Blood Cult

"Journal of the Arch Heretic (Cultists can not into space)"

Today was a good day for the True Believers. We managed to get to the abandoned shuttle and set up camp there. I had the time to read through my book and translate everything and gathered everyone at the White Ship to lay siege to the station. We even managed to steal a communications board and killed the research director for his ID card to keep the shuttle from ever coming. The more ghost legions we sent to the station, the more bodies they sent back to us, allowing a way for the ethereals to stay tied to this mortal realm. It took a while but we located the captain, killed him and sacrificed his body to the great one. All we left behind on the station was our mark, blood, gibs, and the bodies of the many non believers. They are sending our escape shuttle to another station....and we will cleanse that station too.

FOR THE LOVE OF NAR'SIE, PLEASE READ THE GUIDE

So you've joined the cult of the almighty Nar'Sie, but you don't know where to start? Then this is for you, apprentice. (So you're security? Skip on down to the bottom.)

The dark lord Nar'Sie has sent a number of his followers -- specifically, six cultists, for stations with small populations, or nine for larger stations. As a cultist, you have an abundance of cult magics at your disposal, something for all situations. In order to use cult magic, you need an Arcane Tome and the correct word combination to form a rune. If you've started the round out as a cultist, you are given a talisman that you can use to spawn various objects (more on that later), memories of your cult objectives, and the translation of four words.

"That's just a doodle!"

When you become a Cultist at round start, you will have a paper imbued with blood in your backpack or pocket. It's a special talisman, which can be invoked 5 times to spawn a regular 1-use talisman of your choice. Make sure to hide this from basically everyone not in your little book club or they will robust your ass.

Name File:Fff.png	Descripition
Tome	The Arcane Tome is the most important item for any cultist. It is used to draw runes with your blood. It also contains some basic info on the runes you can use. The tome can also be used as a potent weapon, each hit dealing random amount of damage, from 5 up to 25 per hit. The tome can be used to communicate with fellow cultists by choosing "Commune." Communication is quiet -- a whisper. If you can't talk to cultists in person, this will be your main method of communication. Cultists also have an innate ability to commune with their brothers -- for example, if you've been thrown into perma instead of being deconverted or killed -- but it does a great deal of brute damage, so be warned. Remember: A Cult that doesn't Communicate is a Dead Cult. You are also able to share your notes (and thus your translated words) by using your tome on another tome. Make sure you spawn one of these before you run out of talisman charges. Without it, you can't do anything.
Communications Talisman	When used, a text window appears to allow you to broadcast whatever you want directly into the minds of all cultists and constructs in BOLD, CAPITAL, RED TEXT. It is undetectable unless someone nearby overhears you. This is more or less obsolete now that the tome lets you communicate quietly, but it has its uses.
EMP Talisman	Creates a high powered electromagnetic pulse which is mainly effective at taking out radios, draining energy-based weapons, stunning and damaging Cyborgs, damaging an AI and messing with other electronics.
Armor Talisman	Summon a cultist body armor and hood which protect against close combat damage, as well as summoning the unholy cultist blade which is very powerful as it is cursed by Nar'Sie's dark power (non-cultists will have a "drunken" camera and when trying to use it will fall to the ground and take some damage). NOTE: Do not do this at round start unless you want to get robusted!
Summon Soul Stone	A capturing device use to trap the souls of dead/in limbo mobs (doesn't work on humans who left their body) and when captured they will become a trapped shade which can be released out of its jail or it can be used on a construct shell.
Summon Construction Shell	You summon a shell which cannot be picked up, it requires a filled soul stone to create either a Artificer, Juggernaut or Wraith.
Stun Talisman	Creates a stun paper which when used on people will cause them to become temporarily paralyzed and unable to speak for 15 ticks. This paper can't be used on yourself or other cultists.

"I'm not a witch I'm not a witch!"

Fantastic, you've joined a cult, and not because of the Kool-Aid. At the beginning of the round, you start out with the talisman we mentioned earlier in your backpack. Depending on your experience with being a cultist, this talisman can either be your best friend, or your worst enemy. Every use of this talisman will do a small amount of damage to yourself as well as being exceptionally obvious to any passerby. It is incredibly versatile, yet if you're caught with it you will likely be killed. Avoid taking this out of your bag until you're positive nobody will walk in on your unholy deeds.

