GUILD: Monster Slayers'

Hunters of Monstrosities, Stalker of Terrors, Destroyers of Nightmares, and Saviors of Villages.   The Monster Slayers' Guild is a diverse guild by necessity. The guild studies the monsters of the world, finding their habitats, how they raise young, their special abilities, protection from them, and the knowledge of how to kill them.  They don't wage wars against hordes of humanoids or giants, leaving such work to armies. They seem and kill the monstrosities that plague the nations and borderlands.  They slayers are martial experts, though many use abjuration and evocation magics to assist them against monster with powerful magics. The guild exclusively hires into membership skinners, furriers, tanners, oilers, clothiers, alchemists, mages, armorers, taxidermists, scribes, cartographers, and other rare specialists.  their knowledge is secured against the public. The keeps of the guild are not numerous and typically within or near to significant cities to supply them. Their wuudranex (reading room or storage of many books and records, from the god DEITY: Wuudrahn, the God Witch is secured and protected from magics within the keep. Their folios are wooden-clad, typical 3' by 3' in size to be difficult to steal. Each dedicated to a single type of monster.   It is extraordinarily rare for anyone outside of the guild to be allowed entry to a guild's wuudranex, and almost solely slayers (the actual slayers). Pages to the hunters, a form of apprentice, perform research for non-hunters, never leaving the copied parchments they bring to the specialists of the guild.     Slayers need healing, which arcane skills have no value other than bringing forth artificial or undead beings. Healing is of the divine and the deep nature of our world. The guilds are wary of inviting any divine devotees to be slayers or specialists within their walls. They distrust those whose devotions are split to encompass the powers of the divine or crowns.  The guild sees the necessity to operate outside the loyalties to a crown or a god.  The goddess Mennaj shines favor on slayers, and as killers, so would Twillex.  Keeps may have a small chapel, little more than an alcove or small chamber to each of them.  These are kept private and away from areas with non-slayers.  Twillex is often seen as a dark deity, being the Assassin of the Gods, and worship to him is commonly subverted from civil view.    Slayers are paid for their services, by a crown or by villagers. When slayers are sent to on an important hunt, a covered wagon of assistants and specialists may come with them to harvest the creature.  The wagon is loaded with mason jars to hold each organ and vital fluid. They skin and scale, drying out the viscera so they can be safely transported back to the guild's keep. More common monsters don't have the same treatment, but apprentices typically follow a slayer to carry worthwhile harvests.  Far from their keeps they will sell their harvest locally to avoid long treks back. Distant cities or towns, particularly closer to borderlands, will welcome a slayer, offering them a location with wagons and stable, to use as a base with staff to service them. This allows them to collect greater harvests, sending hirelings to bring wagons back to their keep.   As monster hunters, the destruction of all monsters in the world is their oath. The guild may have orders to capture young, or secure eggs to be studied, or to provide a steady harvest of products usch as venom, saliva, shearing, etc.   The slayers can be heavily regulated by the guild. They assign slayers to a hunt, banning others from taking it.  Magic is sourced through the guild, earned from kills. Fees charged to locals are set and underselling services has become a grievous breach. The flow of byproducts and money into the guilds have become very important.  Many slayers live with what they carry or upon hirelings , horse, or wagon. So the guild keeps afford a break from the spartan life to enjoy the comfort and excess available from larger towns and cities.  Slayer guild keeps exist deep in the borderlands, with some isolated ones of meager comforts. Providing a simple base for slayers in remote regions.  They can operate more distant from the regulations of the core keeps.   Slayers are welcome and yet generate worry anywhere they're seen.  Their presence is assumed to mean a monster is near. Their status offers them much protection from local governing forces.   They usually are accompanied by an apprentice or hirelings.  Lone hunters can be fearsome, as they are typically far from their guild, often operating as a sword for hire to people and villages to handle problems. They can be very independent in mission and morals, boldly showing their slayers badges to demand respect and to silently challenge others.  In some lands that recognize demi-humans (races that are not pure Human) are monsters as well, slayers are seen as assassins' plain and simple.  In Gurmorrah, demi-humans must be licensed to exist within the borders, or risk forced into slave trade, which is the primary path to being licensed. Wood elves, which are the shortest of elves, are considered a vermin in their woods.  They have been largely purged from within their country over the centuries. And Gurmorrah slayers will hunt down sightings of wood elves, often calling in armed forces if the nest is too large for them. to handle.    The slayers symbol is a red hexagonal badge, sides aligned vertically, with bright white lines of a stylized sword, the tip vanished into a generic four-legged beast lying at the bottom, and a plated helmet, shoulders, and arms holding the sword.  It is typically inset in the back of a amulet with personal symbol of the slayer, which is affixed or worn on a chain. The  amulet may have a hole so the slayer's badge may be touched, or simply flipped over for them to touch it. Slayers' badges from the guild is a sending stone. This allows them to send short messages to anyone they know or see usually once per day.