Crysos Morturg

"I can rebuild him. I have the technology."

– Magos Calleb Decima, upon finding the broken remains of Lieutenant Morturg

"If you get hurt, hurt 'em back. If you get killed...walk it off."

– Steve Rogers

Crysos Morturg was a loyalist member of the Death Guard and one of the hardest sons of bitches the XIV Legion ever produced. He is also one of four known survivors of the Isstvan III Massacre, alongside Garviel Loken, Ancient Rylanor of the Emperor's Children, and the mad-scientist Mechanicum adept who brought him back. He was always at a disadvantage in his legion, for two reasons: first, he wasn't from Barbarus, having been recruited into the legion as part of an emergency intake, and second, he was a psyker in a legion that loathed psykers with a violent passion. In spite of all this, Morturg was a superb soldier and loyal to the Imperium, which saw him marked for death during the Battle of Isstvan III.

Biography

Great Crusade

Morturg was inducted into the Death Guard as part of an emergency intake of recruits during the Rangdan Xenocides, which had mauled the XIV Legion so badly that they had to bring in recruits from planets other than Mortarion's homeworld of Barbarus. As the Barbaran Astartes were already hilariously prejudiced against anyone who wasn't from the toxic, smoggy shithole they called home, Morturg faced an uphill battle for acceptance and glory within the legion's ranks, made even harder by his morbid and introspective personality. Nevertheless, he prospered and even reached the rank of lieutenant, at which point his latent psyker powers manifested themselves. The Death Guard, of course, was the one legion that despised psykers above everything else, so Morturg was promptly shunted out of his command and reassigned to the Destroyer corps. This was effectively a death sentence, considering the toxicity of the rad and phosphex weapons that they used. Though this probably didn't improve Morturg's attitude any, he took it in stride, even when they handed him the worst recruits to work with and sent him into the heaviest fighting. He remained totally loyal to the Imperium and the Emperor, and so was sentenced to die on Istvaan III.

Horus Heresy

Morturg got righteously fucked up during the fighting on Istvaan to the point where his psychic abilities were the only thing keeping him alive. Magos Calleb Decima of the Ordo Reductor stumbled across his broken body in the wreckage and rebuilt him with cybernetic components, leaving only his head and a few other squishy bits. He was more machine now than man, a weird and unholy fusion of biomancy and technology, held together by improvised power armor and his own bloody-minded determination. Morturg officially became a Blackshield at this time, and proceeded to acquire a ship and put together a warband of other Astartes: loyalist Death Guard like himself, survivors of the Drop Site Massacre, and others with no clear allegiance, knocked loose from their legions by the shocks of galactic civil war. This warband ranged across the galaxy for part of the Heresy, running traitors down and killing them, until they encountered a renegade Deathshroud named Khorak, who had broken off from the XIV Legion after Mortarion had used sorcery on Molech. Khorak and Morturg recognized each other as fellow sons of the Death Lord, and had a brief chat about how much their dad sucked and why they wanted to kill him. Khorak was about to talk himself into allying with Morturg's crew until one of his fellow renegades tried to shoot Morturg, who deflected the bolt with his psychic powers. Khorak immediately tried to kill him, and Morturg's men put him down. Dispirited by this waste of a potential ally, Morturg opted to return to Terra to seek an audience with the Emperor, and at some point he testified to the Terran War Council as to what had happened on Istvaan III.

Post-Heresy

Morturg survived the Heresy and was made captain of the 108th Independent Company, suggesting that not all the loyalists from Horus' side were absorbed into the loyal legions. He and his men spent the remainder of their days on patrol near the Ghoul Stars. They might possibly have evolved into the Marines Malevolent.

Tabletop

	Pts	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld	Sv
Crysos Morturg	175	5	5	4	4	3	5	3	9	3+

Horus Heresy 1.0

Morturg is an HQ for a Death Guard legion list, though if you're playing after Isstvan he can only be included in a loyalist army. He has the stats of a Centurion but +1W and I, along with Stubborn, Infiltrate, a Power Sword, a Combi-Flamer (strangely enough without chem-munitions, though if you want to you can still give him those at no cost), Hardened Power Armour and RAD grenades, all for the price of a kitted-out Praetor. He is also a level 1 psyker with the Endurance Psychic power to boost your squads in combat (because of Psychic Focus he also has Smite. A little bit of extra firepower is always welcome). As such, he can give that 10-man Deathshroud unit Eternal Warrior (preventing Instant Death, their main weakness), FnP(4+), rad grenades (so they now wound on 2+) and Infiltrate (always try to make him the warlord, more on that later) to get a second turn charge with 10 shredding flamers vs a -1T enemy, on top of Smite allowing him to kill a fair bit of enemy terminators already. So, he's a very competitive Librarian (quite rare in 30k unless you play Word Bearers) and the best attached HQ the Deathshroud could get, since he doesn't prevent them from Sweep Advancing, unlike Typhon... Srsly Mortarion, why the fuck would you throw away one of your Legion's greatest assets?

Commander Asshole: His Warlord trait (Master of Ambush) is fantastic, letting him and three non-vehicle units of your choice in your army infiltrate. Sure, infiltrating a few squads pales a bit when compared to legions like the Raven Guard or the Alpha Legion, but the Death Guard can make good use of it, like infiltrating chem-flamer squads (now able to do their job turn 1 without needing a transport), or any flavor of Termie you want, complete with their LR/Spartan DTs (2+/4++ 2W EW FnP4+ AP2 Meltabombs, Spartan suicide squad? No, they won't be the ones dying). Or get that combi-weapon squad into position turn one. However, he doesn't have Master of the Legion (or else he'd be even more of an auto-include), so if you want a RoW you'll need to include a model that has MotL but isn't forced to be the warlord (like a regular Praetor). Infiltrating something like THREE 10 men Deathshroud/Grave Wardens/Special weapons squads can be devastating, especially when combined with Rites of War, and it gets around the Reaping's biggest flaw: Mobility (while coincidentally also bypassing deep strike's biggest counters: AA Dreads). This is powerful but very expensive. Boosted Deathshroud are seriously mean foes but cost a LOT, like 500 points for the squad without transport. They also can't take a Spartan without a rite which further narrows your options and Morturg himself is something of a pansy in combat (more on that later). It's an all-in tactic and not for the feint of heart.

You might think to take advantage of Master of Ambush with allies, however only Sworn Brothers may benefit from WTs...and the Death Guard's only Sworn Brothers, the Sons of Horus, have 'Bitter Pride', so it's best used in a Shattered Legion. Having said that, while the Death Guard don't really care for them, the Night Lords love the Death Guard (they're the only Sworn Brothers of the Night Lords), by doing this you can defensively use Terror Squads to stop Infiltrated Heavy Support Squads from getting bogged down in combat, or put Night Raptors in a better position for the Assault Phase (why bother crossing the board when you can start on practically the opposite side) not to mention it bypasses one of the bigger weaknesses for the Night Lords, that being their unit sizes in relation to transports. If you want to take full advantage of "A Talent For Murder" you'll usually need to make squads larger than the amount their DTs can carry, however with Infiltrate you have no need for one anyway. Make sure the Death Guard in such an army are busy shooting from a distance while the Night Lords rip and tear (you can even put Morturg in a Night Lord Squad, if they manage to outnumber the enemy they all wound on 2's thanks to his Rad Grenades AND he makes the unit Stubborn just in case you lose combat somehow), it's like they were made for each other.

Keep in mind that even with all his talents, Morturg is by no means a combat powerhouse and doesn't have the gear (such as AP2 weaponry or even an Invulnerable save) to tough it out under heavy or concerted assault. Field him and reap (pun intended) the benefits, but give him a good retinue (like Deathshroud) and keep him away from anything with AP3/AP2 weaponry and/or Precision Shot/Strike.

Horus Heresy 2.0

	Pts	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld	Sv
Crysos Morturg	175	5	5	4	5	3	5	3	9	2+/4++

Morturg's been noticeably tweaked in the new edition, for better and worse.

Pros: He has +1T over his old statline and a 2+/4++ save plus Shrouded (6), courtesy of his new armour. He's also gained Relentless, Bitter Duty, and Counter Attack (1). His combi-flamer now has chem-munitions baked in, his sword is AP2 and has Reaping Blow (2), and he gets two disintegrator pistols for extra shooty fun. He's gained a new psychic power as well, Shielded by Hate, which lets him go into reserves with one wound instead of dying as long as he passes a psychic check.

Cons: He's lost Infiltrate and Master of Ambush. His new Warlord Trait is The Shadow of Death--during deployment, if any enemy unit is deployed within 18" of Morturg or any model in a unit he's joined, then once all Infiltrators and Scouts have been deployed on both sides, Morturg and all models in any unit he has joined can move up to 7" in any direction, but must end the move in coherency. In addition, Morturg and any unit he joins get a free Reaction when an enemy unit comes in from reserves (including deep-striking). Being able to scoot around the table during deployment and gaining extra Reactions are nice, but not being able to infiltrate units anymore is a real kick in the nuts, considering that was one of Morturg's greatest strengths as a warlord. He's also lost access to Endurance, and if he fails his Shielded by Hate test while joined to a unit, that unit suffers Perils of the Warp. His sword now has Overcharged, which is a bit of a pisser; any time he attacks with it you have to roll a dice and a result of 1 causes him to suffer a wound, though at least he can use his shiny new invuln save against it.

tl;dr, Morturg is no longer Commander Asshole, though being able to take extra reactions against units coming in from reserves isn't bad and he's now more survivable thanks to his improved toughness, saves, and Shielded by Hate.