Kristoff was glad to be continuing the hunt, not able to truly rest when he knew there was prey waiting. More than that, Constantine was right. A putrid smell lingered in the air, something corrupt. Even Vorgen could sense it, the great beast on edge as it bared its fangs towards the foul odor, being all the more sensitive to it.

He wasn't sure about the others, but Kristoff was familiar with the stench that hung on the air, and it made his blood boil as well. The Rot of the Putrid one was a distinct smell to those who had the pleasure of encountering it before, and the Wolf Priest was disgusted to find it in his home once more. It wouldn't be for long.

After arriving Kristoff charged a different flank of the Undead as the Vacus and Tugg charged in the center and Khel picked them off on the outside. With a bestial war cry he charged in, Vorgen right beside him matching his brothers ferocity.

"FOR MIDDENLAND AND THE WHITE WOLF!" He roared as his war-hammer smashed into the chest of an undead human, its form crumbling beneath the sheer power of the blow, trace's of Ulric's fury sparking off his weapon with each hit. Using his momentum the chosen of Ulric spun and brought his hammer with him knocking the head clean of a Gor and human in one hit. Lost in his rage, the Wolf Priest found his slaughter to be not enough, dropping his hammer for a moment before grabbing another of the undead with his bare hands, snapping its head off in one fluid motion.

Of course lacking a weapon left even a warrior such as himself vunerable, and before he could recover his hammer a large Gor was on him, it's dripping maw inches away from his face. It could have well been his final moment if Vorgen hadn't interceded, jumping on the beast's back, ripping it to shreds.

"Heh, my thanks brother.You know I can get a bit carried away." As the dead fell like flies Kristoff took a moment to survey the temple, taking quick note that it was a shrine to Heldenhammer. It made his lips curl in annoyance. As far as he was concerned, the North belonged to Ulric. Let the Southroners have their god. The Northe had the Wolf.

<Outskirts of Kutenholz - Milena's Arrival> @Casavay

OOC this is the post you want to check for the current situation: https://forum.eternalcrusade.com/threads/old-world-blues-whf-casual-rp.52629/page-63#post-1351060
Hopefully I didn't stretch it too much with my explanation below, but at least Constantine will be able to recruit Milena right away.

While the majority of the team had their hands full with corrupted corpses of Nurgle, their gaze never leaving the besieged temple of Sigmar, in the direction of the road from which they arrived here came another person. To some members of the team she was a familiar sight while for some she is yet to become one.

After Mariah's broken promise (even though the Brettonian knight couldn't know it at that moment), the team never arrived back at the tavern - not until it was too late anyway - and thus the Employer who was she promised to meet never came, Milena managed to snatch another job of escorting yet another caravan, although this one going from Ravenstein to Middenheim, hauling timber and wool. The pay was better than the last time and the merchant in charge of this caravan was way more decent than the previous one. Overall, the situation looked much better and initially everything went well, however like most good things go this one also turned sour quickly enough.

An entire Beastmen herd, which was by then lying in wait near the town of Ravenstein and promptly bashed it apart, came running back on its way towards the depths of Drakwald, and Milena's new caravan was right in the way. Herd's vanguard caught up and in the fighting that ensued, every other guard including merchant and his servants were killed while the self-proclaimed Shallyan Lay-Templar managed to escape such fate by getting separated from the main caravan's body by the sheer number of Beastmen. She and couple of guards around her fought against the creatures and were pushed further away and eventually they managed to kill all of their attackers although Milena ended up being the sole survivor of this clash.

That was one day ago. The following day she spent silently moving through the woods and evading any bigger groups of stragglers that might be a trouble to deal with. Once gain, luck seemed to be on her side when she found the great Altdorf-Middenheim road that stretched throughout the entire province, all she had to do was follow it to a nearest settlement and she would probably be saved. Finding a road sign that told her she was near a village called Kutenholz, she managed to cross some distance before once again hearing familiar sounds of combat coming just ahead, to the right of the main road itself.

Through the trees she spotted a temple to Sigmar, with its sign of twin-tailed comet on top of its entrance, and a mob of strange-looking Beastmen and humans, given the fact a particular smell of rot hit her nostrils it would seem they were corrupted to the bone, trying to assault the building. While on the other hand, a diverse group of mercenaries was trying to defend it by attacking the creatures from the rear.

Whatever she was thinking next was interrupted when a female knight, staying a bit back and guarding the rear, turned around and spotted her. Couple of seconds passed until recognition dawned on Mariah's face and she waved Milena over, calling her in surprised tune. "Lady Milena?! You are alive! I thought you died when the Beastmen attacked! Come, join us as we drive these things away to whatever hell they came from!"

