The truth of reality is revealed in the glint of moonlight on puddles of blood, the shine of torchlight on a pitted iron blade. Death to the false gods and their attempt to order the world; the only truth is the new Godhead, Zizo.
As a cultist of Zizo, your objective is to ensure your leader, the Heresiarch, ascends to demonhood. To do so, you must convert others to your side, perform blood rituals, and make human sacrifices.
Starting Out
If you've toggled the cultist role and are selected for the gamemode, you will spawn in your usual role. You'll know you're a cultist by your chatbox, which will give you your objectives and a brief blurb about the gamemode. You don't have to run off into the woods to hang out with your cult friends the minute the round starts; in fact, it's better if you do your job as usual, and get accustomed to your new verbs and abilities.
You get some extra skills and a +2 buff to strength as a cultist, no matter the class. You also start with two extra verbs; Praise and Communicate. Praise is an emote that will make you praise Zizo and does nothing else. Naturally, you shouldn't be doing this in public, unless you want to take a trip to the church basement.
Communicate allows you to speak telepathically with your fellow cultists. This is key to coordinating your plans over a long distance and finding out who your fellow cultists are. Using Communicate too much will make you tired, and you also whisper some obvious, cult-y nonsense when using it, so be careful communicating next to someone.
Cult Ranks
- Heresiarch: The leader of the cult. They are the one seeking ascension. Can draw sigils.
- Cultists: The rank-and-file of the cult. Can't draw sigils, but can invoke them.
- Beasts of the Cult: Simplemobs that must perform the bidding of the cult; skeletons, Zizo beasts, and the like. Can't draw circles or sigils or invoke them.
Strategy
Your most powerful enemy in this gamemode is the Church, especially the Inquisitor, whose job is to root the cult out. You lack the resources of the church (at least at the beginning), so it's a good idea to start out subversive rather than going loud.
You should also decide on a home base for your cult. Pick somewhere secluded, but not too far away from your source of corpses; the Sewers and the Terrorbog are good places to start.
If you're picking a victim, start out with those who won't be missed. Passerby drifters or townsfolk wandering too far away from the City are ripe for kidnapping and sacrifice.
Useful roles to kidnap or convert
- Butcher - Is expected to be wandering around covered in blood, has access to meat
- Soilfolk - Farm is fairly secluded, can produce food for the cult
- bog Guard - Has access to weapons
- Innkeep - Has a secluded basement and food
- Merchant - Can buy useful items.
Roleplaying a Cultist
Remember that you're telling a story. Don't just run up behind people and kill them while using the Praise verb. Act the part of a bloodsoaked cultist; stare with wide, empty eyes at passerby, scream about the end times being near, kidnap the heir to the throne and drag them kicking and screaming to your blood ritual in the forest.
Overall, make sure to roleplay with your victim; losing is part of the fun in Ratwood, but you should preserve the atmosphere of the setting if you have to kill someone.
Blood Magick
To do the majority of what you need to do as a cultist, you must draw sigils and ritual circles. Within the ritual circles, you must place sacrifices at certain points of the ritual circle to gain their benefits.
To draw sigils and circles, your hands need to be bloody. To do this, you can click on a pool of blood with empty hands to bloody them. If you need a source of blood but there's no convenient meatbag around, use yourself! Swap to Weak intent, stab yourself in the hand, and bloody up.
It should also be noted that only animal meat will work with rituals. Ironically, human meat will not.
| Ritual | Effects | Directions | Conditions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Convert | Turns a victim into a Zizoid Lackey. | Place a victim at the center of the sigil and invoke the ritual of conversion. |
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| Skeletal Jaunt | Turns someone into a skeleton that obeys the cultist's commands. | Place a living victim at the center of the sigil, and a heart at the north quadrant of the sigil. Invoke the skeletal jaunt ritual. | N/A |
| The Call | Summon a sleeping victim to the center of a ritual circle. | Place a bedsheet in the center of the sigil. Place a left leg on the west sigil. Place a right leg on the east sigil. Then, place a piece of parchment with the name of the desired victim written upon it. Wait for the victim to be sleeping, and invoke the ritual. |
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| Falsified Appearance | Randomizes the name and appearance of the person in the middle of the sigil. | Place a recipient in the center of the sigil. Place a severed head on the north sigil. Place a shard of glass on the east, west, and south sigil. | N/A |
| Pact of Unity | Possess a person's soul. | Place a piece of paper in the center of the sigil. Place a pair of eyes on the north sigil. The paper will turn into a pact paper; someone with a bleeding wound can sign it with their name, leaving their soul sealed in the contract. To destroy someone's soul and kill them, tear up the contract. |
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| Dark Suns Mark | Afflict someone with the Hunted flaw, causing them to be targeted by assassins. | Place an iron dagger and a parchment with the name of the victim written on it. | N/A |
| Ritual | Effects | Directions | Conditions |
|---|---|---|---|
| All Seeing Eye | Creates a scrying orb with a longer cooldown than the base orb. | Place an eye in the center of the sigil. | N/A |
| Criminal's Tool | Creates a bar of soap that quickly cleans messes. | Place a piece of cloth in the center of the sigil. | Only has 9 uses. |
| Propaganda | Creates an accursed leech that can attach instantly to a target and fill their mind with Zizoid |
Place a leech in the center of the sigil. Place a piece of parchment on the north sigil. Place a feather on the south sigil. | The leech does not suck blood. |
| False Idol | Creates an illusion of a chosen recipient or victim. | A human should be on the center of the sigil. Place a piece of parchment on the north sigil. Place a feather on the south sigil. | N/A |
| Invade Mind | Sends one-way messages into a recipient or victim's mind. | Place a parchment and feather on the center of the sigil. The parchment should have the desired message on it. Invoke the ritual and enter the name of the recipient. | N/A |
| Summon Weaponry | Summons some leather hoods, blades, and chain. | Place a steel ingot in the center of the sigil. | N/A |
| Ritual | Effects | Directions | Conditions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saliendo Pedes | Allows a recipient to leap up Z-levels in a single bound. | The recipient must stand in the center. Place a left leg on the west sigil, a right leg on the south sigil, and meat on the north sigil. | N/A |
| Darkened Eyes | Gives nightvision. | The recipient must stand in the center. Place a pair of eyes on the west and east sigil. | N/A |
| Painless Battle | Removes the ability to feel pain at the cost of a debuff to strength, constitution, and if you are a male character, the inability to mechanically have sex. | The recipient must stand in the center. Place a brain on the east sigil. Place a heart on the west sigil. Place 1 meat on the north sigil. | Male characters lose -2 Strength and -2 Constitution, female characters lose the same but -3 Constitution. |
| Stronger Form | Turns a victim into a monster. | The victim must be in the center. Place guts on the west and east sigil. Place meat on the north and south sigil. | Cannot be performed on Zizo Cultists. |
| Gutted Fish | Quickly gibs a dead body and allows the organs and meat within to be harvested. | Place the dead body in the center of the sigil. Invoke the ritual. | N/A |
| ASCEND | Allows the cult leader to achieve apotheosis. Causes the round to end in 15 minutes. | The cult leader must stand in the center of the sigil. The ruler must be placed in the north sigil, and a virgin sacrifice must be placed in the south sigil. | Both the ruler and the virgin must be dead. |