Nuckelavee

is is often said that the warriors of the *Legiones Astartes* know no fear, but amongst the scions of the Imperial Sagittarius, the Palatine Wings, there is one thing that does chill their blood, no matter where they hail from or how far removed they are from their lord; the Inhuman Braying of the Nuckelavee.

Birthed in the fires of Istvaan V, the first of the Nuckelavee was a Hussar known as Melita Neritos, captured and corrupted by Surmah's agents, forcibly bonded with his mount, becoming a hideous abomination, akin to the centaurs of old, though only just. For a time, Melita was the only one of its kind, taking up the name of Nuckelavee, but soon, as the Wretched Sons began to spread out, the Nuckelavee began to hunt, and in doing so, the ranks of the new warband bearing his name began to grow, the Palatine Wings ruing that day for all eternity.

## The Hunt

The Nuckelavee are known to be brutal hunters of any they set their sights upon, but in this fashion they are akin to any other cadre of hunters, stalking their prey before pouncing, always able to be countered and struck down by a canny opponent. Not so when they set their sights upon their favoured targets, those bearing the genetics of Bartosz himself.

In the Antarus Apostasy and the Frontier Wars that followed, the Palatine Wings were struck with a curse that also originated upon the Black Sands of Istvaan V, the Orcadians, mindless warriors who care little for pain or mercy, rending their foes limb from limb with no regard for anything else. By a cruel twist of fate, the Perun, bartosz's personal guard, were struck the hardest by this, the closest to Bartosz's death as they were. Perhaps Melita was also stricken by this affliction before his ascension to be more than simply a space marine, but no matter the reason, the Orcadians and the Nuckelavee are forever linked.

the nuckelavee, both the individual and the warband, can 'sense' these warriors, those stricken by the curse, feeling their presence through the warp, no matter where in the galaxy they now reside. When such a scent is caught, the warband moves, flowing through the warp and other, darker, dimensions still, able to follow their quarry in this manner, before pulling themselves from shadows, emerging from the darkness with little warning or ceremony. A prickle on the back of the neck, a screaming in the mind of a psyker, and the nuckelavee arrive, weapons primed as they crash into the unprepared defenders, killing or capturing any of Bartosz's bloodline they can before disappearing as quickly as they arrived, retreating to their unknownable lair to corrupt those taken, swelling the ranks once more.

Only one thing has a greater scent than the Orcadians themselves, that of other Palatine Wings who have given themselves over to chaos, amongst them, the fallen Orcadians again standing apart. Those warriors who have pledged to chaos echo through the warp, practically shining a light upon themselves to draw their killers in close. Throughout the Frontier Wars, those Palatine Wings who had fallen from the Emperor's service into the arms of Chaos soon found themselves beset by monstrosities that knew no mercy or brokered no peace talks. The last of these chaos warbands to fall was the treasonous 41st Brotherhood, their destruction or capture breaking the deadlock of the Blight Wardens defencive lines. Since that day, any Palatine Wing who has fallen to Chaos finds themselves struck down in short order, the Nuckelavee hunting them down, ensuring that they, and only they, lay claim to being the Sons of Bartosz with truely opened eyes.