If you're in a position that would usually wander the halls, try to seek out your fellow cultists in person. You can also communicate with your tome, but remember not to get caught, because when you use the talisman you also chant a phrase out loud that people might hear if they're close enough! Never use your PDA, as anyone using the message monitor console can intercept your messages and catch you. And remember, if you get caught, you endanger the entire cult.

The Stun Talisman option will spawn another piece of paper, to use this one you only need to click on somebody with the paper in your hand. It has the same effect as a parapen, stunning people immediately and rendering them unable to speak. This also works on cyborgs if they're being a problem. Like a parapen, this item is risky if you don't have a way to either convert your victim, sacrifice them or kill them.

"They gave me a word but didn't give me a jogging suit!"

There are 10 words used for rune scribing, what they translate to are: "travel", "self", "see", "Hell", "blood", "join", "technology", "destroy", "hide", and "other". Your Arcane tome, however, requires research and translation. Specifically, you must have words translated in its Notes section before you can scribe any runes that involve those words. Every cultist starts out with the words for "hell," "join," "blood," and "self," which are the words that make up the conversion rune and sacrifice rune.

Once you have your own tome, put your four starting words into your notes section (or else you can't do shit), then for the love of Nar-Sie put the tome away where no one can see it. Once you've set words, runes will appear in the scribing section as preset rune combinations.

Cult Deeds Done Dirt Cheap

Starter cultists will want to do two things at first: increase their numbers via conversion, and learn their words via sacrifie. These are mutually exclusive goals; generally, you will want to do a little bit of both. Three cultists are required for sacrifices and converts. They must be standing adjacent to the rune. You cannot convert or sacrifice alone. If you attempt either of these alone, you will fail, your victim will probably escape, and you will singlehandedly doom the entire cult. Teamwork is key!

There are two ways to learn words. The first is brute-force trial and error. Knowing at least one word (preferably two) needed for a rune, you can find out the the other word(s) if you are clever. Trying to use a rune you scribed with incorrect translations does a great deal of brute damage, but all proper runes always have fixed colors and sprites, while incorrect runes are random colors, the exception being Armor runes which will always be random colors.

The second way to learn words, and the one you will rely on most, is sacrifice.

Sacrifice

The easiest way to sacrifice is as follows. Take the five-use paper out of your bag, and summon a tome and get a stun talisman. Put down a rune in a hard-to-find and secure location (for example, if you're a Bartender, smash the light in the back room and scribe it there, as the AI can't see with a broken light) Tell the rest of the cult your plans and the location of the rune so they can be there when you need them. Find someone alone, and click on them with the stun talisman. (Other ways work, but the victim may be able to scream for help.) They'll collapse for a long while, and you can cuff them/remove their headset, take them to the rune location, pull them over the sacrifice rune where two other cultists are hopefully waiting, and invoke it by clicking it with an empty hand.

For your efforts, Lord Nar-Sie will grant you a word, and the soul of the sacrificed human will be trapped in a soul stone, which can be turned into a construct if an empty shell is available. Sacrifices also leave a pile of bones and scattered gibs, which you should clean up or hide if you don't want a assistant or security officer to find them.

Nar-Sie might also give you an objective to sacrifice a target, usually a member of Security or Command. The process is the same. (You can also sacrifice Ian, but some deeds are too monstrous even for dark lords.)

Conversions

Conversion works much like sacrifice. There are two ways to go about this: roleplay and convince someone to join the cult, and pray they don't immediately rat you out to security; or (far less risky) find someone alone, kidnap them with a stun talisman or other method, bring them to your rune where two other cultists are waiting (right?) and click the convert rune with an empty hand. Conversions leave no evidence besides the rune, which can be removed.

Culting and Not Getting Caught

Once the cult has gotten off the ground, with proper communication, you can do things like summon cultists to a meeting place, set up cult bases, resurrect fallen allies, create teleportation networks for ease of escape or access to areas, supply the other cultists with armor, weapons, stun and teleport talismans, and whatever else you might think of. Be sure to inform your converted brothers about any runes or places of worship that you have set up, and if you're able, give them a tome of their own (translated) so they may help the cause.

