Blood Cult
This is the Guide to the Cult gamemode.
Starting Equipment
Each of the 6-9 initial cultist is given a 'supply talisman,' an innocuous looking sheet of paper, which appears in the cultist's backpack. The talisman's three uses can be used to summon the following equipment.
| Name File:Fff.png | Descripition |
|---|---|
| Summon Tome Talisman | The Arcane Tome is the most important item for any cultist. It is used to store your translated words and use this knowledge to draw runes with your blood. Obtaining one of these is required to complete most cult objectives- it is absolutely essential to buy. |
| Travel Talisman | A talisman which allows its user to transport himself instantaneously to a teleport rune with the same final word. Because using this talisman requires the cultists' knowing the word 'Travel', it is not immediately useful. |
| Communications Talisman | A talisman which allows its user to send a single message directly to the mind of every cultist. However, because this can now be done as many times as desired using a tome, it offers little utility to a cultist. |
| EMP Talisman | Creates a high powered electromagnetic pulse which is 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, as well as a powerful blade. These are obviously supernatural, and do not fit in a bag, so they are a poor choice near the beginning of a round, when the cult relies on stealth. |
| Summon Soul Stone | A capturing device use to trap the souls of dead/nearly dead mob. It can be used to quickly and permanently kill an opponent who has been put into critical condition, but, as the same can be done with the sacrifice rune, it offers little utility to a cultist. |
| Summon Construction Shell | Summons an empty shell which, when filled with a soul stone shard, allows the cultist to create a construct. It is obviously supernatural, and cannot be picked up, only pulled, so it should be bought with care. |
| Stun Talisman | Creates a stun paper which can be used once to disable and silence a would-be sacrifice or convert. |
The Tome
The tome is an essential but conspicuous item. The frayed covers, aura of dread, and glowing eyes give it away to even the most uninformed crew-member as a bad thing. However, its small size makes it very easy to conceal: it fits easily into a pocket, or a box. The tome is primarily used for three functions. First and foremost, it is the cultist's guide to creating the runes upon which cultists rely. Creating a rune requires constant attention to the book. Not only must a cultist stay still while drawing, he must also concentrate on the book. Putting the book away while drawing will result in a failure, as will shifting focus to one's other hand. Scribing a rune requires knowing the correct runes to do so. When a word is known, it should be added to the 'notes' page, adding runes whose words you now know to your list of runes available for scribing. Finally, the tome can be used to easily commune with the cult, without use of runes or talismans.
In addition to its three main functions, the tome itself is a useful tool. Brandished as a weapon, its pages burn non-cultists, and can pull what ghosts a cultist can find into the material plane, making them visible and audible to mortals. While they will not be bound to the cult, they can still make valuable allies.
Runes
This is the bread and butter of your magic. Each rune contains three words combined to form a single rune through the "Scribe Rune" option. A rune can be activated by clicking on it with an empty hand. If the conditions for its activation are satisfied, and the rune is valid, the rune will activate, and you and any other chanters will chant the correct incantation automatically; otherwise, the rune will fizzle, and the cultists will shout out a confused, meaningless incantation. The special requirements of most runes are self-explanatory: at least two linked teleport runes are required to actually teleport. One less obvious requirement is the chanter requirement: in the case of some especially powerful runes, including the Convert rune, a certain number of cultists must be adjacent to the rune for it to activate. Be sure that you have enough nearby cultists before attempting to use such a rune, and be aware in cases where a fellow cultist may need you to chant with him. If a rune is no longer needed, it is wise to erase it, which can be done easily with your tome.
