A History Through Blood

During the week which followed the newly made arrangement between Simon and Victoria, the church's basement saw a fair amount of temporary renovation. This mostly involved using large cloth sheets to create a temporary wall as to provide Victoria some modicum of privacy and conduct interviews during her stay. The early signs of an incoming harsh Winter were such that both parties agreed to extend their agreement until spring arrived with minimal disagreement. This was also not particularly good news for Simon's team, as other branches would struggle to send additional scholars to aid in their research.

With few options left Simon managed to get a local scholar on loan from one of the nearby major houses in the region. Rauf Bennett was eventually chosen as they were able to both; keep their mouth shut and jumped at the chance to interact with the dark magicks. The planning meetings were quickly dominated by both Katherine and Rauf's inner drive for knowledge. The pair were mostly left up to their own devices to devise whatever experiments, derived from extrapolation and previous reports from the various Night Hunters, to expand their working knowledge of vampirism.

As for the Vampire in question, instead of sealing her away between experiments, they opted to hide her in plain-sight. The cloudy skies and thick habits which the nuns wore counter-acted much of the negative effects brought on by the sun's rays. While some of the other clerics had misgivings about the situation, Elias' presence eased their concerns and proved to be a calming presence on more rowdy lower class which went to them for aid. As for her food, they put out a request for donors from with-in the clergy. After Simon and William showed the blood letting process, with the promise of a small reward so that many opted in for a rotation to donate blood.

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The following are excerpts found in the archives beneath the Vatican and have not been made available to the public.

Experiment #004

Experiment Goals: To test the communicative abilities of the Vampire and their familiar.

Subject [Victoria] was placed into Room A [Pastor's Office], while their Familiar was led out of the room by Researcher B [Katherine] to Room B [Basement]. Room A and B are separated from each other with no method to see the other from any point inside and no way to communicate from room to room. Researcher A [Rauf] and B were able to cross reference randomised phrases between the two rooms, meaning that the two can share information without the other being present. Researcher A placed a sanctified object on the Subject to see if the process could be disrupted. Subject experienced pain and fatigue but connection remained unbroken. Experiment was repeated between Room B and a location [Trading Guild] several furlongs away. The communication did not experience any disruption. Upon applying the blessed item to the subject the Familiar's form started to lose its stability, but the flow of information remained constant.

Researchers conclude that vampires and their familiars can share information regardless of proximity of the master. Placing holy object on either the Subject or their Familiar does not interfere with their connection.

Subject remarks: “The Familiar's soul resides with-in my own, so it is a natural assumption that we can communicate internally. In order to prevent this connection you would have to remove the familiar's soul from the Vampire entirely.”

Experiment #007

Experiment Goals: to test the limits of how far the vampire can be separated from their familiar.

Subject was placed in Room A while Researcher B, Assistant A [William] and Assistant B [Warin] escorted the familiar to the other end of York. Familiar lost stability of form around at around 13 furlongs.* Test was repeated with blessed adornments placed on Subject, distance before loss of form was around 7 furlongs. Due to lack of subjects we are unable to determine if this is based on the individual or there is a hard limit.

Researchers conclude the link between the familiar and their master does allow for some distance between them, but the distance depends on the individual's accrued power.

Subject remarks: “As I am still growing in strength, I cannot provide an exact threshold. However I do believe that the results reflect my own limitations.”

Experiment #012

Experiment Goals: to observe the effects caused by direct consumption of blood by the subject.

Subject and Supervising Official [Simon] has rejected all future experiments in this field after listening to subject's objections.

Subject remarks: “I have seen the results when drinking directly. Direct consumption severs the connection between the victim's body and their soul. The Vampire will unconsciously a few stray fragments of their Soul remain allowing some measure of control. I would strongly advise against this experiment.”

Experiment #014

Experiment Goals: to observe the effects of removing a noticeable amount of flesh from the subject's familiar and see if it caused permanent damage.

Subject rejected experiment.

Subject's Remarks: “I am rejecting any attempt to remove any amount of flesh from my familiar unless there is a medical reason to do so.”

Experiment #015

Experiment Goals: to observe the effects of severing regenerative parts of the body (ex. Hair and Nails)

Researcher B cut the hair of the vampire's familiar. The familiar's hair remained short after materialising and re-materialising indicating that damage or changes to their appearance while materialised are tentatively permanent. The hair which was cut off faded into nothingness shortly after being removed.

Subject has no comment.

Experiment #018

Experiment Goals: to observe if the regenerative capabilities of the familiar extend onto their own body.

