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Mad Dok Grotsnik is Ghazghkull's personal Painboy, a berserk surgeon obsessed with rooting around in Ork heads. He has saved Ghazghkull's life more than once, and is now as much a frenzied fighter as a doctor.
He has turned his own body into a patchwork of crude bionics and wields a power klaw, a deadly syringe and assorted surgical tools in battle. His unpredictable experiments terrify the Orks who rely on his help. Many come back from his operating table bigger, stronger and more dangerous, while others never come back at all. Grotsnik is the Painboy who rebuilt Ghazghkull's skull, an operation that arguably launched two wars for Armageddon. Ghazghkull credits him with opening his mind to Gork and Mork and protects him fiercely. Grotsnik himself has slid into frenzy. He now charges into battle eager to sink needles and blades into unwilling flesh, though he can still steady his hand when the Warlord needs patching up.
Origins
He was a Painboy of some skill when a young Ghazghkull walked into his operating room holding his brain in place with his hands.
Before he met Ghazghkull, Grotsnik was a capable Painboy among the Goffs of Urk. His operation on the young Ghazghkull, which replaced the shattered part of his skull with adamantium, is one of the most consequential surgeries in Ork history. It began the career of the most dangerous warlord the Imperium has faced, and tied Grotsnik's fate to his.
Nate Crowley's Ghazghkull Thraka: Prophet of the Waaagh! gives Grotsnik a darker role. He was a painboy on Urk who rose alongside Ghazghkull and wanted to keep the warboss as his pet project. He has killed Makari several times for meddling, although the grot always comes back. After Ghazghkull fell at Krongar, Grotsnik told Makari that they were two halves of the same role. Makari was the Prophet's proud banner-waver, while Grotsnik was the dark companion the gods had also chosen. Together they dismembered Ghazghkull's corpse and mounted the pieces in a giant armoured frame. They then used an orbital generator that sat between realspace and the warp to fire green lightning at the body. The experiment had a four-in-five chance of destroying half the planet, but it brought the warboss back to life.
Key events
- Rebuilt Ghazghkull's skull with adamantium. Within a week, Ghazghkull claimed to speak with Gork and Mork.
- Became popular among the Nobz when the 'Ghazghkull Special' metal skull became the fashion.
- Fitted hidden explosive devices to those skulls and kept a remote for each one, so that any Nob who offended him might suffer an exploding head.
- The Nobz retaliated by using a Deff Dread to saw open his skull.
- His gretchin nurses revived him, and he woke utterly mad, cackling as the Nobz' heads exploded.
- Saved Ghazghkull after Krongar by attaching his severed head to a new body.
Codex: Orks (8th edition, p. 60) says that after the Deff Dread attack, his experiments grew even stranger. He grafted unwilling Orks' limbs onto himself and replaced patients' brains with live squigs, and rumour says he is building a composite super-Ork from parts taken from his customers. He leads his own Deathskull warband, Da Corpse Lootas, and makes rival painboyz work as his orderlies. Those who complain are said to become ghoulish brain-bots, and the 9th-edition codex adds that his Brainbot device may hold the knowledge of painboyz who failed him. During Ghazghkull's Great Waaagh!, he collects the best wounded from each conquered warlord's army. The 8th-edition codex (p. 30) also has him lead painboyz, Cyborks and modified Killa Kans aboard a Silver Templars strike cruiser to capture Primaris Marines alive.
Battles & campaigns
- Second War for Armageddon: He fought at Ghazghkull's side.
- Third War for Armageddon: He led frenzied charges and saved the Warlord's life more than once.
Personality
Grotsnik is sadistic, deranged and inventive. Only Ghazghkull can rely on his skill with a chain-scalpel. Everyone else gets the berserk surgeon who charges into battle with needles and blades.
He is unhinged, enthusiastic and dangerous to friend and foe alike. His madness makes him a fearsome fighter, but he retains a twisted genius for surgery. He remains Ghazghkull's surgeon of choice, and the warlord's survival owes much to him.
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Connections
Characters (1)
Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka surgeon · OrksGrotsnik is Ghazghkull's personal Painboy; his surgery on the warlord's head wound is credited with opening his mind to Gork and Mork, and he later revived Ghazghkull after a decapitation.
Factions
- Orks primary faction
Also in this faction
Some links are thematic parallels (marked "parallel") rather than recorded meetings. See the connections web.
Legacy
Grotsnik is the most infamous Painboy of all, a mad surgeon whose patients rarely know what they will wake up with. His work on Ghazghkull twice changed the course of Ork history, first creating the Prophet and then rebuilding him. He shows how Ork technology, faith and madness can blend into something both comic and terrifying. Grotsnik is proof that in Ork medicine, the cure is often a bigger problem than the disease.
Appearances & sources
- Codex: Orks (4th Edition)
- Armageddon background