Tuesday, 14 April 2015

ThreeA - Adventure Kartel : Zomb MD and Albino Nurse Zomb Set.

















Primum non nocere.
- Thomas Inman.

Further, I will comport myself and use my knowledge in a godly manner.
- The Hippocratic Oath.

With loyalty will I endeavour to aid the physician, in his work, and devote myself to the welfare of those committed to my care.
- Lytra Gretter, The Nightingale Pledge.

(Who is this irresistible creature who has an insatiable love for the dead?)
- Rob Zombie, Living Dead Girl.

A (mis) interpretation:

Name: Dr. Douglas "Doug" Hausen.
Age: Unknown.
Alias: The Zomb MD; The Zomb Lord; The Plague Lord; The Herald of Nurgleth; Dr. Z; Papa Giap.
Affiliation: The Apsinthos Research and Development Group (former); The Zomb Horde - Leader.
Abilities: Zombie physiology; zombie manipulation; disease manipulation; decomposition manipulation; genius level intellect; deception; cunningness; master strategist and tactician; semi-immortality.
Std. armaments: "The Corpsemaster" - daemon cloak; "The Chirurgeon" - surgical instruments; "The Diagnostor" - plague mask.

Name: Anna Wilkes.
Age: Unknown.
Alias: The Albino Nurse; Nurse Ratchet.
Affiliation: The Apsinthos Research and Development Group (former); The Zomb Horde - Nurse Zomb.
Abilities: Zombie physiology; "Pearl Jam" - digestive manipulation; apathy; containment immunity; disease immunity; enhanced durability/invulnerability; enhanced endurance; oxygen independence; pain suppression; self-sustenance; anatomical liberation; consumption healing; semi-immortality.
Std. armaments: "Vitology" - digestive sustenance tube.

