[H-RP] The Beastmaw Warband - Chasing Spirits

The Beastmaw Warband was formed in the early days of the War with the Scourge to serve the Horde on the warfront as scouts, trackers and tamers of war beasts whence the band’s name derives. It has since participated in every conflict that followed. It is a seasoned band, boasting veteran warriors who have survived numerous battles and military campaigns against the Alliance and the Scourge; have explored Pandaria; have braved the Iron Horde’s Draenor; and seen Argus itself to slay a Pit Lord in its own lair…

Strength and discipline are demanded by the Beastmaw, and honour is valued the most. Each warrior is expected to have a code and follow it.

Beasts are one main aspect of the warband. The Beastmaw take pride in the impressive beasts of war they have tamed and trained for riding, siege and transporting supplies; beasts as small as silithid and as massive as clefthoof. Shamanism is the other major part of the Beastmaw tradition, with every new warrior having to take the Trial of the Hunt and earn the blessing of the spirits.

About us:

We are an RP guild based on Steamwheedle Cartel/the Sha’tar/Moonglade EU and founded in 2009. Our goal is to host a platform for storylines for and by the members, with immersion as the main focus. The theme of the guild is a mix between Horde military, beastmastery and shaman tradition. Our style of RP cycles between sandbox casual evenings and DM-based events with a simple D20 roll system which follow personal storylines or an overarching plotline.

We have a friendly, tight-knit and relaxed OOC atmosphere. The guild is quite open to people new to the game, to roleplay and to Warcraft lore in general, and we are always glad to help out with advice and guidance.

Guild RP sessions are held twice a week – on Thursdays and Sundays at 20:00 game-time - with a focus on following a storyline. Immersion is our top priority, with flavor-enriching details like playing out travel time, establishing thorough defenses when camping in the wilderness, and making the world around us feel huge. We also strive for inclusion, anybody can influence our plotlines and NPCs.

RP varies from adventure-style expeditions to casual campfire nights. While the Beastmaw is part of the Horde military, our military events are not at all strict and focus more on the fun aspects of being a warrior of the Horde rather than on hyperrealism. The only realism we care about is that in the context of Warcraft.

We have an active Discord server with channels for both IC and OOC interactions. There are also channels describing the guild in detail, and channels with regular IC updates so that anybody can keep track and can jump into the action whenever they want.

Our requirements and expectations:

We have no restrictions on class, race or level. The only requirement is to have a convincing IC reason for joining.

No uniforms, though we encourage creativity in matching the guild tabard.

We are looking for members who can most of all show activity and interest in the guild. We expect people to pull their weight OOC as well as IC, being able to initiate RP on their own when there is none, interact with the other members, and not passively wait for RP to happen. We are not a huge guild, and we ensure that there are no nameless faces in a crowd – while we try to make sure that everyone has a spotlight and the chance to develop their character through interactions, we are just as dependent on the members showing their own initiative to create dialogue.

Drama is best kept IC and under control in order to avoid OOC stress that can lead to a member losing interest. We also require that everyone is on their best behaviour to roleplayers outside the guild and avoid ignoring outsiders trying to make contact with us.

Generally be nice to each other, don’t harass, don’t grief, and don’t misrepresent the guild tag.

New members go through a few weeks with the rank of New Blood, during which they are expected to earn their keep.

Feel free to whisper or mail an officer ingame if you want to join or even just hang out:

General Torakk Bloodrain
Centurion Ronto Shadowspine
Blood Guard Vrakk Icehowl

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Described in the following texts are the campaigns carried out by the Beastmaw Warband in the name of the Horde and Warchief Sylvanas Windrunner in what they now call the Fourth War…

Phase I

It began with the warband’s renewed assignment to serve under Warlord Kon’taka of the Darkspear Tribe, herself answering to higher figures of authority based in Orgrimmar. The Beastmaw was paired with members of Kon’taka’s personal guard, the Taka’ai, and sent to the newly established outpost of Warfang Hold in Kul Tiran territory. There, with the Taka’ai’s Howling Sisters wolfrider unit, the Beastmaw were to locate and capture an important Alliance envoy from Stormwind.

Lord Blackhall, a somewhat neglected Stormwind noble of limited authority, had recently won the funding to rebuild his ancestral home of Blackwarden Keep on an island in Stormwind waters; a speck on the map, its location was too far off and just about out of reach by Alliance naval patrol routes. Its inhospitable rocky terrain made it useless as a port, and its near-barren landscape, a scar left from the Second War, made the promise of producing resources there a bleak one. It fail to grab the attention of Stormwind’s leadership and the support of its armies. Though of little use to the Alliance, its existence was discovered and deemed attractive by the Horde, and its capture became the main objective of Warlord Kon’taka’s forces.

