Clotted Apostles

The embellished symbol of Nurgle worn by Scabris' servants

Gulthrax the Caustic

**The Clotted Apostles** or **Clotkin** are a large vectorium originating from the Death Guard's 5th Plague Company. Like their fellow Poxmongers, they are host to the Sanguous Flux but they also carry a disease first contracted by their master. They serve the daemon prince known as Scabris the Bitter, First Host of the Spitebile Pathogen.

## Warband History

The Clotted Apostles coalesced following Mortarion's self-imposed exile on the Plague Planet. Scabris, a mortal man who had been blessed with immortality, chose them to be his own army, blessing them with the Sanguous Flux, the disease with which he had brought an entire sub-sector under Nurgle's control during the Age of Strife.

As the Long War erupted in the wake of the Legion Wars, the Clotkin fought through the Black Crusades as vigorously as their patron could ask for. Even as a mortal, Bardorax's victory tally against the Imperium surpassed Scabris' own. He witnessed Bardorax's ascension to daemonhood, watched as he was showered with the Grandfather's blessings, and Scabris hated. His followers looked on as the Blightborn were blessed by Nurgle time and again while their own efforts seemed unappreciated. The rivalry would erupt into open warfare sometime around the 9th Black Crusade. Scabris and Bardorax both did their parts in sharing Nurgle's blessings with the materium but it was Bardorax who received an audience before Nurgle's cauldron.

### Ascendance

Following the 13th Black Crusade, the Clotted Apostles finally started to get the recognition Scabris felt they were due. More and more Plague Marines flocked to Scabris' banner as his power and infamy grew; including some defectors from the Blightborn. It was from them that the Bitter learned of his adversary's downfall. An acidic, spiteful joy filled his corrupted heart that day. Since then they have been among Nurgle's foremost servants.

## Notable Campaigns

* **Legion Wars** - Nurgle gives Scabris command of a group of around 400 Plague Marines. The bitter in-fighting between the Forces of Chaos is the crucible in which he earns his command of an Astartes force. The Death Guard are still at least nominally loyal to Mortarion and to their brethren, so they do not engage in the internecine conflict that plagues the other Traitor Legions. Instead, Scabris and his followers spend most of their time defending their own territory and skirmishing with raiders from the III, VIII, XII & XVI Legions. After a particularly gruelling battle against a larger force of World Eaters, these warriors of the 5th Plague Company swear themselves to Scabris, accept his pathogen and The Clotted Apostles are born.

* **1st Black Crusade (781.M31)** - Scabris sides with Thagus Daravek, a Death Guard Sorcerer Lord who seeks to become the new Warmaster of Chaos. As part of his Legion Host, the Clotkin are responsible for bringing new warbands into the fold and harrying the holdings of those who refuse. They are present when Daravek leads the Legion Host back into realspace in pursuit of Abaddon the Despoiler during the 1st Black Crusade. When Daravek is killed aboard the Vengeful Spirit, the Clotkin flee into the Warp, harrying a number of nearby Imperial worlds before they are driven once more back into Eyespace. Some time soon after, Scabris seeks out Abaddon and surrenders, joining the Long War.

* **The Great Game (M32-???)** - The Clotkin occasionally deploy against forces of the other Dark Gods, often along side legions of Nurgle's daemons.

* **Achilus Crusade (777.M41-???)** - The Clotted Apostles have dipped in and out of this four-way conflict between the Imperium, the Tau Empire, the Forces of Chaos and Hive Fleet Dagon. In the past they have competed with and, on occasion, even cooperated with the Blightborn to serve the will of Nurgle, albeit grudgingly. Their presence has waxed and waned in a consistent cycle over the course of the war. They have unleashed the blighted blessings of their patron against the scions of the Greater Good, the servants of the Corpse-Emperor, and the swarms of the Great Devourer time and again. Even though Scabris is now obsessed with finding and destroying Bardorax, elements of the Clotkin continue to serve in this theatre under a few of his more trusted officers.

