Intro: Mananaut Cadet Graduation
AllThe Grand Hall of the Imperial Mananauts is, if nothing else, impressive. The floor space is slightly larger than a football field, with every inch tiled in irregular stones gathered from a thousand different planes of existence. Seven massive statues loom over the room, their heads nearly scraping the fifty foot ceiling. Each statue depicts a founder of one of the seven Mananaut orders- all robed men of great venerable age and unutterable sour expression.
For the graduation ceremony, the room as been filled with conjured tables, and the tables nearest the great doors have in turn been filled to the brim with a mixture of actually graduating cadets, actors hired to fill out the numbers, and people dragged in off the street when the budget for hiring actors ran out. At the head of the room, on a raised platform artificially constructed from waves of gleaming force, sit the guest speakers, the invited members of the admiralty board, the instructional directors, the Chief of Cadets, and the Grand Wizard. The obligatory opening speakers have already said there pieces about how the assembled students represent the cream of the crop, and how they'll soon go on to live adventurers beyond the dreams of lesser men. The ceremonial first meal of
Mananas, elongated blue fruits magically engineered to contain all the nutrients of a complete meal, the staple food Mananauts on voyage has been consumed. At least, it has been consumed by those who can stomach the fruit's peculiar taste of electrified banana undercut by a powerful flavor that can only be described as 'blue'. Now most everyone is either on their phone, or, if they forgot to charge their phone battery and lost charge during the opening speakers, trying to strike up an awkward conversation with their phone wielding neighbors.
After several awkward minutes where 90% of the room has finished eating and the other 10% are rapidly coming to the horrifying realization that will soon be spending months eating very little other than
Mananas, the ceremony begins to move forward once more. The Chief of Cadets, his wizard coat a modest but rich brown embroidered with thin traces of gleaming silver, stands at the head of the room. The few people without phones and those desperately poking their Mananas in a futile attempt to transmute it into something more edible immediately snap to the movement in the hope of being rescued from their respective issues of boredom and existential dread.
The Chief of Cadets touches his lapel pin and clears his throat, the sound echoing up from the tables as though he's standing right beside you.
"Assembled Cad-"He stops mid address when the Grand Wizard, dressed in resplendent blue and gold and about halfway through his eight cup of wine, tugs on his sleeve and leans over. The Grand Wizard speaks in a hiss that would ordinarily not have been audible more than a meter away, but is transmitted perfectly through the Chief's pin.
"Harold, we can't pass this bunch of worthless degenerates. Just tell them there's been a change of plans and they're all going to fail."The Chief fumbles unsuccessfully with the lapel pin, gritting his teeth in a rictus smile.
"They're what we have," he hisses back.
"God's furry crotch, man! Some of these people didn't actually even attend classes! Quotas be damned, We'd be better off killing the lot of them now. Hell, it'd probably end up saving a lot of innocent lives!"The chief finally manages to successfully turn off the enchanted pin and there follows a silent, but agitated conversation. The cadets who were not too busy on their cell phones exchange looks.
After another minute of hissing, the Chief turns back and brushes his pin again.
"Assembled Cadets, the time has come. All rise for the Mananaut oath."Anxious shuffling follows, as cadets rise in waves and straighten clothing, clear thoughts, and surreptitiously pitch their
Mananas somewhere far away.
After a brief scan of the room, the Chief begins.
"I solemnly pledge to dedicate my life to the service of the Mananaut Order, the Imperium, and humanity at large."A sussurus of mumbling follows as the cadets repeat the first line of the oath back at varying speeds.
"The Health and Well-Being of the Imperium shall be my first and highest consideration.""I shall always respect my superior mananauts, and shall not mistreat my inferiors."The Grand Wizard scoffs into his cup of wine.
"I will maintain the utmost respect for all human life. If I am forced to kill or use violence, I will do it respectfully.""I will attend to my own health, well-being, and abilities in order to provide service of the highest standard.""I will not permit personal issues of age, disease, injury, disability, mental instability, lack of resources, low morale, possession by ghost or demon, inebriation or any other factor to interfere with my duties as an Imperial Mananaut.""I will maintain the secrets of the Mananauts and the Imperium, even at the cost of my own life.""I will respect the customs and ways of any races, whether they may be primitive or advanced, I may meet in my travels, so long as this respect does not interfere with my duties.""If I am forced to destroy another civilization, I will do my best to learn about it first, unless doing so would interfere with my duties as a Mananaut.""I will respect the laws of the Time Space Continuum.""PLEASE no more fuckery with the goddamn time space continuum," the Grand Wizard mutters, just loud enough to be picked up and nearly repeated by about half the cadets.
The Chief looks strained but keeps going.
"I will not use my magical knowledge to violate human rights and civil liberties, even under threat. Unless I am ordered to do so by a superior, or it would be necessary and/or expedient to carry out my duties as a Mananaut.""I MAKE THESE PROMISES solemnly, freely and upon my honour."Silence follows as the cadets complete the last sentence of the oath. Scattered flashes break out as cameras immortalize the moment for various imperial news cycles.
"Grand Wizard Khumuun, would you do the honor of granting these Cadets their coats, and ushering them in as Mananauts of the Imperium?" Despite the fact that the question was meant to be academic, there's a very real plea in the Chief's voice.
The Grand Wizard looks at the Chief with hard eyes, and every so slowly stands, grabbing his staff from beside his chair. He steps into the Chief's speaking position, brushing the man aside, and looks down on you with eyes that seem to be considering how much bad publicity would be generated by just obliterating every cadet in the hall. After a long moment, his expression softens into resignation, and he raises his staff slightly.
