was so much different to what he was used to. As he made his way back to Stormwind he thought about what has happened and the efforts they’ve made. Unlike with the 7th he had to keep his identity hidden, even more unlike with the 7th, no one would know anything about it, save perhaps for a few dry faces in Stormwind. There’d be no laurels this time.

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Intelligence and Investigations

Intelligence and Investigation agencies play an important role within the general security and law enforcement structure of any kingdom. And indeed, their roles tend to intertwine often enough for people to simply assume that they are the same, even if in reality both intelligence services and investigation agencies fulfil different functions and in very different capacities.

The general purpose of intelligence is to obtain secret and actionable information about threats and risks towards the Crown and the people of the Alliance. It also seeks to identify and exploit opportunities, intelligence agents often being called upon to not just collect information, but also undertake covert operations for the good of Stormwind.

In that regard the type of information that intelligence agents deal with is secret, pertaining to future threats that have to be identified before they occur and actionable. Decision makers, be them military or political, require intelligence to inform future interventions, assessing events, locations or adversaries to the crown.

Investigation, on the other hand, implies the collection of information and evidence for the purposes of identifying, apprehending and convicting suspected offenders. Investigators tend to focus on determining variables that explain past events with a larger portfolio that would normally not involve the attention of intelligence agents.

Intelligence is future oriented. Investigations are about past crimes and identifying culprits. Intelligence deals with threats towards the crown, the kingdom of Stormwind and the Alliance. Investigators are called upon to conduct detective work on most and any types of crimes that have already occurred. Intelligence agents are called upon to work in secrecy, while investigators can afford a more overt approach as part of the law enforcement apparatus.

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A CAVE FULL OF DANGEROUS WONDERS

Eastern Kingdoms. Redridge Mountains. It is Wednesday afternoon when a group of the finest and bravest men and women of the EXPLORER’S LEAGUE (and an armed escort!) finds a blocked off cave. The faintest, most peculiar sounds reach their ears when they inspect the caved-in entrance. The explorers hoped to find ARTIFACTS inside but their discovery turned out to be rather GRUESOME and SHOCKING.

Our sources tell us that the League has received an anonymous tip, asking them to investigate a cave north of the Lakeshire settlement. Readers of the Herald might know that the region was troubled with swarms of undead not so recently, but the town itself seems to be recovering well. All is not well, as a recent surge of bloodthirty and vicious GNOLLS has called to action numerous bands of mercenaries who took care of the problem.

Anyway, back to the cave! With the promise of ANCIENT and FORGOTTEN artifacts inside, our brave Dwarves and Gnomes (and others) of the League have ventured to the site, only to find it collapsed. This reporter was able to find out that the cave-in seems to have been caused by an explosion of some sort, so it was certainly not a natural event. It took hours to dig through the rubble, but such an obstacle was trivial to the Explorers. Once they made their way inside… HORROR! Corpses, some of them still very much breathing and ALIVE! What corpses and barely living creatures I hear you ask, my dear readers? Why, ORCS, of course! The most foul-looking, stinky, dirty orcs you could find this side of the Kingdoms.

But it wasn’t just orcs that the League has found, as they ventured deeper and deeper. They found no artifacts, not even a trace of them, instead there was a site of BATTLE that took place between the orcs mentioned previously and Gnolls! Gnolls, I tell you! Seems like those mercenaries haven’t deal with all of them after all!

And there you have it, my dearest readers. The mystery of the Redridge Cave. While it is unclear what has caused the explosion, a spokesperson for the League had this to say:

"Someone got them good! The fine folk o’ Lakeshire be safe n’ sound, tha’s all tha’ matters.

Whoever you are, this reporter thinks the people of Lakeshire owe you a large pint of ale. The finest! Dwarven, of course. Do they even sell that there? We shall investigate! Until then, stay tuned for more news!

Yours,
The Ironforge Herald

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