The Slayer's Take is a guild in Vasselheim that is paid to hunt rare animals, typically for specific parts of the animal. The Slayer's Take pays homage to Ioun, the goddess of knowledge, prophecy, and skill.

Leadership[]

A large gynosphinx, Osysa, lives in a cavern below the guildhall. She uses her knowledge and scrying abilities to locate the guild's quarry and determine the viability of contracts the Slayer's Take.

The guild members are led by Vanessa Cyndrial, a no-nonsense tiefling. The second-in-command is her husband, Mertin Cyndrial, a halfling.

Membership[]

Induction[]

When Vox Machina wished to become members of the guild, they were first tested by being sent to complete a contract in under three days. Upon returning to the guildhall after successfully completing their contracts, Vox Machina were brought to meet the sphinx Osysa. Osysa branded each of their shoulders with the guild mark, identifying them as fully fledged members of the Slayer's Take.^[2]

Known members[]

• Vanessa Cyndrial (guildmaster)
• Mertin Cyndrial (second-in-command)
• Aldor
• Kashaw Vesh
• Loran
• Lyra
• Thorbir Falbek
• Vox Machina (except Pike and Taryon)
  • Grog Strongjaw
  • Keyleth
  • Percival de Rolo
  • Scanlan Shorthalt
  • Tiberius Stormwind
  • Vax'ildan
  • Vex'ahlia
    • Trinket
• Zahra Hydris
• Grimm Heldwell (formerly)
• Igor
• Sweeny

A dark druid known as Putridius Festerkin was once a member of the guild, but his arts and ambitions led him to die trying to perform a ritual against the forces of nature that gave him power.^[3]

History[]

The guild was founded in or before 639 PD,^[4] and had the Utesspire Mountains as their earliest hunting grounds.^[5] They famously defeated a magma bulette in 784 PD.^[6]

Kraghammer and Vasselheim Arc[]

The members of Vox Machina (except Pike) were forced to join the Slayer's Take to avoid being prosecuted for poaching a hydra that was under contract by one of the guild's parties. In order to rectify the situation, Vox Machina was given the option to complete an initiation and join the guild, making the hydra kill legal. For the initiation, Vox Machina was split into two groups. One group was assigned a contract to hunt and kill an adult white dragon (they found one in the Vesper Timberland named Rimefang), while the other group hunted a rakshasa, Hotis, in Vasselheim.

When Vox Machina proved their competence, Vanessa showed them the way below the Slayer's Take guildhall in Vasselheim. There lies a sealed chamber ziggurat-like platform in the center, a place devoted to the Knowing Mistress.^[7] Osysa, the keeper of this holy place, greeted Vox Machina and branded them.

Chroma Conclave Arc[]

Vox Machina returned to the Slayer's Take and asked if any members of the guild would be of assistance in fighting the Chroma Conclave. Vanessa replied that the guild was more suited to hunting relatively unorganized monsters, but they consulted Osysa, who told Vox Machina of the existence of the Vestiges of Divergence.

After Campaign One[]

The guild defeated Oogle the troll in 829 PD, and although the feat wasn't very remarkable, they noted down that its cave had the potential for a future exploration.^[8]

The Re-Slayer's Take[]

Around 839 PD,^[9] the Slayer's Take were allegedly looking for new members and they sent invitations to gather potential recruits in Himblewood. Timpani Guff, with a captured gelatinous cube came to show the type of creatures the guild fought, but the firbolg accidentally released the ooze, who had to be contained and killed by four candidates: Frog, Farah Vallari, Idrin Shadowstep and Heera Agneheart (with the later delivering the killing blow). After that, Timpani announced that the four of them had been accepted as new members.^[10]

That night, however, the group was attacked by strange undead monsters, and shortly after Poogs was kidnapped. While they were trying to rescue him, Timpani admitted the truth: he wasn't an actual member of the Slayer's Take, but a recruit who had tried and failed to join multiple times, and who had been studying strange phenomena in the forest for a long time; he was convinced that the story of Putridius Festerkin contained some truth, and that somehow the dark druid was bringing back old monsters slayed by his former guild; he also theorized that the Slayer's Take knew about this and was trying to cover it. With the desire of rescuing Poogs and the possibility of using this mission to actually join the Slayer's Take, the four adventurers agreed to help Timpani.^[11]

After they rescued Poogs and defeated the skeleton of Rimefang, puppeteered by the marionette vines, Timpani took the skull and arranged a meeting with two members of the guild to try and prove that strange activities were truly taking place in the area. However, they weren't convinced, and underestimated both Timpani and his new group, dismissing their concerns. However, when the two members of the Slayer's Take were leaving, one whispered to the other that they shouldn't tell Osysa anything about that meeting.^[12]

After Timpani's group (now named "the Re-Slayer's Take") took a case the Slayer's Take had decided to ignore (disappearances near Josgren's Hollow) Igor the wereboar went there and angrily confronted the group; he, however, did so so loudly that he attracted the attention of the local fog-like whispers, who swallowed him and made him disappear.^[13] After they rescued him by defeating those enemies (who were organzing around an undead version of the gibbering mouther the Slayer's Take defeated in the area half a century before), Igor was grateful, and told them that the Slayer's Take should not give them problems in the future (even claiming that if he that the authority he would welcome them into the guild himself).^[14] Not long after, however, Heldwell was seen in Shoresight Isle looking for these adventurers, and willing to join forces with the warriors of the Spectral Hand, who were also hostile towards the Re-Slayers and wanted to find them and stop their activity.^[15] The adventurers were intercepted by Heldwell and his men as they were returning from Dead Man's Table after defeating the Timberblight, and although the guild members seemed to be willing to kill the adventuring party, one of them, Sweeny, saved them by teleporting them to a bakery, where Kashaw Vesh told them Osysa wanted to talk.^[16] Kash explained to the Re-Slayers that Heldwell had been expelled from the guild from hiding information about the undead Timpani had been fighting, and that since some of his underlings had followed him, Sweeny had been sent to infiltrate the group. Later, when the adventurers met Osysa, the sphinx talked to them and tested them to see if they were worthy of her attention, sending Idrin to Xhorhas and the rest of them back to Kashaw, who told them the Slayer's Take would provide them new headquarters:^[17] a five-story building to which the adventurers moved that same night.^[18] Kashaw also kept in touch with them, telling them about potential missions and even offering resources from his guild if they needed them.^[19]

Campaign Three: Bells Hells[]

During the crisis caused by the apogee solstice of 843 PD, the Exandrian Accord had a huge meeting in Vasselheim, where Lady Vex'ahlia de Rolo listed different groups of warriors and mercenaries that could be used to fight against the Ruby Vanguard and their allies, including the Slayer's Take, the Onyx Edge, the Stubborn Stock, and the Flames Within.^[20]

Trivia[]

• When Timpani was pretending to be part of the guild, recruiting new members, he sent invitations for potential candidates, even from other continents, so they could gather in one place to prove themselves.^[21][22] Since many people came, it could mean this method of recruitment has been used by the Slayer's Take in the past, although it isn't confirmed.
• According to Timpani, the Slayer's Take are too busy to care about a group with a knock-off name like the Re-Slayer's take.^[23]
• It is common for members to draw or carve the guild's symbol wherever they have defeated a monster.^[24]

References[]

Art: