Sons of Malaise

Faction Bonus: Bureaucratic Efficiency

The **Sons of Malaise** (ma-, -ˈlez) is a warband of the Death Guard Traitor Legion's 7th Plague Company. They operate in the Hades subsector spreading the joy and blessings of Father Nurgle to the poor and suffering subjects of the imperium of man.

## History

### **Founding**

The Sons of Malaise was founded in the power vacuum following a significant defeat of a Battalion of the Deathgaurd's 7th legion, formerly led by Lord Rothgnar, A powerful Lord of Contagion. Lord Rothgnar's battalion was attacked by War-Mek Morzzag Skyburna's WAAAAAAGH while fending off an attack from Battle Cohort III, IXth Macroclade Forgeworld Ryza’s LXII Expeditionary Reclamation of Sacred Texts and Diagrams in the light of the Omnissiah’s Benevolence. Lord Rothgnar was (mostly) killed in this conflict, and the battalion was left decimated.

Some of the more ambitious survivors of this conflict saw an opportunity to climb the ladder of influence and gain favor with the forces of Chaos and of Father Nurgle. Chaos Lord Trichius, his sorcerer Malignor the Tainted, and Brother Syphilius (a plague marine champion) and his cable of plague Marines (The Black hand of Syphilius) conspired to found a new warband, with the goal of spreading the gifts of Father Nurgle to the unenlightened masses of Subsector Hades.

### **Fall of Forge World Emetos**

Already ridden with disease and dispare, the overpopulated hive-world Emetos was already primed to fall to the ruinous powers. However, the newly founded The Sons of Malaise were in no condition to wage war on an imperium world.

The The Black Hand of Syphilius gathered in nightly prayer sessions for guidance. With each hymn of praise to the Plague God, a whisper of misinformation entered the minds of the most oppressed souls in the vast ghettos of Emetos. Thoughts such as "*vaccines cause autism"* and other anti-authoritarian sentiment spread across the planet like a cancer. In some circles, demonic agents appeared bearing gifts, thus Emetos was infected by The Walking Pox. Eventually, cults pledging allegiance to the Plague God began to emerge from the underworld to help spread propaganda and fake news amongst the populous, blaming the Walking Pox infection upon the status quo. By the time security forces intervened, the infected zones were all but lost. When Lord Trichius and the Sons of Malaise arrived on Emetos they were heralded as heros. With an abundance of cultists and poxwalkers to arm or sacrifice, Lord Trichius was able to quickly bolster his troops and daemon engines, leading to a decisive victory over the remaining imperial forces on Emetos.

### **Conquest of Putrius Prime**

Favoring Daemon Engines over armored infantry, Lord Trichius turned his attention to the forgeworlds of the Hades subsector. Forgeworld Phokus Prime was chosen as the next target. Lord Trichius personally led the invasion of Phokus III with his band of exalted warriors and deamon engines, who quicly overwhelemed the defending Skitarii forces. Phokus Prime fell, and was renamed to Putrius Prime**.** Meanwhile, Syphilius and his Black Hand were instructed to manage the logistics of spreading contagion across every corner of the newly conquered Emetos, so it may be a worthy offering to the Plague God. The two moons of Putrius Prime were dubbed *Ongkos* and*Vromikos.* A great abomination in the form of a monastery was constructed on *Ongkos.* Standing in mockery of the great fortress monasteries of the imperium, this shrine world became the home of Lord Syphius and his band of Plague Marines, dubbed "The Black Hand". The agri-moon of *Ongkos* became a great and fowl manifestation of the Garden of Nurgle, to which the sorcerer Malignor the Tainted became the steward.

### **Ascension of Lord Trichius**

With the gifts of nurgle spread across the newly conquered worlds, Lord Trichius offered Putrius and its two moons up to Nurgle, as well as his own body and soul. The benevolent god allowed Lord Trichius to ascend to deamonhood, and gifted him domain over the world of Emetos.

## Recent Battles, Chapter 1

**Battle of Woe**

With great enthusiasm, the senile and insane sorcerer Malignor the Tainted gathered his cult, and a small force of deamon engines, and began a twisted ritual to open a rift into warpspace from his garden moon of Onkos. He and his faithful understood that father Nurgle would guide them through warpspace to wherever he wished them to carry out his will. Malignor's cult, along with a small killteam of the Black Hand, entered the rift and suddenly found them self in the center of a seemingly abandoned hive city on an unknown planet.

However, a force of Genestealer cultists of the Order of the Void emerged from the ground to defend their off-world outpost from the interlopers, surrounding Malignor's force on all sides. Malignor climbed the tallest tower standing in the center of the city to command his forces, and cast spells of contagion on the genestealer cultists below.

The deamon engines attacked the advancing forces while plague marines with great flails of corruption held off the genestealer abominations attempting to climb the tower to attack Malignor himself.

In desperation, the Cult Magnus himself appeared on the battlefield to assist his brothers. He was captured by the Death Guard foot soldiers, and an astoundingly important relic was recovered from his person, it was a space marine gene-seed. This vindicated Malignor's insane ritual and he now understood why Nurgle chose to send him to this abandoned planet.

In defeat, the cultists retreated and Malignor claimed the outpost world for the Sons of Malaise. It was then dubbed "Woe". But does the world truly belong to him, or are there other inhabitants deep below the surface, waiting to be awakened?

**Conquest of Skangrel**

The outpost world of Skangrel was conquered in a brief but fierce battle against the dormant necron forces entombed there. It now serves as a base of forward operations for the warband, but perhaps more necrons lie in waiting for another opportunity to remove the interlopers from their tomb world.

**Siege of Tughath**

As a critical strategic resource in the ongoing wars of sub-sector Hades, the fortress world dubbed Tugath was fiercely contested by the forces of Craftworld Aeroseer. The battle was long fought over several earth-days. It was a long battle of attrition, and such battles tend to be fought in favor of the death guard's inexorable advance. The warband endured a slow grind of Aldari gunfire, patiently waiting for a sign of weakness. When the Aldari retreated to an uninhabited sector of the fortress, the Sons of Malaise began an orbital bombardment on their new position, and made one final push to claim the fortress world for themselves.

## Chapter Events

Chapter 1: **Prayers to Rotigus (-5 PL to one agriworld)**

Thanks to the prayers of desperate and starving human survivors, rail fell on the feculent soil of Ongkos. Children were born without mutations, and miles of blighted land grew fertile. While inconvenient to the production of daemon engines and other fowl machinations, Malignor and his cable of warshipers understand Father Nurgle's cycle of life, death, and rebirth. And with abundant fertility comes abundant gifts as the cycle of life continues.

## Warband Appearance

### **Warband Colours**

Pale green with weathered bronze trim, The Sons of Malaise's Power Armour is the same as that of the rest of the Death Guard, composed of decayed and cracked plates of ceramite. The Sons of Malaise 's Chaos Space Marines, like those of their fellow Death Guard, often wear grotesquely warped suits of antique Mark III Iron Power Armour. However, some higher ranking special operative marines are known to wear black power armor rather than green.

### **Warband Badge**

The Sons of Malaise's warband badge is usually a modified version of the standard Mark of Nurgle, similar to that used by the rest of the Death Guard.

## Player Resources

* ***Emetos - Throne World***
* ***Putrius Prime - Forge World***
* ***Ongkos - Agri World***
* ***Vromikos - Shrine World***
* ***Woe - Outpost/Dormant Tomb World***
* ***Skangrel - Hive World***
* ***Tughath - Fortress World***

1:any

***Notes: (until i find the time to write this in narrative format)***

* Conquered an outpost world apposed by the order of the void and 3 carnifexes
* Lord Syphilius is a chaos spawn, he was not worthy of deamonhood
* He was replaced by Brother Carrion the Anointed of the Black Hand, a fowl blightspawn who fel 3 carnifexes monsters single handedly
* Brother Carrion Ascended into deamonhood, he is now Lord Carrion the Anointed One
* still need to roll for Lord Carrion's custom character traits
* After previous chapter event (tears of Isha), Malignor the Plaguecaster's prayers were answered by a Great Unclean One named  Breg'thanoth and his army of plaguebearers. This boon allowed the warband to grow considerably in size.
* Lord Tycus has not been seen in realspace after being defeated in the necron battle at the end of chapter 2.