La Transsubstantiation de la Cuisine
Description: The singular purpose of this ritual is to enchant a vampire with the ability to eat food and enjoy the experience without any of the negative side effects that most Kindred are familiar with in the attempt to eat. Due to the inherent symbology that lies at the heart of this ritual, it offers its subject the added benefit of transforming the crude matter so ingested into a very simple form of blood that the undead can subsist upon. This ritual is extremely popular with those Kindred who learn it for three reasons: all subjects report directly after dinning an intense sense of satiation that is distinct in character from that of feeding, the ritual's ability to reinforce the Masquerade, and an as yet unconfirmed ease in maintaining ones humanitas in the face of bestial hunger.
Origin: The ritual was originally devised by the French Tremere Lazare Monet, late of the Paris Chantry who had been an enthusiastic gourmand in life and couldn't spend eternity supping on blood alone. The original French name is often hyphenated by the Tremere who practice it, in conversation it is most often referred to as "The French Transubstantiation." Monsieur L.Monet purportedly created the ritual in the late nineteenth century, in 1901 Lazare was called before the Council of Seven to explain this new ritual and it was deemed a significant contribution to hermetic thaumaturgy. But his disappearance shortly after World War One created a variety of rumors about the ritual and why he might have disappeared. Such rumors include a sudden and unexplainable death,
death due to advanced physical aging, and his becoming mortal. An investigation by the Astors revealed only that one night in the Spring of 1921, that he simply walked away from the Paris Chantry and was never seen again; the Council of Seven has had the records of the investigation sealed. Rumor still circulate of sightings of Lazare Monet as late as 2010, but these sightings never seem to lead to any verifiable sign that French gourmand was ever really there.
Ingredients: A set of silver chalices / common sea salt / a few drops of the subject's blood
Casting: The thaumaturge pours red wine into a silver chalice and intones the ritual in medieval Latin; during the casting he sprinkles a few drops of his blood into wine, followed by a pinch of sea salt. If there is another participant, they must mimic the caster precisely.
System: The player rolls Intelligence + Rituals at a difficulty of seven (7) to cast and the ritual takes a minimum of twenty (20) minutes. If the ritual is botched, the subject or subjects will be poisoned by the meal, they will lose a number of blood points equal to the number of botches to vomiting and diarrhea throughout the following day, making healthy slumber impossible. A ritual failure results in the need to vomit the food back up later and a waste of time on the part of the caster, though the caster may try again at a normal difficulty increase due to repetition, he will almost certainly have to deal with the embarrassment and resentment of those Kindred who dined with him. Successes must be divided between the number of participants and the number of dishes to be transubstantiated into animal blood. The successful casting of the ritual lasts one scene. Though it is considered normal for those who feed upon animal blood regularly to fall prey to their bestial hunger, that axiom does not apply to this ritual. Those who partake of the ritual find that their next "self control" roll is made at a -1 difficulty and those who practice a path of enlightenment utilizing "instinct" find their next virtue roll to be at a +2 difficulty as their beast demands satiation.
Reference: Though there are indeed similar rituals in Hermetic Thaumaturgic Canon, none of them do exactly what this ritual does and so it is unique.
Notes: In the Spring of 2013, both Madame Mina and Prince O'Reilly acquired the ritual "La Transsubstantiation de la Cuisine" from the Tremere Justicar Anastaz di Zagreb; Madame Mina stole the ritual, while the Prince negotiated for the right to use the ritual.
