Ritual of Xipe Totec
In times past, Aztec priests would flay the skin from a victim and wear it as a sacrifice to Xipe Totec, god of suffering and renewal. In a similar vein, the Giovanni of the Pisanob branch of the clan may skin their prey alive, but for a more pragmatic reason - to steal that person's identity.
To perform the ritual, the Kindred removes his victim's top layer of skin with an obsidian dagger, taking care to damage the skin as little as possible in the process. the victim must survive the process (though she may well die of blood loss shortly after the ritual if not seen to properly). He then drains the victim's blood into a large ceremonial golden bowl. There the blood is mixed with actu, amaranth and other ingredients. When imbibed by the Necromancer, this mixture causes him to sweat a glistening sheen of blood - (equal to one blood point). The Kindred then dons the skin of his victim, which on a successful roll absorbs the Kindred vitae and begins to heal, forming a second skin over the Pisanob's own. Naturally, the victim needs to be of similar stature - otherwise, the features become distorted and the disguise is rendered useless. The power also has no effect on Kindred or Lupines.
Under normal visual scrutiny, the ruse is flawless. Of course, it imparts none of the victim's knowledge or mannerisms (and does nothing to mask the Kindred's own undead nature). It, therefore, works best for situations in which contact with friends and family may be minimized. To preserve the skin's condition, the Kindred must bathe it in a blood point's worth of vitae nightly. When the Pisanob removes the skin (which causes one level of unsoakable lethal damage to the user and must be done with the same knife used to flay the victim in the first place), it is ruined in the process.
Needless to say, conducting this ritual will almost certainly require Humanity checks for characters of suitable moral stature.
Reference CGR 72-73