| Name | Words | Cultists Required | Description | File:Fff.png |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sacrifice Rune | hell, blood, join | 1 or 3 | The first rune that you are likely to use. This rune allows a lone cultist to sacrifice a corpse, or a trio to sacrifice a living human. Sacrfices are the primary way which the cult gains power: a sacrifice has a chance to reveal a word to the sacrificing cultists- live humans are ideal, with dead humans coming in second. Monkeys can also be sacrificed for words, but at a very low rate. A sacrifice completely destroys the body of its unfortunate victim, leaving behind its soul trapped in a soul stone shard. The victim's soul can be released as a shade, or inserted into a construct shell to make a construct. | No. |
| Convert Rune | join, blood, self | 3 | This rune is the primary way that the cult spreads. When activated, it will convert a non-cultist atop the rune to the cult. This can be resisted by the Captain, the Chaplain, and any crewmember with a loyalty implant, so pick your targets carefully. | No. |
| Wall Rune | destroy, travel, self | 1 | 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 | 3 | The cult's most destructive rune, 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. 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 | 1 | This rune instantly heals you of some brute damage, at the expense of 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 | 1 | To make the rune work, you will need two bodies: a living one, and a dead one. The 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, 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 don't 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 | 9 | This spell summons a huge all-consuming monstrosity from outer planes. Get 9 cultists to stand in a circle around the rune, then click on the rune with an open hand. 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 | 1 | This spell allows you to easily and safety 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. | Yes. |
| EMP Rune | destroy, see, technology | 1 | 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 | 1 | 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 | 1 | 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 | 1 | 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 | 1 | This variation of the teleport rune allows you to teleport objects between runes. | No. |
| See Invisible Rune | see, hell, join | 1 | This rune allows you to see invisible objects while you stand on it, including hidden runes and ghosts. If the user of the rune wears eyewear, the rune's duration is shortened from 'indefinite' to 'momentary.' | No. |
| Hide Rune | hide, see, blood | 1 | This handy rune makes nearby runes invisible to everyone, including you. 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. | Yes. |
| Reveal Rune | blood, see, hide | 1 | Need to activate that rune you have hidden, but don't know the words for a "see invisible" rune? The 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. | Yes. |
| Astral Journey Rune | hell, travel, self | 1 | 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 | 1 | This handy little rune imbues an empty piece of paper with the power of an adjacent rune. Have a rune of an appropriate 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 health, and requires unsubtle incantations, so be careful. | No. |
| Summon Cultist Rune | join, other, self | 3 | This rune allows you to summon any cultist to the rune, in addition to freeing them from any restraints they might be in. Because cultists can be deconverted by a well-prepared security force, use of this rune is critical when a cultist has been captured. | No. |
| Free Cultist Rune | travel, technology, other | 3 | The Summon Cultist rune's little sister, this rune allows you to free any of your fellow cultist from many sorts of shackles- handcuffs, locked DNA machines, muzzles (but NOT straitjackets), and both locked and welded closets -without moving them. | No. |
| Deafen Rune | hide, other, see | 1 | This rune temporarily makes all non-cultists in visible range deaf. | Yes. |
| Blind Rune | destroy, see, other | 1 | Blind rune works exactly the same way as the deafen rune, except it blinds everyone in visible range. | Yes. |
| Stun Rune | join, hide, technology | 1 | Unlike other runes, this one is supposed to be used in talisman form. When invoked directly, it releases some dark energy, briefly stunning everyone around, including the cultist. | Yes. |
| Armor Rune | hell, destroy, other | 1 | The armor rune equips its user with combat equipment, providing a relatively weak helmet, a stronger armored robe, and a functionally regular (but highly conspicuous) pair of shoes and backpack. It will not replace any equipment: if a wearer is wearing a spacesuit, armor, or even a labcoat, no armor will appear. Similarly, the cult helmet can be prevented from appearing with as little as a paper hat. Additionally, it will provide the cultist with a powerful blade. | Yes. |
| Summon Shell Rune | travel, hell, technology | 1 | This rune creates a shell which, together with a filled souls stone shard, can be used to create a construct. Note: You must place a stack of plasteel on the rune, 5 sheets are required. | No. |
Talismans
Talismans are inconspicuous sheets of paper, imbued with a power of a rune. They can be used in any way a paper can be rune, short of ordinary writing or reading: this includes fashion, folder-stuffing, and culinary uses. In addition to comprising most of the purchases from the supply tome, talismans can be created using the Imbue rune, by placing an unmarked paper on the imbue rune, scribing the rune corresponding to the desired talisman next to the imbue rune, and invoking the imbue rune.