* **The Plague Wars (012.M42)** - As the light of the Astronomican gutters, the forces of the Plague God Nurgle issue forth from the Great Rift, striking at worlds across the galaxy. In concert with Typhus, the majority of the Clotted Apostles invade the territory which becomes known as the Scourge Stars. The area is intended to be used as a staging area for further Nurglite invasions of Ultramar as well as giving Nurgle a foothold in realspace. The Death Guard's initial successes are eventually blunted by the efforts of the resurrected Roboute Guilliman, his Ultramarines, their Successor Chapters and the newly-awakened Primaris Marines. Scabris reluctantly obeys Nurgle's command to withdraw, while Mortarion and the greater daemon Ku'Gath lose their master's favour for remaining in the field.

## Homeworld

Scabris' throne resides on Choleriflux, the daemon world formerly ruled by Bardorax. Scabris had long coveted this planet and when he was finally granted it following the latter's disgrace and banishment, he brought all of Bardorax's works to ruin. Recasting Choleriflux in a way more pleasing to himself, the planet is covered in the pestilential smog of heavy industry; the air filled with the tortured shriek of corroded gears, the roar of plague furnaces and factory-fortresses.

Choleriflux is now the main production centre for the Clotkin's daemon engines and other tanks.

## Warband Culture

The Clotted Apostles are unusually dour and bad-tempered for those marked by Nurgle. This is due to Spitebile. The disease has made them bitter and twisted like their master so often their first thoughts are how to spread misery and misfortune to others.

## Warband Beliefs

The Clotkin are fanatically loyal to Scabris, believing he embodies the will of the Plague God. Scabris believes he is meant for something greater, perhaps even godhood. However his quest for power was interrupted by the Horus Heresy and its aftermath. Since then he has had to contend with the Traitor Legions and their daemon princes. They do not hold Mortarion in high regard as the daemon primarch has done little to benefit their mutual patron for the last 10,000 years.

They believe that their power (and Nurgle's) will rise or fall depending on their master's own, so they are heavily invested in serving him and helping him achieve his goals. To this end, the vectorium longs to find and finish off their rivals, The Blightborn before the latter can recover their strength to once again become a threat.

## Recruitment

This warband has managed to attract new members due to the infamy of its leader and the wealth of diseases they are obviously blessed with. Members of other vectoriums have willing left their own groups to join this one. Otherwise, they are beaten into submission; or new members are loyalist Astartes corrupted by Nurgle's touch.

## Warband Gene-seed

The Clotted Apostles are members of the Death Guard, therefore the majority of their heavily corrupted gene-seed is that of the daemon primarch Mortarion. The minority presence of other lineages is due to Plague Surgeons stealing gene-seed from fallen Imperial Astartes the Clotkin have slain.

### Contagions

#### Sanguous Flux

This was the disease gifted to Scabris when he was mortal. He was the first person on the material plane to suffer from this malady, and when he prayed for relief, Nurgle answered. Out of gratitude, Scabris formed a Plague Cult which would eventually spread the Flux to every planet in the system and beyond into the rest of the sub-sector. When Nurgle saw how devoted Scabris was to sharing his gifts, he granted him daemonhood and drew him into the Great Game. In Scabris' absence, his homeworld along with the rest of the sub-sector was eventually cleansed in fire by the Salamanders Legion during the Great Crusade.

When he gained control of a portion of the Death Guard Traitor Legion, he infected them all with the Flux to mark them as his followers.

#### Spitebile

This disease was born of Scabris' anger and burning resentment and has now spread throughout his followers. Spitebile manifests in three stages:

1. Early infection: subject experiences foul temper, increased irrationality and fevered babbling;
2. Advanced infection: A tumour forms as the subject's bitterness coalesces causing abdomenal bloating, fever intensifies;
3. Host succumbs: The infected now has a permanently bitter temperament and the ability to vomit at will.

The tumorous sac acts as a self-filling 'bile stomach' and can upheave on command, allowing the carrier to projectile vomit an unnaturally potent acid capable of melting flesh & bone with ease over a short distance. This vomiting can temporarily alleviate the morose nature of the infected, allowing them to think a little more clearly. While it is capable of eating through the armoured hull of a tank and even Astartes power armour with time, it seems to react most violently with organic tissue.