OOC 40+ undead Beastmen\Humans are attacking the temple, you can kill some of them if you wish. Like I wrote in the other post, this is just a small skirmish before the real deal Will cover the handing out the contract with my next post which will be tomorrow evening

With the group on the move once again, Alozia tried to prevent the foul stench from getting to her too badly as they walked, ready to fight anything that lurked within the darkness. Seems that they found it, when they came across the human shrine that was under attack, by corpses risen by Chaos rather than simple necromancy. The fact she even knew the difference now was rather troubling, but going by experience was likely to be better than hoping for luck, at this rate.

So the Druchii decided to stay towards the edges of the fray, a thought that was seemingly the same plan that four of the attackers had in mind. The first one lurched towards her with a rusty weapon, only for her staff to swat the weapon aside with a blow from her staff, and then crack the skull with the blunt end of the staff, leaving one undead already in a state where they can be re-buried.

The second and third one tried to tag-team the Sorceress, a move that provides to be ill-judged as she dodged the first blow, leaving the third undead to accidentally murder the second. The third Gor then received her magic dagger through it's head, leaving only the fourth one left standing. That was soon rectified thanks to a well-placed kick on one of the and her Dagger once more going in for the kill, leaving herself in a good position.

Still, Alozia had a spell to try out, so with the relative peace and quite she attempted to summon forth the Scythe spell she had found within the dagger. After all, what better way to test it out than upon these corrupted corpses, which needed to be cleaned out before they got on the road again?

"Hm, were did that scruffy warmblood go?" the Saurian wondered after Constantine said something about Harold and his tardiness. And with how the surrounding forest troubled everyone here, he wondered what the human might have found out there. After helping where he could with packing things, Xiuchoatl followed the others as they followed the trail of the beastmen which had no difficulty to it when came to the trampled and debris ridden wake of the children of chaos.

After some time the group came across a battle happening in front of a building with that twin tail symbol he's seen before. Dead rotting creatures lurched towards the doors of the temple, the sounds of a battle audible even out here in the distance. The lizardman sneered, seeing them being nothing more than corpse puppets for their masters just a reflection of what they were before their death, even if the stench that wafted off them reminded him of the aftermath of what happened to his temple city. Tugg lead the charge with his massive cleaver with Kristoff and their new dark eldar warrior in tow into the thick of the rotting hoard, while Khelandria seemed to fight on the edges of the battle in a similar tactic to skinks would do, but with more grace and bloodshed than they would have. Moving in with the Ogre and the rest, the former temple guard was more efficiency focused in this battle than before as they had numbers to cull and a hunt to continue, his Macuahuitl rising and falling with practiced ease, heads smashed or cleaved off from gangrenous torsos with sicking crunches and unsavory noises of fluids. And to think he just cleaned his weapons of filth not to long ago.

<Outskirts of Kutenholz - Temple of Sigmar> @DeranVendar @Maleth @Grall_Stonefist @Keidivh @Jorimel @BuriasDempsey @Valonox @Virgil_Corbec @Casavay @matt23

Like a true emissary of the Great Maw, Tugg annihilated everything that stood in his path, cleaving corrupted corpses left and right, their weak bodies not even close enough to stop the Butcher's charge. Behind him came Vacus who used his sword with the skill his people were famous for and everything Tugg didn't manage to kill initially the Black Guard sliced up afterwards.

Kristoff followed them, both his hammer and his wolf companion dealing with the remains of the enemy while Xiuhcoatl and Alozia bashed apart couple of strayed Beastmen, the Dark Elf Sorceress successful in conjuring her new spell - a magical scythe appeared in her hands and on command, she unleashed it upon the unsuspecting creatures, killing dozen of them with her magical power. There were few that that survived Alozia's discharge, those unlucky few corpses still clinging to unlife by the dark energy provided to them by the God of Pestilence met their swift end at Khelandria's hands, the Bride of Khaine darting around the edges of combat and making sure not a single creature survived.

Constantine lowered his smoking pistols and said thanks to Ebba and Mariah who stood close by, guarding him from the enemy attacks. He holstered his guns and turned to face Milena (@Casavay ), removing his hat and making a polite bow. "My lady, Miss Mariah mentioned you met couple of us during their stay at Ravenstein and she told me about how you were looking for a mercenary work. I'm sorry we couldn't have met back then but it seems fate smiled upon us both now that we are here all together? Tell me, are you still interested in joining our group? If so, I will give you a contract to check out if it fits your expectations," he sounded very polite and business-like, despite their nearby surroundings.

