Matron of Decay

By Calgor Grim, in Black Crusade Game Masters

So I was doing some NPC brainstorming and one thing I'm working on for session 2 (or maybe 3) of the campaign is that of a female devotee of Nurgle. I'm looking to ideally avoid the cliches but am looking to also make something which is slightly twisted.

Initial spitball idea is a moderately large overbaring matron like character with an immense collection of the dead or decayed of various species (including human). Now for the weird bit I was thinking that an odd gift of the gods bestowed upon her would be to have her permanently with child (gift of the gods can cover all food and water needs so I suppose it covers this). Nurgle does cover death and rebirth, this was covered in ToD. The odd part though is that every entity born of this woman is always stillborn unless it would serve the lord of decay somehow. As if a macabre mockery of the process of life and death.

Rather than be horrified, she delights in the experience, preserving her dead offspring like you would a family pet, taxidermy or jars.

Feedback welcome. As said I want to avoid most of the Nurgle traits of sickness and disease of the followers to some degree. Suggestions to further the twisting of the mind are appreciated.

I like it. Don't really have anything to add to it , neither does it need adding to. It's great.

But this gave me an idea for some Nurgle cultists.

The Midwives of Natus-musca.

They are female cultists devoted to Nurgle who aid women in childbirth. However, the ofspring the midwives help deliver are always mutants. It's unknown if the child was stil untainted in the womb or if the midwives instintivly track down women who will bear mutant children. In either case the midwive will do her best to make sure the mutant child is born safely and will teh spirit it away for it to be raised in worship of grandfather Nurgle and hatred for normal hmans and the Imperium.

Well, if you want to avoid the cliché, don´t make her "matron like". Give her a rather slim figure but with the hips that would have been considered "birthing hips" :)

Do not only stick to taxidermy and jars. Have her cradle her latest still-born child although (or because of) the flies buzzing about it. If you want to pervert the circles of life and birth, give her a mutation that make her breasts suckling away the (corpse-)fluids of the still-born child. When the it finally becomes a dry husk, she can add it to her collection.

EDIT: Seems I cannot write **** her without the auto-censorship removing the word. I hope "breasts" are enough of a proper term to be considered acceptable... in a place where I can write about people vivisecting another with chainswords :rolleyes:

Edited by Gregorius21778

Well, if you want to avoid the cliché, don´t make her "matron like". Give her a rather slim figure but with the hips that would have been considered "birthing hips" :)

Do not only stick to taxidermy and jars. Have her cradle her latest still-born child although (or because of) the flies buzzing about it. If you want to pervert the circles of life and birth, give her a mutation that make her **** suckling away the (corpse-)fluids of the still-born child. When the it finally becomes a dry husk, she can add it to her collection.

Oh you are a good one...can I keep this guy? Nice and twisted and somewhat unexpected. I like it, need to find a new character image now. To Google! On the surface the figure of youth and virility would make one think Slaanesh and hedonism/temptation only for it to be revealed as an envoy of Nurgle. An interesting play. I might need to think about whether I go with the whole mutated *ahem* although saying that I could use the whole "vampiric" idea. She preserves her youth and appearance at the expense of all offspring. The idea that she must end life that she creates and brings into the world only to preserve her own. Ramp up the charm and god forbid if anyone goes near her.

In terms of location I'm thinking fill the entire place with overgrown plants which appear delightful to the eye but on closer inspection exude a terrible stench, Garden of Nurgle etc and plants resembling the content of half of this random article . The whole place needs to look good but when investigated further is rotten to the core.

Thanks for the praise & you are welcome. Do not make her look too healthy, so. Perhaps a little... wasted ;) If you want to keep it "sublime", have the people note that her hair is actually really thin, that her teeth are discolouring around the edges and that her cheeks are just a little hallow.

That or I have them go through various stages of decay and looking progressively more wasting, effectively have them return to a healthier appearance after each "top up".

The original plan for the female cenobite was a woman in a corset with the metal bell frame visible with a foetus strung up inside with the umbilical cord still hanging out of her.

I used to have concept art of this, but sadly I seem to have lost it.

If you don't want cliche get rid of the "matron" thing. She should be looking youthful with curvy body and pregnant belly. Let her be unscathed by decay since nurgle protects his worshipers. Contrast to this should be that everything around her wither and die. The unborn child should be pressing against a belly from inside. Something like this .

Oh very nice...I could do a series of this as well. Twisted and slightly disturbing ways to worship a chaos god.

Also if somebody is psyker he could see twisted decaying version of her while other non psyker characters see her as described.