The bile sac is a highly-pressurised organ which can burst if pierced, killing the host and showering those nearby in the corrosive contents. This can become an acidic explosion if the sac is pierced or destroyed with a heat-based weapon.

## Warband Organisation

### Command Ranks

**First-Blessed** - The self-aggrandising 'rank' held by Scabris the Bitter denoting his superiority over his subordinates.

### Junior Ranks

**Plague Champion** - These warriors of note each lead a squad of Plague Marines, having been blessed with some form of taint which surpasses that of the men they led.

### Line Ranks

**Plague Marine** - These are the standard rank-and-file members of all Death Guard warhosts. Every one is blessed by their foul patron to be the carriers of unholy contagion. A single Plague Marine left unchecked is enough to infect an entire planetary population.

### Specialist Ranks

* **Biologus Putrifier** - These individuals specialise in the creation and spread of new diseases. Though they do not number as many compared to other vectoriums, they are held in high regard by their fellows.
* **Foul Blightspawn** - These specialist Death Guard are prized, like the Putrifiers, for their tendency towards biochemical warfare. They make prolific use of blight grenades and plague sprayers, ensuring that nothing healthy survives the warband's advance. The Blightspawn of the Clotted Apostles favour bio-acids and other corrosive mixtures.
* **Plague Surgeon** - A handful of these once-Apothecaries grace the Clotkin with their presence. Their malicious ministrations upon the corpses of dead loyalist Astartes have allowed their lord to raise new members from kidnapped Imperial citizens. Untainted gene-seed is a precious commodity in the warp-soaked realms of the Eye, meaning it gives Scabris a great amount of bargaining power when bartering for materiel or buying the services of Chaos mercenaries.
* **Tallyman** - These number-obsessed esoterics are the twisted mockery of bureaucrats amongst the sons of Mortarion. They keep count of everything: victories, defeats, rounds expended, materiel gained, number of foes who lose hope before succumbing to death etc. While this counting has no doubt pleased their patron god, it has also allowed Scabris to maintain a tight-grip on his followers as everything is recorded and kept under his control.

### Specialist Units

* **Deathshroud Terminators** - These warriors from the XIV Legion's first company were originally bodyguards to the Primarch Mortarion. When he disappeared into self-imposed exile, they were left to find their own way in the maddened realm of Eyespace. The Deathshroud among the Clotkin have forsaken Mortarion in favour of serving as Scabris' elite troops and bodyguards. They form the lynchpin of many of Scabris' assaults; reducing all before them to rot and ruin beneath the vile sprays of their Plaguespewers.
* **Blightlord Terminators** - More warriors of the Death Guard's former First Company; these warriors are fused into their insidiously corrupted Cataphractii Tactical Dreadnought Armour.

### Headquarters

These traitors make use of Choleriflux as their fixed headquarters within the Eye of Terror. This tainted planet creates new daemon engines as well as the war materiel any Chaos Space Marine force is likely to need.

While in parts of the galaxy away from the Eye, the Clotkin plague fleet serves as their headquarters with Scabris issuing commands from his flagship *Corroding Touch*

### Companies

The Clotted Apostles constitute two 'sepsis cohorts' of (a sub-division of a Plague Company, each consisting 700) Plague Marines. Each sepsis cohort is further divided into 'maladictums', with each maladictum being divided into several 'colonies'.

### Daemonic Forces

As one of Nurgle's preeminent daemon princes, Scabris has thousands of daemonic minions at his command. His most prized allies are from the Epidemic Legions.

## Warband Combat Doctrine

The Clotted Apostles favour a grinding war of attrition to slowly wear their enemies down. This inexorable advance is supplemented by monstrous daemon engines, allowing these Bubonic Astartes to lay waste to heavily-armoured opponents and even engage in siege warfare when necessary.

