Cult

You knew you were special, ever since the day you were shown the light. You kept it a secret in your heart; now, you can contain it no longer. Armed with His gift, a precious book written in His sacred tongue, you begin your dark work.

The cultists are a group of fanatical worshipers of Nar-sie, the Geometer of Blood. For whatever reason, they have chosen this shift as the moment when they will reveal their dark purpose.

Extended skillset - Your god imbues you with the ability to fight with the tools he provides.

Your Objectives
As with all antagonists, you do not have any set-in-stone objectives. However, you differ from most antagonist types in that you are commonly driven toward certain goals:


 * 1) Pleasing Nar-sie. Pray to Him, sacrifice and terrorize the crew, steal a sacred artifact, or even bring the Geometer Himself into the world of man.
 * 2) The conversion of the crew into the cult.
 * 3) General mayhem.

Before converting, killing, or summoning Nar'Sie
Remember to read and obey the rules on playing an Antagonist. Specifically, remember that: your purpose is to drive the story and generate interaction; only kill if it makes sense or drives the story; and no ganking.

On converting: People can resist being converted, being damaged and ultimately killed in the process if it goes on long enough. Remember that if you don't think they will convert, putting them on the conversion rune is the same thing as torturing and killing them. RPing or involving the convertee in their conversion somehow goes a long way in persuading them to convert - do a roleplay ritual, get them to be lured into an ambush, etc. Use the "Appraise Offering" verb in the IC tab on a prospective convert to see if they have cultist turned on in their preferences, are cultbanned, or are already another antagonist.

On killing: In case you do wind up killing someone, either through a botched conversion or in combat, make sure to use a soul stone on their corpse, then put it into a construct shell. This gets them back in the round, while also adding a servant to your infernal army! IPCs, golems and full-grown Dionae can be captured with a soul stone, but stationbounds can't.

On Nar'Sie: Summoning your Dark Lord is always a fair goal, but remember that doing so basically ends the round, and generally results in everyone’s deaths. Make sure to discuss your goals for the round with your fellow cultists in AOOC, and keep in mind alternative goals such as sacrificing particular people, capturing a high-value item, or making sure a certain number of cult members escape on the shuttle. If you’re at a loss for what to do, using the Pray verb to beseech your God for direction is never a bad option – though a reply is not always guaranteed.

