De Wendigo
The text is written in a gentle script before being magically replicated. Someone seems to be leaving a half-hearted attempt at a warning. Instead of telling anyone, he appears to have simply left his notes around. The top of the page was signed ‘Doc Boots’. It also had a page number. As most normal books do not have page numbers in the thousands, it is safe to say he ripped this from his personal, obviously magical, journal. Why he decided to leave it around is anyone’s guess.
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“ The forest has been in an uproar lately. Something happened recently to turn the tide from general anger to talks of violence. They whisper of a darkness coming. What is particularly concerning, however, is that it appears that the forest does not speak of this growing beast with malice or fear. The forest seems uncertain to their stance, regardless, but the words they whisper are not lost on me. I have yet to learn whether it is one lone spirit or the work of a species, but regardless the word still fills me with equal parts of dread and wonder. Anything taught to me by the same being who was a master of skinwalking was always something to be dealt with with worry.
The Wendigo. The winter always seems to stir the spirit. An accidental ritual seems to bring it to life. It always starts with some group of people who are traveling. Lost in a forest, stuck in a blizzard, locked in a cave, the cause of their being stranded is inconsequential, though winter blizzards do seem to be the most common. I feel I know why. At first, they always try to survive the ‘moral’ way. They wouldn’t dream of eating their own kind, such things are taboo among the humanoids. Eventually, the conditionings of civilization bleed away. Eventually, your buddy begins to look like nothing more than a piece of meat. Like your lone chance to survive.
I surmise that the reason the winter blizzards cause a higher rate of their creation due to the preservation of corpses. Should a friend die from exposure, or possibly other reasons, you are stuck staring at a perfectly good piece of meat. It might have your friends face, but as it lies there stiff and perfectly preserved... Your reservations bleed away.
This first chunk of humanity stripped away causes the whole dam to break.
It starts with just a finger.
Then the entire arm.
Soon enough, your whole family has become nothing more than a horrified collection of bones. Ones you have attempted to pose, because madness is beginning to set in.
This means it is too late.
Obviously.
Your spirit has been infected. Your mind will rot, but it is not like it matters. The whispers of the Wendigo are the only purpose you’ll follow.
Searching for more food.
DEMANDING for more food.
The taste of human can be quite addicting after all, not sure about body-warpingly good though.
The previous host will be nothing but a memory.
Their body stretching out.
Sadly, no matter how many poor sods they eat, the Wendigo’s host will never seem to gain any weight.
In fact, they just seem to become progressively skinnier until they look like nothing more than a skeleton wearing leathers.
I have even seen one somewhere that had their own vertebrae rub through their skin until it poked out. This is not something that seemed to merit concern from the Wendigo.
What is most fascinating is what happens to their head. It takes a number of forms. Some a wolf, some a deer, but the most common as well my personal favorite involved a deer skull. Some merely find, decorate, and place one on their head. Possibly due to a remnant of humility, and what the spiritual infection does to the face is quite grotesque. My favorite method, I believe, is reserved to those most faithful to their corruptive spirit. They tear at their head, seemingly crushing and pulling at their own skin. The same magic warping their frame seems to give them material to work with. In my eyes though, it looked like it was stretching the upper portion of its own skull. Tearing and fussing with it like a sculptor with clay.
It would do this until the signature deer skull was formed. The area below, almost always hidden thanks to the deer skull itself, nothing would remain of the humanoid they once more minus the gaping mouth of a predator. The petals of flesh he tore away didn’t get removed either. Instead, they just seemed to collect along the edges of the skull. Instead of falling away like the world often dictates, it instead just collected. Until strands of this meaty substance hung from its skull like braids.”
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Doc was about to leave, only for him to stop and think a moment. Did he trust the meat bodied cityfolk to actually find the book? If he was closer to the Mage’s guild maybe. This far from the forests? They might just pass the book by without even a gander! Though, he supposed if he left it in the forest something would just eat the damned thing. Right, he had a fix for all of this.
So, instead of a note, Doc did a complex ritual to create a new familiar. This living book would hover and rotate, mumbling and repeating the contents of the note to itself, until someone passes. The moment this book sees a target, the book would let out a loud noise, before loudly reciting the contents of the note as it magically copies it, before rapidly spitting these copies at its poor target. It will do this, getting louder in its recitation, until they take the note and place it somewhere the book deems proper. Their pocket, their pants, their cleavage, whatever makes the book believe that the person has properly taken it.
Do not let the book see you throw the note away. DO NOT.
