Venomcrawler

Pounding forwards upon bladed limbs come the horrors known as Venomcrawlers. Grotesque amalgams of metal, flesh and daemonic entities, these monstrosities hiss and snarl as they scuttle towards their prey. Fleshy tongues flap from snarling maws and soulflayer tendrils lash back and forth, all tasting the air for the scent of their enemies’ fear. Upon locking onto their target the Venomcrawlers emit an earsplitting screech. Pent-up Warp energy is channelled into their excruciator cannons, coalescing into hails of solid shot that rip through entire ranks of armoured foes with ease. With their guns still screaming the Daemon Engines close ground on their victims, using their eviscerating claws to prise open vehicles and skewer those within. Soulflayer tendrils thrash frantically, mangling bodies and flensing them of their essence. As the Venomcrawlers continue to butcher, their fanged mouths gape ever wider, drawing the souls of those slain into their vast mechanical abdomens.

Like other Daemon Engines, Venomcrawlers are created by the Warpsmiths of the Dark Mechanicum. Their spider-like frames are wrought in unhallowed forge halls and profane flesh-factories, and through heretical ritual parasitic entities are drawn forth from the Warp to infest these horrifying machines. During such a ritual, the strongest Daemon presence is bound to the structure of the Venomcrawler in a state of inseparable symbiosis, while lesser entities are simply devoured. As more Daemons are absorbed its metallic form distends hideously to accommodate them, creating a reservoir of empyric energy within its swollen body.

Upon completion, Venomcrawlers continue to haunt the cavernous halls of the creators’ factories, burrowing into and nesting within the warp-drenched superstructures. From there they wait for the telltale scent of other daemonic entities that have been drawn into realspace by Warpsmiths and Masters of Possession. Should these empyric beings somehow escape the binding rituals or burst from their hosts, the Venomcrawlers emerge to hunt them down, devouring them whole and storing the raging spirits within their bulbous bodies. It is this daemonic energy that powers the Venomcrawlers’ formidable weaponry, and when such wayward entities are in short supply the war machines will turn to other sources of sustenance, consuming Daemonkin, Chaos Sorcerers or Heretic Astartes to remain well fed.

Venomcrawlers are uniquely valued both off and on the battlefield. Not only can their repositories of stored warp energy be siphoned in order to create fresh Daemon Engines, but they can be used in the thick of combat to weaken the fabric of reality. Masters of Possession are particularly adept at drawing upon this reservoir to lure the daemonic servants of the Chaos Gods into existence. At battle’s end these Daemons are hastily consumed by the Venomcrawler, their essences used to replenish its depleted Warp stores.

Wargear

 * Excruciator Cannon
 * Eviscerating Claws
 * Soulflayer Tendrils

Source

 * Codex Heretic Astartes - Chaos Space Marines (8th Edition) (2nd Edition), pp. 79, 151.