Blood Cult: Difference between revisions

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. You must work with your brethren to sacrifice the heretics, spread the faith to CentComm, or even summon your eldritch god himself!

 

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

Fantastic, you've joined a cult, and not because of the Kool-Aid. When you first spawn on the station, you'll notice you have been given several words. These words are the basis of Nar-Sie's magic. There are 10 words used for rune scribing, which translate to: "travel", "self", "see", "Hell", "blood", "join", "technology", "destroy", "hide", and "other". You won't know all the translations right away, and you can only use runes whose translations are noted in your arcane tome. But 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.  

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

!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. When you know all the words for a rune, it will appear as an option in the dropdown menu. Much like talismans, drawing runes does a small amount of brute damage. You are also able to share your notes -- i.e. your translated words -- by smacking your tome onto another. The tome can also be used as a potent weapon, each hit dealing anywhere from 5 to 25 brute damage, and the tome can also be used to communicate with fellow cultists by choosing "Commune." Make sure you spawn one of these before you run out of talisman charges. A cult without tomes is a worthless cult.

!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.  

!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!

!A capturing device use to trap the souls of dead/in limbo mobs (doesn't work on humans who left their body.) When captured they will become a trapped shade, which can be released out of its jail or used on a construct shell.

!You summon a shell. This shell cannot be picked up, but you can fill it with a trapped soul in a soulstone to create either a Artificer, Juggernaut or Wraith.

!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. The stun talisman 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.

If you're in a position that would usually wander the halls, try to seek out your fellow cultists in person. If not, check in with your brothers using your tome's communication, but do this in private unless you want the captain to stroll by and overhear you.  A lot of jobs have access to isolated areas of the station that are great for this, and for everything else, there's always space. Cultists also have an innate ability to communicate with their brothers without a tome, but this does a great deal of brute damage. Remember, '''if you get caught, you endanger the entire cult.'''

Starter cultists will want to do two things at first: increase their numbers via conversion, and learn their words via sacrifice. These are mutually exclusive goals; generally, you will want to do a little bit of both. <span style="color:red;">'''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!'''</span>

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 go somewhere private and find out the the other word(s). 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 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. '''Tell the rest of the cult your plans and the location of the rune so [[Beyond the impossible|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 the rune 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 an [[assistant]] or [[security officer]] to find them.

Nar-Sie might also request his followers sacrifice a heretic on the station, usually a member of Security or Command. The process is the same.

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.  

 

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. A cult that doesn't cooperate is a dead cult.

Unless a cult is exceedingly good or stealthy, at some point security or the AI will find out about them. 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 the rune is made of. 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. 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!  

If you are caught by security, let your brothers know by any means possible. 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.

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. 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.

|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 currently loyalty implanted, in possession of a null rod, or the captain/chaplain. '''Three cultists are required around a convert rune for it to work!'''

|The sacrifice rune is used to gain favour of your God by sacrificing different living things to it, such as monkeys and humans. As a reward, Nar'Sie will grant you the translation 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.

|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.

|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.

|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.  

|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.  

|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.

|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 isn't very high.

|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.

|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.

|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 health, so be careful.

|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 a lot of health from every chanting cultist.

|A nice complement 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 sorts of shackles: handcuffs, locked DNA machines, muzzles (but NOT straitjackets), both locked and welded closets.  

|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

|Blind rune works exactly the same way as the deafen rune, except it blinds everyone in visible range.

|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. When imbued into a talisman, you can force all of its energy into one person, stunning him so hard he can't even speak. However, the effect wears off rather fast. 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.

Note: You must place a stack of plasteel on the rune, 5 sheets are required.

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!

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.

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.  

=== 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 [[construct]]s. However, remember that if the cultists have access to [[genetics]], they can steal the identity of anyone they manage to kidnap.