*~Doc's Wendigo Containment Ritual~*
I made a back up plan in case the players didn't figure out a way to contain it forever, or in case I wanted to bring it back. Sadly, the sim (Crest of Vrek'mar) has gone inactive last I heard, and they found a means of taking the Wendigo out.
To prepare for the ritual, a smoke must be burned using a mixture of sulfur and minerals. As these materials burn, a special mixture of herbs (particularly sage, sweetgrass, and jasmine) soaked in humanoid blood before being dried is to be sprinkled over just before the ritual itself begins. One participant must play a hypnotic tune using a specially prepared gemshorn carved out of the horn of a musically inclined Satyr. Two more participants must perform a dance that satirizes the movements of the Wendigo, they are to both stand on opposite sides of the circle, always moving at the same speed so that continue to stand perfectly opposite each other. They are to keep this up until the ritual has completed. This portion of the ritual is to ease the natural spirits and prevent them from interfering with the ritual. As with all parts of a ritual this vast, this is highly important.
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The ritual will begin by drawing a large sigil into the dirt. The sigil itself will be made in the image of the Guardians of the Eldrich symbol, only with a complex series of shapes and runes within the tree. Placed in the space centered between the roots at the bottom of the tree drawn in the sigil, the heart of the first victim the Wendigo Spirit has possessed within a given cycle. Opposite the heart placed in the space centered between the branches, a piece of the host’s former life must be place. As the tree of life the sigil called to has been destroyed, the branch of a mythical tree given willingly or a portion of a Dryads body, also willingly given, will be required to draw the required energy into the circle.
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On one of the roots at the bottom of the sigil a white quartz is to be place, while on the top of the sigil, a smokey quartz is to be placed opposite of the location of the white Quartz. This will help conduct and regulate the energy coming into the sigil from one and escaping it, transformed, from another. Regents will continue to be placed in pairs. On at the bottom of the sigil on a root, the other on the top on a branch.
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The skinned flesh of a convicted and executed serial cannibal is to be draped over the heart while covering the two roots that are on either side of it. Draped over the reagent that represent the Wendigo’s former life will be the skin of a Stag (One that ISN’T a supernatural messenger or otherwise wildly important to the spirits and inhabitants of the forest) that had been honorably hunted using no weapons beside’s the hunter’s own bare hands. The meat of the Stag is to be prepared and given away before the ritual begins, while the rest of its remains are not to be wasted. Failing to do so may very well corrupt the spirit of THAT stag, and we’ll just have more problems to deal with. This shall represent the transformation of the Wendigo, and assist in releasing the souls that it has captured in this cycle.
On the final root, the grave dust of a cannibal who has laid in its grave for at least a decade and never paid for their crimes. Opposite of this on the final branch, the placenta cord of a loving mother who has not known the feeling of malice or hatred. This is to represent the natural cycle, which the Wendigo stands in opposition of.
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A large quantity of Calcium, Phosphorus, Potassium, and Sulfur is to be CAREFULLY poured in separate circles surrounding the outside of the sigil, the dancers must make certain not to disturb this circle . Given everything that has been done to the forest lately, you need to, put bluntly, essentially bribe the forest itself with some of the nutrients it desires. Giving it to the forest in large quantities and in its most natural state MIGHT just help.
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Finally, a human skull specially carved with runes and soulstones embedded in its eye sockets is to be placed in the center of the sigil. The one who is going to recite the incantation will slice their finger and let enough blood drop onto the skull so it may dribble off over the side and touch the dirt. Care MUST be taken not to allow your blood to touch either of the soul stones. This is Doc’s main way of containing curses, but this particular evil spirit is a special case. The skull itself must be taken from a human with divine roots. A cleric would be the best. The contributor does not have to be murdered for the skull to be obtained, it may be obtained from a corpse.
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Should the preparations be performed to a T, the ritual will force the spirit of the Wendigo into the skull, but it is unlikely to do so calmly. It is recommended that magic users or warriors capable of harming spirits are at the ready once the incantation begins. Should the skull be broken, the spirit of the Wendigo will be able to wander the forests once more.
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-Wendigo Heart-
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After removal, the heart will continue to give a faint, labored beat. The torn veins that once transported blood will, at first, splurt out a horribly putrid substance. A mixture of all the rot and decay that has accumulated in the horrid beast. Not long afterwards, necrophagous blowflies will begin to swarm from inside the heart with each small pulse. The heart will not stop beating, and the swarm of flies will not stop naturally.
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To obtain this reagent, the Wendigo will have to be fought and subdued (Beaten) before the heart is removed. The Wendigo will be incapacitated, but the spirit that possesses it will be determined to obtain it.