Arbitrator's Logbook

Plague Flashback
As we walked into the Sodality building, I smelled it right away. The stench of the plague lord was everywhere. My mind was flooded with memories, bombarding me with the first time I had encountered this fetor.

I was a new arbitrator, only a few months in, still partnered up with a mentor, Harlon. We got a call about some strange noises. Normally we don’t worry about that sort of thing, but, upon hearing further reports of a strong smell coming from the location, our chief sent us to investigate.

We got to the location, a living quarters in a block in a seedier part of the hive city. We could smell something foul coming through the door. We got no response from anyone inside so we kicked the door in and were overwhelmed with the stench. It almost felt solid. My stomach was turning. The inside of the room was bare. The walls were rotting and there was a body with green skin in the corner covered in boils. I puked at the sight and smell of it all.

Harlon, who was usually very cool headed, started freaking out. He ran out of the room. Yelling into his comm to send some guys down here to get the place cleaned up. At the time, I didn't understand. I was curious as to what had him so freaked out, so I investigated the body. She was on her side, looked in her early thirties, brown hair, covered in pus. I turned the body over to get a better look. Harlon came running in yelling at me to leave it alone. He grabbed me and threw me back. He was laying into me about how much of idiot I was, standing between me in the corpse. I saw the corpse start convulsing and then it exploded.

Harlon’s back was covered in gunk and his eyes grew super wide. It had gotten all over the back of his neck. He looked spooked, as if Nurgle himself was there. After a couple seconds he seemed to come to his senses. He grabbed his pistol, shouted “Hail the Emperor!” and shot himself in the head. As his lifeless body slumped to the ground, I fell to my knees. I stared at where the back of his head had once been, now just a large shot out hole. Unable to move, I just stared at the blood dripping down onto the pus that had already started eating away at his flesh.