Rites & Rituals

Derived from the Navajo tales of the yee naaldlooshii, this ritual allows the sorcerer to craft an item of clothing from the pelt of a ritually sacrificed animal no smaller than a mouse and no larger than a bear. While the pelt endures, the sorcerer may don it and transform himself into a perfect copy of the animal which was sacrificed. Werewolves may still detect the animal as “unclean,” and Kindred with Aura Perception may realize that it is somehow “undead,” though Kindred are more likely to think that the animal is merely possessed via Subsume the Spirit (Animalism 4) rather than shapechanged. The animal must be killed and skinned at a place purified by the Sanctify the Temple ritual. After the pelt is removed, it must be cured for three nights in a mixture of brine and the ritualist’s own blood. The ritual requires one point of blood for animals significantly smaller than human-sized, three points for animals which are roughly human-sized, and five points for animals significantly larger than human-sized. A black bear is the largest animal known to have been used for this ritual.

System

Each success means that the artifact will last for one week before degrading. It can be maintained for another equivalent duration by smearing it with a quantity of the ritualist’s blood equal to that used in the ritual that created it.

After the ritual is complete, the player of the ritualist must roll Intelligence + Craft to fashion the pelt into a wearable item of clothing. A failure can be rerolled, but a botch destroys the pelt. However, only one success is

needed to complete the process. More successes simply mean that the artifact is more aesthetically pleasing. To use the Skinwalker’s Belt, the ritualist must remove all other clothing (including jewelry) before donning the artifact and mutter a brief incantation, whereupon he instantly transforms into a perfect copy of the animal used in the ritual. He cannot use Disciplines in this form (not even physical Disciplines such as Potence or Fortitude), and he cannot speak except to those who have the supernatural ability to speak to animals. He retains his human intelligence and is still subject to frenzy.

The effects of the magic last until he wills it to end or until daybreak. In either case, he instantly reverts to his true form, which can be very bad if he was in a small space wearing the size of a mouse or he is out in the open when he reverts back to a nude male who takes aggravated damage from sunlight. The artifact counts as the equivalent of a lock of hair or a fingernail if it falls into the hands of another blood magician (see Principle of Sympathy on pp. 133-135).