With the Sun's warm morning rays shining over the frost-covered road, Simon's assault team approached the castle, flanked by Victoria and Leo. The church's forces wore thick, padded cloth armor and wielded their weapons of choice, each piece of equipment had various holy symbols embossed on every visible surface. Leo, due to his previous well-funded life choices, wore a much more sturdy set of leather armor and wielded a well-maintained long sword. Victoria's combat attire was completely different, not only in terms of durability, but terms of function as well. As with her encounter with the werewolves, she wore her plague doctor's outfit complete with a variety of pouches containing various herbs. On her back was a large wicker basket filled with a variety of small sealed-clay pots containing some unknown substance. Her attire was completed with a sizeable wooden kite-shield taken from the church's armaments, although she had not chosen any melee weapon to accompany it.

In contrast the openly-hostile vampire, either out of arrogance or complicity, had simply locked the castle doors to deter entrance to his domain and dismissing any possibility of siege equipment. Even with their master's over-confidence, several guards could be seen parting the thick cloth curtains allowing the sun to penetrate the cold stone walls. The atmosphere of contempt and confidence seemed to ooze from the castle walls, disregarding any threat the twenty-odd approaching hostiles held.

The dismissive attitude worn by the guardsmen was short lived as Simon's voice boomed liked the heavens as he began his 'sermon.' “And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all those whom he found buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. He said to them, 'It is written: my house shall be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of thieves*... It is our holy mission to cast out all those who defile our humanity. In our lords name, your corruption shall be purged from these halls. Lord may you cast out these usurpers so that your light may shine in. Amen.” As he spoke those final words he raised his adorned hand to the sky, summoning lightning from the heavens to send the heavy castle doors wide open. Splinters from the now broken draw rained down on the entrance way, sending anyone behind them flying into the surrounding walls. The righteous group surged in past the confused and terrified house-staff to the main hall where the cruel vampiric lords presided.

The hall, once filled with the ideals of decorum and procedure, was now filled with the bodies of the former house-guard. Piers, in an act of cautious self-preservation, had converted many of his ward that had shown even an ounce of disloyalty into a soulless meat puppet. Maid, Solider, Woman or Child, it did not matter to him. They now served him unquestioningly in death, obscuring the lines of braziers illuminated the hall in lieu of the, now well covered, stone windows. Behind his army, Lord Geoffrey pridefully remained on his throne, surrounded by a throng of freshly turned vampires. Blood still lingering on their mouths from their first meal. “Siding with the church, you little runt? I should have educated you at our first meeting on what being a vampire truly means, well... soon I will have all the time in the world to make you into a true vampire. I look forward to my little play thing.”

With a single snap of his fingers, the hoard of ghouls surged forward as a single entity into the offending clergymen. Simon and his forces were able to maintain their ground, using their well-honed skills to with-stand the initial onslaught. Leaving her colleagues to form a solid front line, Victoria had raced to a higher vantage point on a decently sized bench near the entrance way. From her elevated position, the plague doctor was able to rain down her numerous vials of holy water, sending her unholy victims into a state of disarray as their connection with Piers was disrupted. She focused her attention on their left most flank, allowing them brief pause to reposition before the anticipated human reinforcements could arrive.

-

Piers did not like how the battle was initially going. Though their numbers were vastly superior at the start of the confrontation, his ghouls had already been severely reduced with no results to show for their losses. “Stay steady my servants,” Piers reassured his allies “the ghouls will exhaust them over time, we will strike when they are at their weakest.” It was true, the twenty odd intruders would have to defeat at least four fold in ghouls before facing the various soldiers deployed to the castle. If only they had archers with them, that little whelp would already be bleeding instead of enabling her allies with that blessed liquid.

A loud sneeze from one of his subordinates had caught the Lord's attention. It was only a small sneeze, but something which should not have happened. For the last few months in which he had dwelled at the manor, only the fearful house-staff had shown any signs of sneezing or illness. Yet here, in the midst of a battle, something was irritating their keen senses. His most loyal sub-ordinates had not yet noticed something was wrong with them, instead staring intently at their puppet-like soldiers being forced back.

Then, from the corner of his eyes, he saw the cause of their irritation. A little girl, wearing a cloth to shield her face, was dropping incense bundles into the large iron blazers that lined the sides of the hall. Under the chaotic throws of battle, she had worked her way with-in thirty feet of their position and was looking for a way to get closer to spread more incense while continuing to avoid notice. “Someone catch that girl! She is doing something to the fires!” The youngest of his newly turned vampires sprang into action to kill the small child, only to get a mouthful of whatever powder was being used to subvert their intentions. The reaction was both immediate and incapacitating. The vampire's body seemed to reject the substance, through violent coughing and retching attempting to clear the trace amounts of the unknown powder. Piers could only watch as his ally fell to his knees, exposing their vulnerable neck to the child's blade. The defending house could do nothing as she emptied her remaining reserves of the irritating substance into the closest fire before fleeing behind the wall of smoke. Leaving only a dagger and cloth mask behind.

