The Ferryman’s Recall
Ritual · Vampire · Level 5
This obscure ritual is for the rare instance when a prospective convert has been killed before they could be Embraced, and they are determined to be too valuable to lose. Knowledge of this ritual is jealously, if not entirely successfully, guarded by certain Premascine Giovanni.
System: The caster must have access to the corpse as well as one of the subject’s fetters, perhaps obtained using Ritual of the Unearthed Fetter (V20, p. 181). The Ferryman’s Recall takes 8 hours (reduced by one hour per success on the casting roll) to perform.
The corpse must be relatively intact for the ritual to work, and the subject must have been a ghoul before death. If the necromancer performing the ritual was not the domitor, they must have a blood point worth of the domitor’s Vitae. The Generation of the Kindred giving the Embrace (usually, but not always, the necromancer performing the ritual) determines how much time may have passed since the subject’s death, as more powerful vitae has a more potent effect.
Embracer’s Generation Time Dead
Thirteenth 12 hours
Twelfth 1 day
Eleventh 2 days
Tenth 3 days
Ninth 4 days
Eighth 5 days
Seventh 1 week
Sixth 2 weeks
First, the subject’s body must be cleaned and prepared, drained entirely of blood or embalming fluid. Then the necromancer paints a series of sigils onto the body, intended as place markers for the subject’s spirit to relearn how to use his body. At the climax of the ritual, the Kindred performing the Embrace pours her vitae into the subject’s mouth, and the Embrace continues as normal. Any wounds suffered before the ritual (including the cause of the subject’s death and any decomposition) close, but do not entirely heal, leaving scars on the newly Embraced Kindred’s body. In addition, the subject’s time across the sudario leaves its mark on him; giving him the ashen complexion of the Harbingers of Skulls, as well as endowing him with an improved facility for necromantic magic (see the Mortuario Merit on p. 106 for more information).