There are times when a werewolf needs to get a message to somebody, and all other options are exhausted. Mobile phones fail due to reception and incompatibility in the Shadow, howls can only be heard so far and there might be any one of a hundred reasons why a character cannot call for help from someone nearby or contact someone several miles away. The Scarlet Messenger ritual solves that problem with style, creating a short-lived spirit capable of delivering a message to anyone, anywhere.
Performing the Rite
The ritemaster cuts open her flesh (usually a palm or forearm) and lets 33 droplets of blood drip onto the ground by her feet. At the end of this offering, the werewolf beseeches the blood to awaken and carry forth a single message, and speaks one sentence aloud — no more than 33 words – and names the person who is to be the recipient of the message. The werewolf need not know the person personally, but must at least know the recipient’s name
The blood forms into a large raven-spirit, black-feathered but with red eyes and a scarlet cast to its plumage when the light catches at certain angles. It is not a true spirit, merely a simulacrum created by the ritual, but is capable of flight in the Shadow like a true raven-spirit, and can cross the Gauntlet to or from the physical world in order to deliver its message. When the raven-spirit arrives at the named person, it alights on their shoulder (regardless of witnesses or location) and caws loudly. The recipient of the message understands these caws perfectly, hearing the ritemaster’s message in the croaky sounds. The raven waits for 33 seconds to hear any reply to the message, which the raven will carry back to the ritemaster and deliver. If no reply is forthcoming in that time, or after the raven has delivered the message back to the ritemaster, the spirit lands on the ground and becomes nothing more than a small patch of the werewolf’s blood.
