Blood Cult: Difference between revisions

Your Dark Lord Nar-Sie has sent a number of his followers to Space Station 13. 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 Centcom, or even summon your eldritch god himself!

Several cultists will arrive on the station. When you spawn, you'll find a piece of paper in your backpack. This three-use talisman will allow you to do several things - the first you should do is summon a tome.

Starter cultists will generally do a few things at the beginning:

# Contact your cultists brothers and sisters through your Tome (communication is private and has no limit).<br>'''Important: Communication and teamwork is essential! If you fail to read the guide this far and follow the steps until here, you will probably fuck up the round for everybody and are not worthy enough for the cult of Nar-Sie and may be antagbanned!'''

# Increase their members via [[#Conversions|conversion]]. If you have an escape on the shuttle objective, you have to do this, and it's also a good idea to convert regardless.

# Create a base, makeshift or elaborate, accessible yet private, and ''be there'' when cultists bring in sacrifice or conversion victims. Considering that several cultists are required for certain runes, you HAVE to do this.

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 there's also space. Remember, '''if you get caught, you endanger the entire cult.'''

 

 

<span style="color:red;">'''REMINDER:'''</span> Three cultists are required for living sacrifices. They must be standing adjacent to the rune.

Nar-Sie might request his followers sacrifice a specific heretic, usually a member of Security or Command. For this sacrifice, your cult will gain enough power to call forth the Geometer if he wishes it so, although if you are supposed to escape with acolytes on the shuttle, this will not please him...

=== The Talisman ===

You will also have an innocuous-looking paper in your backpack or pocket. It's a special talisman imbued with blood, which can be invoked three 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.

! style='background-color:brown'|Name [[File:Fff.png|50px]]

! style='background-color:brown'|Description

!Summon Tome Talisman

|The Arcane Tome is the most important item for any cultist. Obtaining one of these is required to complete most cult objectives -- it is absolutely essential to buy. The frayed cover, 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 easy to conceal: it fits easily into a pocket, or a box.

 

Tomes have three sections: Commune, which lets you communicate with fellow cultists in '''BOLD, CAPITAL, RED TEXT'''; Notes, which allows you to store the translations of words you have received; and Scribe Rune, which lets you draw runes with your blood. 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. Much like talismans, drawing runes does a small amount of brute damage. Tomes can also be used to remove runes by smacking them and to robust heretics -- each hit with a tome does 15 burn damage. Tomes can also pull what ghosts a cultist can find into the material plane, making them visible to mortals. This serves no real function other than being funny.

!Travel Talisman

|A talisman which allows its user to transport himself instantaneously to a teleport rune with the keyword "veri".

!EMP Talisman

|Creates a high-powered electromagnetic pulse that is effective at taking out radios, draining energy-based weapons, stunning and damaging cyborgs, damaging an AI and messing with other electronics.  

!Summon Soul Stone

|A capturing device used to trap the souls of dead/nearly dead mobs. 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 Construct 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 when used on people will cause them to become temporarily paralyzed and unable to speak for 10 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.

=== The Runes ===

This is the bread and butter of your magic. You can scribe runes in the Scribe Rune section of your tome.

! style='background-color:brown'|Name

! style='background-color:brown'|Description

! style='background-color:brown'|[[File:Fff.png|50px]]

!{{anchor|Convert Rune}}Convert

|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. You can do this alone, but it'll take some time. If you have more cultists around the rune, it'll be instant!

!{{anchor|Sacrifice Rune}}Sacrifice

|The sacrifice rune is used to gain favour of your God by sacrificing different living things to it, such as humans or monkeys. A lone cultist can sacrifice a corpse, but '''three cultists are required to sacrifice a living human or the Geometer's target.''' 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.

!Form Wall

|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. Invoke the rune to create a wall, and invoke it again to remove the wall.

|The cult's most destructive rune, blood boil requires three cultists to activate. When invoked, it instantly deals 51 brute damage and 51 burn to all non cultists that can see the rune. However, cultists in range of the rune will take 15 damage. The rune itself will lightly explode when used, so be careful!

!Drain Life

|This rune instantly heals you of some brute damage, at the expense of a person placed on top of the rune. 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.

|No.