-

Simon could only glimpse at the surroundings of the battle, his attention focused on the incoming attacks of the ghouls. Their group was steadily making progress towards the main threat, mostly due to the disruptive support offered by their own unholy monster. Between the garlic laced smoke and the covering barrage of holy water, they had made significant progress up the dining hall with minimal injuries, as compared to the large number of dead ghouls which impeded their progress. It wasn't all good news, Rose had been spotted before she was directly in front of the lords and Victoria was running low on ammunition. Her reserves could last until the last of the ghouls were dealt with, however Victoria would then be forced into the front lines which she was not accustomed to.

-

“We need to enter the fray! The girl's tricks will not stop our dominion over these lands!” cried out Piers, vision slightly blurred by the herbal smoke dissipating throughout the dark hall. “They should be exhausted from fighting my ghouls. We will teach them who exactly they are dealing with!” With the war-cry of the weakened vampires, they charged down into the night hunter's formation. Despite being outnumbered two to one, the vampires easily began to trade blows with multiple opponents, although a few of their opponents were able to withstand their blows without aid. The vampire who had caused so much grief was now showing to be a liability, mostly resorting to shielding blows meant for others instead of making any serious contribution to the respective fights.

-

Simon and Warin were locked in a losing battle with the vampiric leader, clearly outmatched in terms of strength and unable to cause much, if any, damage due to his re-enforced metal armor. The other teams had to deal with their own foes, so their priority was to hold the attention of their leader and waited for his allies to overcome their respective opponents. The worst aspect of fighting this particular vampire: was his constant taunts and blasphemous statements, trying to bait a rage-induced mistake from the pair. After being forced to hold in his rage for months, Warin seemed to relish being able to face 'a real vampire' and returned the insults with equal zeal.

His trust in Victoria had been greatly rewarded, as her ever shifting attempts at combat had not simply been focused on taking heavy blows meant for her allies. Her main object was to allow her forces to re-arrange themselves between opponents and move into more favourable position. Already weary of her various powders, the hostile vampires would always back off whenever she got close enough to take a blow. The attention she attracted from the other vampires allowed her to achieve her real goal.

-

Between verbal taunts and aggressive swings, Piers began to get anxious. The girl who had already slain one his brethren had disappeared from sight, hiding from the chaotic fighting around her. The runt of a vampire was also moving around the various fights across the hall, always repelling her foe into temporarily retreat. His instincts told him that something else was going on, which he couldn't clearly identify with-in the heat of the battle. His opponents prevented him from devoting much attention to this matter, lest he expose himself to their blessed strikes. By the time he noticed the amount of smoke in the room had increased in volume, it was already too late.

Behind him, the enormous banners which blocked out the sun's purifying rays, had been set alight in large glorious flames. The girl from earlier was already working on her third banner, dousing it with some sort of accelerate before igniting it with a stolen sconce. Whatever advantage the fledgling vampires of House Geoffrey had in terms of strength, was quickly stripped away from them as their body could not handle the holy magics which emanated from the sun's harsh rays. Each of his remaining allies was quickly dispatched, unable to retreat to any remaining dark recess with in large hall, leaving Piers alone in his heavy armor surrounded by the corpses of his allies.

-

The guards had taken ten minutes to regroup at the entrance way, only to find the once proud dining hall now filled with over a hundred corpses. The various arms-men were treated to the final moments of Lord Piers Geoffrey. Impaled by the church's long pole-arms, overwhelmed by his enemies and executed. With his death, the twitching of the cold dead bodies ceased, sending silence across the halls.

Neither side was willing to move, the church's forces where exhausted and the guardsmen were without instruction. With no lord or motivation to avenge their tyrannical master, the remaining guard of the house stood aimlessly, unsure as to what to do. Slowly the few remaining house staff cautiously entered the bloodied hall, finding the bodies of their tormentors and former friends strewn around the room. Cries of joy, prayer and other sentiments of relief washed over the room, mourning would come later as a sense of freedom radiated throughout the halls. The soldiers, with no orders, relented to the celebrations and yielded command to the invading church officials.

The few remaining human nobility of House Geoffrey had been detained below ground and were quickly released from their torture for the grave sin of refusal. They were quickly carried to the main hall and subsequently treated for their injuries by the plague doctor the church had brought with them. Jobs were quickly distributed amongst the house staff to clean up the main hall, many weeping as they collected their friend's corpses before they were to be burned as one. The surviving soldiers quickly joined onto a detachment of the night hunters to efficiently clear the house of any lingering vampires or their foul sympathizers. In the castle grounds, large bonfires were lit to cleanse the large number corpses, along with any remaining magic items which could corrupt the remaining servants. Everyone present agreed it was best to hide their shame and agreed to never reveal the truth about what happened on that day. Blaming a “horrible plague” for the mass graves, instead of the treasonous reality.

With their house partially restored, the new Lord of House Geoffrey held a feast for their saviour: Simon and his righteous party. No one, aside from a scant few, noticed that three of their heroic saviours were not present their feast. In the church's basement the missing members were making their final preparations to leave York. Victoria and Leo were doing final checks on their collective inventory, while William took stock of his own equipment. William was still devoutly devoted to his cause, however the past few months had shown him his own short comings. Simon had approved him following the peculiar Doctor Worm on her travels for a while, agreeing that following her would prove beneficial for both of them.

-

* Matthew 21:12-17