About
The warband has claimed a forgotten stretch of borderland where old roads wind through wooded hills, abandoned farms and crumbling ruins. There is nothing there worth conquering, which suits Varkesh perfectly. His gnolls prey upon livestock, lonely travellers and poorly guarded caravans, taking what they need before disappearing into the hills. Years of survival have made them an uncomfortable part of local life. Shepherds leave offerings at old stones, smugglers know which paths can be bought, and villages quietly pay tribute while insisting they do nothing of the sort. The gnolls even keep worse predators from settling nearby, jealously destroying bandits, monsters and undead that intrude upon their hunting grounds. No kingdom considers them worth a campaign, and Varkesh is careful to keep it that way. To distant lords they are merely another nuisance of the frontier. To anyone who must travel the old road after dark, they are considerably more important.
Characters
The immense black-furred gnoll looming above the others is Varkesh, undisputed master of the warband. Varkesh "One Eye" is ruined beneath a mass of old scars; the surviving amber eye has an unnervingly patient intelligence. He is enormously built even by gnoll standards, with coarse midnight fur, a heavy muzzle and a mane standing in ragged black spikes. His equipment is deliberately simple for someone so feared: a massive shoulder plate, dark leather and iron bindings, and a few trophies taken from enemies worth remembering. His signature weapon is a pair of enormous iron flails on long chains. Varkesh rarely wastes energy snarling or posturing. He simply watches until violence becomes necessary—and then ends it quickly.
The pale, spotted gnoll is Zhara. Ritualist, healer, omen-reader and occasional cause of whatever supernatural catastrophe the warband is currently fleeing. Tall and rangy, she has cream-and-black spotted fur, a narrow predatory face and a mane bound into coarse locks. Compared with Varkesh's brute armour, her equipment is deliberately light: leather harnesses, dark cloth, bone ornaments and a few carefully chosen trophies. Her unmistakable badge of office is the towering staff crowned by a horned skull. Zhara speaks to spirits, interrogates the dead and claims to know exactly how every member of the pack will eventually die. She refuses to tell them.
Skritch died years ago. It simply failed to inconvenience him. His body has dried into a lean parody of a gnoll: hide stretched tight across jutting bone, limbs too thin and angular, and a long skull-like face from which the last scraps of fur hang in filthy patches. A cold corpse-light occasionally stirs behind his hollow eyes. Whatever raised Skritch left enough of the old gnoll intact to remain useful. He still tracks, scouts and stalks ahead of the warband, moving with an unnerving, crooked quickness. He neither eats nor sleeps and can remain motionless for hours when watching a road. The living gnolls treat him with wary familiarity. Skritch is dead, certainly—but he is still pack.
The broad, tawny spotted gnoll is Drogar, the pack's uncomplicated solution to complicated problems. Thick-necked, barrel-chested and almost absurdly muscular, he resembles an enormous hyena forced upright and taught the rudiments of armour. His ochre-brown fur is mottled with dark spots and crossed by old scars, while a coarse black mane runs from his skull down between his shoulders. Heavy shoulder armour and a battered red war-skirt give him a surprisingly recognizable silhouette. Drogar isn't stupid, but subtlety irritates him. Doors, shields, cavalry formations and occasionally architecture are all problems he prefers to solve by going directly through them.
Intro
The Gnoll Warband
The old road belongs to Varkesh and his warband—or so the locals will tell you. Some fifteen gnolls haunt the surrounding borderlands, moving between ruined farmsteads, forgotten watchtowers and temporary camps hidden among the hills. Varkesh, Drogar, Zhara and the undead Skritch are merely the most notorious among them; behind these four is a lean collection of hunters, scavengers and young warriors who give the pack enough numbers to make a direct confrontation a dangerous proposition.
They are not an army, and Varkesh has no intention of becoming one. The warband survives because it knows the difference between prey and trouble. A lightly guarded wagon might disappear before reaching the next village, while a well-armed company may receive nothing worse than distant howls from the ridgeline. When violence promises little profit, the gnolls are perfectly capable of bargaining instead. Food, livestock, iron, information and safe passage through somebody else's territory can all carry more value than bloodshed.
This makes dealing with them unpleasantly complicated. They can be threatened, bribed, deceived and occasionally reasoned with, but never safely dismissed as beasts. Even a capable band of adventurers risks being surrounded if negotiations turn sour, and the pack knows its territory far better than any outsider. Varkesh chooses his fights carefully, Zhara watches for weakness, and Skritch may already have followed travellers for miles before they ever realize the warband is near.
Anyone entering their territory should therefore decide beforehand what they are willing to surrender, what they might offer, and how far they intend to push matters. The pack does not need to defeat every traveller who crosses the old road.
It only needs to convince them that the road belongs to Varkesh.
Who is Guest?
In this fantasy scenario, are you the brave adventurer to challenge them? Or a member of the pack?
Release Date 2026.08.25 / Last Updated 2026.08.25