The first step of the objective was finding the actual location of the island. That is where the Stormwind Envoy came into place. The Beastmaw succeeded in tracking down their wagon at the border of Stormsong Valley, stuck in a line and waiting to cross the border. There, the Beastmaw assaulted it from ambush, fighting its way through Stormsong border guards and Stormwind Knights. Though the prey was successfully captured and the Beastmaw fled back to the wilderness, the target was not whom they expected.

The Beastmaw had been briefed to seek the capture of Sir Welford Darling of Blackhall’s Household Guard and captain of Blackhall’s knights, who had been sent on a diplomatic mission to Stormsong Valley. Instead, that diplomat turned out to be Lady Eleanor Darling – Welford’s wife and Blackhall’s daughter.

Though the naval coordinates of Blackwarden Keep were obtained by interrogating Eleanor just the same, the response of her capture had been different to what had been expected. Lord Blackhall employed the service of the Order of the Night Gryphon commanded by Dalathar Locke, an old friend of his, to hunt down his daughter’s captors and to bring her back. In the Night Gryphon’s campaign against the Beastmaw in Stormsong Valley, they confronted the Howling Sisters and won a decisive victory against them, capturing their leader – Blood Guard Khulan Arrowsong.

Though personally caring little for the confrontational and proud Khulan, the Beastmaw could not allow the Alliance to possess such a high ranking member of the Horde. Therefore, through third-party contacts, a prisoner trade was agreed upon. The Beastmaw and the Night Gryphon met on a tropical island off the coast of Stranglethorn, and traded lady Eleanor for the now-pacified Khulan, who was suffering an Alliance warlock’s curse.

The exchange had been strategically timed. As soon as it was concluded, the Beastmaw sailed with haste to the location of Blackwarden Isle in order to assault it. Kon’taka’s spy, Azhai the Shrewd, newly recruited from Suramar, had informed the Beastmaw that Blackwarden Keep was undefended. Sir Welford and his knights were in Stromgarde, aiding the warfront, while the Night Gryphon, the only potential other reinforcements, would be outraced from Stranglethorn.

Arriving at the inhospitable island, the Beastmaw succeeded in landing a scouting team in stealth to explore the isle before the lightning attack could take place.

The scouting failed.

The spy warfare taking place in the background was tipped in the Alliance’s favour. An Alliance spy, yet uncovered, had warned the Night Gryphon of the Beastmaw’s intentions, and the castle was well-prepared for the Horde’s arrival. Armed patrols with hounds scoured the island’s wilderness, gryphon riders controlled the skies, and Blackhall’s personal galleon chased the Beastmaw’s Gorath’s Tide away from the island shore, cutting it off from the scout team.

The scouts were captured, and the Beastmaw’s vessel underwent a month-long pursuit by the Alliance galleon. Ultimately, the galleon was sunk in a region the Beastmaw provisionally called Barracuda Rocks and the Gorath’s Tide sailed back to Blackwarden. There, with the help of stragglers who had escape the capture – the tracker Tragdem Rimefang and the shaman Karda Stormweaver, as well as a hostile Mountain Giant who secretly called the island his home, it aided in freeing the Beastmaw scouts awaiting trial under the castle’s Guard Captain Katherina Bradley. During the heated escape, they succeeded in slaying Vypen Teague, the Archmage in service to lord Blackhall and member of his war council.

Phase II

Blackwarden Keep was now heavily fortified and expecting attacks from the Horde. The Beastmaw returned to Zandalar, a half-way checkpoint across the Great Sea and a temporary base of operations, in time to see it assaulted by the Alliance. The battered warband aided in the defense of Dazar’alor. After the battle’s conclusion, the campaign to take Blackwarden was renewed, and made even more urgent – now the Alliance had naval superiority over the Horde, and any potential advantage for the war effort had to be seized.

While the Beastmaw recovered, the Order of the Night Gryphon hunted down and slew Kon’taka’s spymaster, Azhai. In response, and with the help of the order known simply as the Coven, the Beastmaw assaulted a prison wagon in Westfall, freeing two of their own scouts which had been transferred from Blackwarden Keep – Talekeeper Guln and Sanarala Thalana - and the disgraced human lord and rival to the Night Gryphon: Victor Commadore. With the incentive to seek vengeance upon Dalathar Locke and his followers, he agreed to serve as Kon’taka’s new spymaster.

