Plasmatic Surgery
Description: The ritual ‘Plasmatic Surgery’ uses vampiric vitae and a wide variety of surgical tools, drugs and dyes to alter the appearance of a corpse. This is essentially necromantic plastic surgery, though unlike its more mundane counterpart, evidence of this ritual’s use is virtually undetectable by mortal science; though the rituals effects are largely cosmetic. This is not to say that a determined forensic examination couldn’t reveal the truth.
Origin: This kind of ritual is ancient and many variants exist.
Ingredients: Vitae and a surgical kit.
Casting: The caster carries out an invocation of Thanatos, the ancient Greek god of death. This invocation must be carried out in Greek as a mantra while the necromantic surgeon makes alterations.
System: Intelligence + Rituals = difficulty four (4). The casting time for this ritual is five minutes per change to the corpse and each change requires one blood point from the caster. It can be cast multiple times upon a single corpse to achieve the desired effect and truly amazing changes can be achieved with this ritual. To duplicate another person in any way requires a Perception + Medicine roll (difficulty 8), and five successes are required for a flawless copy; fewer successes leave minute, or not-so-minute, flaws.
Reference: The closest parallel is the level two power of the “Path of Bio-thaumaturgy”, found on pg.70 of Blood Magic – Secrets of Thaumaturgy. The distinguishing difference seems to be that thaumaturgical surgery heals damage, while plasmatic surgery alters a corpse’s appearance; thus, since plasmatic surgery is less useful, it must be a lower level.