!Raise Dead

|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 be revived. When you invoke the rune, the dead body will be turned to bones and ashes. After a few seconds, the body will get up, completely revived!

!Call Forth The Geometer

|This large rite summons the avatar of Nar-Sie that will corrupt the station and enslave the paltry inhabitants of it. It requires nine cultists around the center of the rune, and will take a few seconds to call forth the Geometer. Once it is called forth, the entire station is alerted and the shuttle called with 3 minutes on the timer.

!EMP Rune

|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.

!Manifest Spirit

|This is a unique rune. If you stand on top of it and invoke it, any ghosts on top of the rune will be given a cultist body and placed into it. The body will be translucent and a cultist. You have to stand on the rune for the body to remain intact - if you leave it, all summoned ghosts will be turned to ash. In addition, for each cultist, you will take a small amount of damage every tick. It isn't much, but it stacks up. These summoned cultists count as actual cultists for runes, so if your teammates won't rally up with you, you can do this in an emergency.

!Call Tome

|New converts will be of much more help if they have arcane tomes to create more runes. This rune summons a new tome. Always have one hidden somewhere in case you lose your original tome.

|Yes.

|Teleport rune is a special rune. When scribing it, you can enter any word or sentence to use as the 'keyword'. When you invoke the rune, it'll send you to a random teleport rune with the same keyword. They can also be used as talismans for the same effect.

!Teleport Other Rune

|This variation of the teleport rune allows you to teleport other people between the runes. You can't teleport yourself, but it's good for transporting sacrifice or conversion targets.

|Yes.

|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 use a Reveal Runes rune. This rune is useful for revealing support runes that you do not activate directly -- for example, a Teleport rune in a safe place that you can teleport to with a talisman. It also make all nearby ghosts visible!

|Need to activate that rune you have hidden? This rune reveals all nearby runes that have been made invisible, in addition to making all nearby ghosts invisible again.

|This rune will make all nearby runes (including itself) look like those drawn in crayon. They'll still function in this manner!

|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 the rune will automatically keep your body anchored to the rune itself.

!Bind Talisman

|This handy little rune imbues an empty piece of paper with the power of an adjacent rune. It only works with a few select 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.

!Summon Cultist Rune

|This rune allows you to summon any cultist to the rune. You need 2 cultists chanting for it to work. Note that this rune drains quite a lot of health from every chanting cultist. Works across Z-levels, including the escape shuttle.

!Deafen

|This rune temporarily makes all non-cultists in visible range deaf. You can also make this rune into a talisman for the same effect but a shortened radius.

|Unlike other runes, this one is meant to be used in talisman form. When invoked directly, it releases some dark energy, briefly stunning all non-acolytes around. When imbued into a talisman, you can force all of its energy into one person, stunning them so hard that they can't even speak. However, the effect wears off rather fast. Use it to stun candidates for conversion in case they refuse to join you, or robust security.

|Cultists have access to weapons and hooded robes that double as armor. There is the eldritch longsword (about as strong as an esword), cultist robes (armored robes), and cultist hood (armored hood), as well as a backpack (the Chaplain's trophy rack), and cultist Boots (essentially grey jackboots). To invoke, simply activate the rune with an open hand to receive the blade, likewise with the robes and hoodie. Just have the slots open. These will robust people and borgs very fast.

|Works like the talisman: creates a shell for souls trapped in soulstones to become constructs. Artificers can also create shells, but they tend to die quickly. Note: You must place a stack of plasteel on the rune. 5 sheets are required.

==== They Gave Me a Word, But Didn't Give Me a Jogging Suit! ====

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 when you're able, give them a tome of their own 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 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 blood or with crayon, and detectives can figure out whose blood the rune is made of. And while the AI can't actually see runes, cyborgs can. 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 "SUMMON ME!"

If you are caught by Security, let your brothers know if you can; if one of your brothers is caught by security, use a Summon Cultist rune to free them -- again, this requires two cultists chanting. If you suspect a brother has 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 reduces stuns and increases speed with a twist of braunes dimarge, and is highly toxic to non-cultists in case you felt like weaponizing it.

=== Constructs ===

* An empty shell, either by using 5 plasteel with a summon shell rune, or from an artificer.