Editing Spores of Madness (section)

== Notable Members ==

=== Captain Boil Beard ===
'Captain' Boil Beard is the Chaos Champion and leader of the Spores of Madness. He has lead the Piratical Warband for nearly two Millenia, ever since shortly after their escape from the Imperial Inquisition. Originally Veteran Sergeant Florent Yierik, he was one of the 8 or so Veteran Sergeants who survived the flight from their fortress monastery. Originally, the renegade Sergeants worked together in a sort of council following the death of the First company captain in the escape. Together they decided the nearest area of the galaxy where they could hide was within the confines of the Ghoul Stars. 

About a decade into their voyage, Florent began to feel the ever present fear of his own mortality, confronting the fact that like the rest of his chapter he may soon face death. These thoughts haunted the veteran for a long stretch throughtout the Ghoul Stars, until a voice gave him a way out. It may be Florrent had latent psyker abilities awakened by the proximity of the supernatural xenos within the Ghoul Stars, or perhaps he was just lucky, either way he heard a kind and fatherly voice in his dreams telling him the true secret to everlasting life, everlasting stagnancy. Florent took these lessons to heart, and followed the directions of his new, and mysterious patron.

It revealed to him that one of the ships captured from the inquisiton in their flight carried a very rare and unique payload, virus bombs. With his own squad as his first followers, Florent secretly moved over half the payload onto the Company's Battle Barge, and spreading his new teachings to others in the company, even a few of the other sergeants. In the end, the new faithful and those who would not heed him were gathered together, ostensibly to celebrate their survival as a company. At this gathering, with all in attendance, Florent unleashed the virus bombs.

It was found that those that had resisted him, and held to their own beleiefs, were killed by the voracious plauge within the bombs as it rotted through their armor and flesh, destroying them utterly. But, Florent and his faithful, a full two thirds of the company, did not die. Instead, the symptoms of the plauge did not kill them, but only strengthened them. As the smoke cleared, Florent took for himself a new name, and christened his new warband 'The Spores of Madness', and the rest is history. 

He raided and pillaged and plauged the Ghoul stars and other nearby sectors, becoming a major threat to the Death Spectres and their mission. 

Recently, Captain Boil Beard has gone through a drastic few changes in his faith. After the false and incomplete information and augurys that lead to the Cywren incident, he lost faith in his Sorcerer's abilities to predict future events. He became obsessed with divination, future telling, any way to gain an informational edge. And so it was that when he came across the Belle Dame he believed Papa Nurgle had sent him an answer. Trusting in her womb far more than his sorcerer's, Captain Boil Beard has a strange and some would say... unhealthy infatuation with the Belle Dame. Thoug he still revels with his mates and plunders with his crew it has become a normal occurence to find him in the Belle Dame's chamber speaking with her, praying before her, and sometimes simply staring into her ever changing womb, watching the currents and edies within. He believes that one day, some year soon, the Belle Dame will give birth, birth to the one true son of Nurgle. It is his belief that Papa Nurgle has deemed him worthy to protect and raise his son, a prospect that excites the Captain to no end. Though unlike several other Spores he has never seen the child, he claims it is a test of his devotion to the Belle Dame and Papa Nurgle.

=== Ol' Ironsides ===

Imagine if you took [[Bjorn the Fell-handed]], made him stop pretending to be senile (as in ''actually senile''), turned the crazy up to 11, and stuck him in a boat with a bunch of rotting space pirates. Welcome to Ol' Ironsides. This mad bastard consistently forgets things, blasts sea shanties through speakers that would make the [[Noise Marines]] weep, and does something he likes to call a "rot keg," in which he screams at the lesser hands on the ship to fill his sarcophagus with plague grog.

When they don't he just continues screaming, ranting about how he should feed them to the drop pods. He usually does.

=== Arkus Name-Taker ===

If you're one of those guys in the 40k universe that deals in the market of men, you're probably one of Arkus Name-Taker's customers.

Sorcerer captain of the blockade runner Bonnie Whore's Kisses, Arkus Name-Taker is one of the most prolific slavers in the galaxy. Most notable was his enslavement of the entirety of the noble children of Delcitus Maxim and their replacement with nurglings, an action that led to the formation of the Delcitus Crusade Fleet and the blood vendetta of it's commander, Commodore Tabeatha Haddaway Ngatha.

A preening, egotistical man, Captain Name-Taker surrounds himself with a cadre of slaves who endlessly polish, paint, and replace his armor as it succumbs to Nurgle's designs. Preferring his ship to be crewed with psykers, Name-Taker's mancatcher squads have been known to fill their slave cages by compelling the weak of mind to walk into their servitude.