I have seen the terrible truth! How do I Cultist?
Here are the most useful runes.
 * As soon as you submit to conversion, your character's old goals are gone, and you are devoted to the service of Nar'Sie. Pursue your goals with trickery, force, and most importantly, teamwork; but remember that it's okay to lose, so long as everyone got a thrilling and fun experience out of it.
 * Your allies will have a green skull above them. Regular crewmembers have no way of inherently knowing you are a cultist.
 * Use communication runes to coordinate. You can also talk in Cult Common (,f) locally, but it's obvious to observers that this is a very strange language.  AOOC is good for making general plans and asking questions about game mechanics and lore.  Communicate early and often - keep at least a few communication talismans with you!
 * If you didn't spawn with one, ask your new friends to make you a tome of your own ASAP; you can't draw runes without it!
 * Don't leave floor runes on the ground without reason; there can only be 25 at one time. Use talismans; they're unlimited.
 * Figure out how to ditch your job responsibilities ASAP without looking too suspicious so you can work on your goals before the shift ends.
 * Use Teleport runes and talismans to establish a safe house. Have an Artificer spookify the place, building and destroying walls and doors as needed.
 * Use the Tome and click "Scribe a Rune" to draw runes. Since what you're doing is plainly visible, audible, and freaky, only do so in a secluded area, away from cameras.  The Tome is visible on your sprite when you hold it.  You lose a very tiny amount of blood when drawing, but otherwise you don't take damage.  To use a rune, click it with an empty active hand.  To erase or configure runes, use the tome on the rune.  The entries in "Read the Tome" may be inaccurate.
 * Conversion. Makes new cultists out of non-cultists on the rune.  Or if they resist, eventually burn them to death.
 * Communication. Allows you to broadcast a message to all cultists.  Remember to state your name each time, as the spell won't identify you.  Do so in private, if you care about stealth; you speak a freaky chant when activating.  Extremely useful.
 * Forging. Gives you tough armor and a deadly weapon, and lets constructs heal themselves and change what type they are.
 * Summon Soul Stone. Capture a player's soul when they are in crit.
 * Construct. Makes a shell you can put a filled soul stone in to turn it into a construct that will obey the cult.  Constructs have a variety of useful abilities, generally aren't affected by atmospherics or gravity, and can destroy walls and doors.
 * The Artificer construct can make a forge for you to turn your robes and small oxy tank into a insulated voidsuit and big oxy tank, red pylons that act as turrets when an animal is sacrificed to them, and altars for you to heal.
 * The Wraith construct can phase through walls all around the station and have decent damage; send them on spying, sabotage, and assassination missions.
 * The Juggernaut construct is immune to small amounts of damage, can destroy walls and doors in half the hits, deals as much damage as a cult sword, can reflect bullets, and has very high health.
 * Wall. Makes an impenetrable wall that can be turned on and off only by cultists.
 * Tome summoning. Give this to new cultists ASAP!
 * Teleportation. To teleport!  Examine a rune to see what network it's on; use a tome on a rune to configure its network.  It will teleport you to a random floor rune besides the one you used in the network.  Cooldown is 5 seconds.
 * Incapacitation. Stuns non-cultists in a 5 tile radius.
 * Talisman creation. With a clean piece of paper on the rune, makes portable versions of compatible runes drawn next to it, so you can do magic on the go.  Click a talisman with another talisman for compact storage; leave a few unbundled and renamed for quick access.	Might want to make a folder out of a box (use the box when it's empty to unfold it) to store your talismans.
 * Blindness. Blinds non-cultists in a 3 tile radius, and leaves them with blurry vision afterwards for a while.
 * EMP. EMP's the surrounding area.  2 tile radius on floor, 1 tile radius on talisman.  Doesn't affect cultists or their belongings.
 * Geometer: Summon Nar'Sie.  Needs 9 cultists around the rune; apparitions don't count, but constructs do.
 * Runes not listed here: Apparition, Revival, Cultist summoning, Deafening, Blood boil, Blood drain, Freedom, Ethereal, Sacrificial, Concealment, Revealing, Visibility.  View The Runes below to learn more.

My soul's been trapped in a Construct, what do?

 * You serve the cult and Nar'Sie. Do what they say.
 * You don't care about atmospherics; at worst, decompression might move you some. You also don't fall or slip.
 * If you're the first construct made this round, choose Artificer.
 * You can change what type of construct you are by activating a Forging rune drawn on the ground by a friendly cultist. This also resets your spell cooldowns and heals you completely.
 * You have spells in the upper right corner of your HUD and in your Spells tab.
 * You can destroy walls, doors, and windows by attacking them. Wraith and Artificer can destroy a reinforced plasteel wall in 9 hits, and a regular wall in 2; Juggernaut can do the same in 4 and 1 hits.  Certain walls don't have floors under them; when destroyed, they will vent the area to space.  Take advantage of this abilty, combined with the Artificer's constructions, to reshape and deny areas as you see fit.
 * You know two languages: Cult (,f) and Occult (,y).  Only Cultists and other constructs understand Cult.  Use Occult to broadcast to all constructs.  You can also use AOOC to talk to fellow antags OOCly.
 * Your three options are:
 * 1) Artificer:  You have 50 health and do 5-15 damage.  Use your spells often!
 * Create a Daemon Forge in a safe place as the first thing. This lets cultists upgrade their armor into insulated voidsuits, letting them take advantage of vented areas and avoid electrocution.
 * Pump out as many altars as you can; the cultists can heal themselves at them.
 * Base-building tools:
 * - Cultify Area, while converting doors, removes their ID locks. Handy!
 * - Lesser Construction builds walls.
 * - Create floor... makes a culty floor. Works on space tiles.
 * - Red Pylons shed dim light. They can turn into turrets by click-dragging a small-ish animal onto them, then killing the animal.  Mice, monkeys, slimes, and department pets are good candidates.
 * You can ignore the rest of the spells. Cultists can already make these things faster than you, but you can help if you like.
 * 1) Wraith:  You have 100 health, move decently fast, and do 25 damage.  Use Phase Shift (lets you move through walls for 5 seconds) to traverse the station.  Has a short cooldown.  If you land in a wall, you get pushed out.  With Phase Shift, you can go anywhere in the station and wreak havoc; spy on the enemy, assassinate crewmembers, set up passageways for infiltration, vent key areas, etc etc...
 * 2) Juggernaut:  You have 400 health, move slowly, and do 30 damage.  You can make a tile impenetrable by using your Shield spell; good for dealing with cowards using ranged weapons.  Phases out after 25 seconds; cooldown is 30 seconds.  Ranged brute damage attacks (i.e. bullets) against you have a 70-80% chance of being deflected off of you, reducing their damage by 70%.  You destroy walls, windows, and doors very quickly, which makes you good for breaching fortified areas.

