Imperial Armour 7: The Siege of Vraks, part 3 (2009), p14-15 — Sorcerer of Nurgle

The reviled Sorcerer of Nurgle Necrosius, the Master of the Apostles of Contagion, also known as the Hand of Nurgle. Following the Vraksian war his whereabouts are unknown.

1. Armour

Necrosius' armour is a corrupt relic; although incomplete it appears to incorporate elements of MK IV and MK V Astartes power armour along with augmetic modifications of unknown origin, including what appears to be a dangerously unstable power core venting contaminated blackish-yellow vapour. Necrosius himself appears to have partly fused with the armour as it has been damaged or burst in order to accommodate his mutated form, to the point where it is impossible to know where the sorcerer ends and the armour begins.

2. Mutated Form

Fallen far from the glorious form of mankind and the sacred triumph of the Adeptus Astartes physiology, Necrosius' body has become subject to the warping effects of Chaos. This has manifested in horrifically bloated necrotic mutations, swelling of flesh and what appear to be numerous cancerous lesions and the stigmata of uncounted diseases and infections.

The gifts of Nurgle usually take the same form, disfigurement and contamination with diseases of the skin. These often (but not always) cause bloating of the flesh - as seen clearly here.

Such a severe case of neurofibromatosis, with attendant tumours should induce chronic pain, but it seems not to affect Nurgle's followers in any way. Subcutaneous tumours have caused the flesh to expand. Cysts have formed and then burst, spewing blood and pus. Skin lesions of this severity would be fatal to any mortal, but Necrosius and his ilk welcome such infection as a sign of their god's favour. To their corrupt minds such insightly dermatosis simply adds to the warband's fearsome appearance and acts to intimidate those that must fight them.

Despite its seemingly decayed and rotting state, Necrosius' body appears able to shrug off extremely serious injuries, with unconfirmed reports of his flesh almost instantaneously healing the damage done to it by las-fire and bolter rounds. In addition the sorcerer appeared able to withstand any degree of ambient pollution, including the deadly toxins and gases employed by his own side in the conflict without additional protection.

3. Weaponry

Force Glaive. As encountered on Vraks, Necrosius appeared to be armed with a heavily modified force weapon, based or perhaps converted from an Imperial design of the kind favoured by Space Marine Librarians. The psycho-responsive metal of the force weapon allows a psyker such as Necrosius to focus murderous energies into the blade, rendering it able to cleave through even hardened ceramite and directly sever the life force of an individual wounded by it.

Bolt pistol. Not visible here, but Necrosius is known to be armed with a bolt pistol, which he has personally adapted to fire 'plague bolts'. The warheads of each bolt are converted to contain biological warfare agents, which are scattered when the bolt explodes. These are believed to be adaptations of the psyker's own invention.

Blight grenade. Also known as a Death-head of Nurgle, these are highly effective improvised grenades. Each is made fro mthe head of a conquered enemy. The more powerful the enemy the better, so enemy champions are highly prized. The head is sealed with wax and then filled with infectious blood, pus, acid and other putrid creations and allowed to rot down. The result is a missile which will burst upon impact, the internal pressure throwing out infectious liquids and gsaes in all directions.

4. Nurgling

The tiny, impish daemons of Nurgle are called Nurglings - each is a small replica of Nurgle himself. Their small size should not be mistaken for any lack of threat. They are vicious creatures, attacking in swarms that bite and claw with infected fangs. Their festering bites will quickly make a minor wound turn dangerously gangrenous. Nurglings attach themselves to the most powerful and favoured servants of Nurgle.

5. Psychic Manifestation

The use of warp-power will often incur physical manifestations of power, summoned from the ether. Most commonly this might be lightning or flashes of energy, but the use of psychic activity has been noted to cause all manner of other manifestations, from rapid temperature changes, sudden winds, disembodied voices, screaming or howling, unexpected levitation, to inducing fits or uncontrolled psychotic episodes.

Necrosius is also adorned with the blasphemous and macabre trappings of a sorcerer, including shrunken heads, fetishes, glyph-carved icons and a personal banner bearing the foul symbols of Chaos, harvested body parts and the like. These totems are thought to have use in ritual practices providing a psychic focus for the sorcerer's malign energies as well as fulfilling other symbolic functions.

Imperial Armour 7: The Siege of Vraks, part 3 (2009), p88 — Epilogue

The fate of Necrosius is also unknown. His warband, the Apostles of Contagion, are still considered to be at large. Like Zhufor, he would re-emerge to plague the Imperium, and his warband were also identified amongst the traitor ranks of the 13th Black Cruasde.

Imperial Armour 7: The Siege of Vraks, part 3 (2009), p143 — Necrosius

The Hand of Nurgle
Master of the Apostles of Contagion

The bitter and twisted sorcerer known as Necrosius is an ancient foe of the Imperium. A sworn servant of Nurgle, the Chaos god of pestilence, despair and decay, Necrosius is the master of the plague god devoted warband known as the Apostles of Contagion and a powerful sorcerer whose dark arts can awaken the dead to a nightmarish half-life.

