Ritual of Joining & Summoning - the Star Cult

The Star Cult has it's own means of joining or starting an individual cult, and in process join themselves closer to their deity. Each cult is meant to use a standard template of joining, and rituals, though this can vary wildly between different sects, regions, and members. Most require a sacrifice to be required of the inductee. This can range from a part of their body, to ritual bloodshed. Sometimes they are also required to set up a cell of the cult in their area, or join an existing one. Quite a few revel in madness & despair, so will look to release toxins or carry out ritual magic in a region that will cause nightmares & hallucinations over long periods of time. The purpose here is to eventually drive local creatures insane with horrific imagery. This is also to help prepare the minds of mortals for some type of revelation or apocalypse by their god or gods. The cult itself looks to corrupt the land, air, and water in a region to better prepare it for such a creature to arrive. In some instances they look to raise said deity up from the depth, or from above.
Most of the rituals will involve the most powerful of the cult look to get into positions of power, or the removal of local opposing powers. These would obviously lead to it being easier to establishing its own power base, and corrupts the region enough to maybe get Star Spawn to appear. This helps their aim of summoning more powerful individuals to the cult's aims, and protects them further from outside hostility. When this starts happening, they draw more converts from the underclasses and from the insane, sometimes even the criminally insane too. This leads to enough warping of the area they are in for those that are not members to start noticing changes.
The changes can range from effects like time going in strange directions, weird colours causing mutation & other strange effects in local flora & fauna, creatures being heard, seen, smelt, or felt just out of the actual senses. Sometimes these sort of effects are experienced by only a few individuals at first, then gets more & more as time goes on. Fortunately this has the effect of drawing in enemies of the cult, whether militarily, politically, and/or religious in mature. The latter three quickly look to stamp out this threat when they come across it, so very few of these regional effects are encountered, especially in the later stages.
The cultists meanwhile will look to go into hiding. Depending where they are situated and who is a member of the cult or allied to it, they can be left alone for years, decades or even centuries. The members develop strange anatomies over time, and most inductees will have very little if any, while the elders will have very strange anatomies indeed. Many have scales, a fishy odour, large fish or frog like eyes, rubbery and/or slimy bodies, webbed hands & feet, gills, little to no hair, makes croaking noises, tentacles in place of limbs, in place of tongues, or around their mouths. Sometimes they will have a strange mark hidden away, or different tinges to their skin (such as yellow or green), or eyes / mouths / other strange orifices on their person. Some parts my grow larger or wither away, and a few will end up with elements like a mermaid's tail, or a serpent body from the waist down. Many of these are barely noticeable on recent inductees so can be hard to spot at first.
The ritual itself is a catchall term for their spells, and are to bring about the changes needed at any given time that the elders feel it is needed. Most of the effects mentioned above are amplified by the ritual, as it draws them closer to one another and their deity. The elders & those most mutated, or insane, seem to have the most power in the cult, and this power is harnessed during the ritual, allowing for the magic to take effect much more easily. In a few cases the power drawn from one or more is enough to kill the cultist, and if not directed correctly into or towards an initiate, can kill them too.