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Communicate Talisman | Just like the rune, this talisman allows you to send a single message to your fellow cultists. Less useful with the tome's Commune function. |
| EMP Talisman | Unlike most talismans, this talisman is stronger than its corresponding rune. Carry a backpack full of these, and watch the security cyborgs cry. |
| Summon Tome Talisman | Just like the rune, this talisman summons a single tome. If you're more concerned with being caught than with having to use your tome, as long as you have recorded your words somewhere secure (notes, perhaps?), you can use this as a more subtle alternative to carrying a tome. |
| Teleport Talisman | A useful getaway tool, the teleport talisman differs from its rune only in that it is not itself a destination for teleportation. |
| Hide Talisman | Identical in function to the Hide Rune. |
| Reveal Talisman | Identical in function to the Reveal Rune. |
| Deafen Talisman | Like the deafen rune, the deafen talisman disables the hearing of everyone in view of the user. It is slightly shorter in duration than the form. |
| Blind Talisman | A blind rune, but slightly shorter in duration. |
| Stun Talisman | The intended use of the stun rune, the stun talisman can be used on a single target to stun them for a moderate duration, and silence them for a longer duration. The robust magic works just as well on armored targets and cyborgs, making it effective not only for kidnapping covnerts and sacrifices, but for disabling threats. As with most forms of cult magic, however, its effects are prevented by the presence of a null rod on the target. |
| Armor Talisman | Summons armor identical to that produced by the rune, quickly equipping the gear automatically. |
Constructs
Constructs are extremely powerful, and relatively easy to produce, making them a key to securing the safety of cultists earlier, and control of the station later. To create a construct, a cultist must obtain a filled soul stone, either by sacrificing a human, or getting an empty stone from a supply talisman or an artificer and using it to capture a soul manually, then obtain a construct shell, either by using 5 plasteel with a summon shell rune, or from an artificer. When the filled soul stone shard is used on an empty shell, the cultist will be allowed to choose the desired construct to create.
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, you're 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 will probably attempt to attack you.
Upon reports of cult presence, immediately round up all security personnel, minus the warden and the detective.
- Gear up.
- Raid science, confiscate all transfer valves, search all science staff and the RD.
- If any runes and/or tomes are found, call the detective to scan them for fingerprints and/or blood.
- Rest and regroup.
- Raid medbay 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.
Officers can either raid their own departments with the help of Beepsky and/or the AI, or all officers can systematically work as a group. 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 teammates 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.
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.
Deconverting Cult, aka: The chaplain is actually useful for once
Confirmed cultists -- anyone who is seen scribing or chanting by runes, anyone whose blood a rune was made of, or anyone carrying a tome in their backpack without an excellent reason -- are guilty of capital crimes and grounds for perma, execution or forced borging. Unfortunately, execution and forced borging tend to upset the AI, and any cultist with a tome with all the words and a private place to work is capable of teleporting other cultists out of perma. Straitjackets, which can be found in the medbay and insanity ward, can temporarily keep cultists restrained. But ultimately, you will want to deconvert them.
Enter: the chaplain! 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. The null rod will also make its bearer immune to cult magic if it is in their inventory, and it can destroy runes.
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. 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 unlock personal lockers, and that examining a personal locker tells you who owns it.
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, lawyers have security headsets and are not loyalty implanted. PDA messages can be read by the Chief Engineer and the AI if it has 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.
Implant important persons before the cult gets them
Trust no one, and implant everyone else. 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.
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.
Combat mechs are overpowered
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. 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
- 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!