He's probably the cleanest follower of [[Nurgle]]. Ever.

=== Bolg'Shav ===

One of the oldest members of the Spores of Madness, the marine now known as Bolg'Shav is one of the Possessed, willingly having is mind obliterated and surrendering his body to the control of a daemon of Nurgle. His terminator armor now living amalgamation of insect and fungi, he ambushes his enemies by teleporting in their midst while lashing out with claws that can age flesh and steel to dust and fangs that infect his victims with fungal growth that bypasses their nervous system and slaves their bodies to Bolg'Shav's commands.

=== Tektus The Dense ===

Tektus the Dense is a feared but still respected leader over his six man bike squad "The Vile Riders". Besides being efficient on the battlefield, they are also tasked with either stealing something quickly, or delivering dangerous cargo for the Captain.

Contrary to popular belief, Tektus is not called "the Dense" because he's stupid. Actually, compared to the other Spores of Madness, he's pretty damn brilliant. However, his body is absolutely wracked with tumors that have burst his armor asunder and added a half a foot to his flesh. On top of that, the collective mass of fucked up cells makes him weigh a half ton unarmored. It's like Deadpool, but more vomit inducing.

Ol' Ironsides got pissed at him once and tried to throw him into the Warp.

It didn't work.

=== The Belle Dame ===

When the Spores of Madness sacked the stellar wind-swept planet of Robartes and its great subterranean cities, they discovered a lone tower standing in the inhospitable desert of the surface. Standing more than a kilometer in height, the thin, gleaming spire appeared in no records. The Spores of Madness found only a solitary woman chained in the room at the top of the spire, unguarded. Appearing heavily pregnant, the Spores of Madness took the seven chains binding her as a good omen and brought her back to their ship unmolested.

Ostensibly an anemic, listless human woman of indeterminate age with a full term pregnancy, the Belle Dame's humanity is undermined by not only her great height, standing taller than all but a handful of Space Marines, but also her absolute refusal to eat. Most curious is the fact that her abdomen, swollen with child, is nearly transparent, with ribs and organs visible. Her womb appears as a swirling mass of contrasting liquids, with many of the Spores believing that the future can be divined from interpreting the patterns formed by the currents and eddies. A few of the Spores claim to have seen the child she is carrying, but, when pressed, the details given are vague. However, all who have seen the child describe it as giving them an unsettling sense of familiarity.

Most of the Marines see her as legitimate, or at the very least equal to the augury of the Sorcerers. The cultists, who rarely interact with her, have far more mixed reactions, ranging from outright worship as a kind of holy figure to believing she's a deceiver, come to lead them astray from the path of Papa Nurgle. The cultists do not express these distasteful opinions to the Captain.

Because of the Cyrwyn Incident, Captain Boil Beard has lost more and more faith in his sorcerers, and has become more and more obsessive and superstitious over fortune telling and divination, meaning he has developed an infatuation with the Belle Dame. He has taken two of his most trusted [[Plague Marines]] and designated them as her "Pale Guard." They guard her night and day without rest.

Captain Boil Beard keeps her close, in her own private chamber on the ''Pieces of Eight''. Whenever she is seen on the vessel, she is usually accompanied by Boil Beard and her Pale Guard.

=== "The Magos" ===

<blockquote>

''"Excuse me, Magos, I was overlooking the schematics you sent me and I'm confused. This is some sort of artillery cannon with an articulated barrel, correct?''"

''"Correct."''

''"Won't this explode violently when fired?''

''"Yes."''

''"If you don't mind me asking, why?"''

''"Because the coxswain of the Ark Defilement got his right leg blown off and wanted a cannon for its replacement."''

''"But to mount this thing would require removing his other leg, pelvis, and most of his lower abdomen and the recoil from firing the cannon would wrench it free from any anchoring."''

''"Yes."''

''"Did you tell him that would happen?"''

''"No."''

''"Sir, with all due respect..."''

''"I had dreams once. Simple, easy dreams of respect, authority, and beautiful women retaining at least 43% of their flesh. And now, now I get to make artillery cannons into legs for drunken oafs. Every day I wake up, point a plasma torch at my brain case, and flip a coin. It will be my lucky day one of these days, but until then, I need a 155mm cannon, a cutting torch, and a door hinge."''