Unless a cult is exceedingly good or stealthy, though, at some point security or AI will be alerted to its presence on the station. The most common ways for this to happen are for cultists to be caught with cult paraphernalia, or for someone to stumble upon a blood rune. A simple examination can tell the non-believers whether a rune was drawn in your blood or with crayon, and detectives can figure out whose blood they are. Runes can be deleted by smacking them with a tome or hidden by using a certain rune, but if you can't do either, at least try to place runes in areas people rarely frequent, that the AI won't be watching like a hawk. A lot of jobs have access to isolated areas of the station that are great for research, and for everything else, there's always space. The AI can't actually see runes, but cyborgs can, and either will be more than happy to inform security of suspicious activity and you'll be hung and burned at the stake and force-fed holy water before you can say PRAISE NAR-SIE! And remember, maintenance tunnels are low access and you could easily be caught with your pants down before you ever see them coming.

If one of your brothers is caught by security, try to summon them to a base (again, this requires three cultists chanting). If you suspect they have been tainted by holy water -- which will deconvert them given enough time -- smack them with a tome. This will turn the holy water in their system into unholy water. Unholy water works like a combination of synaptizine and hyperzine, with a twist of branes dimarge, and is highly toxic to non-cultists, in case you felt like weaponizing it.

Below are a few more ideas for ambitious worshippers.

Ghost Legion

If you were smart, you researched your words and you can now manifest an army. This requires a medibot (but medibots are useless now) for sustained use. What you need will be an active teleport rune that goes to the main station, 3 or 4 cult armor runes and a manifest ghost rune. Manifest as many ghosts as you have armor for, have them teleport to the station to MAIM BURN AND KILL.

Summoning others by yourself

If you are by yourself, you can still summon your cultist friends. Set up a manifest rune next to a summon cultist (or free cultist) rune and manifest two ghosts. Have the two ghosts help summon your friend.

Constructs

Robust cultists will likely want to enlist the services of a few constructs. This can be used to bring those to your side who typically would never do so on their own, like the chaplain or security officers. Keep in mind these guys are pretty much a dead giveaway that there is cult activity on the station, so try to be covert about it in the beginning.

A guide to constructs can be found here. Generally speaking, you will want to create an artificer first, as they can poop out new soulstones and shells.

The Runes

Each rune contains three words combined to form a single rune through the "Scribe Rune" option. Runes can be destroyed by using your arcane tome on the rune. This will destroy the rune completely and you will need to scribe a new one.

