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"Forgive you? My dear, what is there to forgive when you will be my greatest masterpiece to date?"

—Krallyx, Haemonculus of the Altered
GrotesquesatWar

Drukhari Grotesques in battle.

Grotesques are hulking, monstrous Drukhari warrior creations with incredible strength and weaponry, horrors that the Haemonculi often use as shock assault troops to break enemy lines.

Unlike their fellow Haemonculi creations Wracks, none join the ranks of the Grotesques willingly. Most who undergo the long, excruciatingly painful process of transformation are captured slaves of Drukahri raids or other subjects who have displeased the Haemonculi or their Kabal's archon.

Many Haemonculi believe the creation of fleshy horrors to be the pinnacle of their esoteric craft. They maintain that to take an uninspiring form and transform it into a work of dark magnificence is to prove oneself superior to the idiot biology of nature.

Grotesque Wargear

A Drukhari Grotesque ready for combat.

These master fleshcrafters constantly try to out do each other by crafting ever more violent and outlandish Grotesques. Some of their creations are seething hulks of muscle and hypersteroids, others living weapons platforms that boast a variety of large-scale torture implements.

These musclebound horrors are gathered together into loose cells and led into battle by their creator, their destructive capabilities thoroughly field-tested upon their master's chosen victims.

Once their killing fury abates, they are gathered up and returned to the slab for further "modifications."

Role

Birth of Grotesque

A Drukhari Grotesque is brought to life by a Haemonculus.

The process by which a captive becomes a Grotesque begins with a series of painful and humiliating body modifications.

Drukhari are narcissists at heart, and the cruel Haemonculi take a sinister joy in distorting the flesh of those that have angered them.

Though the process often takes Terran years to complete, the hapless victim is constantly pumped full of growth elixirs, macro-steroids and muscle stimulants until their form has swollen grossly out of proportion.

Bone growth is driven into hyperactivity by injections of osseovirals, resulting in external spines that curve over the meaty back of the tortured recipient.

Their thick, muscled forearms are augmented with blades and toxin-dispensing gauntlets, and their hands are replaced with grasping claws or dripping tubes that can eject a great spray of the victim's own blood.

At this point the Grotesque is usually clinically lobotomised, though some are left dimly aware of their surroundings, the better to understand the full horror of what has befallen them.

Either way, the Grotesque becomes mindlessly obedient, able to comprehend and execute only the simplest of tasks. Their slack and terror-etched face is sealed forever behind a mask of black iron, and they lumber dripping from the Haemonculi flesh-pods a new and entirely subservient creature whose only desire is to serve their dark master.

Grotesque in Battle

A Drukhari Grotesque slaughters an Ork Warboss.

On the march to battle, these meat-hulks shamble forlornly after their macabre keepers, but when given the command to kill, they transform into engines of destruction.

Racks of syringes depress in their spinal sumps to dump potent stimulants into their ichorstream, ridged bellow-pumps connected to primary lungs wheeze and contract at triple speed, and veins throb near to bursting as tube-punctured hearts are forced into overdrive.

With a great muffled roar the Grotesques thunder into battle, butchering all within reach with hook, claw and cleaver. They absolutely will not stop until they receive their master's command to cease.

If this command is not heard, perhaps because their master is temporarily deceased or the din of war is too great, the Grotesques will continue to kill everything within reach -- including other Drukhari.

Whether the tiny spark of the individuals left within the Grotesques take a measure of satisfaction in this unbridled carnage can never be known, but one thing is certain -- a Grotesque has plenty of pent-up aggression within its bruised and muscular frame, and it is not a good idea to be nearby when it is released.

Unit Composition

  • 3 Grotesques

Wargear

Sources

Gallery

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