Cosmic Cultist

Cosmic Cultist
SUPERIORS:	The Unknown
CLASSIFICATION:	Team antagonist
RISK FACTOR:	Hard
CLEARANCE:	Depends on your job
"Neither ill will, nor impassionate desire. Neither malice, nor cruelty. Nothing. Just an end".

Cosmic cultist is a major team antagonist with a simple goal: bring about the end of all things. At the start of a shift, 3 or more randomly selected crew members will become cosmic cultists. To communicate with fellow cultists, Astral Murmur can be accessed with :a, which functions much like a normal radio channel.

So, what do I do?

The most important thing for a cultist is entropy. Easiest way to obtain it, and the only one available to you from the start, is your Siphon Entropy ability. Simply walk up to an unsuspecting crewmember and use the ability, and if successful, it will grant you a single mote of entropy without alerting the target. Note, however, that the target must be alive – if they are dead, the ability will not work, and if they are in critical condition, the process will kill them instantly, granting you much more entropy.

Once you have some entropy, use your other ability, Attune Influence, to view your current progress. It will look something like this:

Some important values you can see here:

Entropy until next stage

How much entropy you need to progress to the next stage. Once you have enough, the menu will display a warning, like this:

Cultists required for next stage.

How many cultists should reach the next stage in order for the entire cult to progress to the next stage. Cult stage is different from an individual cultist's stage, and has different effects.

Available for use

How much entropy you can afford to spend.

Depending on the current progress, and the amount of entropy available, you will be able to unlock influences: Those are special abilities of a cosmic cultist, and your main tool to achieve total victory.

The path to power

There are 4 stages, from 0 to 3, each with their own effects. In order for an individual cultist to progress to a new stage, one must gather enough entropy (10 for stage 1, 30 for stage 2, 60 for stage 3). The effects for a cultist are:

1. When using an influence, it will leave behind a malign echo, which persists for some time, giving away the cult's presence.
2. After reaching this stage, one's eyes will start to glow with malign light. It can be hidden with clothing, though.
3. When using an influence, another malign echo will stick to the cultist temporarily. Also grants the ability to beckon the Monument.

Once enough cultists reach a new stage (50% of the currently alive cultists, rounded up), the cult in general also progresses. The cult stages have the following effects:

1. Malign rifts will start to appear aboard the station, with an announcement from central command. Note: this can happen randomly if no cosmic cult is present, so malign rifts appearing does not always mean that there's a cult.
2. Currently no effect. Perks of open source development.
3. Even more malign rifts appear, and a second announcement plays. If you see it, expect the Monument to be beckoned soon, as it has the same requirements.

Malign rifts

When a cult becomes strong enough, malign rifts will begin to form on the station. They may pose a serious threat, and can be purged with a bible (or it's variant) by any crew member, though trained chaplains are better at doing so. If a cosmic cultist finds a rift, they can choose to absorb it, which grants numerous benefits:

1. The cultist will become completely immune to the dangers of space, including pressure, temperature, and airloss. Note that you still breathe normally, so harmful gases will still affect you if you don't have internals on.
2. Some influences become empowered, amplifying their effects.
3. A special influence, Null Fragmentation is granted. More on that later.
4. The cultist gains 10 entropy motes.
5. The cultist recieves a single opportunity to respec, resetting all their purchased influences.

Premonition

Once enough cultists reach the final stage, the Monument can be beckoned anywhere on the station. Doing so requires at least half of the cult to select the same spot. Once The Monument is manifested, The Beckoning can begin. A cultist must awaken the Monument by interacting with it. Once this is done, the station's alert level will be set to Octarine, and the monument's location will be revealed to everyone. The beckoning lasts 10 minutes, but can be accelerated significantly by bringin crewmembers in critical condiiton to the Monument – position one near the Monument and activate it, which will rip their mind out, turning them into what is essentially a ghost, and speeding up the Beckoning by 40 seconds. If the beckoning is stopped, the soul will return into the body, and if not... well, they would die anyway.

Should the Beckoning complete, the station is all but doomed – the cult's god, The Unknown, will enter realspace. Nobody knows what happens next – all that's known is that shotrly after The Unknown's appearance, anything in a 17 parsec radius simply ceases to exist.