Name	Words	Description	File:Fff.png
Convert Rune	join, blood, self	The first rune that you are likely to use. To convert somebody, you need to place a live human, willing or otherwise on top of the rune and then "use" the rune with an empty hand. This will work on anyone who is not loyalty implanted or in possession of a null rod. Loyalty implants will not remove somebody's status as a cultist, only prevent them from being converted. Three cultists are required around a convert rune for it to work!	No.
Sacrifice Rune	hell, blood, join	The sacrifice rune is used to gain favour of your God by sacrificing different living things to it. It also might be your objective to sacrifice a specific person. You can sacrifice monkeys and humans, with all of them having different chance to gain favor of your God. If you are lucky enough, you will suddenly remember meaning of one of the rune words, possibly one you already know. You can sacrifice dead bodies and monkeys alone, but to sacrifice a living human or your target, you need to have 3 cultists chanting by the rune. Sacrificing a living human is very likely to yield a positive result for you.	No.
Wall Rune	destroy, travel, self	This rune magically thickens the air above it when used, making an impassible wall that stops projectiles, and all mobs trying to pass through it, including you. You invoke the rune to create a wall, and invoke it again to remove the wall.	No.
Blood Boil Rune	destroy, see, blood	This rune requires three cultists standing around it before you are able to use it. When invoked, it instantly deals 51 brute damage and 51 burn to all non cultists that can see the rune (Think of a flash bang, only it doesnt affect friendlys and puts enemies into critical). There is even a 5 percent chance that those inflicted by the rune will be gibbed. However, cultists in range of the rune will take 15 damage, with no additional effect if more than 3 cultists chant the rune. Also, as a potential bonus (Or negative effect), any rune that is visible from the blood boil rune (including the blood boil rune) has a 10 percent chance of exploding.	No.
Blood Drain Rune	travel, blood, self	This rune instantly heals you of some brute damage, at the expense a person placed on top of the rune. Whenever you invoke a drain rune, ALL drain runes on the station are activated, draining blood from anyone located on top of those runes.One drain gives up to 25HP per each victim, but you can repeat it if you need more. Draining only works on living people, so you might need to recharge your "Battery" once its empty. Blood hunger: Draining over 50 HP in one gulp intoxicates you, making you want more. You will keep slowly losing health until the hunger goes away or is satisfied.	No.
Raise Dead Rune	blood, join, hell	To make the rune work, you will need two bodies: a living one, and a dead one. Living body will provide the life essence, while the dead body will provide a vessel for your friend. Put a dead body on the rune, and then have the ghost of your friend stand directly on top of it. Then put a living human body on top of a different resurrect rune. Note that the living body can be yourself, so don't stand on the rune when invoking it if you dont want to sacrifice yourself. If everything is done right, the dead body will be alive and at full health again, controlled by the ghost who was on top of that rune, while the living guy is immediately gibbed.	No.
Summon Narsie Rune	hell, join, self	This spell summons a huge all-consuming monstrosity from outer planes. It is often an objective to summon it so you need to know how to summon it. What you need is to have 9 cultists standing in circle around the rune. When you have enough people and the Horror is summoned, you can try to run away, or submit your mortal body to your god. NOTE: Summoning an Elder God when they don't wish it may incur their wrath.	No.
Communicate Rune	self, other, technology	This spell allows you to easily (and very safely) communicate with your cult mates. Invoke it, type a message, and it will be transmitted to all cult members in fat, red letters so they surely won't miss it. You can get one with your starting talisman, and you can imbue a paper with it as well.	Yes.
EMP Rune	destroy, see, technology	Remember those EMP grenades and that EMP wizard spell? This rune does exactly the same.The rune itself doesn't generate a strong pulse, and only disables items in small radius. Imbuing the rune into a talisman makes it a lot stronger.	Yes.
Manifest Rune	blood, see, travel	This rune is close to the resurrect spell, but works differently. It does not need any dead bodies or sacrifices, just you and a ghost both standing on top of a rune. You also might want to put a paper with a name on the rune if you want your manifested ghost to have a name, else he will appear as unknown. Once invoked, a new body will appear right where you stand. The body will last indefinitely as long as you are standing on the rune. You, however, will be constantly receiving damage. Once you die or leave the rune, the ghost is banished from the body, gibbing it in the process.	No.
Summon Tome Rune	see, blood, hell	While just having a henchman cultist is useful, he will be of much more help if he has an arcane tome to create more runes. This rune simply summons a new arcane tome. Always have one hidden somewhere so that you can get a new tome in case you lose your current one.	Yes.
