Black Grail Faction Overview

by Sammie Dae

With an elephantine step and bass grunt, the creature swings a pitted axe at the arsonist, splitting them in two. A choking mouth mumbles something hastily while shifting a looted ammo case over its left shoulder. The machine gun never stops firing, making a sloshing, grinding sound with each discharge. A frail arm swings a bent blade wildly through the air, catching the screaming bodies in the mud. Another mouth coughs and vomits a black sludge. The beast aches to move the second enormous cloven foot, crushing the lower half of the arsonist. It always moves forward, building momentum. A percussive crack strikes the amorphous creature and a chorus of squealing piglets respond. A viscous yellow liquid streams from every pore, vent, and stoma. Gore from its body sloughs onto twitching corpses below, drawing the flies further into No Man’s Land. A young soldier screams as she unloads her pistol into fat and bone, a futile effort before she and all of her comrades are absorbed into the Amalgam. The cycle renews. The cycle continues.

The Cult of the Black Grail

The chalice spills forward, belching a cloud of noxious fumes and foul air, eradicating No Man’s Land of even God’s most basic creations.

The Black Grail is an illness, disease, infection, cancer (genetic and otherwise), malady, curse, and most of all, a real killer. It’s the extended hand of Beelzebub, Lord of the Flies, an archdemon as spiteful of Creation as he is gluttonous for power. And it’s his legion of followers, either loving adherents pledged to his glory or the countless victims subdued to his bidding, that have come to be known as the Cult of the Black Grail. On the tabletop, Black Grail Warbands are slow builders and deadly executioners. They are simultaneously the slowest and fastest warband in all of Trench Crusade, setting a tempo of attacks that wears down opponents in waves. The Black Grail often launches their assault with a vanguard of Hounds and Heralds to harass and infect, then follows up with a horde of fleshy Thralls and their Order of the Fly commanders to deliver the terminal blow.

Symptoms of the Black Grail

When the Cult of the Black Grail are on the battlefield, the terms of engagement are sickening. The Black Grail makes use of INFECTION MARKERS, a distinct variation of the usual BLOOD MARKER that builds with each activation and expands the definition of the phrase “I’m not feeling so good.” While simply coughing in the general direction of their live-body counterparts might do the job, the Cult have designed an armoury of foul weapons that spills more pus than blood: Plague Blades, Putrid Shotguns, Viscera Cannons, “the ick”. Some units, like Hounds of the Black Grail or the mighty Lord of Tumours, are so potent with The Ick that simply existing is defined as a superspreader event. Finally, the most common symptom of the Black Grail is Undead Fortitude, a grim reminder that death is longer than life and that -1 INJURY DICE is awfully good at keeping even your most basic units alive. 

The Order of the Fly

There are those who lead. The Cult is feudal in structure, emulating the right of kings in blasphemous fashion, clearly stratifying the privileges between Beelzebub’s subjects. The Lord of Tumours is the LEADER of a Cult of the Black Grail Warband, the rare few who enjoy the splendour of the King of Gluttony’s domain and bear an ounce of agency in his schemes of corruption. On the battlefield, they are a countdown to the end, a creeping hand that reaches out to corrode the Faithful with Beelzebub’s Touch. The sweet, putrid power they channel from the Seventh Circle gives the Lord of Tumors +4 DICE to Melee Attacks (the highest in the game!) and a pair of monstrous, calloused fists to use it. 

At the behest of the lords and ladies of filth are the Plague Knights, grown-up Thralls in heraldic carapace and wielding the deadly instruments of their craft. They’re capable and ambitious enough to be a LEADER in place of a Lord of Tumours, but often find themselves second-in-command. These noble soldiers are STRONG, excellent melee combatants, and can even carry an honorable rank for their service to the Lord of Flies; Plague Almoner (Bloodbath executioner), Knight Companions of the Fly (bonus dice for one characteristic), or Knight of the Rotten Cross (extra weapons from mortal counterparts). As a proper Knight, they wear armour as beautiful as it is grotesque and proudly serve Beelzebub by delivering swift death in No Man’s Land.

Hell’s Court can be a seven-dimensional labyrinth of bonds and betrayals, but Beelzebub has a unique capacity to make himself a problem to everyone, including his Fallen “allies.” As such, the Corpse Guard are necessary fodder for the higher-ups of Cult of the Black Grail warbands. They’re dedicated bodyguards of the Cult who will happily eat Injury Rolls on behalf of their comrades. Eating is the embodiment of gluttony, after all. Corpse Guard aren’t alone in their tasks, they have a bug buddy! Parasites hold their Corpse Guard with slimy appendages wrapped like a backpack and a proboscis nuzzled deep in their neck, keeping them safe from BLOOD MARKERS with each attack.

Servants of the Cult of the Black Grail

And there are those who follow. The overwhelming masses of the Cult of the Black Grail are the near-mindless husks of pale skin, bubbling sores, and maggot dens. Thralls are the most numerous, taking the form of either a groaning Grail Thrall or buzzing Fly Thrall. Grail Thralls are lumbering brutes, moving slower than anyone else on the battlefield but tough enough to take on far more attacks with Undead Fortitude. Fly Thralls shed the rigid, hardened exterior for a zippy pair of diptera wings; a pesky Flying infantry your opponent to swat at while the important bugs arrive. Prefix aside, Thralls are hardly more than fleshy roadblocks with legs (or wings), but they find strength in fighting side-by-side with their pals, adding +1 DICE to Melee Attacks for each smelly zombie nearby.

