The Van Helsing Society

This report is in response to requests for information on a faction of self-proclaimed "Vampire Hunters" collectively know as the Van Helsing Society.

This group claims to have been in existence for over 150 years, but Bureau researchers have only been able to track the group back as far as 1943. Members of the Van Helsing Society spend most of their time studying vampiric legends rather than actually hunting vampires. However, once they do go on the offensive they are difficult to stop. Some agents have been recruited from the society in the past and are the source of much of the Bureau's information on the group.

The Society was formed originally to combat a vampiric uprising in eastern Europe over a century ago. The Society originally had 7 members who upon tracking the vampires to their stronghold in a crumbing cemetery staged a daylight raid upon the fiends. Armed with swords, torches, wooden stakes, crosses, holy water, and wafers, the 7 members descended into the catacombs and spent the next several hours in a bloodbath that left 4 of the Society dead, 1 critically wounded and the surviving 2 badly injured. At the end of the "Day of Retribution" the hunters had slain over 30 vampires.

While recovering from the ordeal, the survivors determined that they had eradicated only small portion of the vampires in Europe and vowed to rebuild their Society and continue the war against the undead until they had either destroyed the last vampire in the world, or died trying. They realized they would need new members and more information on vampires to perform this feat and so began recruiting members, usually friends or relatives of those slain by the fiends. Over the course of several years, the Society gained members and exterminated many lone vampires and a few small covens they happened upon. They also gathered legends and old wives tales of the undead in order to better understand and anticipate their foes. As their knowledge and membership grew the Society encountered factioning problems. Some members turned their attentions to other supernaturals such as ghosts and were-wolves, while others grew impatient with planning and wanted to lead attacks upon suspected vampires and their friends as soon as possible. Eventually the Society splintered into several groups, a list of the known groups follows :

• Van Helsing Society - Much the same as the original group of 7 these hunters relentlessly track vampires and then lead well planned assaults upon the fiends. In some rare cases one of their members is a vampire who is kept alive with "donations" and infiltrates suspected vampire covens.
• Sons Of the Stake - A more militant faction these hunters tend to use whatever means available to destroy any undead they happen to find, regardless of whether the undead is harmless or not. Their methods often endanger or even kill innocents in order to attain their goal. Often the S.O.T.S. do not stop with the vampire and follow up by slaying his friends in order to "prevent contamination".
• Ghost Hunters - A specialized faction dedicated to exorcising spirits that have refused to shuffle off this mortal coil. Most of the members of this faction are priests or have had some seminary training.
• Wolfhounds - hunters who stalk and slay were-creatures, these people are more interested in the hunt than research. Most members are accomplished gunsmiths (in order to produce the appropriate ammunition) and usually well trained with a bow.

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