Somebody went and did it, presumably after watching one too many late-night movies. They created a ritual to inflict lycanthropy on someone.

Cost: 4 Significant Charges

Ritual Action: Firstly, start a fire in a darkened room. Burn bay leaves over the fire and bring in the animal to be sacrificed into the room.

The animal used should be brought into the room once the smell of the burning bay leaves has filled the room fully. It must be bound with red cords or rope of natural fiber. Hemp rope takes dye moderately well, although you can use red yarn if the animal is small small enough. It doesn’t matter what kind of animal is used, either. The animal must be alive, undrugged, and aware of what is happening around it (not blindfolded or kept in a bag).

Lay the animal by the fire and begin the process of consecration. To consecrate it, bless the animal three times with sacred waters (holy water works well, as does water from a river or lake deemed sacred) and chant the following in Sanskrit each time:

“I offer this beast to the devils hunted by Kali. I offer it as shelter, sustenance, and safety. No more shall the fierce blades and terrible fangs of she who consumes her children hunt you.”

Once the consecration process is complete, the animal should stop struggling. This is a sign that the offer given during the consecration ritual is accepted and the animal is indeed possessed by a demon.

At this time, the person who is to become a lycanthrope should be brought into the room. The person who is to become the lycanthrope may be bound or unbound and need not be a willing participant in the ritual. Regardless of his or her willingness to participate, the future lycanthrope must kneel beside the fire opposite the ritualist.

The ritualist then must kill the consecrated animal by slitting its throat with a knife from the left side to the right. The future lycanthrope must come in direct contact with the animal’s blood as it leaves the body.

Once the animal is killed, its body should be thrown into the fire and the lycanthropic transformation to animal form should occur immediately.

Effect: This ritual does indeed turn some hapless victim into a lycanthrope, though not without some risk to the ritualist. In game terms, this is a specialized demon summoning ritual. The demon is summoned into the animal vessel (requiring a Soul or Authentic Thaumaturgy roll from the ritualist’s player). The demon, once it realizes what’s happening, may attempt to escape from its doomed vessel–this requires it to succeed in a Soul roll. If it fails and the vessel is killed while it is still inside, the spilled blood serves as a conduit for the demon into its next vessel, the second human involved. The second human may attempt to resist possession with a Soul roll. If the target human succeeds, the demon is free to take another host from anyone else in the room (the ritualist, cultists holding an unwilling would-be lycanthrope down, etc.). Everyone present must make a Soul roll in turn, going from closest to the intended target to furthest away. If any one of them fails, they become the lycanthrope instead.

Should the demon succeed in possessing someone, the GM should make the standard, 3-way check to see which consciousness is in control of the body at the moment, giving the animal a temporary 20% bonus.

If everyone present succeeds their Soul roll, the altered demon escapes to make afflict some unwary person with the curse of lycanthropy.

Rumors: Nobody knows for sure who did it, but suspicious minds link this recently minted or dug-up ritual to a string of ritual animal mutilations (or savage dog attacks, depending) near Des Moines, IA which was followed by an outbreak of lycanthropy in the area. TNI agents found the ritual written in a notebook in a studio apartment downtown. The only occupant was a large mutt with the name “Rusty” on its collar.