Dr. Douglas Hausen was one of the most prominent neurosurgeons on Terra. A former Newel Medic Corps field medic, he served as a combat medic and physician during the Great War. Hausen is well versed in the arts of battlefields first aids as well as advance surgical techniques, cybernetics and bio-engineering. He was invited and recruited as part of The Rothchild Corporation's Weapons Research and Development Division on aboard The Apsinthos sometime in the mid-80s. He was tasked with advancing the current research on the field of cyber-neurology. Hausen worked closely with others, including Luthor Bean Sr., an equally prominent researcher on bio-robotics and genetic engineering. Hausen is a genius level intellectual, with eidetic memory. But behind the man lies a cold persona with post-trauma stress disorder as well as suffering from obsessive compulsive behaviour with borderline sociopath tendency. As the corporation did not place any forms of restriction on the researchers, Hausen was given a free hand to do whatever necessary to achieve the objective and goals of his research. He begun and continuously carried out perverse experimentation on human subjects procured for him from The Butcher's Bay penal colony. Hausen also developed pathological interest in biology of the dying and dead, performing regular dissections on his subjects while majority of them were still living. He would be able to keep his subjects alive for a phenomenal length of time, even when reducing them to no more than a skeletal, still living beings that begged him to spare them the suffering and torture, which would be eternity in coming. Hausen was also responsible for some of the ghastly mutations rising from his experimentations, due to his genetic manipulation on the brains of his subjects. These were the first of the walking dead. Their heartbeats had long stopped, but yet alive, soulless, being trapped within their decaying bodies. Hausen was intrigued and impressed by his breakthrough, which could have the potential of raising an army of grunts incapable of dying during combat or at least until nothing is left. It was at this point that he began to hear voices in his head, first as whispers which grew stronger as each day passed by. Hausen could not comprehend what the voices said but one particular word stood out repeatedly, Nurgleth. But before he could present his findings to The Rothchild Corporation, The Apsinthos Disaster occurred. Suffering from orbital decay, the massive space research station crashed onto Andria, near Euro City 2, Europa. Due to the structural design of the station, it entombed and embedded the city, including a major manufactorum with at least 50,000 boilers working there, in its entirety, like a giant sarcophagus of million tonnes of steels and concrete. The founder and governor-general of the city, Baron Seth von Sydow organised a search and rescue operation which succeed in saving one fourth of the total original population. The remaining were officially declared dead. The Baron would later rebuilt New Andria fifty miles from the original site, using Ikea's pre-fabricated, DIY instant city set. Independent search and rescue operations would continue however, as well as scrappers and scavengers milling around the site for anything worth getting for. However, when words of these people began to go missing nor returning, the governor-general set up an ANKOU team to the site, and what they encountered would marked the beginning of the Z-War, a war against an endless army of undead raising from the entombed city. The dhampir lord, through the Eye of Horus, had seen the rise of the Zomb Horde, as well as the warp-rift bleeding into the reality of real-space known as The Heart of Darkness. It is through this warp-rift that the foul energies of the Plague God known as Nurgleth emerges and corrupt everything and everyone within the massive structure, which Seth, the descendent of Thoth, re-named as Necropolis or The Carrion City.
Hausen and several of his nurses personally selected for their skills before the incident to help him in his research as well as reliving stress when he needs to, survived but critically injured and suffering from severe head trauma. He wiped the streaking bloods off his eyes, and saw it. The Heart itself, dark void spilling out from the heads of several psykers he was experimenting on prior to the incident. Like a gateway, it was ethereal in appearance with its edges contorting and bending reality, seeping and intertwine with the eerie darkness within. And then it speaks. 'Testing. Testing. One. Two. One. Two. Are we on? OK. Ahem. Hausen?' asks the phlegm sounding voice from within the Heart. The sadistic neurosurgeon was in too much pain to answer but nodded. 'Good. I am Epidermius, one of the twelve Tallyman of Grandfather Nurgleth, God of Plague and Pestilence. We have been observing you and your...endeavour with curious delight. More importantly, the mark of despair and corruption which you bestowed upon your fellow humankind is an achievement in itself, particularly in the search for life beyond death.' Hausen was delirious. The grey matter which was his brain was seeping through his cracked skull. 'Please. Whatever you're, what is it you want?' asked Hausen. 'In real-space, all things, no matter how solid or permanent they seem, are liable to eventual corruption and death.  Even the process of creation is but the precursor to destruction and decay. Regeneration comes from decay, just as hope springs from despair. In death, there is life,' said Epidermius. 'I...I'm dying here. I'm afraid. Anything. Anything, just to deliver me from this suffering. But no monologuing...get to the point,' pleaded Hausen. 'Would you swear by the name of the Fly Lord and serve him in this life and thereafter?' asked Epidermius. 'Yes...,' replied Hausen. 'Would you, Dr. Hausen, swear to forgo your soul and spread diseases, pestilences and plagues in the name of the Great Corruptor?' asked Epidermius. 'Oh for f*** sakes, yes to all, damn it!' Hausen screamed as he knows his heart was pumping three times faster due to increasing lost of blood. 'Chill. Just a few more questions and answers. For record purpose, you know?' replied Epidermius. After saying in affirmation to all the questions and gave himself into the service of Nurgleth, from within the Heart surged forward massive black clouds, except it was not clouds but glistening miasma of black flies, swarms of it, enveloping the delirious Hausen, the surroundings and throughout the entire passages of the entombed city. The flies bit and laid eggs on both the corpses and the still living trapped within the structural chaos. Within seconds, the eggs hatched into wriggling maggots and the cycle repeats itself. Through the bites of the unholy Immaterium Chaos tainted insectoids, the skin develops pustules, their stomachs distended with corpse gas, and flesh slough from their bodies. After a period of time, the flies retracted back into the Heart, leaving a trail of corrupted and tainted bodies. Nurgleth was incredibly pleased. Thus the Zomb Horde is created and awakened, condemned with the 'gift' of the Plague God in deathless state of decay. The corruption does not end there. The Heart of Darkness has also corrupted the environment within, twisting it, seeping with rot, alive with bio-mechanical madness and living mutated horror. The air are stale and sickly, saturates with incomprehensible foulness, buzzing with flies and smells of decomposition. The walls seep with pus and virulent mucus, deteriorating and mutating.
It is thus from then on, Hausen is physically turned into a walking dead. His body is filled with putrefaction. His skin is leathery and necrotic, his surface pocked with running sores, swelling buboes and oozing wounds. His severe head trauma is self treated (since he no longer feels pain), resulting in an artificial cranial deformation with haphazard sutured patterns. For unknown reason, Hausen sutured his own mouth as well but whatever he says is still comprehensible. Henceforth, Hausen is bestowed the title, Herald of Nurgleth. The sociopath doctor had asked for deliverance and his call has been answered. He becomes the overall leader of the Horde, the Zomb Lord. Hausen no longer remembers his name, just shattered memories of his past. He is now the Zomb MD, an infamous name perpetually link to the living dead. Members of the Zomb Horde would sometimes refer to him endearingly as Papa Giap, for despite his still depraved and sadistic nature, he takes an interest in the victims whom become part of the Horde, jovially caring for them in a manner similar to a loving father, a characteristic not unlike Nurgleth itself. He answers to no one except for Nurgleth through the Heart of Darkness. Although his memories are scattered, his sadistic nature is carried over, even as a Zomb. He made himself a throne room, known as the Zomb Laboratorae, outside of the warp-rift, where Hausen continues to order his Zombs to bring in fresh subjects for him to experiment on, focusing on developing and evolving further the walking dead as a specie. Hundreds of writhing half-living human victims captured by the Boilers are hung from meat hooks above, in agony and screaming for mercy. As the Zomb MD works obsessively, with a tug of a pulley, each of these victims would be lowered down onto the surgical table for zombification.