The Subject's familiar has been shown to be able to rapidly regrow their hair after it was cut short, see Experiment #016's notes. Due to objections raised under Experiment #014 and #017, with the Familiar's consent a noticeable incision was made into their arm. Familiar was unable to immediately recover from the wound inflicted on them, despite the relatively shallow cut. Subsequent observations over the following day show that the familiar's wound healed around twice as fast as the wounds on humans(i) and left no signs of scarring.

(I) Approximately eight nights for the familiar compared to 14 nights for a human

Subject Remarks: “As long as no part of her soul is severed, the soul can heal overtime.” Subject has made their disapproval known about this line of enquiry, further experiments will be limited.

Experiment #023

Experiment Goals: to see if blood consumption by the vampire increases the rate of healing for their familiar.

Subject's Familiar has been subjected to a similar incision as Experiment #18, #20 and #21. Subject has consumed three spoonfuls of donated blood. Observation of Familiar's wound shows that their recovery time was slightly higher(i) than that with fasting. Unfortunately we are unable to test out permanent damage due to the objections of the subject.

(I) the Familiar's wound healed with-in seven days as compared with eight days previously observed.

Subject Remarks: “While I am still slowly mastering my powers, I can share my insight. My consuming blood it provides additional energy to speed up the recovery process. If you are looking for ways to exploit this, damaging the soul with something which reacts poorly to dark magic would likely slow down or prevent recovery. Furthermore, I would speculate that striking the soul at specific points might be enough to destabilise the familiar's form and end its existence.”

Experiment #027

Experiment Goals: to determine if the familiar can customise or alter the clothing they materialise with.

As established in Experiments #024, #025 and #026 subject's clothing is made up of a shadowy material which offers little protection. While the material can be cut, as with their hair and nails, it can be repaired indicating that it is black magic coating the soul. Subject was presented various outfits to try on and replicate to various success, subject is still new to manipulating their outer appearance so we could only confirm minor changes. Currently, they are only able to colour the out fits in variations of: Black, Red and Brown. Researcher B was able to get familiar to slightly modify their appearance after manifestation with the addition of an out of season flower tainted red.

Subject has made little comment aside from the occasional suggestion for attire.

Experiment #042

Experiment Goals: to determine to what degree vampires can augment their strength by using strength enhancements on their body.

Subject was tasked with lifting a box weighing five pounds. After being able to lift said box the weight would then be increased in five pound intervals until their limit was reached. Experiment was repeated with their familiar summoned and with the familiar participating in the experiment.

The results are as follows:

Subject without enhanced body and no familiar: 65 pounds

Subject without enhanced body and with familiar: 55 pounds

Subject with enhanced body and no familiar: 190 pounds

Subject with enhanced body and with familiar: 120 pounds

Familiar without Subject enhancing their body: 100 pounds

Familiar with Subject enhancing their body: 65 pounds

Attempted with subject wearing blessed adornments, subject unable to perform any action.

Subject Notes: “If you were to conduct this on a vampire with a longer lifespan, I believe they could far exceed my current limitations.”

Experiment #051

Experiment Goals: to test the effect of garlic on vampires.

Subject was provided garlic, as other records indicate that it may have a repellent effect, to measure the effects on their body. Subject displayed visible signs of disgust when they were able to smell the bulb up close and suppressed a gag-reflex. Subject did not enjoy the taste and subsequently involuntarily vomited out the clove they had ingested. Their body appears to violently reject the substance, further testing on minimal effective quantities and if the effect can be duplicated on humans requires further testing.

Subject remarks: “There is something about that plant which causes my body to violently reject it. My speciality is not in horticulture, so I cannot provide much additional information.

Experiment #056

Experiment Goals: to observe the effects caused by direct consumption of blood by the subject.

Researcher has secured a living human which can be used as a test subject for vampire bites. Subject H is a murderer who has been sentenced to death. Supervising Official has given approval for the experiment. The following controls have been put in place: Subject H is to be restrained at all times, Subject A is to have minimal contact with Subject B, Subject B is to be killed and disposed of after experimentation and all traces of Subject B are to be destroyed.

Subject A administered the bite and consumed their blood for several seconds, Subject B has stopped moving since they were bitten. Subject B's body shows no sign of abnormality, aside from absent expression and clumsy movement. Subject does not respond to questioning or appears capable of refined movement, reflexive actions still occurs. Assistants, with Subject A's assistance, removed the thumb of Subject B with no response or signs of pain.

Continued experimentation showed that Subject A appears to be able to provide basic instructions, however due to the relative age of Subject A and experience full capabilities of this function cannot be assessed. Subject B has been humanly killed off and was disposed of in compliance with previous orders.

Subject Remarks: “I felt nothing once the connection between their soul and body were severed. After contact was severed I felt something faint from the body, however I lack the ability to exert much control.” Further questioning revealed little else aside from their dislike of the practice.