A secret war council was held in a secluded Horde camp deep in Kul Tiran land known as the Wolf’s Den. The Beastmaw called upon their old allies of the Hand of the Titans, and recruited the mercenaries of the Wayward Vagrants. Together with Commadore’s intel and the brute strength of the Mountain Giant they discovered on the island, they now had a considerable force to throw at the now heavily defended castle.

The attack was a success. It was timed in such a way as to find Blackwarden Keep without the presence of the Night Gryphon. The Mountain Giant, along with an Azerite mortar designed by Kon’taka’s engineers, demolished one of the castle walls, and the combined force of Horde warriors and mercenaries took the courtyard. At the sime time, a covert team snuck into the Keep from the mountains and lowered its drawbridge.

Though lord Blackhall and his closest warriors were evacuated, the Beastmaw managed to capture Guard Captain Bradley. For the first time since the Second War, the island belonged to the Horde.

As repairs began, the Beastmaw set sail to chase other objectives: they had made a promise to the Mountain Giant Mossfoot to restore nature on the island, and after paying the mercenaries the warband was forced to renew the strength of its coffers. Blackwarden Keep was left in the hands of the now-cleansed Blood Guard Khulan. Guard Captain Bradley was taken along with the Beastmaw to keep as prisoner, as a bargaining chip should the Alliance be confronted elsewhere, and to take some burden off of Khulan.

Phase III

While chasing the location of the Folly of the Waves, a pirate vault ship that the Beastmaw captured at the start of the war and mistakenly sailed within range of the Golden Fleet’s ballistae, the warband encountered trouble with the self-proclaimed Pirate Lord Spinel. He had survived the sinking of the Folly and had made it to Vol’dun, where he had formed a small army of his own composed of Zandalari exiles. Spinel tricked the Beastmaw and captured their frigate, the Gorath’s Tide. Stranded, the Beastmaw was forced to find another way back to Dazar’alor.

There, they found out that while they were cut off, the Alliance had retaliated and taken back Blackwarden Keep, dishonourably executed First Sergeant Relana Sunsorrow, and even converted Mossfoot to their side. Without a ship (an increasingly rare asset in the Horde fleet), without gold and with the Taka’ai completely scattered, General Torakk Bloodrain and Blood Guard Khulan would have been in a position of disgrace before Warlord Kon’taka. Torakk sought to lead an expedition and reclaim Gorath’s Tide to restore his honour before having to face the Warlord. That expedition is best described in detail elsewhere.

By the time the Tide was reclaimed, rebellion had stirred back in the Horde. The Beastmaw returned to find the Warchief at odds with the former High Overlord Saurfang, and the warband was forced to pick a side. The majority chose honour over duty, while the rest remained in Orgrimmar out of necessity. No bad blood was formed in those events.

With the Warchief dethroned, the campaign against Blackwarden Keep was no more. Kon’taka was missing, and the Beastmaw had no reason to seek its conquest any longer. A final prisoner trade was organised, and Guard Captain Bradley returned to the Alliance. In return, the Night Gryphon had the captured Taka’ai released for a monetary ransom, which served also as reparations to House Blackhall. Sergeant Ker Garnfang was still kept as prisoner, and the Night Gryphon demanded the surrender of the traitor Commadore in exchange for him.

Phase IV

After a hardship which began with the hunting of Alliance renegades and resulted in a deadly expedition into Nazmir, the Beastmaw were reunited with Warlord Kon’taka, with whom they had had no contact since before the Alliance had retaken Blackwarden. It appeared that after leaving the Arathi Warfront, her ship had been lured into the newly revealed Nazjatar, where she was ultimately put in a position to side with the Alliance in order to ensure Queen Azhara’s downfall.

Kon’taka was now back, and with news of N’zoth’s return. Her command to the Beastmaw was to sail to Blackwarden Keep, and continue what Lor’themar and Jaina Proudmoore had begun. Only with the cooperation of the Alliance in the bastion of Blackwarden Keep would the Taka’ai and the Beastmaw be able to contribute to this new war effort.

Though reluctant, the Alliance agreed. An influence on them was Guard Captain Bradley, who had been exposed to and convinced of the Beastmaw’s sense of honour during her captivity. As corruption spread across Blackwarden Isle, Kon’taka regrouped the Taka’ai. The Alliance command allowed the Horde to establish a base camp in the mountain vale which was named Taka’mar, and through the use of Blackwarden Keep’s mage towers it received supplies and reinforcements from Orgrimmar.