Influences

Ability Name	Cost	Cooldown	Description
Stage 0
Aberrant Lapse	6	24 seconds	Freezes the target in palce for 15 seconds, and makes them only visible to other cultists. If used on a cultist (or yourself), the duration is doubled, and the target can revert at will.
Null Glare	8	30 seconds	Creates a flash of cosmic light, which temporarily desorients everyone around you. Ignores flash protection, does not affect fellow cultists.
Stage 1
Force Ingress	8	15 seconds	Instantly opens any door or lock. Bolted airlocks require empowerment. Unlike an EMAG, does not force doors to stay open, nor erases their access, so plan accordingly.
Unbound Step	8	Passive	You always move as if there's gravity, even in space. Offers great maneuverability in 0G, but a jetpack would be faster.
Corrupt Matter	12	20 seconds	Allows you to transmute objects into cosmic cult gear. The most important influence by far.
Stage 2
Shunt Subjectivity	12	2 minutes	Rips the target's mind out of their body and into the cosmic dark, leaving their body completely defenceless for 15 seconds. The target must stand still for it to work.
Shatter Cognition	15	Single-use	After a 5 second do-after, turns the target into a cosmic servant, and fully heals them. Unlike a cosmic cultist, they cannot hold entropy or buy abilities, but can still use astral murmur, cult weapons and cult armor. They also gain a unique influence, Forfeit Vitality, which allows them to fully heal a cultist every 2 minutes, at the cost of transferring all the target's damage to themselves.
Astral Stride	16	50 seconds	Significantly increases your movement speed for roughly 5 seconds.
Stage 3
Vacuous Imposition	18	80 seconds	Makes you completely invulnerable for 6 seconds, but decreases movement speed.
Astral Nova	20	60 seconds	Hurls a large vortex of malign energy towards your target. Deals 20 ion + 20 asphyxiation daamage on a direct hit. Stuns for 4 seconds, and deals additional 25 ion + 25 asphyxiation in a 3 tile radius. Does not affect cultists.
Special Influences
Siphon Entropy	Free	30 seconds	If used on a living humanoid, gives you 1 entropy with no effect on the target. If the target is critical, gives you 6 entropy (or 10 if they are mindshielded), but kill the target.
Attune Influence	Free	–	Opens the Influence menu.
Null Fragmentation	Absorbing a rift	Single-use	If used on an AI upload console, brings the station's AI to your side, and grants them access to astral murmur. If used on a cyborg, it will begin a chantry ritual, which, if successful, turns the cyborg into a powerful entropic colossus.

Equipment

The equipment at a cultist's disposal is somewhat limited, but rather powerful compared to the crew's armaments. All the gear is created with Corrupt Matter influence. Cosmic cultists can examine an item to see if it can be transmuted. Note: cosmic cult gear can only be used by cosmic cultists themselves. If a non-cultist takes hold of a cosmic item, they will start rapidly taking damage.

Item	Prerequisite	Description
Entropic Blade	Any sword or knife	The most basic option. Deals 20 slash, 15 asphyxiation, 25 ion and 15 structural damage per hit. Fairly good for parrying hits and reflecting shots. Attacks once per second. 2x4 large item.
Vacuous Lance	Any spear	A more exotic weapon. Higher damage than a sword – 40 pierce, 15 asphyxiation and 25 ion when wielded. Can't parry. Slightly higher attack range. 0.6 attacks per second. Can be thrown for some quick damage. 1x6 large item.
Astral Razor	Any axe or scythe	The strongest option, but requires the most skill as well. LMB when wielded fires a malign bolt. The bolt deals little damage, but marks the target on hit. Landing a hit on a marked target deals enormous damage and slightly heals the user. Ginormous item, so can't go in backpacks, but fits into suitstorage. Also looks epic.
Malign Barrier	Any shield	A heavy shield. Nigh indestructible, but slows you down rather significantly. Good for holding a position, but rather terrible for assault.
Entropic Armor	Any EVA or hardsuit	Your go-to armor/space suit. Resistances are 40% blunt and slash, 60% pierce, 50% heat and 40% asphyxiation. 50% stamina damage reduction. 60% explosion damage reduction. Equipping the helmet changes your emote and speech sounds for easier aura farming. Has a flashlight on the shoulder. Helmet provides flash protection. 10% slowdown.
Vacuous Spire	Any gas canister. Requries empowerment.	A special structure that produces entropy. When anchored, it will begin quickly absorbing gasses from it's surroundings, producing motes of entropy in the process. Requires gas to work, so you can't just put it in space and call it a day. Decent area denial tool.

Null Fragmentation

Null Fragmentation is a special, single-use influence, that you can only obtain by absorbing a malign rift. Utilizign it properly can be challenging, but if you do, the rewards will be worth it. There are two ways to use Null Fragmentation:

Subverting the AI

If you manage to get to the station AI's upload console, you can use Null Fragmentation to insert a special lawboard into it. This gives the AI a cult-aligned lawset, as well as the ability to communicate via astral murmur. If a normal lawboard is inserted, the lawset will be changed back to normal, the AI's memory will be viped, and it's ability to communicate via astral murmur will disappear.

Chantry Ritual

A Vacuous Chantry

An Entropic Colossus

You can also choose to use the ability on a cyborg instead. Doing so will instantly down them, and form a Vacuous Chantry around their body. This will alert the entire station to the chantry's location, so be prepared to defend it. If the cyborg had no player controlling it, a ghost role will open automatically. After 90 seconds, if the chantry is not destroyed, an Entropic Colossus will be born. Entropic Colossus is a very powerful ally – although it's movements are slow, it has a respectable amount of health, and hits like a freight train, smashing through steel walls like butter.

FORCES GAZE. FORCES BLIND TO ALL. COLLECTIVE ILLUSION. WISTFUL REVERIE. PARABOLIC LAMENTATION. EVERLASTING REPEATEDNESSDRIFTS THROUGH THE REALM OF HIGHER BEINGS. UNWRITTEN LAWS KNOWN TO NONE BINDING ALL OF EXISTIENCE. VAPOROUS SIGNIFICANCE. THOU SHALT SEEK MIRROR OF ANOTHER EXISTIENCE. BECKON ONE THAT SHAN'T BE KNOWN. PLANAR CONTIGUITY. EXISTIENCE TORN. CRUEL WORLD TURNED CRYONIC MIST. HIGHER SIGNIFICANCE. DANCE BENEATH VERDANT BLADES.