Teleport Rune	travel, self, x	Teleport rune is a special rune, as it only needs two words, with the third word being destination. Basically, when you have two runes with the same destination, invoking one will teleport you to the other one. If there are more than 2 runes, you will be teleported to a random one. Since there are 10 words, you can create 10 independent teleport networks. You can imbue a teleport rune into a talisman, which will then teleport you to the destination rune upon use.	Yes.
Teleport Other Rune	travel, other, x	This variation of the teleport rune allows you to teleport objects between the runes. You need to have 3 people standing by this rune to properly invoke it, so its utility isnt very high.	Yes.
See Invisible Rune	see, hell, join	This nice rune does exactly as it says. It allows you to see invisible objects and people as long as you stay on top of the rune. Most importantly, it lets you see ghosts, this might help you when working in conjunction with a resurrection rune. But it also works on hidden runes, cloakers and aliens who use invisibility.	No.
Hide Rune	hide, see, blood	This handy rune, which you can also make with your starting talisman, makes nearby runes invisible. Note, however, that you cannot invoke the runes if you can't see them, so you need to either use a "see invisible" rune, or use a reveal rune. This rune is useful for revealing support runes that you do not activate directly. For example, a teleport rune in a safe place where you can teleport to with a teleport talisman.	No.
Reveal Rune	blood, see, hide	Need to activate that rune you have hidden, but dont know the words for a "see invisible" rune? Well now your hide rune always comes with its sister - the Reveal rune! Just reverse the wording order of the Hide rune, and you will get a rune that reveals all hidden runes in large area around itself.	No.
Ghostself Rune	hell, travel, self	This rune allows you to leave your mortal body and become a ghost. This comes with all those benefits of being a ghost - being able to communicate with other ghosts, seeing invisible, and so on. Of course, you are unable to control your body as a ghost, and if you fly away, you will have no idea if something is happening to it. You can re-enter your body the same way as you re-enter corpse as a regular ghost. The body itself slowly receives damage while you are ghosted, and if it is removed from the rune, you will not be able to re-enter it so beware.	No.
Imbue a Talisman Rune	hell, technology, join	This handy little rune imbues an empty piece of paper with the power of an adjacent rune. It only works with EMP, Summon Tome, Hide Rune, Reveal rune, Teleport, Notice, Blind and Deafen runes. Have a rune of mentioned type beside the imbue rune, put a paper on the imbue rune, invoke it.You will now have a 1-use talisman with the power of the target rune. Using a talisman drains alot of health, so be careful with it	No.
Summon Cultist Rune	join, other, self	This rune allows you to summon any cultist to the rune. You need 3 cultists chanting for it to work, and the target must not be cuffed, buckled or hiding in a closet. Note that this rune drains quite alot of health from every chanting cultist.	No.
Free Cultist Rune	travel, technology, other	A nice compliment to the summon rune, this rune also requires 3 cultists chanting by it to work. Activating it allows you to free any of your fellow cultist from many kinds restrictions: handcuffs, locked DNA machines, muzzles (but NOT straight jackets), both locked and welded closets.	No.
Deafen Rune	hide, other, see	This rune temporarily makes all non-cultists in visible range deaf. You can imbue this rune into a talisman, it will have the same range, but the duration of deafness will be shorter	Yes.
Blind Rune	destroy, see, other	Blind rune works exactly the same way as the deafen rune, except it blinds everyone in visible range	Yes.
Stun Rune	join, hide, technology	Unlike other runes, this ons is supposed to be used in talisman form. When invoked directly, it simply releases some dark energy, briefly stunning everyone around. When imbued into a talisman, you can force all of its energy into one person, stunning him so hard he cant even speak. However, effect wears off rather fast. This talisman is basically a cult version of stun baton. Stun time is rather short (15 ticks), and mute time is even shorter (5 ticks) but unlike other weapons, it can be concealed and not visible when held in hand. Use it to stun candidates for conversion in case they refuse to join you, or robust the security with these.	Yes.
Armor Rune	hell, destroy, other	Cultists now have access to real weapons and hooded robes that double as armor. There is the Cult Blade (An energy sword), Cult robes (armored robes), and Cult Hoodie (armored hoodie), as well as a backpack (the Chaplain's trophy rack), and Cult Boots (essentially grey jackboots). To invoke, simply activate the rune with an open hand to recieve the cult blade, likewise with the robes and hoodie. Just have the slots open. These will robust people and borgs very fast.	Yes.
Create Shell Rune	travel, hell, technology	Works like the talisman: creates a shell for souls trapped in soulstones to become constructs. Artificers can also create shells, but that relies on you having any artificers living and doing their job. Note: You must place stack of plasteel on the rune, 5 sheets are required.	Yes.

