Mutalith Vortex Beast

Mutalith Vortex Beasts are unnatural abominations created by the power of the Warp and the will of Tzeentch, the Chaos God of Change. No creature embodies the warped will of Tzeentch more than the Mutalith Vortex Beast. These nightmarish monstrosities are as large as they are twisted, towering above infantry and even tanks as they bound across the battlefield. Their thunderous roar reverberates for Terran miles in every direction, piercing the psyche of all in earshot and filling their minds' eyes with visions of paradoxical horror.

Yet this projected terror is surpassed by the reality of the Mutalith Vortex Beast crashing into the enemy army. Its rippling musculature grows, splits and reknits as the creature thrashes violently. Massive razor-jagged claws shred through tank armour, exposing those inside to the aura of ravaging Warp flux that surrounds the Vortex Beast. From its betentacled maw, tendrils formed from Warp-putrefied inner organs flap voraciously outwards, tearing infantry limb from limb or constricting the hapless victims before drawing their crushed bodies deep inside the monster's mashing gullet.

Role
The formation of a Mutalith Vortex Beast is an entirely unnatural process, yet they can be brought into being by the currents of Warp energy that flow over the surface of Sortiarius, Planet of the Sorcerers. Often, this occurs when dozens of Chaos Spawn get caught in an empyric eddy and are fused together by the swirl of raw magic. These abominable conglomerations typically perish quickly, collapsing under the weight of their own incongruous form into a quivering mound of Warp-infused ooze. But on occasion, the will of Tzeentch binds the hyper-mutated flesh and bone together into a monstrous composite far more deadly than the sum of its hideous parts.

Over the millennia, many Sorcerers have attempted to create their own Mutalith Vortex Beast with obscure spells to induce the gross transformation. Even when such an invocation succeeds, more often than not the Sorcerer is consumed by their own magic, their flesh being added to the writhing matter of their creation. Other Mutalith Vortex Beasts are formed from supremely powerful Sorcerers who, at the moment they believe they have achieved daemonhood, fall victim to the cruel whims of their fickle patron.

The hulking body of a Vortex Beast acts as an empyric reservoir, drawing in and absorbing Chaos energy. This energy saturates the creature's flesh, at once holding its impossible anatomy together and tearing it apart. The constant struggle between entropy and coalescence creates a swirling psychic tempest around the Mutalith Vortex Beast -- a storm of flux power that engulfs all who draw near, steadily warping their existence. The Sorcerers of the Thousand Sons Traitor Legion revel in this change-field, watching with great pleasure as realspace is racked by strange mutations. As the Vortex Beast's flesh is torn open by cannon fire and hacking blades, torrents of unreleased psychic power bleed onto the battlefield, causing ever more anarchic fluctuations in reality.

Before herding a Mutalith Vortex Beast to battle, the Thousand Sons harness the creature with a giant pointed star made of fire taken from atop the Tower of the Cyclops on Sortiarius. Bound within this burning Chaos icon is an orb -- a fractured piece of the great eye that crowns Magnus' tower -- and through this burning portal the raging Chaos winds from the Planet of the Sorcerers are channelled, allowing the raw power of the Thousand Sons' world to seep freely onto the battlefield.

Wargear

 * Betentacled Maw
 * Enormous Claws
 * Vortex Powers
 * Warp Flare
 * Chaotic Infusion
 * Temporal Flux
 * Epheremal Touch
 * Maelstrom of Madness
 * Beam of Unreality