"‘Brother-under-the-fur. Ha! Now you are brother-true. Reject false-words of seers and embrace true face of the Horned One! Bring Skrolk to the Wormstone, and you will be plague priest. Betray, and you become pus-bag."
- —Lord Skrolk, accepting Apprentice Kratch into the Pestilent Faith
Lord Skrolk, Plaguelord of Clan Pestilens
Lord Skrolk, is one of the legendary disciples of decay within Clan Pestilens and one of the 9 legendary Plaguelords. Lord Skrolk walks the world as an affront to nature and a sign of the power of the Great Horned Rat. Plants wither and die where Skrolk treads and the air seems to congeal and darken, as if stained by his baleful presence. Skrolk is ancient, having lived many spans more than the most long-lived of his foul kind. Rather than weakening with age, Lord Skrolk is possessed with a diabolic vitality that belies the years and the heaped diseases he carries.[1a]
Indeed Skrolk is bent and gnarled by the weight of countless corruptions. The flesh that is not hidden by his tattered shroud is leathery and covered in a layer of dripping buboes. Even worse, the mysterious hunching growths promise something still more virulent. Each new pox only toughens the aged Plague Monk, who himself has become a disease that walks. Lord Skrolk is one of the Plaguelords, the rulers of Clan Pestilens under the direct command of Arch-Plaguelord Nurglitch, he-who-is-tenth on the Council. It was the sight of the radiant corruption of the Arch-Plaguelord that caused Skrolk to claw out his own eyes, as he wished to see no other vision to obscure that last glimpse of perfection. Despite empty sockets, Skrolk moves assuredly and claims a magical sight that sees in vivid hues of decay. Despite his seeming blindness Skrolk's reflexes are rather amazing.[1a]
He can catch a fly out of the air - or rather, he could if any flies were able to enter the aura that emanates from his loathsome hide. Insects literally drop dead from the noxious fumes surrounding Skrolk, and only extreme devotees can abide his presence. In battle Lord Skrolk leads from the front so he can unleash his rabid fury. He bears the Rod of Corruption, a dreadful staff of spiderwood, iron-capped with spikes and covered in writhing runes of power. Many censers hang from its chains, wafting foul vapours. Lord Skrolk occasionally carries plague scriptures with him, and on occasion will bear one of the sacred volumes of the Liber Bubonicus, the toxic tome of ultimate disease.[1a]
Wargear
- Rod of Corruption - The Rod of Corruption is a mighty staff with a large flail at the end. Those that are struck or are near this unholy artefact instantly decay or die by its corruption.[1a]
- Liber Bubonicus - The Liber Bubonicus is one of the most holy of artefacts within Clan Pestilen, containing some of the greatest and most horrific lores concieved of by these fanatic monks.[1a]