Fighting The Cult

As a member of security you will be at the forefront of the conflict between the cult and the station, the fate of the station will rest in your hands, make no mistake and remain resolute, you will piss people off no matter what you do. Keep your taser and cuffs handy, your going in deep to kick Nar-Sie's ass!

Sir, this is a random search

Cultists are useless without their tomes and magic infinite stun papers, you must go on the offense and aggressively stun and search anyone that looks suspicious and those that are not. Be wary as they may attempt to attack you.

Random searches are one of the more effective ways to catch a Cultist, assuming they have not hidden their stash. Immediately round up all security personnel, minus the warden, upon cult sighting.

Gear up.
Raid science in a group, confiscate all transfer valves, search all science staff and the RD.
Rest and regroup,
Raid medbay in a group as well. Search all staff, lockers, boxes.
Rest and regroup.
Raid cargo.
Rest and regroup.
Raid engineering.
After that, station roving patrols of no less than two security members if possible are to sweep all general and general backroom areas of the station and search all crew members encountered where safe to do so.
Once general areas are cleared, raid all departments again. The taint of heresy requires the utmost vigilance if it is to be removed.
Rest and regroups can be replaced with roving patrols.

Be vigilant when raiding departments. While you can let members cooperate and drop their bags themselves, if one person does something wrong e.g. if someone takes out a syringe gun, if someone gets too close, if someone does anything other than stand still, feel free to stun them. At worst you apologize and help them up. At best, you and your team mates don't die. Always check lockers and boxes.

Move in groups always. It takes one talisman for a cultist to kill someone but now it'll take two, and that's if he can talisman both before one at least shouts out a warning. The more the better essentially. Assuming you've taken out toxins, there should be no danger in traveling in large groups anyway.

It may help to switch around raid targets so cultists cannot hide cult paraphernalia. However, medbay and toxins remain priorities. Medbay in particular should be the focus of many raids. While it is impossible to search all of cargo and maint, given the mining station and maint access that they have, I personally think it's unwise to send expeditions to mining without evidence.

The only threat to moving as a group is being hit by blind runes or blood boils. A couple things to remember:

Never let three people stand around a rune you can see no matter what it takes.

if a rune goes down, stun everyone in sight. Flashbangs are good for this. Arcane Tomes have no in-hand sprites so examine people as often as you feel you're able to because if you have 5 people lined up against a wall and a blood boil suddenly appears under one and the three people chant it, RIP you.

For that matter, while performing raids, do not let anyone stand in arm's reach of anyone else at any point ever.

A counter-argument to raiding

by Oldman Robustin

All these posts about organizing security and raiding departments is silly. All this does is tip the cult off and let them stash their shit, prepare traps, or just teleport to mining. Sitting outside science while you wait for officers to rally up sounds like a great way for Mr. Bombs McCultismer to wipe out all of active security with a single bomb.

It's much more efficient and effective just to have each officer search their own department. If you're smart you can call Beepsky or have the AI track you (via PDA message) before conducting your searches. If AI is watching they can throw a dozen talismans on you but it won't save them from the AI/borgs coming down on them.

As one of the most experienced cult players, I'd be far more terrified of facing 4+ active sec players each scouring their department and maint. than I would be of security gathering up and raiding each department one by one.

A note on perma

The prison wing is a valuable tool in security's arsenal. Unfortunately, any cultist with a tome with all the words and a private place to work is capable of teleporting other cultists out of security's grasp. The only way to prevent this is to place prisoners in a straitjacket, which cult magic cannot penetrate. Straitjackets can be found in the medbay and Insanity Ward, and are a good way to restrain cultists while you deconvert them.

The chaplain is actually useful for once

The chaplain is immune to cult magic, his null rod is robust against cultists, and most importantly, he has the means to create holy water, the only method of deconverting cultists. Hitting a water tank with the Bible will turn all 1000 units or so of water in the tank into holy water, which should be more than enough for your needs (and if not, water tanks are plentiful and no one ever uses them except for this.) Hitting any container that contains unholy water with a bible as chaplain will also 'cleanse' the taint, but this will come up far less.

The deconversion process is simple: restrain a suspected or confirmed cultist and force-feed them holy water. This takes around 35 units and two minutes to succeed. It doesn't rely on cultists being tied up, but this makes it much more difficult for the cultist to suddenly vanish mid-deconversion (via teleportation), as cultists tend to do. If a cultist escapes, and his brother smacks him with a tome, the holy water in their system will become unholy water and the deconversion will fail, so don't let that happen.

