Kraken
Cryx Colossal | ||
---|---|---|
Weapons | Hellblaster Cannon Flayer Cannon Twin Harvesters | |
Height | 8.23m | |
Weight | 85 tons | |
Fuel load | Unknown | |
Fuel usage | Unknown | |
Chassis designer | Unknown | |
Initial service date | Unknown |
History
The first Kraken was built in the decades following the last defeat of the Orgoth. Having observed the strengths and weaknesses of the mighty machines fielded by Khador and Cygnar in the Colossal War, Cryxian agents raided the graves of the mainland’s most brilliant inventors, arcanists and engineers and interrogated the shades for their genius. In some cases, their very essences were used to produce the effects their insights had inspired.[1]
The necrotechs of Skell immediately set about refining the designs of the colossals. Well aware of their shortcomings, Cryx designed its colossals to be smaller, more agile, and able to traverse a broad range of terrain, innovations centuries ahead of the mechanikal achievements of the mainland. For centuries, the lich lords tightly controlled the use of Krakens. They intended to use them as secret weapons for a later stage of a long-term plan to subjugate the mainland and advance on Lord Toruk’s progeny. Lich Lord Scopulous consented to dispatch them only for the utter destruction of isolated targets such as remote shoreline villages and lone ships carrying items or individuals of great value. More than a few vessels thought to have been swallowed up by the storms of the Meredius were in fact dragged beneath the waves, their passengers taken by the Kraken’s harvesting tendrils and brought back to Cryx.[1]
In 608 AR, with several lich lords now leading armies deep inside the mainland and other modern colossals being fabricated in mortal forges, Cryx unveils the Krakens. Lich Lord Asphyxious, eager to make his armies self-sufficient, has additional Krakens crafted in his vast necrofactorium under the Thornwood. Pressured by his peers, Scopulous has also relented and made the previously built Krakens available to the other generals of Cryx.[1]
Properties
Lashing out with grasping tentacles, the Kraken snatches up men and stuffs them within the grease-slicked orifices of its shell. The captured have but a moment of terror to consider their lightless environs before their life is extracted and their bodies consumed by a necromantic furnace that fuels the Kraken.[1]
The use of necrotite to power the Kraken’s engines further reduced the weight of the machine, making it shockingly fast for such a large construct. A Kraken can quickly manoeuvre to take advantage of any situation on the battlefield, while its hellblaster cannon delivers deadly payloads. Bursts from its flayer cannon cut down any foe brave enough to launch counterattacks.[1]
The Kraken surges into the ranks of the living to glut its endless appetite for slaughter. Its long, adroit tentacles are able to tear apart warjacks and grasp victims to fuel its hunger. Not every victim snatched by a Kraken immediately perishes, however; some unlucky few are kept alive and brought back to the machine’s masters for further horrors.[1]
The Kraken's variants include the Sepulcher, a colossal refitted for use as a mobile thrall factory.[2]