Trial of the Take: Part 3

is the fourth episode of the second chapter of Critical Role. Like their companions before them, Keyleth, Vax'ildan, and Tiberius begin their contract for the Slayer's Take. Along with a driven and mysterious young cleric named Kashaw and a hardened dwarf by the name of Thorbir, the group receives its mission. There, within the very walls of Vasselheim itself, they are to track down and kill an elusive rakshasa that has been preying on wealthy travelers. With a little poking about in the city streets, they conclude that their only thread of information leads to the Velvet Cabaret, an exotic establishment in the Duskmeadow District.

Previously on Critical Role
''"Vox Machina, throughout its adventures, found itself in the city of Vasselheim as of late. They came to seal away the Horn of Orcus they had torn from the head of the beholder, K'Varn, deep in the Underdark. Once they had completed this journey, they spent some time in the city just trying to figure out what could be done there, preparation for possibly Keyleth making a venture out to one of her Ashari tribes, during which Grog entered a fight ring and lost. Then the party saw that there was some sort of hydra-like being that had been harrying the walls of the outskirts of the city of Vasselheim. Being the adventurers they are, they took it upon themselves to leap out into the forest of the Vesper Timberland, found and hunted down this hydra, fought it, and upon slaying it discovered that there was another group also hunting this hydra. An actually sanctioned group, and hunting this hydra is considered illegal in Vasselheim unless you had actually been contracted to do so. So in breaking the laws of Vasselheim they could have been tried for it, but instead chose to return to the city with this group of hunters and be brought before their guild master, Huntmaster Vanessa Cyndrial. Basically they were given a choice: they could go to trial, or they could undergo their own personal trial to join the guild, the Slayer's Take, which is essentially a guild that takes on contracts to hunt various requested creatures down, harvest elements of their physical bodies to then be sold or returned to these individuals and be paid for it. If they manage to complete these trials, they will be absolved of breaking the law because they will now be within the confines of it and be members of the guild. So, choosing that, they were then also notified that they would be splitting up into two different groups, much to the chagrin of Vex and Vax, our twins."''