</blockquote>

"The Magos" is a bitter, unpleasant man shackled by his freedom through loyalty owed to the Spores of Madness. What little enjoyment that seeps through his ahedonia comes from watching their failures and his passive-aggressive lashing out.

He is at the head of the [[Dark Mechanicus]] contingent (those that bent the knee to the Spores ''and'' newcomers).

None of the Spores of Madness have ever bothered to learn his name.

=== Lesser Members ===

==== Bloaterbud ====
<blockquote>
''Hate, joy, sadness, love and.....nothing. That is what the chaos spawn Bloaterbud felt when it was roaming the empty corridors in one of many forgotten decks onboard the Traitor Battleship Crimson Shell.''

''Every once in a while a slave have tried to escape its masters and fallen victim to Bloaterbuds many mouths and claws. Bloaterbud felt...something when it feasted upon the scrawny slaves...but it didn't care.''

''After many years Bloaterbud could hear voices and footsteps. They didn't sound like slaves, so Bloaterbud hid. As he watched with his many eyes and eyestalks a trio of armour clad giants that ceared out rubble and forced many doors open. When seeing this Bloaterbud had an....idea...something it hasn't had in a long time; "Maybe some of them will die, then I could feast!"''

''With the idea in Bloaterbud soon found himself in pursuit of the giants. And after many twists and turns it finnaly found them. But they where all looking at Bloaterbud, and not the other way around.''

''Bloaterbud was prepared to run, but stopped when one of the giants yelled out: "OUR GREAT FATHER HAS GIVEN US A GIFT. A SPAWN TO SEND OUT INTO BATTLE!"''

''And thus, began a new chapter in the (un)fortunate life of Bloaterbud.''
</blockquote>

Bloaterbud is a Chaos Spawn. At some undetermined time, the Spores of Madness found and took him as a gift from Papa Nurgle.

==== Brother Jacobin ====
<blockquote>
''"Brother Jacobin stood at the edge of the small stage and bowed his head in quiet reflection for a moment as his servants finished handing out bread to the gathering crowd, his speech reciting itself in his head. The damp, dank air of the underhive smelling cloyingly acrid and sweet as it stung his lungs, sending him momentarily into a memory of his childhood and the harsh incense of the temple. He surveyed the crowd, less than a hundred souls, all standing apart and wary of cutpurses; sticking around mostly out of a base politeness or the hope for more food than any actual interest. Prophets, rabblerousers, and agitators were more common than rats in the underhives, and Jacobin knew he was but another rodent scurrying in the dark. He didn't wear his armor when making speeches, at best it made his audience fearful, at worst, in a land where life was meaningless and violence cheap, it made his audience think he was fearful. So he stood there, loosely clothed with his shirt open so that the audience might find him relatable to their own tumors and wounds, and his feet bare. He didn't know why going barefoot seemed to make people more apt to believe what he was saying, but he wasn't going to quibble over results. His servants had finished their barking and it was time for his speech. The crowd murmured as he stepped out and he smiled inwardly as some pointed to his bare feet. And there, on a rotting stage, on a rotten street, in front of a rotting crowd, Brother Jacobin opened his mouth and sang the praises of decay."''
</blockquote>

Brother Jacobin is the [[Dark Apostle]] who interacts the most with the cultists. A priest of sorts, he preaches the word of [[Nurgle]] to the rotting, diseased masses who follow him.

<blockquote>
''"All have their place in Nurgle's garden, to tend, to grow, to cultivate, to harvest, and to cull. What role one plays might change many times in one's life and what is desired is rarely what comes to be. "'' - ''Brother Jacobin''
</blockquote>

Brother Jacobin doesn't see any difference between interpreting the Belle Dame's womb or interpreting a slave's entrails. However, he is less than ecstatic about the trouble she's caused in the varying cultist beliefs due to how difficult it has made his life.

On a personal level, Jacobin thinks the Belle Dame is a bore, and rather dim-witted.

==== Markus Mordecai ====

Markus Mordecai is an enforcer for the many groups of cultists that serve under Captain Boil Beard. Once, he was a man of pride and respect as an Arbite in the Hive Radatoon on the planet Knasta. However, after seeing how corrupt the Adeptus Arbites on Knasta were, he began to look for a way to crush them all.

His wishes came into being when the Spores of Madness invaded the planet. With his knowledge from being an Arbite, he quickly rallied a hoard of cultists from the lower hive. When the battle was done, he and the surviving cultists found themselves aboard the "Pieces of Eight". And through wits, skills and a few bullets into a few people's heads, he became an enforcer for what he likes to call "The Boil's Bravest".