Clockwork Cult
| ENEMY STAFF | |
 Servant of Ratvar |
Access: Whatever you have Additional Access: Anyone that you can use a Spatial Gateway to get to Difficulty: Moderate Supervisors: Ratvar Duties: Complain about not having any stuns, even though you do Guides: This is the guide Quote: "Ratvar is a dumb na-" "QVR, URNGURA!!" |
While Nar-Sie is an elder god, they are not the only one. There are other elder gods in the universe, and one in particular holds a fierce grudge against Nar-Sie: Ratvar, the Clockwork Justiciar. Am amalgamation of parts, steam, and cogs, Ratvar seeks nothing more than Nar-Sie's utter annihilation. Unfortunately, his exile to Reebe - a plane of complete nothingness - makes celestial warfare somewhat difficult. To these ends, he has enslaved mortals to do his bidding and ensure the downfall of the Geometer.
Assuming you're one of those slaves, you've come to the right place.
Summary
Assuming you've had experience with Nar-Sie (Gur-Rarzl in the Ratvarian tongue) and their cult, you might assume that Ratvar's servants operate in a similar fashion. In this, you would be both correct and incorrect. While both cults rely on forced conversion tactics and ultimately serve their respective gods, the similarities end there. The Ratvarian cult is focused primarily on subtlety, sabotage, and base-building, whereas the Nar-Sian cult is focused on sowing chaos, paranoia, and dissent among the crew's ranks.
In addition, unlike Nar-Sie, Ratvar is capable of converting silicon lifeforms. Cyborgs and AIs are both valid targets for conversion. Converted cyborgs will have yellow eyes, visible immediately unless headlights are on (and even then a close examination reveals them), but AIs have no indication unless carded.
Ratvar's servants have to fulfill his will. Typical goals include:
- Summoning Ratvar
- Ensuring that a certain number of servants escape on the shuttle
- Converting all silicon lifeforms on the station
Luckily, you are not alone in this. As a servant, you have a wide variety of tools at your disposal.
The Clockwork Slab
If you've had experience with the Nar-Sian cult, then you can think of the clockwork slab as Ratvar's equivalent of the arcane tome. However, the slab boasts superior portability and utility than the tome, although it's slightly larger and can't fit in pockets. All initial servants start with a clockwork slab and can create more through scripture (more on that later).
The clockwork slab has five functions:
- Recital, which utilizes scripture
- Records, which displays important information including cultist count and construction value
- Recollection, which displays an in-game documentation and tutorial
- Repository, which displays all components in the slab (more on that)
- Report, which allows discreet communication between all servants
Every servant should have a slab! Slabs are key to the success of Ratvar's agenda.
Components, Scripture, and CV
Ratvarian cultists don't sacrifice their own blood to use rituals. Instead, they use something called components. In a literal sense, these are parts of Ratvar's body that have rusted and fallen free during his imprisonment. Despite this, the parts hold power on their own and are utilized by Ratvar's servants to power their rites - what they call scripture. Scripture has multiple tiers; each tier is unlocked as the cult's power grows. For instance, the third tier is unlocked through having at least eight servants, 100 CV worth of structures, and three of a specific structure.
There are five component types:
- Belligerent eyes, which possess the power to focus on certain things and grant malevolent sentience
- Vanguard cogwheels, which are almost indestructible and serve in protection
- Guvax capacitors, which can manipulate the mind
- Replicant alloys, which are very strong but can be melted and molded by force of will
- Hierophant ansibles, which can send massive amounts of data in an instant
Except for the first tier, most scripture consumes a certain amount of components of a certain type. These components are drawn directly from the slab, which generates components passively at a slow rate, or from the global component storage accessed by tinkerer's caches. This storage can hold an infinite amount of components, and scripture will prioritize drawing from the storage before the slab's internal capacity is tapped.
You might be wondering, "What's CV and why do we need 100 of it? Will it kill my children?" No, it won't, but it's still important. "CV" is the abbreviation for "Construction Value", which is gained by building Ratvarian structures or turfs. For instance, the tinkerer's cache (an extremely important structure) grants 10 CV. It is also granted by clockwork floors and walls - which are useful in their own right - and is a required threshold to gain more powerful scripture.
Scripture List
A list of all scripture is as follows (note that anything past a Driver will consume all components listed):
| Name | Component Cost | Description | Invocation Time | Invocation | Tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belligerent | Requires 1 belligerent eye, consumes none | Chanted - the invoker must stand still to cause continuous effects. Every few seconds, the invoker utters an invocation that forces all non-servants nearby to walk instead of run. The invoker will briefly collapse after ending the invocation. | Every 3s up to 30s | "Chav'fu gurve oyva-qarff!" | Driver |
| Sigil of Transgression | Requires 2 belligerent eyes, consumes 1 | Creates an almost-invisible sigil below the invoker. The next non-servant to cross the sigil will be blinded momentarily and stunned for four seconds. This does not induce silence. | 5s | "Qvivavgl, qnmmyr gubfr jub gerffcnff'urer!" | Driver |
| Vanguard | Requires 1 vanguard cogwheel, consumes none | Causes thirty seconds of stun immunity in the invoker. The slab used to invoke Vanguard cannot be used while the stun ward is active. After Vanguard ends, the invoker is stunned for the combined duration of all absorbed stuns. If more than 25 seconds of stun are absorbed, the invoker is knocked out for 150% of the absorbed stun count (for instance, 30 seconds of stun would induce 40 seconds of knockout). | 3s | "Fuvryq zr sebz qnexarff!" | Driver |
| Sentinel's Compromise | Requires 2 vanguard cogwheels, consumes 1 | When invoked, the invoker is prompted to choose a friendly servant within a seven-tile radius (not including themselves). The chosen servant will then be healed for all of their brute and burn damage, but half of the combined damage will be returned as toxin damage. | 3s | "Zraq gur jbhaqf-bs zl vasrevbe syrfu." | Driver |
