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Chaos Articles ---

The Dead Root Legion is an ever-expanding army, bolstered by a number of chaotic beings. From lowly cultists armed with rusty stubbers to massive demonic beasts with legends as outlandish as their appearance. A bulk of the legion’s forces are made up of individuals who have become possessed by the force behind the Legion, the entity known as Dead Root.

The following is an interview conducted by [INFO REDACTED] with an envoy of the Legion.

Interviewer: State your name for the record, please.

Envoy: My name is John Leman. I was the Sargent of the Seekers of the Damned.

Interviewer: You said was, past tense. Please explain your choice of vocabulary.

Envoy: My chapter had fallen on hard times while chasing leads. We had been tasked with finding and making contact with the ones known as The Legion of the Damned.

We had a run in with a detachment of crazed Dark Angels who were convinced that we were something called “The Fallen”. Afterwards, we suffered dozens of crippling defeats, that’s when we ran into Dead Root and his legion of monsters.

The past defeats had worn down our ship’s defenses, our ship was no match for his fleet’s abnormal weaponry. Their ship was covered in plants, as is it had been stranded in a forest for years. When they hit our ship, their ammunition began to grow and pierce through the hull. To escape their fire we descended onto the nearest planet. The ship began to fall apart as we pierced through the atmosphere. We quickly used our Stormravens and fled the ship before it burnt up and crashed. I thought that it was odd that the fleet stopped firing at us once we had departed the ship but it all made sense once we arrived on the planet’s surface.

Interviewer: It was a trap?

Envoy: Yes. But he had not intended on slaughtering us. What he had in store for us was much worse than death.

My Stormraven had collided with falling wreckage from our ship causing us to break formation from the rest of our fleeing forces. Three of my men died on impact, others suffered minor injuries. Once we got our bearings we set out to find the rest of our brothers. The world was similar to a harvest world, only it was twisted.

Interviewer: The warp often has that effect on things as I’m sure you are aware of.

Envoy: This was different from any other twisting hell scape or some poor soul changed into some beast. There were crop fields everywhere you could see and the sparse tree lines were made up of gnarled trees. The trees were growing at a visible rate. It felt as if the planet itself was watching us. We also thought it was strange when we noticed nothing was impeding our advance. We thought that we would at least have encountered a threat or any sentient form. There was nothing.

We found out why once we had made contact with several units who had managed to land safely. We were informed that one of our numbers had been hit by the wreckage and crashed just as we had. Someone from the unit had attempted to send a warning to any and all other units over our vox link but before we could hear the full message, the transmission was terminated. Locking on to the signals point of origin, we made our way to a massive crash sight.

Interviewer: Were there any survivors?

Envoy: I wish that they all had died. Death would have been better than what happened to them. The enemy had already found the wreck and lined up all of the survivors. That’s when I saw him. The monster commanding this band of freaks. He towered over my brothers as they were forced to their knees. His legs seemed like they were buried in the ground beneath him, even as he walked. His feet never left the soil.

He looked down at the first Astartes and extended what could pass for his hand. It was a mass of vines and brown roots. The soldier spit and barked at the monster. The monster looked less than pleased, but not surprised, and shoved his hand into the soldier’s mouth, forcing it deep until the bend of his arm met the stretched and bleeding mouth of my brother. Once the monster withdrew its arm my brother fell to the ground coughing up blood from his scarred throat. Blood began to fill his eyes and his armor buckled outward as if something was forcing its way out of his body. The others tried to move away but found that they were held in place by roots that had wrapped themselves around their ankles and forearms. Most had closed their eyes in an attempt to ignore what was happening to him.

With no warning, the body of the got to its feet and shuffled over to the twisted beings to join the  monster’s ranks.

One by one the sickening monster made its way down the line, repeating the process. It didn’t matter if they accepted the offer or not. The result was the same. We were going to join his Legion whether we wanted to or not. Once I was found, I gave in and I was sent here to deliver a message.

(There are sounds of flesh and fabric ripping and gurgling. Sounds of someone scrambling for a bolster. Two shots fired. Monstrous moans fill the room.)

Interviewer: UNHAND ME YOU BEAST!!

Demon: [demonic, gravely voice] You are in no position to make demands. I am the result of man’s greed, your race, and others that inhabit this reality have taken more then you have ever given back. You have killed planets, you have despoiled the soil of all that it is worth. I AM YOUR RECKONING! I AM THE UNRELENTING FORCE OF NATURE YOU HAVE BROUGHT UNTO YOURSELF!

But I am not without a sense of honor. [The demon places a single seed into the interviewer’s hand] I’ll let you decide when you are ready to fix things. [A warp rift opens in the room and demon is seen walking through it]

[The interviewer was then taken from the room and the seed was placed in a null vault to be studied or until it could be disposed of.]