Once an Apothecary in the Death Guard Legion whose true name has long been purged from all records. When the Legion's fleet was becalmed in the Warp and invaded by the corruption of Nurgle, the man who would become Necrosius and his fellows turned their every art and skill against the plagues sweeping their ranks but it was to no avail. The decay and disease that ravaged the Death Guard was a thing of Chaos, no mortal science or cure could hope to counter and the whole legion had been betrayed to its damnation in suffering at Nurgle's hands. Necrosius would not stop trying however, and even as his fellow Astartes died around him, succumbing each in turn to despair and the macabre blessings of Nurgle's touch, he struggled on against all hope, obsessed with finding the answer, even though the halls of the strike cruiser on which he was stationed began to unnaturally twist and corrode around him, and in the shadows daemons capered and mocked his efforts. Though his dead comrades staggered back into unholy life and his own body had become a bloated and rotted husk, he continued past reason and past the bounds of sanity. It was only when he heard the voice of his new father in corruption chortling and whispering to him in the murmerous wings of carrion flies and the sibilant gurgling of rotted, decaying organs, that Necrosius embraced the full nightmare truth of what he and his fellows had been damned to become, and embraced the service of his vile god.

A true convert to Nurgle's cause, Necrosius cast aside his past learning and cherished role as a healer of his battle brothers and gave himself, blighted soul and rotted body to the lore of death and the pursuit of Daemoniac sorcery, excelling as a master of the dark arts. With the zealous conviction of a true convert, Necrosius quickly gathered a following among his fellows with this baleful oratory and vision of granting the gift of eternal 'life' through death to all mankind, and these first disciples among the corrupted Death Guard would become the first Apostles of Contagion. His bitter heart would allow him to bend the knee to no master save Father Nurgle, even his former lord Mortarion he obeyed only grudgingly and long has he harboured a resentment of Typhus, whose betrayal sent the Death Guard to its final damnation. It is a resentment that has festered into a hateful rivalry and open conflict down the years between his faction and that of the former Death Guard Captain and now Host of the Destroyer Hive.

Soon Necrosius' Apostles parted company from their fellows and went their own way, spreading disease and walking death wherever they went, heedless to whom they brought their blighted 'gifts' be they servant of the Emperor or follower of the Ruinous Powers. As a result he and his Apostles have made many enemies and participated in great atrocities down the long centuries since the days of the Heresy, from the horrors of the Dorisca Genocides to the blighting of the Eldar Maiden world of Cth'rawl. During these many years the power of Necrosius and his Apostles of Contagion has waxed and waned many times, and indeed dources both Imperial and within the forces of Chaos have believed him destroyed on numerous occasions, whether at the blades of Imperial Assassins or in the flames of Ahriman's sorcerous fires, but always he has returned, earning him the sobriquet "the Undying" among his devotees.

When Necrosius arrived on Vraks as part of the Chaos counter-assault, his presence was at first unsuspected and unlooked for by ally and foe alike, for once again his enemies had believed him dead, and he and the fruits of his occult arts had not been seen for more than a century. His 'new' Apostles of Contagion are a relatively small but powerful warband, among them are numbered rotting and corpulent Plague Marines, Nurgle devoted renegades of uncertain origin and many dark acolytes, apostate preachers and lesser sorcerers, each apprentice to Necrosius's own nceromantic craft. Although he would accept no master, least of all the heretic Cardinal Xaphan nor indeed the mighty Lord Zhufor who soon gathered the allegiance of the bulk of the Chaos Marines on Vraks, Necrosius and his followers soon busied themselves with their own nightmarish work. Like the viral infections they embraced to corrupt their own bodies, the Apostles of Contagion passed among the ranks of the renegades of Vraks like rotting spectres, spreading their poisoned words and infecting the degenerate and the despairing with their bleak and unholy creed. Meanwhile Necrosius and his sorcerers travelled the long fought-over battlefields of Vraks, conducting rites of the darkest sorcery over the killing grounds, mass graves and the unburied dead, preparing the way for the horror to come.

As the slaughter began again in earnest, from the relentless hammering of the artillery and the thunder of the Titan's stride, to the carnage of the Khornate Berserkers' onslaught and the poisoned fumes that accompanied the Purge's assaults, the corpses of the fallen began to stir in Vraks' blood-soaked earth. Nurgle's dance of the dead had come to Vraks and Necrosius was calling the tune.

Wargear: Bolt pistol with plague bolts, Force Weapon, Frag grenades, Krak grenades, Blight grenades

Psychic Powers: Nurgle's Rot, Gift of Chaos

Special Rules

Independent Character, Fearless, Feel No Pain, Mark of Nurgle (already included above), Master of the Dead

Master of the Dead
Necrosius is a powerful sorcerer who has learned many terrible secrets from the suppurating lips of Papa Nurgle's daemon-kin. Whilst Necrosius is present on the battlefield, all Plague Zombie units gain the Furious Charge special rule.

Plague Bolts
Attacks from Necrosius' bolt pistol count as poisoned and always wound on a 4+ unless the weapon's normal strength would make the result needed lower.