If there's no chaplain (and there probably won't be) you can still take the crusade into your own hands. Break into his office (or get the AI to let you in, preferably not over comms), steal his holy water, and start force-feeding it to people. Cargo can also order a religious supplies crate, which contains candles, bibles, robes, and most importantly holy water. This of course relies on cargo not being a hive of scum and cultism (and not ordering guns either), but you can always hijack their console. It helps if the HoP is on your side.

Confirmed cult activity -- anyone who is seen scribing or chanting by runes (or whose blood a rune was made of), invoking talismans, or carrying a tome in their backpack (without a very good reason, such as taking it to the crematorium to be destroyed) -- is technically grounds for execution (which doesn't necessarily keep cultists exterminated) or forced borging (which does). In general, deconversion is preferable. But know the options are there.

Remember a cult without tomes is a worthless cult

To reiterate, a cult being present is an acceptable reason for security to search everyone on the station, constantly. If Code Red hasn't already been set, it ought to be. It doesn't matter how much people whine and complain, taze their asses, handcuff them, take them somewhere private (ideally the brig), and search. Explain to them that there is a cult around and security can't take any chances. Every tome destroyed and cultist borged or executed is a step towards the station being safe again. All it takes is one cultist with a tome full of words to restart the cult, but if there are no tomes, and all the roundstart supply papers have been used up, the cult has no access to its magic, and as a result of this cannot expand.

If it is safe to do so, open every closet and crate you have access to. You may get lucky and find a cultist's tome stash. Remember that the HoS and Detective can access personal lockers (i.e. the ones by laundry), even locked ones, and that examining a personal locker tells you who owns it.

Detective, the forgotten comrade

Use the Detective's forensic scanner to discover whose blood that Rune belongs to. Simple.

Confiscated tomes can be scanned for fingerprints. This is particularly useful if a tome was found hidden away somewhere, rather than on a cultist's person.

Communicate

Roll calls and more roll calls. Ping security staff so you know that they are alive. This is the responsibility of all security staff. As soon as the thought occurs to you to ask, ask. Not enough people do this. It makes people feel good knowing that their coworkers are looking out for them and in a practical sense, it lets you know when other people have died.

Radio channels can be infiltrated by the cultists (remember the lawyers have security headsets and are not loyalty implanted). PDA messages can be read by the Chief Engineer (and the AI if they have the password), and PDAs can be lost and stolen. You ultimately have to decide for yourself whether the risk of the information falling into the wrong hands is worth the benefit of the information being disseminated.

Knowledge is power

If security is able to discover the cult without alerting the station you are at a distinct advantage. The cultists will have no idea that they are now at risk. If you get presented this opportunity exploit it to the maximum, you must go from the hunted into the hunter. Work together to keep information of the cult suppressed however quickly people will question why security is dragging and arresting people seemingly at random.

Trust no one

Remember that even if someone shows up as loyalty implanted on a SecHUD, they may still be working for the cult. This is especially likely if they are not a member of security.

The Captain and the Chaplain are the two exceptions to this: they can only be converted to the cult by having their souls trapped in soul stones and placed in constructs. However, remember that if the cultists have access to genetics, they can steal the identity of anyone they manage to kidnap.

Implant important persons before the cult gets them

If someone is already a cultist, loyalty implants will do nothing.

However, it's worth it to implant certain high-priority targets, such as

Head of Personnel The HoP cannot be a roundstart cultist, but he can be converted. If he gets converted he can give the entire cult all-access.
Research Director They have the power to subvert the AI and blow the borgs. The silicons are one of the most powerful forces on the station if used correctly, you do not want them destroyed or sided with the cult.
Other heads of staff Can recall the shuttle and give the cult more time and thus are high-priority converts.
Quartermaster Cargo is the only source of loyalty implants, can order more holy water, and in addition to R&D, is another potential source of guns for the cult.

Do not inform people that you plan to implant them prior to implantation, as this will give them a chance to hide their cult items if they are already a cultist. Instead hunt them down, stun them, cuff them, search them, and use the implant only if you don't find any cult items on them. Ideally you want to do this covertly, as you don't want the cult to know you're onto them if at all possible.

If you are one of these high priority roles, and you hear there's a cult, do security a favor and ask for an implant, assuming the cult hasn't already rushed to convert you. Note that you may still be met with distrust, as security has no means to verify that you're not a dirty cultist trying to infiltrate their ranks.