## Notable Warband Members

* **Scabris** - This daemon prince has been in Nurgle's service for millennia. His birth world and mortal name long forgotten, he achieved apotheosis long before the Great Crusade. In the following millennia, he grew more and more resentful of Bardorax's rise to prominence among Nurgle's servants. Even as a Space Marine, Bardorax's victory tally against the Imperium surpassed Scabris' own. He witnessed Bardorax's ascension to daemonhood, watched as he was showered with the Grandfather's blessings, and Scabris hated. The rivalry would erupt into open warfare sometime around the 7th Black Crusade. Scabris and Bardorax both did their parts in sharing Nurgle's blessings with the materium but it was Bardorax who received an audience before Nurgle's cauldron. After Bardorax's downfall, Scabris has spent decades searching so that he may finally deliver The Embarrassment's deathblow and cement his own place as Nurgle's most formidable daemonic vassal.

## Warband Fleet

* **Grandfather's Bulk** - A mighty plague ship that moves inexorably towards its next target. In addition to its shields, it possesses a fierce regenerative capability. The metal hull of this ancient vessel has all but disappeared, changed to flesh by the warp's corrupting influence.

* **Harbinger of Decay** - A Space Hulk used by the warband to infiltrate Imperial systems. The Blightlord Terminators do an excellent job of defending the hulk from genestealer incursions and enterprising ork looters.

* **Corroding Touch** - An ancient vessel suspected to be a Vengeance Grand Cruiser. It's heavily rusted hull is deceptively resilient, as is the style of the Death Guard. This serves as Scabris' flagship and seat of power away from Choleriflux.

## Relics & Artifacts

* **Ironclot Furnace** - The Clotted Apostles are mighty enough to count one of these dark relics unique to the 5th Plague Company among their collection. The furnace is a modified suit of Death Guard power armour which emits warp-corrupted pollutants that strengthen daemon engines.

## Warband Appearance

### Warband Colours

#### Pre-Heresy

During the Great Crusade this warband were part of the Death Guard's 5th Great Company

#### Post-Heresy

The Clotkin represent their allegiance to Nurgle in the colours they wear into battle. Their armour has mutated, becoming akin to bleached bone (albeit retaining the durability of ceramite) with brass soiled by eons of corrosion. Their pauldrons are stained the colour of scabbed blood. Near the joints the soft under-armour has rotted to reveal the corrupted flesh within.

### Warband Emblem

The Clotkin bear the Mark of Nurgle proudly on their pauldrons, and perhaps one or two other places on their armour. Their version has the boils coloured a scabbed red with the spiked limbs being a weathered metal grey.

## Relations

### Allies

* **G'lobbu'lex** - A Great Unclean One who commands one of the Epidemic Legions. A great many lesser daemons gibber and caper in his wake. An ancient entity, he has fought alongside both Scabris and Bardorax in the Great Game as well as in realspace. Even though G'lobbu'lex is bound to Scabris' service, he secretly considers Bardorax a friend. Together, G'lobbu'lex and the Clotkin have sewn enlightened decay in the ever-shifting crystal gardens of Tzeentch, and met the passionate faith of the False Emperor's lapdogs with incurable maladies.

### Enemies

* **The Blightborn** - Owing to Scabris' longstanding vendetta with this vectorium's leader, the two have often viewed one another as foes, some times even coming to blows. Now with the Blightborn a shadow of its former glory, Scabris senses he may be able to defeat his rival once and for all.

* **Followers of Tzeentch** - As with all true servants of the Plague God, the Clotkin fight with unfailing determination against those who serve the Architect of Fate. They find the convoluted schemes and mindless change of Tzeentch's dancing puppets to be most exasperating.

## Quotes

### By

"*Now our time has come, my children. The Plague Lord has delivered that upstart's planet to me and I have remade it. We will hunt down what few followers the Exile has left and I will destroy him in the eyes of our master once and for all!*"
—Scabris the Bitter
### About

"*Those ones following Scabris are a sour bunch. And not in any good way neither. Why does Nurgle favour them so?*"
—A Biologus Putrifier from another Death Guard force

 Tzeentch Warbands
 Nurgle Warbands
 Slaanesh Warbands
 Chaos Undivided Warbands
 Malice Warbands
 Minor Chaos God-Aligned Warbands

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