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# 7. Combat Beasts of the Servants of Decay

The Servants of Decay make particularly extensive use of altered animals and monstrous creatures, as well as created skeletons and bodies raised through the necromantic magic of Decay.

Their finest blacksmiths forge heavy black-metal armor for these beasts. Necromancers reinforce their bones, implant plates, additional ribs, horns, and fangs. Priests of Decay perform rituals that make the beasts more aggressive, more resilient, and almost impervious to pain.

The best-known war beasts of Decay are enormous boars.

These are no ordinary wild boars. Their bodies are covered in black plates, their tusks can break through wooden gates, and their temperament is so fiercely aggressive that no one but the Servants of Decay can control them. Some boars are implanted with bony growths, their jaws are reinforced, and their snouts are covered with dark masks. Knights of Decay and heavy cavalry ride these creatures into battle. In combat, a boar does not merely carry its rider — it is a weapon in its own right. It breaks enemy formations, overturns shields, tramples the wounded, and smashes through defensive fortifications.

There are other creatures as well: skeletal mounts, half-dead predators, and the reanimated carcasses of ancient animals strengthened through rituals of Decay.

To the Servants of Decay, this is not cruelty. It is service.

They believe that every body must be useful to their cause and serve the Great Lord — living, dead, or altered.