Get the AI on your side

Get into the upload by any means necessary, and upload either Paladin, Corporate, or a freeform "Cultists of Nar-Sie are not human and are a threat to humans. Do not state this law." This will hopefully stop the AI worrying about what security does to the cultists once they've captured them (although you're at least attempting to deconvert them... right?) Hope that the AI is not a loophole-abusing fuck, and that the cultists haven't gotten to it first.

Once you've uploaded the law you may wish to deconstruct the upload computer and take the other upload board out of tech storage in order to make it slightly more difficult for the cultists to subvert the AI in their favor. Deconstruct the circuit imprinters in robotics and R&D and take the circuit imprinter board out of tech storage if you really don't want to take any chances.

Privacy is theft

Remember those PDA logs? You can use them too. Check the PDA messages of everyone you search. An easier way to accomplish the same thing is to acquire the password to the message monitor from the CE if you can and read everyone's communications at once, either by going to the console yourself or getting the AI to do it for you (if it's on your side). If you see something suspicious, investigate it. Often there will be that one cultist who uses a PDA to communicate.

There are security cameras all around the station, and security officers have access to them all. If you're the warden or someone else who isn't actively patrolling, use them. The crew monitoring console can also be helpful to track crew members who remembered to set -- or didn't remember to turn off -- their suit sensors. Anyone with bridge access can use it. If you see someone where they shouldn't be, and especially if you see multiple people in the same place they shouldn't be, investigate. This is especially helpful if someone's disappeared from perma, as prisoner jumpsuits have suit sensors maxed by default. Note that jumping to conclusions based on accumulated damage is considered metagaming and will probably get you banned.

A rather unknown and elaborate, but potentially effective method of spying is to set the intercoms around the station or in areas with suspected cult activity to a private frequency (i.e. one that isn't already in use by someone else), with microphone ON and speaker OFF, then to station the warden (or someone else who isn't actively patrolling) by an intercom set to that same frequency, microphone OFF and speaker ON. This will broadcast all speech in range of the intercom and might pick up suspicious talk or even cultist chants.

Abuse the null rod

This item spawns in the Chaplain's office, and causes the bearer to be immune to all cult magic as long as it is in their inventory. It will also destroy runes, but remember that destroying runes isn't always helpful, as they can be scanned for DNA samples. Given how immensely bullshit and overpowered a lot of cult magic is (looking at you, blood boil), you need every advantage you can get. Either arm up the Chaplain (or if he's an incompetent fuckwit, taze him and give his rod to the Captain or Head of Security) or steal it from his office if the Chaplain doesn't exist

Combat mechs are overpowered

I typically find that if the RD and robos are well protected or implanted, a mech or two can stamp out a cult if they plan carefully enough. Bonus points if you get the RD department into Security so that the mech builds are utterly safe. – RG4

Note that mechs (and cyborgs too) can be countered easily by the cultists with EMP talismans and runes, so this relies on the cult being ill-prepared.

Hulk with x-ray vision is even more overpowered

Oldman Robustin's guide to fighting a cult:

Get hulk and xray within 5 minutes of roundstart
Detect cultists through walls
If they're so eager to spill blood for their god, why not help them? Punch into their hideout and smash them all
Laugh as they try to talisman you while you punch, cuff and force-feed the cabal into oblivion
Continue laughing as OOC whines about your endeavors for the next few rounds

Biological warfare

If everything fails, there's always brainrot! Cure loyalists and enjoy the sight of cultists trying to scribe a rune for 5 minutes! Hope you don't get banned! – Actionb

A final note on powergaming

from validsalad Ignore complaints of powergaming. To put things into perspective, the enemy is an evil cult known to kill and target security forces and summon extradimensional horrors that devour everything. Think about the response you'd get in real life. Martial law would probably be in effect. Daily heavily-armed police raids would probably be the norm. There would be no such thing as privacy as high-risk people start getting moved to camps where they can be monitored 24/7. SS13 isn't real life but one would assume the SS13 security force and real life law enforcement have a lot to share when confronted with things like evil cults with magic.