While Constantine talked with the newcomer, Khelandria, Alozia, Xiuhcoatl, Vacus, Tugg and Kristoff met in front of the temple, now that all of corpses were not moving it was time to regroup. Inside, among a pile of bodies of those creatures that managed to get in they saw familiar sight - Harold was inside, currently busying himself with removing his hatchet from a skull of a large Gor. Despite the battle, the Badlander didn't look injured - half of the thanks for that went to the man standing next to him, who during the fight "tanked" most of the enemies while Harold sniped them from afar with his crossbow.

"What are a Southerner, an Ogre, a Lizardman, a Wolf Priest and three Dark Elves doing in front of Sigmar's temple in a place like this?" the man spoke, his tone hard like his looks - grim scar-covered face, bald head and fierce eyes of a warrior. In fact, he was a warrior indeed, a Warrior Priest of Sigmar, easily recognizable by his distinctive-looking half-plate, two-handed hammer and a book with the symbol of the Hammer on it placed on a chain around his waist.

"And I see there's more of you outside," Warrior Priest said as he cleaned gore from his weapon, but not lowering it, and then proceeded to drag bodies of the dead creatures from the insides of the temple into the courtyard in front of it. "How interesting that a group such as yours arrives just when all of this happened, don't you think so?"

"What are a Southerner, an Ogre, a Lizardman, a Wolf Priest and three Dark Elves doing in front of Sigmar's temple in a place like this?"

"That is a question with an easy answer: killing these vile abominations." Khelandria wiped the blade of her dagger fastidiously on some nearby grass. The wintry foliage was wiry and thin, bleached by the wind and rain, but none of the revenants had anything she would consider clean enough to use. The Witch Elf stood up straight again, looking around her companions and mentally checking that they were unharmed.

"Though it is fair to say that we would have sought to kill them even without your presence," the Bride of Khaine continued, her well-spoken tones at odds with her blood-stained white skin and sharp teeth, "the fact that we do so shows that we have an enemy in common. We do not seek your demise." She knew that she was taking a liberty in speaking for the group like this, but she did not think that under such circumstances it would matter.

"Have there been more of these attacks? Or is this the first? Can you tell us why they would attack you here? Or is it simply that they see an affront to their faith in your own?" She glanced up at the double-tailed comet. Sigmar was no Khaine, of course, but she could respect his martial spirit.

Milena did not immediately acknowledge Constantine, too busy with the previous combat situation and, truthfully, Mariah being present. She knew beastmen to be master ambushers; there was no reason not to assume that, whatever these creatures were, they had inherited this trait. But eventually, the calm arrived at even the Kislevite's mind, and she sheathed her weapons, stained with blood and bile as they were.

The Sokal turned to the man with the guns after giving Mariah a curt nod, not bowing like she usually would.

"You must be the employer, then. Milena Sokal, I would say it is a pleasure, but the circumstances do not provide. Before we talk of business, however -" she looked over her shoulder, fingering her set of tools "do you have immediate wounded? I am bound by honour to tend to them."

Vacus went and sat at the bottom of the steps and cleaned his blade and shield once completed he would take a deep breath and started to think. "By Khaines bloody hand I feel as if I get lost in my anger. I don't want to return to hating everything I see. I only want to fight with anger not let it consume me like before..." Then Vacus, his brothers sword hummed giving a calming aura he then Vacus remembered the blissful time of their last moments together. Vacus smiled remembering he cannot and will not die until he fixes something that gave him redemption in the honor of his brother.

(OOC: An old elf is depressed)

"What are we doing? I'd say saving this sorry excuse of a temple. Not even a few templars here, ready to wage war? I'd say you should keep your shrines in the south where they belong Priest. The North belongs to the Wolf." Kristoff growled back at the Warrior Priest, clearly irked to see by his and this shrine's presence, crushing the skull of one of the dead that sill stirred on the ground with his boot.

"Regardless, my Dark Elf friend here is right. We have a common enemy, and we need to know where they came from, are there more, and what direction they're heading. Tell us that and we can move on and leave you to what's left of your temple."

OOC: Make way folks, diplomat Kristoff coming through

As the others took care of all the deplomacy, Tugg wandered a bit around on the small battlefield, though he had just eaten a got fill just before their short march to here, Tugg could not allow himself to leave this place without atleast some of it having been eaten in the name of the great maw, even if these re-killed dead mostly where a bit putrid, not all of it was half-bad.