Turning Oneself into a Vampire

[Crimson Overcoat]

Through careful (careless?) use of thaumaturgy, what steps would you require for one to convert themselves into a Red Court-esque vampire? I believe that you would have to take yourself out and bind a demon to your body, but what other specifics do you think would be needed to add in the ability to procreate your vampiric line? This is more of a thought experiment for use on specific NPCs, rather than actual PC shenanigans. I have a Freeholding Lord in my current game that runs a megachurch who also happens to be a self made red court vampire.

[Taran]

Red court vampire blood

[Crimson Overcoat]

I'm thinking of a time when there is no longer red court blood available. The NPC in question was a former red court infected that was turned normal human after the fall of the Reds.

[firegazer]

We once used the bath tub of the Countess of Bathory as a nasty artifact in our game. I could see that being an excellent component in the process of turning oneself into a vampire.

[Taran]

Biting the head off a bat ... one with Rabies....

[Tedronai]

Depending on the specificity requirements of your 'esque' description, a moderate demon summoning should be able to fulfill your needs.  Of course, there might be additional costs beyond those inherent to vampirism.

[Hick Jr]

I'd let you do it with a biomantic ritual, where you magically altered yourself to subsist upon blood and use it to make yourself stronger. You could also use diabolism to bind a demon to your body.

[JGray]

I believe it is mentioned in one of the short stories that there's a group out there who specializes in removing parts from monster bodies and grafting it onto their own flesh...

[narphoenix]

I believe it is mentioned in one of the short stories that there's a group out there who specializes in removing parts from monster bodies and grafting it onto their own flesh...

Short story is "Backup."

[MijRai]

I'd suggest a high-level Diabolism-type ritual, personally.  Enough shifts to Take Out the character being turned, as well.

[Cadd]

This is definitely a ritual where I wouldn't bother even counting shifts at all. This is pure plot-level magic, so I'd focus on cool, vivid and gruesome imagery. The above mentioned Bathory's Bathtub is a jackpot - stuff like that, along with some diabolism-stuff, something really personal for the user, and have a look at the two cases of ascension rituals we've gotten glimpses of: Dead Beat and Welcome to the Jungle.

[Haru]

Doing the ritual at chicken pizza would be where I'd start. The most powerful and probably the most quantity of red court vampires were gathered there. Copious amounts of blood are a must. I think I would pour it down the pyramid by the truckload and cover the whole area where the red court died in it. Bonus points if you get the knife that Harry used.

I would imagine that the fact that the place has been a ritual site for the red court for centuries, it is still brimming with their power, even after they are gone. There is at least one ley line that we know of, but I'd be willing to bet that there is at least one more that is attuned to the reds power as well, directly under the pyramid. When the reds died, it happened so fast, that remnants of their essence was left behind. Not enough to revive any one of them, but after priming the site like described above, you could go for a darkhallow type ritual, drawing all those little bits and pieces of thousands of dead red court vampires into you, reviving a new first red, a new red king.

Now of course, being composed of thousands of individuals, it might have some odd side effects, but that's an even cooler aspect to play out, when there's a sudden shift in personality, because another fragment is surfacing.

And I agree with Cadd, this can just be the NPCs story, I wouldn't roll on it.

[Tedronai]

I'd suggest a high-level Diabolism-type ritual, personally.  Enough shifts to Take Out the character being turned, as well.

"Hello and good evening, Mr. [Smallest Demon], I am in the market to bind one of your greater brethren unto to myself, body and soul, joining our power and our will to work great and terrible deeds in the mortal world.  What would you ask in exchange for arranging a meeting between myself and such a being for this purpose?"


The story isn't in the ritual used to summon the Dark Powers, which are always willing to help, but in the price they will ask.

[MijRai]

"Hello and good evening, Mr. [Smallest Demon], I am in the market to bind one of your greater brethren unto to myself, body and soul, joining our power and our will to work great and terrible deeds in the mortal world.  What would you ask in exchange for arranging a meeting between myself and such a being for this purpose?"


The story isn't in the ritual used to summon the Dark Powers, which are always willing to help, but in the price they will ask.

The scope and preparation for the ritual (as represented by the shifts needed) suggest how in-depth the story needs to be.  You're going to be getting rare materials, artifacts, using certain locations and celestial conjunctions to get all that down (plausibly, at least).

[Crimson Overcoat]

This is all good stuff-I especially like the bathtub. Thematically it doesn't fit, but I'm going to use it anyway. Part of what I'm trying to accomplish is giving the players more gruesome details to investigate. They have already rescued a group of church group kids that were going to be turned by the neo-reds, and now they plan to hunt down the source of the scourge. They had a blast killing red court vampires last session-as one player put it, it's hard to feel bad about doing anything to a red. Next come the repercussions to their little vampire slaughter fest. Discovering the extent that the big bad went to gain power will serve to show them how deep in the stuff they have gotten themselves into. Lets see how they feel about fighting assault rifle wielding saliva addicted middle class soccer mom goons.