Mala Radice
UPDATE IN PROGRESS! (04/12/14) -- Storyteller: Bruce
Background: Brian O'Reilly found this ritual in the lodgings of a vampire hunter named Peter Harker that he killed in London in 2003 C.E. It was a work of hedge wizardry. While the details are sketchy, the ritual was written down on a vellum leaf found in a old book with many others. The leather-bound tome was the property of The Pentagonian Order.
Description: This ritual draws its power to deter and drive off western vampires from human folklore. For the last 7000 years it has been a strangely consistent bit of folklore that blood-drinking night-borne demons and evil spirits could be driven off with Allium Sativum (everyday Garlic). The earliest reference to garlic being used to drive away evil was in ancient Egypt where it, along with cinnamon were burned as purifying incense to drive out evil influences. Later, the ancient Greeks would make offerings at crossroads of the same root to the witch-goddess Hekate to keep the evil spirits away as they returned home. The herb is actually a native of the central Asian steppes, but quickly spread to all the corners of the world due to its epicurean, medicinal and spiritual properties. Even today, in the modern Philippines, the herb is hung about the neck of those thought to be possessed or rubbed around window frames and door lintels to ward off the hungry-dead.
With so much history and belief behind the garlic, its a wonder than any ritual is required at all, but then the 19th through 21st centuries could reliably described as a soulless age, when the mystical strength of the garlic has begun to breakdown under the weight of mass disbelief.
In either case, the ritual itself was quite ancient when it came into the possession of the Pentagonian Order in 1897 A.D. While the details remain vague, the ritual was given to the order by elderly hunter from continental Europe to aid the then young heroes against a particularly ancient undead that had arrived in London earlier that year and begun to prey on the women-folk of the order's male membership.
Found: Brian's Prelude 2: London
Ingredients:
Casting:
System: Intelligence + Rituals = difficulty (6).
Reference:
Notes:
