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 five uses can be used to summon the following equipment.

Name	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
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.	Yes.

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.