Criamon at play - Seeking help for a session

First things first, I know some of my players lurk on the forum - so if you play in my Roll 20 game - No peaking

For the rest of you - to set the stage I have conspired to have my player's covenant host a meeting of the Criamon Clutch in the Rhine Tribunal - none of them are Criamon unfortunately (Our Criamon player is no longer with us)

I've read through the mystery cult book and there's a lot of stuff in there but very little about what clutches do when they meet other than talk about the enigma?

I'm seeing a meeting of the clutch as both an opportunity to exchange research notes on the Enigma as well as being a big social event in the Criamon Calendar.

I have a couple of ideas (a maze, riddles etc) but I want to flesh this out more and give the characters the opportunity to mix with other mages in the tribunal and make connections - I'd like to give them more of an understanding of what the Criamon are all about as they universally view the house as 'weird' and have a perception of all its members being 'crazy'

So my question to you would be - what events do you see there being at a Criamon convention? What do Criamon do for fun and do you have any advice on engaging my players with them and what stories can you see cropping up when the Criamon of a tribunal all meet up?

I am planning for there to be a total of 8 to 9 Creamon in the Tribunal, including Kelon of Criamon mentioned in the Guardians of the Forest (path of warping - page 39) and we started before 1120 so I should say (in case it matters) that this will be happening in Autumn 1141

Hi,

What do Criamon do for fun? Let's Do the Time Warp Again, of course!

What happens when Criamon get together?

When everything goes well, it is a sweet sanctuary of bliss and harmony that serves as harbinger of the greater harmony to come.

But when does everything go well? Sometimes, a gathering of Criamon is ground zero for all their adulterations come home to roost. Circle the wagons, batten down the hatches and keep your powder dry, and cue your favorite horror movie because when death stalks your covenant nothing might be left after the dust clears.

Anyway,

Ken

Isn't it a small number ? I would say that the Rhine Tribunal is a big area well endowed with towns and things. I mean, I figure they are dozens of Criamon Magi in Rhine Tribunal (in my Saga)...

Anyway, Criamon Magi may do same things as the other Magi. They're regular Magi before being smart riddlers. Mercurial researches, Hermetic stuff (Certamen, verbal jousting, Vis trading...) Maybe they could do a thing together like a communautary volunteering project (big magic ritual, ancient staff enchantment, new participative summa...)

Or they may organize a shared travel into the Warp - don't let your Sodales out of your sight during the venture...

Considering the nature of the Enigma, I tend to see Criamon as a mix of nerds, theologist and philosophers.
So I would see them arguing and comparing Twilight experiences, trying to integrate findings from Socrates & other philosophers. Possibly presenting advance in some obscure field of magic theory to support their findings (strange, botched experiment, creatures from the Deep Realm of magic, cryptic prophecies).

Somehow like Bonisagus, with less ego, but probably more conviction than priests debating the validity of some new found text supposedly from one of the Apostle.

I do not see them using Certamen as a way to push their agenda as it does not prove anything in term of magical advance. But Warp-inducing spells, why not ? Although it can be seen as harming a sodales - but they might have a common understanding that what happen during a Criamon gathering is only a matter of the House and won't be escalate to a tribunal.

I didn't think so? The order is smaller currently because of the year we're playing at (though not by too much), and the number of Criamon in 1220 is about 95 (according to HoH Mystery Cults) split over 7 tribunals with the largest number being in the Greater Alps, and the total population of the rein tribunal in 1220 is about 180 ish mages (according to guardians of the forest) so having 10% of the house's number in the Rein seemed reasonable - especially since I want to have a number of people my players can meet and remember without information overload (this number wouldn't include current apprentices - so maybe there would be two or three more people)

Can people share twilight experiences like that?

There goes some (more) of my sanity. Sigh.

The first thing "shared twilight experiences" brought to mind was a bunch of Criamon discussing Team Edward vs. Team Jacob in an effort to understand the Enigma. :blush:

It is a very special day when the Criamon come to visit and share a glimpse of their understanding of the true nature of time, but the specialness wears off when that day starts to repeat endlessly.

Perhaps the Criamon are oversharing.

Regardless, you must now break through your plodding, unthinking routine to reach the insights that will lead you to a new day.