Faceless minions and fleshbeasts emerged on the island’s shores, and insectoid creatures swarmed the skies. The Beastmaw and the Night Gryphon held council and agreed on a plan in order to deal with the most prominent champions of the Void – a corrupted wolf which roamed the island’s forests and a Great Worm from Beyond which patrolled the skies. With the help of an artifact obtained by the Night Gryphon and enchanted by magi from both sides, the Night Gryphon and, unadvertently, the Beastmaw were able to slip into a void-corrupted mirror of the island and slay the twisted versions of their own friends and commanders.

Even so, a ritual took place, and the forces of the void brought about a twisted creature that the Night Gryphon called the Drowned God, a fiend they had slain months ago. It now occupied the body of a Faceless, and it emerged from the sea to assault the island. Alliance and Horde ships formed a blockade to stop it.

Despite the victories, they were all for naught. The minions of the Old God seemed like they would have overwhelmed the island, had the Champions of Azeroth not defeated N’zoth elsewhere in the world.

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And for that full declassified feel, here are some of the images that I made and we used throughout the campaign.

Our NPCs are all compiled in these two panels, which changed quite a bit with corresponding IC developments. Starting with the Taka’ai at the start and the end of the war:

https://i.imgur.com/5oXpFPi.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/1CRropl.jpg

And Blackhall’s Household Guard:
https://i.imgur.com/EWetztn.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/3Mbaxcb.jpg

Credit to Ronto for drawing some of these characters!

The plot was centered around the Alliance Blackwarden Keep, which looked like this before and after the Horde conquest of it:

https://i.imgur.com/108BiJE.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/lsLzBHP.jpg

It was located on a small and unimortant made-up island somewhere in the Eastern Kingdoms, which suffered a Void Assault towards the end:

https://i.imgur.com/hZ3rTZV.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/qRcABW9.jpg

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The Campaign was great! Here’s hoping the next one will be just as epic!

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Nicely done guys, great to be a part of it all as always. Looking forward to what the future holds :smiley:

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Hey thanks, that’s way better presentation! :smiley:

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*Tips his invisible hat*

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I had the pleasure of briefly participating in part of the Beasties’ storyline and it was awesome, but seeing the full scale of the campaign seriously blew me out of the water. The thought and effort that went into crafting the story and all the additional material is insane.

11/10, awesome stuff from an awesome guild. Can’t want to see the next cool thing the Warband cooks up.

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Thanks a lot for the kind words! It was also great RPing with the Hand when we did :smiley:

Probably a beach episode. We need a beach episode.

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I love the attention to detail and the addition of the maps as the event unfolds is something that deserves special praise in my opinion! It makes you feel like this is something that could be a series of quests that take place in the game itself.

Huge props to everyone involved!

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Hey guys, about a month’s time and the Warband turns 11!
Here’s to 11 more!

For the Horde!

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This was a real fun Campaign! Cant wait to see waht comes in the future for us!

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Update! The Beastmaw will be taking it easy for a while in the months leading to the Shadowlands, meaning we’ll mostly do personal adventures rather than big campaigns. Currently on the table: Vrakk’s son has been kidnapped by his evil sister and we have to go get him back!

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The question is… did Vrakk get his kid back? :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

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We are slowly trekking across Outland in search of the warlocks who kidnapped Vrakk’s son, but actually not very slowly because these events happen almost back to back IC despite being days apart, it’s been the exciting kind of intense and I’m looking forward to what happens next!

The guild is likely to be a bit difficult to get in touch with IC for a little while, but that’s bound to change with the Shadowlands prepatch.

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Travel buddies! Glad to hear Beastmaw are still keeping themselves busy and storming the bone-riddled crust of Outland. Please don’t die…

If we spot any shady warlocks, we’ll signal a void flare for you!

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No other guild zugzugs harder than the Beastmaw. Join them for the ultimate dat kind of orc experience.

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We have now returned from our sudden, hastily prepared expedition to Outland!

Reaching as far as the Netherstorm, we tracked down the warlocks who had abducted Vrakk’s son Kromash, and unraveled a revenge plot by none other than Xil’nor the Cruel - the last captain of the demonic warhost once led by the Pit Lord Behemagor, which was our objective to eliminate during the Legion’s invasion! With Xil’nor slain, the last remnant of our old hunt has been dealt with.

We are now licking our wounds at the Crossroads.

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F in the chat for all the Beastmaw shammies who will soon discover that their ancestors are blue da ba dee da ba daa…

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