Imperial Armour 7: The Siege of Vraks, part 3 (2009), p190-191 — Scenario 18 - The Battle for Armoury 59-44

Warhammer 40,000 Apocalypse

The Battle

The 34th line korps' offensive to seal the ring around the Citadel had stalled amidst heavy fighting against the traitor forces of Nurgle, across a battlefield stained by the green fog of chemical weapons.

Ordo Malleus Inquisitor Tobias Vokes led the attack, with the Grey Knights of Brother Captain Stern awaiting to teleport in as support. Against him were arrayed the hordes of Nurgle, chanting the name of the their lord, Papa G'aap, Scabeiathrax, a mighty Great Unclean One. Inquisitor Vokes sacrificed himself in the battle attempting to banish the Great Unclean One, but Brother Captain Stern's brothers turned the tide and won the day.

The Wargame

This is a large battle, but only part of the entire attack. Play the game on as large a table as you can manage. Set the board up as described for an Apocalypse battle. The Chaos player chooses a short table edge then sets up his bunkers. All forces should be deployed using the Apocalypse deployment system.

Special Rules

The attacker gets the following strategic assets: Scheduled Bombardment, Strategic Redeployment, Tank Riders

The defender gets the following strategic assets: Ambush, Bunkers, Chaos Altar

Objectives

The attacher's objective is to destroy the enemy. Use the kill points system from the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook to decide who is the winner.

Attacker - Forces of the Imperium

Inquisitor Lord Tobias Vokes

Daemonhammer, power armour, icon of the just, purity seals, storm bolter. Psychic power: Hammerhand

Retinue

4 Veteran Guardsmen, 1 Hierophant, 1 Familiar

Transported in a Rhino with storm bolter, smoke launchers, sacred hull

Inquisitorial Storm Troopers

Squad - 10 men - flamer, plasma gun

All have krak grenades

Transported in a Rhino with storm bolter, extra armour, smoke launchers

Krieg Grenadier Squad

Squad - 5 men - melta gun

All have frag and krak grenades and melta bombs

Transported in a Centaur with searchlight, smoke launchers, extra armour, rough terrain mod.

Commissar

With laspistol, powersword

Krieg Infantry Platoon

Command Squad - Snr Off + 4 men - Heavy bolter

Infantry Squad - 10 men - plasma gun

Infantry Squad - 10 men - melta gun

Infantry Squad - 10 men - flamer

Infantry Squad - 10 men - grenade launcher

Infantry Squad - 10 men - plasma gun

Infantry Squad - 10 men - grenade launcher

All squads carry frag and krak grenades. Each squad has one Guardsman with a vox-caster. The Senior Officer carries a laspistol and a powersword

Leman Russ

With dozerblade, pintle-mounted heavy stubber, smoke launchers

Leman Russ

With pintle-mounted heavy stubber, hunter-killer missile

Leman Russ Demolisher

With dozerblade, pintle-mounted heavy stubber, trackguards

Hellhound

With dozerbalde

Macharius Heavy Tank

With pintle-mounted heavy stubber

Strategic Reserves

All arrive via Deep Strike

Brother Captain Stern

Grey Knights Terminators

Grey Knights Brother Captain

8 Grey Knights Terminators

1 Grey Knights Terminator with psycannon

The squad has the Holocaust psychic ability

Grey Knights

1 Grey Knights Justicar

7 Grey Knights

1 Grey Knights with psycannon

1 Grey Knights with incinerator

Grey Knights Purgation squad

1 Grey Knights Justicar

5 Grey Knights

2 Grey Knights with psycannons

2 Grey Knights with incinerators

Grey Knights Dreadnought

With twin-linked lascannons, smoke launchers, sacred hull

Grey Knights Dreadnought

With psycannon, smoke launchers

Defender - Forces of Nurgle

Necrosius

Plague Zombie Horde

20 Plague Zombies

Plague Zombie Horde

20 Plague Zombies

Mutant Rabble

40 Mutants with 2 flamers, 1 grenade launcher, 1 heavy stubber

Plague Ogryns

5 Plague Ogryns

Death Guard Terminators

1 Terminator Champion with lightning claws

8 Chaos Terminators

1 Chaos Terminator with Reaper autocannon

Plague Marines

1 Plague Champion with powerfist and plasma pistol

8 Plague Marines

1 Plague Marine with plasma gun

Plague Marines

1 Plague Champion with power weapon and melta bombs

8 Plague Marines

1 Plague Marine with flamer

Chaos Predator

With twin-linked lascannons, extra armour, daemonic possession, havoc launcher

Defiler

With twin-linked lascannons

Nurgle Dreadnought

With twin-linked lascannons

Herald of Nurgle

Chaos icon, Aura of Decay, Cloud of Flies

Plaguebearers

15 Plaguebearers with Chaos Icon

Blight Drones

3 Blight Drones

Strategic Reserves

All arriving via Deep Strike

Scabeiathrax the Bloated

Nurglings

3 bases

Nurglings

3 bases

Plaguebearers

15 Plaguebearers

Beasts of Nurgle

3 Beasts. One has Noxious Touch