Cult magic

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ENEMY STAFF
Follower of Nar-Sie	Access: Whatever you have Additional Access: Wherever a teleportation rune is Difficulty: Medium Supervisors: Nar-Sie Duties: Killing everyone and creating a construct army Guides: This is the guide

Brother John says: "So you've joined the cult of the almighty Nar-Sie, but don't know where to start? This is for you, apprentice. (If you're part of the security force and looking for tips to fighting the cult, look here.)"

FOR THE LOVE OF NAR-SIE, PLEASE READ THE GUIDE

The Beginning of a New Era

The Geometer of Blood, Nar-Sie, has sent a number of her 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 summon an avatar of your eldritch goddess!

Several cultists will arrive on the station. When you spawn, you'll find a piece of paper, which is really a three-use summoning talisman in your backpack. The three-use talisman will allow you to do summon useful talismans and other objects.

Objectives

Your objectives usually require you to sacrifice a certain crew member and either:

• Summon Nar-Sie,
• Esacape with a certain amount of converted crew members.

The general path of action of the cult and those in it:

1. Summon your tome.
2. Contact your allies through your Commune verb. The Commune verb sends a whispered message to all cultists.
   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!
3. Find an area to convert into a base, usually accessible by one or more members of the cult, and cut cameras and in general make the base usable and hidden for the cult.
4. Setup a teleport rune, so all cultist can access it.
5. Secure your base by placing wall runes infront of windows and doors.
6. Get some paper for talismans and if possible get metal for constructing empty shells and platsteel for creating cult structures.
7. Convert new members and give them a tome.
8. Fulfill your objectives

The Tome

Your Tome is your most important object and has several functions:

• It lets you communicate with your fellow cultists.
• You can draw runes with it.
• Hitting a cultist with it, removes holy water from them.
• Hitting a non cultist with it, causes them burn damage.
• Hitting runes with it, removes them.
• Hitting cult structure with it, will unachor and anchor 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 Commune verb, but do this in private, to prevent people from hearing your whispers. 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.

Sacrifice

REMINDER: One cultist is required to sacrifice a dead body, three for a live one, standing adjacent to the rune.

To please Nar-Sie, you must find and sacrifice targets using a sacrifice rune.

The Starting Talisman

You will 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 number of useful objects, including a regular 1-use talisman of varying types, a soulstone or a construct shell. Make sure to hide the talisman from everyone who does not serve Nar-Sie.

Name	Description	In Starting Talisman
Summon a soul stone	Summons a soul stone, used to capure the spirits of dead or dying humans	Only starting Talisman.
Summon a construct	Summons a construct shell for use with soulstone-captured souls..	Only starting Talisman.
Talisman of Tome Summoning	Summons an arcane tome, used to scribe runes and communicate with other cultists.	Yes.
Talisman of Teleportation	A single-use talisman that will teleport a user to a teleport rune, which you can choose from a list.	Yes.
Talisman of Veiling	A multi-use talisman that hides nearby runes. On its second use, will reveal nearby runes.	Yes.
Talisman of Disguising	A talisman that will make nearby runes appear fake.	No.
Talisman of Electromagnetic Pulse	A talisman that will cause a moderately-sized electromagnetic pulse.	Yes.
Talisman of Arming	A talisman that will equip the invoker with cultist equipment if there is a slot to equip it to.	No.
Talisman of Horrors	A talisman that will break the mind of the victim with nightmarish hallucinations	No.
Talisman of Construction	Use this talisman on at least twenty-five metal sheets to create an empty construct shell or on platsteel to create runed metal.	No.
Talisman of Shackling	Use this talisman on a victim to handcuff them with dark bindings. Can be used several times.	No.

The Tome

The tome allows you to scribe a random set of these runes, using Scribe Rune, or to access information on these runes, with Read Tome, though you clearly don't need to do that if you're here.

Name	Description	Invokers Required
Sacrifice	This rune is used to sacrifice enemies of the Geometer. A sacrifice completely destroys the body of its unfortunate victim, leaving behind its soul trapped in a soulstone. The victim's soul can be inserted into a construct shell to make a construct.	1 if dead, 3 if alive
Convert	Converts a normal crewmember on top of it to the cult and spawns a tome for the new member. Does not work on mindshield-implanted crew.	2
Form Wall	This rune magically thickens the air above it when used, stopping everything except gas trying to pass through it, including cultists. Invoke the rune to toggle this effect.	1
Boil Blood	When invoked, it instantly deals extreme amounts of damage to any non-cultists who see it. However, cultists in range of the rune will take some damage. The rune itself will lightly explode when used, so be careful!	3
Electromagnetic Disruption	This rune causes a large EMP, disabling machines and, more specifically, cyborgs, in a large area. However, the rune will be consumed on invoking. The more people invoke the rune at once, the bigger and stronger the EMPgets.	1-9
Raise Dead	Requires two corpses, one on the rune and one adjacent to the rune. The one on the rune is brought to life, the other is turned to ash.	1
Teleport	This rune warps everything above it to another teleport rune, which you can choose from a list.	1
Summon Cultist	This rune allows you to summon any cultist to the rune. This works across Z-levels, including the escape shuttle.	2
Astral Communion	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. 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.	1
Manifest Spirit	This rune allows you to manifest ghosts as semitransparent homunculi, which are effectively weak, humanoid cultists with no self preservation instinct. To sustain these homunculi, you must remain on the rune, and each homunculi you have summoned will cause you damage.	1
Imbue	This rune transforms paper into powerful magic talismans.You put a paper on top of it, invoke it and choose a from a list of possible talisman, which one you want to create. You will now have a talisman. For possible Talismans and their effects, see above.	1
Summon Nar-Sie	This rune tears apart dimensional barriers, calling forth the Geometer. To draw this rune you needs a free 3x3 space around you. Starting to draw this rune creates a weak 3x3 forcefield and alarms the entire station of your location. Requires 9 invokers. Can only be invoked, if all other objectives are fulfilled.	9

