Doll of Thanatos

The Necromantic Library of Phineus -x- Level One Rituals -x- Level Two Rituals -x- Level Three Rituals -x- Level Four Rituals -x- Level Five Rituals

Description: This curse allows the necromancer or the subject of his choice to take on the semblance of death. The flesh grows pale and cold, blue traceries of veins appear, the lips go blue and bruising develops around the eyes, while the pulse and respiration become undetectable. This power may be used to "play dead" and look the part, or to curse another with the appearance of the walking dead.
Origin: Benesj the Black’s variant of Cadaver’s Touch, a Giovanni ritual (level 4).
Ingredients: The necromancer must have an accurate image of his target, such as a good pencil sketch, oil painting or photograph. In addition, he needs human tallow and funerary linen for the doll and a grave site in which to bury the ‘Doll of Thanatos’.
Casting: The necromancer must chant for one (1) hour over a pot of molten, human tallow while tearing the target’s image into small pieces and mixing them into the hot fat. When the image has been completely dissolved into the molten tallow the necromancer shapes a doll into the form of the target, wraps it in funeral linen and buries it at a grave site. As the doll cools, the target becomes cold and clammy, his pulse becomes weak, his flesh pale and chalky.
System: The player rolls Intelligence + Rituals = difficulty of five (5).Under this curse, the target becomes a reasonable facsimile of the walking dead. Needless to say, this can have some adverse effects in social situations (+2 penalties to all Appearance relate rolls). The effects of the ritual wear off only when the waxen doll is destroyed; afterwards the cursed individual slowly regains her normal appearance over the course of an hour. While cursed, the target may not simulate the affectations of the living, though ghouls and vampires may spend a number of blood points equal to the necromancer’s successes to reverse the effects of the cursed ‘Doll of Thanatos’.
Reference: Cadaver’s Touch (level 4), pg.165 of the Masquerade