Festus the Leechlord
Festus the Leechlord known also as the Dark Apothecary, and the Fecundite, was a once proud physician of the highest caliber, that has become one of Nurgle's greatest mortal servants. During the End Times he became known as Festus Empowered, the Gardener of Nurgle, becoming a Daemon Prince.[1]
Contents
Abilities
Festus the Leechlord carries a alchemical laboratory, filled with pestilent potions, upon his back. He applies administers those elixirs to both friend and for, healing himself and those who are blessed by Nurgle, while those that don't dissolve immediately or explode in messy display of medical negligence. He also carries a toxin-laced Plague Staff into battle and is a wizard capable of casting Curse of the Leper.[1][3][4]
History
If an unfortunate traveller were to stray onto the twisted roads that lead from the northern forests into the Chaos Wastes, he might be paid a visit by a most unsavoury individual during the dark of the night. A shuffling, muttering figure stalks these lands, his moth-eaten robes gently clinking with vials containing unimaginable concoctions, which he is seeking to test out upon those he can catch or deceive. A devotee of the plague god Nurgle, this mysterious apothecary is quite, quite mad, though he once bore the respect of physicians, alchemists and scientists across the length and breadth of the Old World.[1]
Origins
Doctor Festus was once a skilled chirurgeon who founded hospices all across the province of Nordland, and was as compassionate as he was gifted. Specialising in curative unguents and salves, the good doctor cured hundreds of people every year. With Festus’ guidance, Nordland overcame outbreaks of the Screaming Ague, Blacklegge, and even the crippling Ghoulpox.[1][3a] Using his great wealth he founded hospices across the province including one in Salzenmund. [3]
It was the onset of Gnashing Fever that marked the beginning of the end for Festus. Try as he might, the doctor could not stem the spread of this new and highly contagious disease. Festus locked himself in his laboratory, working ceaselessly to create a healing elixir. Countless sleepless nights passed, and despite his best efforts, Festus still had no cure.[1][3]
Those plague victims he had managed to sequester in his laboratory were dying and he was powerless to prevent it. As the last of his test subjects shook themselves to death, Festus dropped to his knees, crying out for help. One by one, the slack-jawed corpses in Festus’ laboratory turned their heads to look at him. With one voice emanating from a score of parched throats, they promised to give Festus the knowledge necessary to cure not only this plague but all the diseases in the world, in exchange for a lifetime of service. In his desperation, Festus agreed.[1][3]
In the blink of a bloodshot eye, Festus’ mind was filled with every detail of every sickness, ailment and plague known to the great god Nurgle. This drove him entirely mad, washed away his compassion and left nothing more than an intimate knowledge of disease and a desire to experiment. Festus became the Leechlord of Nurgle, who goes to war in the name of furthering his revolting studies. Though his curative powers are greater than ever before, woe betide the fool who crosses the Doctor, for he is always in need of new test subjects, and not above force-feeding his latest concoctions to his victims in his quest to bring ever more repugnant forms of life into the world. It is a better fate by far to die on the field of battle than to be captured alive by Festus and used for his latest dark experiments.[1][3]
Festus became drive by the need to experiment and bring his knowledge of plague and disease across not only the Old World buy beyond. This quest took him further and further north, recruiting a savage army who recognised the blessing of Nurgle. With them, he hunted down Chaos Spawn, Cockatrice and Mutalith Vortex Beast, rendering them down into ingredients.[4]
End Times
In 2520 IC, on Hexenacht he gained the root of a crystal mandrake from a dream-trapped geomancer and in 2521 IC, he infected a handmaiden of Slaanesh with a disfiguring pox. Only on receipt of scented oils from her masters boudoir did he present her with the cure. He even extracted a dozen teeth of the Great Unclean One Ghu'bu'hurgh and finally managed to gain a trio of brass skulls from the lair of the Goregluttons.[4]
He was in the sewers of Altdorf when Ku'gath Plaguefather manifested within the sewage, telling him that he had gifted the Glottkin with three plaguejars from the attic of Nurgle. When Festus questioned his part in the plan, he was told My leechling, we must prepare this stifled city. A riotous garden it shall become.[2a] Festus made his lair-laboratory beneath an abandoned hospice, working hard as he hummed a ditty learned from a Nurgling in the Garden of Nurgle.[2b]
There he was visited by another Nugrling, sent by Kugarth - the tiny Daemon told him that the Glottkin were approaching and asked him to burn it so that a smog would envelop the city above.[4b] Festus had by now become a massive and bloated being, empowered with Nurgle's favour and on the very cusp of Daemon Princedom. His ritual allowed his god tip the contents of his cauldron into reality, transforming Altdorf and allowing the Garden to begin t merge with it as the Fall of Altdorf truly began.[2c]
Festus was part of Ku'gath Plaguefather's personal guard, leading Nurgle's mightiest daemon to Altdorf's Temple of Shallya, which was the only area immune to the corruption of the Plague God.[2d]
Their goal to desecrate this sacred place was stopped however, when Louen Leoncoeur, former King of Bretonnia engaged in a mighty duel with Ku'gath, slaying the Daemon and his Plaguebearers with his blessed blade and sacred blood. Festus was then able to finish off the weakened Louen with his diseased potions and encrusted sawblade, taking his head as a trophy. Although too powerful for Vlad von Carstein to defeat directly the Vampire Lord rammed a wooden stake into his body - the vast life energy within Festus causing the stake to grow into a might tree in a single second, bursting Festus whose soul was whisked away to the Realm of Chaos.[2e]
In reward for his great efforts he was gifted with immortality and became the Gardener of Nurgle.[4]
Magic
- End Times: Festus Empowered: Lore of Nurgle plus the The Shroudlings spell.[4]
- The Shroudlings: He is able to cloak nearby allies with this spell.[4]
Weapons , Armour and Equipment
- End Times: Festus Empowered: Hand Weapon, Healing Elixits, Mark of Nurgle, Pestilent Potions.[4]
- Healing Elixirs: Festus is able to make the healing of allies unnaturally fast.[4]
- Pestilent Potions: He can use these to heal allies or poison enemies.[4]
Gallery
Festus leads his army
Festus empowered at the Fall of Altdorf
Miniatures
Source
- 1: Warhammer Armies: Warriors of Chaos (8th Edition)
- 2: Warhammer: Glottkin: Book I
- 3: Salzenmund (book): Doktor Festus, pg. 98
- 4: Warhammer: Glottkin: Book II: Festus Empowered, The Gardener of Nurgle, pg. 44-45