I was a ghost, but then I stood on a rune, and now I'm an Apparition!
Fresh Apparition? Here's a rundown:

You have 300 health, can't be stunned, can't fall or slip, don't care about atmospherics other than being maybe moved by wind, and can't go into crit.

You can only speak and understand Cultish.

Ask your masters for a robe, sword, and tome to start you off, and ask them what they want you to do.

You can use runes and tools just like a crewmember cultist, too (see Cultist), but you can't help summon Nar'Sie. Make sure the person who summoned you has access to plenty of brute damage healing and stays conscious so they can sustain your existence (if nothing else, bother the resident Artificer to make altars so they can heal). Without aid, your summoner will go from full health to crit in 5 minutes. If you die, the cultist can summon you again, so long as another ghost doesn't get picked.

My soul was stolen, and now I'm a Shade.
Beg your master to just make a construct shell and let you be a construct. You're Ian with an attack and the ability to speak Cult. Sorry.

Important Notes
Before you dive in, here are some important notes regarding runes:


 * There can only be twenty-five floor runes in existence at any one time. If you do not need a rune to stay somewhere, such as a wall or teleportation rune, it is highly advised to make a talisman of it instead or erase any other floor runes once you are done with them.  Talismans have no limit.


 * You cannot draw a rune on another rune. You can, however, do things like have a rune under a grille, door, or bookcase, and then use it by viewing the turf with alt+click.


 * Null rods are capable of protecting their holder from the effects of most runes, and allows the bearer to destroy cult artifacts with ease.


 * The act of creating a rune is very obvious, with a large message, loud sound, and drip of blood made whenever you start making one. Make sure to do so only in privacy.


 * To erase or configure a rune, use a tome on it. Use alt+click to view the turf if you're having trouble targeting the rune.

Sentience Runes
These runes relate to the creation of workers and soldiers for your infernal army. You can brainwash the Unenlightened to submit to the Dark Lord's will and aid your cause, use captured souls to spawn solid ghosts and power eldritch constructs, beckon restless spirits into terrifyingly durable bodies, and even bring back the dead... though not always with the soul they started with.

Note: It is good practice to LOOC with your victim to confirm whether they are willing to participate as an antagonist.

Summoning Runes
These runes relate to creation of tools, weapons, armor, and obstacles, as well as making use of Redspace for transporting and even rescuing cultists. Also included is the most important rune of them all, used to finally pierce the veil and bring Nar'Sie into this reality.

Offense Runes
These runes are the bread and butter of His army, allowing them to blind, deaf, and stun their enemies, destroy technology, boil their blood, and even transfer their life essence to you. Important to note is that these runse only affect non-cultists.

Utility Runes
These runes do not fit into any other category. With these, you can speak across distances with your brothers and sisters, free a cultist of their chains from a distance, briefly leave your body, and even spill the blood of your victims to gain your god's approval.

Metarunes
These runes alter other runes. These runes let you imprint runes on paper so you can take them with you, let you hide and unhide runes, and see hidden runes (and possibly other hidden things).

Dark Tools, Dark Strategy
You begin the round with an arcane tome book. You are, otherwise, indistinguishable from any other member of the crew.

It is highly recommended that your first actions with are as follows:


 * 1) Use a communication rune in a secluded, camera-less area to introduce yourself to the cult ICly.  You can state as much or as little about yourself as you want.  Be warned that the Unenlightened, if they can see you, will hear you chant in your dark language when doing this.
 * 2) Use AOOC (like OOC, but with an A for Antag in front) to figure out what general plan you want to pursue with your allies, and ask questions about how the cult works.  Remember, no IC information!