The Boiler Zombs are the most numerous, but their stupidity and singular act of just wanting to eat more brains and fleshes exasperate the Zomb MD. Yet they are useful, as putrid meat shields during incursions against the living, as well as obtaining brains for both sustenance and as fuel to sustain the Heart of Darkness in real-space. He willingly accepts with glee mentally unbalance rogue grunts and deserters from the Great War into his arms, whom he turned into the Warzombs. The Zomb MD, with his limited cybernetic and bio-engineering knowledge, also create the Zombots, as response to Baron Seth von Sydow's own cyborg paramilitary army, the ANKOUs. An amalgamation of trapped daemon fused with corrupted soul, plasteels, scrapped parts from warbots and cybernetics with Abomination Intelligence, formed within the Forge of Souls, which, of course, would later turn rogue and splintered from the Horde, forming their own group led by the vile King Thumb, inadvertently sparked The Robots Island War. Many more are turned and corrupted under his shrewd leadership, planning various incursions into New Andria through the BcELL intricate maze of supply and logistic tunnels which lead to the ports of the Northern Frontier, as well as the sewerage and wartime underground transportation systems. Even when these are sealed off perpetually, the Zomb Horde would always manage to find a way through, which leads to Seth to construct several rings of anti-intruder walls and defences around New Andria as well as sanctioning groups such as the Adventure Kartel comprising eclectic individuals with unique abilities and powers. 
The Zombs often fight amongst themselves, even devouring each other if food runs out and are separated into castes, such as the Acolytes of Contagion or The Plaguebearers led by Dragos Eraphis, and the Potato Commander of the Warzombs. Others would keep to themselves such as the highly unstable radioactive Zomb, Oppenheimer. the Glow Worm, But the Zomb MD would keep them as a cohesive force and the most dangerous is when all Zombs banded together to form a mega swarm which would sweep through entire sub-sector. Such major incursion would involve preventive measures from ZvR Warbot Division in addition to the deployment of the entire ANKOU forces and the various eclectic individuals with extra-ordinary abilities and powers.
The Zomb MD has similar zombie physiology such as enhanced durability, invulnerability, endurance, strength and senses, oxygen independency, self sustenance, anatomical liberation, body part substitution, brain empowerment, consumption healing and semi-immortality. He is absolutely apathetic and amoral. As Herald of Nurgleth, the Zomb MD is blessed with zombie manipulation, the power to create, manipulate and even destroy Zombs through the Zombie Plague. This power is part scientific and necromancy. He would use "The Chirurgeon", a set of rusty surgical instruments covered in thin film of putrid substances from the Pool of Filth on the subject tied to the surgical table for zombification process and then blessed them with the dark arts of undead to reanimate them, as well as torture instruments. The Zomb MD also possesses disease generative ability, including all forms of bacterial, viral and parasitic infection, or mixing them together, and even create new ones, whether by drawing them from already existing sources, or by manifesting them anywhere he wants. The most virulent and toxic of these is the Destroyer Plague, which he could summon swarms of Nurgleth tainted daemon flies that could render an entire population of a district into bloated-jellylike corpses which then imploded, spreading the disease further. The Zomb MD alone possesses the ability to manipulate decomposition. This is important as all Zombs, including the Plague Lord himself, would eventually decompose and rot away in time. Through manipulation of decomposition, the process by which organic substances are broken down into simpler forms of matter, the Zomb MD can increase or decrease the rate of rotting, or stop, prevent or even reverse the effect. This allows him to be able to control all things/beings connected to decomposition such as vermin, worms, flies and maggots. The most infamous of this ability is what is known as the Nurgleth's Rot, which could decompose any biological living things into rotting carcasses as well as causing accelerated rusting effect upon machines and automatons. Luckily for protectors of New Andria, such as the likes of the Baron himself and certain members of the Adventure Kartel, possesses sufficient powers to reverse or even negate these deadly abilities of Papa Giap. The Zomb MD retains his genius level intellect, deceptive and cunningness, and with the commencement of the Z-War, becomes a master strategist and tactician comparable to his nemesis, the Baron Seth von Sydow.
The Zomb MD wears "The Corpsemaster", a cloak made from layers of human skins, first victims of the Carrion City comprising scavengers and scrappers. He emblazoned a stylised "Z" as his badge and mark of leadership. The cloak is blessed with daemonic properties, including protecting the Zomb MD from psychic or magical assault at a limited extent. He finds a plague mask amongst the ruins in the early days, which although he doesn't remember, once belonged to him. He calls it "The Diagnostor". It is a mask used by bio-chem and virologist researchers but of more ancient design. It no longer works but the Zomb MD wears it because he thinks it looks cool. He finds a cache of scrubs and favours it as his attire of choice. He has since swap the trouser with a combat pants and boots due to impractically of wearing the scrubs within the ruins, maintaining only the top.
Within his Zomb Laboratorae, Papa Giap is still being assisted by his surviving nurses, which are amongst the first to be turned. Only four remain. These Zomb nurses, whom are still anatomically attractive females in putrid fleshes with suffice intelligence to carry a conversation, never ever leave the Zomb MD alone and always walk five steps behind him. Having lost his genitalia to gangrene or maybe leprosy earlier, and since all Zombs are asexual, the Zomb MD uses them, apart from being amusing companions and capable assistants during experimentation and zombification processes, for recreational purpose in the form of gastronomy delight. The vile Zomb leader, in his deprave perverseness, has developed a taste for digested faecal waste from the Zomb nurses. This is due to one particular year where fleshes and brains were in shortage, and in hunger, the Zomb MD tasted what he thought was a chocolate starfish with hotdog flavour. He later found out what it was and he absolutely falls in love with it. He ingeniously creates a form of enema inducing device which manipulates the digestive system known as "Pearl Jam", implanting it within each nurses, and attaches a tube which he calls "Vitology". Partly due to his sutured mouth and lack of teeth (Zombs generally possesses powerful bite and could ingest any form of matter, including non-organic substance), the Zomb MD would feed through the tube, a form of coprophagia indulgence which would make even any of the Four Mournivals, his Zomb champions, barf and gag at the sight. To his foul credit, and unlike all walking dead whom senses have been dulled to the point of zero sensation, the Zomb MD curiously still possesses enhanced sense of taste that could shame even the most famous celebrity gastronomists in food tasting. The Zomb MD could literally identified and correctly deduce what is in the semi-liquid or solid fecal matter he just ate and would become incredibly ecstatic. This practise is applauded by the Heart of Darkness as it increases the toxins and parasitic infestation within the Zomb MD. During his "day off", the Zomb MD would order all four Nurse Zombs to bend over and like shisha, he would slurps and burps away while watching re-runs of Doogie Howser MD or reading Typhoid Mary's Frankenstein, the only time he could really relax from all the hard works at the lab and organising the Z-War.
 