Structures

By using a construction talisman on platsteel, you are able to get runed metal. With it you can build several structures, with unique powers. You can unanchor cult buildings by hitting them with your tome.

Name	Description	Cost
Altar	A bloodstained altar dedicated to Nar-Sie. By using it, you are able to create a Eldritch Whetstone, to sharpen your weapon, a Zealot's Blindfold, which lets you see in he dark or a Flask of Unholy Water, which heals cultists. After using the altar, it needs some time to recharge.	5 runed metal
Forge	A forge used in crafting the unholy weapons used by the armies of Nar-Sie. By using it, you are able to create a Shielded Robe, which creates a powerful shield around the user, a Flagellant's Robe, which makes you faster, but at the cost of increased damage or a Nar-Sien Hardsuit, for space walks. After using the forge, it needs some time to recharge.	5 runed metal
Pylon	A floating crystal that slowly heals those faithful to Nar'Sie. Also slowly turns the surrounding floor into engraved floor.	3 runed metal
Archives	A desk covered in arcane manuscripts and tomes in unknown languages. Looking at the text makes your skin crawl. By using it, you are able to create a Supply Talisman, the one a cultist gets at the start of the round, a Veil Shifter, a 2 use random teleporter for medium distance or a Shuttle Curse, which when used, delays the escape shuttle for 2 minutes. You can only use a certain amount of shuttle curses each round. After using the archives, it needs some time to recharge.	2 runed metal
Runed door	Only opens for cultists. Useful securing your base, but a dead giveaway that a cult is onboard.	3 runed metal

Constructs

Robust cultists will likely want to enlist the services of a few constructs. To create a construct, a cultist requires:

• A filled soul stone, either by sacrificing a human, or capturing a soul manually with a stone from a supply talisman or an artificer.
• An empty shell, either by using a construction talisman on 25 metal sheets, from an artificer, or from a starting talisman.

When the filled soul stone shard is used on an empty shell, the cultist will be allowed to choose the desired construct to create. Keep in mind these guys are pretty much a dead giveaway that there is cult activity on the station, so try to be covert about it in the beginning.

A complete guide to constructs can be found here. Artificers will poop out new soulstones and shells, wraiths can kill the AI, and juggernauts are great tanks.

Threats to the Cult

Even with access to a large amount of different runes and talismans, there are still several threats to the cult on the station.

Ratvar Scum

The followers of Ratvar want nothing more than do summon their machine god, so it can take revenge on our beloved Nar-Sie. Due to their connection to Ratvar, they or their constructs can not be converted, but they also can´t convert followers of Nar-Sie. As such, Ratvarian magic will be more effective against Nar-Sian cultists. The opposite is also true; much of Nar-Sie's magic is more effective against Ratvar's servants.

Security and the Chaplain

Even the best prepeared cultists will have trouble to defend themselve against the united power of security .Especially if the Chaplain Helps them. The Chaplain is able to turn normal water into Holy Water, which will turn cultist back to normal people, if it stays long enough in their system. The Chaplain is also immune to cult magic and his bible is able to make hidden runes visible.

Tips

• Cultists can know a rune's name and effects by examining it.
• Cultists often find a use for medibots. Having a single bot with a low threshold, backed up with the odd bruise pack, can allow a tiny number of cultists to summon and arm a vast number of ghostly warriors to their aid. A single bot can juggle multiple people at once, if they are relatively close to each other.
• Engineering staff during cult are top-priority converts, as they can sabotage telecomms for you.
• Are you cult? Got talismans? You can store them on a clipboard, and nobody ever checks clipboards, especially if you're QM or another role that spawns with them. Right-click the papers to label them and keep track of their effects, or just examine them.
• Now, are you CHEF cult? Bake your talismans into fortune cookies and hand them out to cultmates.
• Get some platsteel either from mining, stealing it from robotics, engineering or storrage, or deconstructing reinforced walls if you are desperate.
• Drag paper bins onto you to pick them up. A single paper bin holds 30 papers, and that's 30 potential talismans!
• Are almost all other cultist dead? Get a medibot and create a ghost army with Manifest Spirit and arm them with Talisman of Arming.