Remaining Unseen
Your cult is unknown to outsiders, but before the night is over, all will feel the power of Nar’Sie. Still, a little prudence goes a long way. Cult implements are often visually sinister, consisting of black books and bloody motifs. Should you wish to remain unseen, take care to conduct your magicks and conversions in secluded, camera-less areas. Bathroom stalls, dorms, firefighting closets, maintenance, the adult section in the library, and the construction site are all publicly accessible, relatively secluded, and have no cameras.

Good, responsible roleplayers may find your runes and Tomes strange, suspicious, or even indicative of insanity, but will not jump immediately into action, opting instead to investigate. But remember, the moment you emerge with battle-robes and dark energy swords, all bets are off!

Spilling Blood in His Name
Cultists are notoriously robust, with lots of powerful offensive options at their disposal. Your first instinct may be to use the Armor rune and start contributing prized specimens to Nar-sie's severed head collection.

Your Cult Blade might be obscenely powerful, but remember that it's a melee weapon! With teamwork and skill, Security can put you down before you can get a swing in (unless you're a manifested ghost, then you can likely take a nuclear warhead to the face and live). Not only that, but stabbing people left and right is the exact opposite of a fun and interesting round.

Playing by Man's Rules
Playing nicely, otherwise known as Peacecult, is an extremely challenging strategy, and requires top-notch roleplaying. Or very gullible characters. In Peacecult, you do not harm anyone at all - instead, you and your fellow Cultists preach the word of Nar-sie openly, inviting people to join your religion in a friendly and harmless fashion.

However, take note of the following risks:


 * 1) Attempting to convert a player sends them a message describing the agonizing pain they are going through, as they writhe on the ground visibly in pain. More often than not, this is a very quick way to get Security called on you.
 * 2) You may be outright ignored. See: playing the Chaplain. Nothing is more frustrating than trying to recruit followers to summon your all-powerful God of Blood, only to be snubbed by the Tajara as they flirt with one another in Hydroponics.
 * 3) Some Cult players go into the round expecting mayhem and murder; they may simply reject your idea.

If you manage to make Peacecult work, this can be quite a hilarious experience. Good luck! Bonus points if you talk the ERT into joining!

Surviving the Cult
So, your date with Lucas Greyer was interrupted by a gibbering band of madmen in robes with glowing swords. Well darn. There are a few things you need to know if you want to get out of this situation alive.

Identifying the Occult
Identifying the Cult is difficult. They have been very secretive about their religion, and it is impossible for your character to recognize it. You have never heard of Nar-sie in your life. Those Tomes sure look sinister! But then again, so does your average Dungeons & Dragons sourcebook.

Remember that just as the Cult is obligated to make the round fun and challenging for you, you are also obligated to do the same.


 * You have no earthly idea what the runes are. They are not "obviously evil". Calling for Blue Alert or interrogating nearby crew at the first sight of a rune is poor play.
 * Arcane Tomes are just that: weird books. Unless they were used to bash the Central Command Internal Affairs Agent's brains in, they are not suspicious.
 * Cult robes might sling off bullets, but they don't look armored. They're pretty kooky, though. They could have been a missing costume shipment, or maybe the Chaplain got drunk and flung off his clothes.
 * Cult Blades are as or more suspicious than fuel-tank bombs. They're vicious, incredibly sharp swords that glow and thrum like energy blades. Just touching them makes you feel horrendously ill, twisting your heart and filling your head with poisonous thoughts. If you're the Detective, consider these the holy grail of evidence.

Obviously, the onus is on the Cult to be discreet about their misdeeds. It will be immediately obvious if one draws a rune, but this in and of itself is nothing more than unsanitary graffiti; the cultist barely pricks their finger. Watching a Cultist disappear is obvious grounds for investigation. When in doubt, play it safe, try to think rationally and realistically, and don't be afraid to adminhelp if you need a second opinion.

Striking Back
The Cult wears extremely high-quality armor, and their swords can send someone into crit with four hits. For Security (or in the event of a militarized civilian crew), it is vital that you wear riot armor, or any other gear which excels at absorbing melee brute damage. Tasers and stun batons are nearly worthless against the armored Cult!