....................................................................................
 
The Zomb MD, I think, is the primary villain in ThreeA's Adventure Kartel line. The set comes with the Albino Nurse, a female zombie in, uh, nurse uniform. Both figures are nicely designed and made. The MD figure is cladded in rubberised clock which takes abit of effort to take it off. The head sculpt is something out of a horror film, wearing a goggle with pointy nose, cladded in scrub top, combat pants and that same ole, same ole, combat boots. Accessories are pretty much standard, one bone saw, a sharp knife and of course, pouches. Ain't ThreeA without pouches. There is a GID variant as usual. The nurse, in dirty white colourway, is based on the typical 12 inch ThreeA female body which means, sexy. The face looks normal to me, no zombification, with the saliva (or bodily fluid?) dripping down the chin ala Isobelle Pascha. There is a tube from the, uh, anus for Zomb MD to "feed", typical of ThreeA's "warp" and slight "naughtiness" theme across their lines (remember the c-ring and boob ring from TQ Loper and TQ Princess? Or the debut of 1/6th strap on from the SXCLB set? Whoa, those were the days). There are other variants - GID, Black Rose (black hair colourway), and Tawaret, which comes with darker skin tone. I didn't notice Tawaret. I like that. Maybe secondary market. Two posters this time 'round for the set, but with same short story comic one-pager on the back.
Alas, the QC once again is in the backburner. The Zomb MD figure left leg is already popped off from its torso right out from un-boxing. Luckily it could be reattached back. The Albino Nurse figure's right upper arm at the joint is "springy" and loose, as if there is a detachment or maybe even on the road to being popped off. I tried to console myself about all these but man, it is getting tiring. The inconsistency can be quite a test on my patience. It is like, these are great figures, but all the loose torsos and disjointed leg, arm can be quite alarming. Oh, when I said inconsistency, the previous figure I got, Handsome Wu, is great. And so is Ninja TK. But then Oliver Applehair's loose arm, Cornelius TK broken neck post (of which body I swapped with TK Oroshi 18's extra body after the replacement with tatts) and others which I had mentioned are just frustrating. It seems only two or three years ago when ThreeA's QC is great with excellent backup from their CS. Things change I guess. All "mis-interpretation" infos taken from Games Workshop's WH40K universe and stuffs about doctors and nurses.   

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