"From this day forth, you are no longer cadets."The Grand Wizard slams his staff down into the magical platform, and a ripple passes through the air. Rifts open beside each cadet, and a
long coat flings itself gracelessy onto them. Their color varies wildly, but yours, and those of the individuals around you, seems to be some shade of red.
"Don your coats, and join us as full members of the Order of Mananauts." The Grand wizard's brows knit as the cadets hastily shuffle into their coats.
"May god have mercy on us all." The Grand Wizard gives up the speaking position and returns to his wine after a few moments of disgusted staring, allowing the Chief of Cadets to return to addressing the assembled.
"While we would like to give you more time to revel in your achievement, schedules are short. If your place setting has a symbol on it, and the adjacent settings have similar symbols, this means you're part of a working group."You look down at your place setting. There is indeed a small symbol of a moon, or perhaps a
Manana, and a star. There are three other settings like it among your immediate dining mates.
"Get to know them, because you're going to be working together for the foreseeable future. Now, when you have a moment, take a minute to go to our website and view your ship assignments by entering your login ID and going to 'current assignments'. Each working group will be assigned to the same spelljammer, and you'll be shipping out in a day or two depending on your assignments. Due to logistical limitations, you'll likely only be allowed to take a small selection of personal items with you, so be sure to make arrangements to have your things sold or put into storage."The Chief of Cadets pauses, looking over the assembled with an expression approaching pity.
"Congratulations, Mananauts, and good luck."
Randal Mixon (Yottawhat)
After taking a cursory look at your 'working group' you check the website. You didn't even know janitors had working groups, but it could be good. It might be nice to have other people to commiserate with- certainly better than being the sole janitor on a ship filled with people who made it to the bigs.
The website is appropriately congratulatory, and lists your working assignment as being on a ship called the Arbore. Flicking through, it looks like it's part of some special initiative to involve the dryads more in the Mananaut program. Which seems like the kind of thing that would be hard, considering that, you know, it's hard to move a great big oak tree around. It also means that, despite being on a spelljammer, janitorial duties may yet include raking leaves.
You keep flicking through, idly skimming details about the ship. Duration is indeterminate, as is the duration of your work assignment. What catches your eye is a note at the bottom.
'SPACE EXTREMELY LIMITED: Limit of TWO personal items beyond essentials!'
Pick two personal items (they can be almost anything you have) to take with you.Health: No News is Good News
Noteworthy Items
Elementalist Wizard Coat
Eiyal (Harry Baldman)
Checking the work assignment website is easy, you were already watching a video on sixteen new ab exercises to do with a sword, and you end up looking at your work assignment as something to do while the video buffers. Apparently it accepts your name as a login, even though you don't have a password, an account, or have even been in this building before. Finest work of Magic nerds.
It's all pretty lame stuff. Stuff about a racial unity direct and bullshit about limited living space, which only mattered to lameasses who didn't live by the sword and needed 'things' like microwaves and actual beds to get through life. The only remotely interesting thing is that it's apparently run on a system of ship governance where every member of the (tiny) crew is allowed at least some say- which might mean you'll finally get the recognition you deserve.
You give the members of your working group a cursory once over. The all look like they actually trained to be here, like actually took classes and shit, unlike you. You just got pulled in off the street to make up space and 'fill quotas'. Still, it's not all bad, though there's something about that one guy that strikes you as almost eerily familiar...
Pick two personal items (they can be almost anything you have) to take with you.Health: No News is Good News
Noteworthy Items
Sword-Mage Wizard Coat
Farris Kindlestone (Coolrune)
You finger the red fabric of your mage's coat, trying to remember what the actual shades are that will let you know the specializations of the other members of your working group. Unfortunately, it's really difficult to actually put a finger on the names of all the different shade of red, and you can only discern that their coats are not quite the same red as yours, and that no two of them are of the same specialization.
Instead of immediately jumping in as the first person to speak, you opt to check your ship assignment instead. The ship is called the Arbore, and it actually looks like it's an interesting vessel- and potentially one that won't get you immediately killed on some bizarre mission to establish diplomatic ties with the spine devils or disarm hyper-planar insanity mines left over from the Crab war. The ship's profile is listed as 'Testbed' which hopefully means you'll be doing the shakedown runs for a lot of things, not that you'll be actively experimented on while on board.
Of course, with the Mananauts, that possibility is not totally beyond the pale.
The limited space is a bit of a pain, but you'll get by. Make-what-you-need and all that business of actually being a real enchanter.
Pick two personal items (they can be almost anything you have) to take with you.Health: No News is Good News
Noteworthy Items
Enchanter Wizard Coat
Irneus (IcyTea)
Your phone gives you trouble, as it is wont to do. Eventually you get it to give you your work assignment, which seems a bit better than the bland fair you were expecting. The extremely limited number of crew likely means that certain... actions will have to be performed only on strangers met on the voyage, but other than that it seems a quaint and interesting profile.
Of particular interest is the captain, whose name niggles at you from some newspaper you saw ages ago. You've definitely heard of her, and a vague memory tells you that the article describing her was not doing so in any favorable manner. If she is a member of the Mananauts who is out of favor, it's possible that the entire expedition is mainly to give her busywork and keep her out of the way- which means that very few eyes will be watching. A situation that could be beneficial.
The extreme limits on personal items are irksome, but not unexpected. After all, becoming a mananaut was something of an option of last resort, and you never really expected to make it through the transition unscathed.
Pick two personal items (they can be almost anything you have) to take with you.Health: No News is Good News
Noteworthy Items
Healer Wizard Coat
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Topic: Mananauts! | Wizardly Away Team | [4/4 Players] | The Streets of Tucson (Read 12794 times)