Membranous Appropriation
The raw material for this ritual is the reconstituted skin that appears in the ritualist's alchemical apparatus after a Cainite is attacked by skin eaters (see HoT p. 123). Unlike other rituals using this material, the thaumaturge must take care that the skin derives only from a single individual. The ritualist kneads the skin like bread dough, then cooks it in an oven heated not by flame, but by distillate of vis (see p. 129). She removes it from the alchemical oven partway through the cooking process and then sculpts it into either a right hand or a mask-like visage. She returns it to the oven, periodically blasting it with alum, pine resin and powdered serpent scales.
System: When the ritual is complete, the thaumaturge possesses an object with a link to the individual whose skin she used. It may be a disembodied hand or a mask. If the victim is conscious, either item will begin to pulse and twitch and within moments begin to reproduce the subject's movements as he makes them. Distance between the victim and item proves no impediment.
The item must be properly displayed to allow the movements of the hand or fact to be clearly seen. A hand is placed on the end of a series of copper rods, constructed to provide an arm's range of movement, a mask in a rounded metal frame. The viewer may then deduce the current activities of the victim from the articulations of the hand or the expressions of the face. If the victim writes something, a pen may be placed in the hand to provide an indistinguishable facsimile of the document. The mask boasts a well-formed mouth, lips and tongue, and reproduces all sounds made by the victim. (A touch of an agate-tipped wand induces it to silence, if the user so desires. Two quick touches gets it talking again.) Once created, the ritualist may give it to someone else with instructions for care.
The ritualist may at any time sever the connection between victim and item. In the case of the mask it is sometimes useful to do this. The mask retains its articulation, and can be worn on the face to disguise oneself as the victim. When used in this way, the mask moves to conform to the wearer's facial manipulations. Although the false face seems real and is difficult to distinguish from that of the victim, it confers to the user no additional ability to mimic his characteristic expressions. The ritualist cannot reestablish a severed connection.
The skin that makes up the item is n some sense alive and must be kept that way. The user nourishes the hand by bathing it in a blood and water solution once a week. The solution requires 3 blood points to make.
