King Grendel led a very successful Goliath gang in the underhive for a few cycles - even gathering enough to credits to pay for a heavy stubber and other deadly equipment for his gangers - but once they crossed the Enforcers by undercutting the stimm slug market, they were outlawed and forced to go downhive. 

Grendel and his lackeys served on board a sump sea crawler for months, fighting off mutants and degenerate creatures while living on meager rations. They finally earned enough credits to think about moving uphive when Grendel bumped into a stranger in a sump seaport bar that changed his short life forever.

The stranger offered redemption - a way for Grendel and his boys to get back into the good graces of House Goliath and the Enforcers. All he had to do was take a flatboat out on the sump sea to a small outpost on an island near the Great Circle. He would meet a group of workers there and pick up supplies for the stranger, then bring them back and earn his payment.

When Grendel and his lackeys went out to the island, they were met with strange symbols and individuals who were mutated and hid their bodies with robes. By the end of the the evening, Grendel and his gangers were infected with the Malstrain plague. They were instructed to take some brood scum with them and move uphive, re-instating their gang and businesses (mostly stimm dealing). They were ordered to recruit as much as they could and were told that once in a while they'd receive special orders to do actions that would help the Cult.