If the Cult is smart, their robes will have been upgraded to allow them to go into space, and will have built turrets in their strongholds. The turrets do burn damage; ablative armor will still work against their beams. Do not shoot the turrets with lasers- this will only make them more powerful!

They also may have created eldritch constructs - recognizeable as floating, spiky metal contraptions. They can all destroy walls and doors; some can phase through walls, while others are so durable that bullets bounce off them.

Depending on the extremity of their assault, the Cult may or may not present a severe threat. Calling the ERT is a reasonable response once people begin losing their spinal cords.

Wall Runes
You may come across a strange blurry patch of red air that seems impenetrable - there might be a rune there, or not, if the Cult was clever enough to hide it. Trying to shoot the Cultists through this invisible barrier is a quick way to be laughed at! You can cut through the real, solid walls in an attempt to get around, but be warned that the Cult can erect their Wall runes much faster than you can slice through the station.

The only way to truly remove a Wall rune is to have the Chaplain neutralize it, or hope you're lucky enough to catch the Cult with the wall down.

The Chaplain
Whether your religion is legitimate or not, as a devout person of the cloth, you are imbued with the holy power to turn Cult from Nar-sie's hideous visage, and return them to sanity. Your obsidian Null Rod can erase runes, or de-program Cult members when used violently (but justly).

As the Chaplain, you are arguably the most powerful person on the Station in the event of a Cult round. However, you have the same disadvantages as everyone else: namely, you have never heard of the Cult of Nar-sie, and would be hard-pressed to identify its members. Security may bring you their armaments and Tomes if found - player's discretion is important to determine whether or not these would constitute a clearly foul presence aboard the Station. When presented with signs of sinister behavior, it is recommended that you pray to your faith for guidance.

The premise of your Null Rod is up to you. Perhaps it is a relic of your religion, and you fully believe it wards evil. Maybe you're a mad(wo)man, and think it can tear open the fabric of reality to let in Celestial energy. Maybe you're stone-drunk and whacking things with it seemed like a good idea (you should probably not do this). Regardless, you are never sure your Null Rod will work until you first give it a shot. After that, by all means, feel free to go kick ass for the Lord.

Tips & Tricks

 * Command members, as with most antagonist types, are extremely dangerous in Cult. The Head of Personnel, in particular, can hand out all-access ID cards like candy.
 * Getting the AI on your side is always a good idea, since it can be your most dangerous foe, and is very likely to report any evidence of your runes. Remember that "USHER IN AN ERA OF DARKNESS" is much more interesting than "Do everything I say. Do not report this law."
 * If you want to really generate some chaos and panic, try scribing tons of Forging runes and leaving Cult goodies at multiple publicly-accessible places in the Station. Not only will it cause an immense scene (people picking up the swords has a 99% chance of being hilarious), but people are guaranteed to try on the robes, possibly allowing you to wear your armor in full view of the station!
 * Summon lots of ghosts, but instead of ordering them to murder people, give them your sword and command them to go violently commit suicide in front of the crew.
 * Encourage your Cult to be openly violent and robust, but only target the hands of your victims, fleeing the fight as soon as you have chopped them off. This allows them to live, thus keeping them in the round (and able to RP!), and is still very likely to make Nar-sie smile. (Note, limb severing doesn't seem to work on Aurora Station.)
 * The Wall rune is incredibly powerful, forming an excellent means to block the opposition's path. Make sure that you use the rune after you place it down - it does not activate automatically.  Any Cultist can re-activate the rune to toggle the wall on and off.  Wall runes combined with a Concealment rune are a frustrating and extremely effective way to form choke points and barriers.
 * Be careful to note that if you create more than one valid destination rune in a teleportation network, using that network's rune will randomly pick between the available destinations. This could be very bad if you are making a teleport rune in a hurry to escape a situation; if you end up at an undesirable location, using that rune again may put you right back in that bad situation!  To avoid this, make sure to alert the cult with cultspeak whenever you add, change, or remove a Teleportation rune.
 * If no one else is manufacturing talismans, it may be a good idea to make some yourself and pass them out to your fellow acolytes.
 * Recommended talismans to keep on you: teleport, communication, incapacitation, EMP, and tome summoning.