Let’s ramp up the speed. While the Cult of the Black Grail have some of the slowest units in all of Trench Crusade, the Hounds of the Black Grail and Heralds of Beelzebub easily take on the mantle of the fastest. The first contenders in the dog race from Hell are the Hounds of Beelzebub; they’re frighteningly fast (8” with +1 DICE to Dash ACTION) and shake disease onto enemies like a dog in the rain. The Order lets them loose to latch onto groups of enemies, cause a superspreader event of INFECTION MARKERS, and scratch at anyone who gets in the way. Flying just over Hell’s dog race are the Heralds of Beelzebub, humans-turned-mosquito with a gun and the world’s loudest wings. The Black Grail infection usually kills or zombifies their host, but occasionally, Beelzebub transforms a poor victim into the flying icon of his power. Heralds zoom around with a 10”/Flying Movement Characteristic, shaking those wings in a maddening buzz that makes even the most basic actions an agonizing and risky experience. Unlike Hounds, Heralds can also be equipped with ranged weapons like Infected Rifles and Corruption Belchers to harass and melt Faithful flanks. The Black Grail often uses these two units as vanguards to run deep into enemy lines, get them sick, then follow up with slow moving ELITES to finish the fight.

The Cult of the Black Grail is defined by “gross”, but the Amalgam sets a high bar. Hundreds of years of war have left the corpses of millions on the battlefield waiting to be picked clean by scavengers and carrion. However, the Black Grail will pick up each and every bit of matter – livestock, soldiers, insect dens, villagers – sculpting it into a living apocalypse made of desiccated flesh and a full arsenal of  weapons. An Amalgam brings a gluttonous arsenal of weapons to the party, blasting off shots in every direction, trampling through enemy ranks with a dozen blades, or some beautifully grotesque combination thereof. Attacks against this flesh beast struggle to scratch its Corpulent form, either sloughing off dead flesh or absorbing the impact entirely. Resilient, unstoppable, and with more attacks than a New Antioch FIRETEAM, set your Amalgam free and you’ll watch her flourish in the blood and guts of No Man’s Land.

Variant Warband

The Cult of the Black Grail lives and breathes (dies and gasps?) under the direction of Beelzebub and his Order of the Fly, and those who fail him will not be given the opportunity to do it again. Two of the greatest entities created by the Lord of the Fly, the Hegemon, were dispatched against the Faithful, ushering an era of great power for the Cult of the Black Grail. When they fell, however, the rage of Beelzebub fell upon the followers of each Hegemon, punishing them for their failure and cutting them off from his boons. These survivors are known as the Dirge, a cohort of warriors cursed to an eternity of sorrow and anguish. On the tabletop, the Dirge are led by despairing Plague Knights called Executors who have held onto the lingering power of the Hegemon to command their forces to take extra actions. The Bereaved are Thralls driven solely by their sadness, grasping at a memory of their greatness so tangible that they have retained the ability to use ranged weapons. These two components, Plague Knights and Bereaved, transform Black Grail into an infected parody of New Antioch ranged tactics, leveraging action economy to complete the Hegemons’ bidding from beyond the grave.

The Contagion of War

The Cult of the Black Grail thrives on the campaign path; more combat means more infection and more infection means more Thralls, after all. The primary Patron of a Black Grail warband is, of course, Beelzebub’s own Order of the Fly. Much like their infernal cousins, the Order of the Fly offers a number of hellish tricks with an insectoid nature. The Order is known for their unwillingness to die with skills like Cockroach Vitality and Knight of the Flies, protecting them from anything short of nuclear winter (though this is still up for debate). In apt representation of the name they bear, some ELITEs take on a pair of wings to keep up with their flying kin (Wings of the Fly) or can see in 4K panoramic view with Eyes of the Fly, bestowing the IGNORE LONG RANGE and IGNORE COVER keywords. Some Order of the Fly nobles seek an alternative route to the damnation of the Faithful, owing themselves to the Antipope of Avignon, the high priest of the Cult of the Black Grail. Missionaries of the Antipope aim to tap into the mind of future subjects with skills like Infect the Mind and Silvered Tongue, crushing the soul before capturing the body. Counter to the noble fly, the humble swine is a revered form to the Antipope, so in emulation of the pig, Missionary ELITEs can grow swift cloven hooves with Swine Hybrid or can ceaselessly eat with Feast on Disease. 

This is the third article of a series of faction overviews to cover the very basics of each faction! While this is a brief summary of what the Cult of the Black Grail has to offer, you can find the full, in-depth rules for free on our Rules page.

Sammie Dae

Sammie Dae is a game designer for Trench Crusade. Her experience is grassroots: setting up weekly game nights, running campaigns and events for local clubs, writing silly scenarios and fun homebrew rules for her friends, and suffering the “forever GM” curse. She’s been a volunteer Observer since 2024 and has organised major Trench Crusade narrative events at AdeptiCon and NOVA Open. She’s dedicated to her community, supporting human creativity, and ensuring everyone has a place in the hobby.