Trial of the Take: Part 4

is the fifth episode of the second chapter of Critical Role. Keyleth, Vax'ildan, and Tiberius, joined by Kashaw and Thorbir from the Slayer's Take, make their way down into the tunnels beneath the Velvet Cabaret, pursuing their mercurial prey. The path is far from easy, but after surmounting a handful of harrowing obstacles, Thorbir leads the hunting party into the hidden lair of the elusive rakshasa.

Previously on Critical Role
"Vox Machina, put into some sort of legal trouble in the city of Vasselheim, found themselves breaking a contract for a guild called the Slayer's Take that was essentially a monster hunters' guild, and all kills near the city of this magnitude require approval. To make sure they weren't sent to the seat of judgment to essentially be arrested and/or tried for an infraction they didn't realize they made, they were given the opportunity to actually join the guild, which they chose to do. However, as part of joining it they had to go through a small trial in which the party was split and had to go off to their own smaller contracts. One half had journeyed through with our guests Mary Elizabeth McGlynn and Felicia Day, and they went after a white dragon. They were awesome, everyone survived—barely. It was pretty rough.

''"This [current] venturing party met as the second contract and were given the task to seek out, destroy, and harvest pieces from a rakshasa—a demonic entity that stems from the Nine Hells, and apparently was somewhere in the city masquerading as the assistant to the owner of the Velvet Cabaret, an establishment for upper-class pleasure seekers. The party, after essentially forcing this individual to reveal themself, the rakshasa fled through a tunnel underneath its room into a long subterranean tunnel fraught with traps that were set to protect it. The party managed to avoid these rather deftly until the steady decline of the hallway, combined with the increasing moisture and scent of refuse, caused a slick surface and our fantastic cleric, Brother Kash, Kashaw, slipped and fell down. Two party members, Keyleth and Tiberius, deciding it would be a fun time to go Slip 'N Sliding, joined him at the bottom of the tunnel, whereas Thorbir and Vax stayed up at the top, shaking their heads with frustration. Upon splashing down into what appeared to be some sort of underground cistern or a collection of compost and refuse that had been just rotting, food and all kinds of nasty stuff, the party pulled themselves up, now knee- to nearly waist-deep in this nasty substance, began to hear skittering and screeching sounds throughout the room, hundreds of small ones, while two large thorny tentacles jettisoned out of this dung heap and pulled itself to the surface with its central body full of teeth, one giant toothy maw."''