JANUARY DUNGEON

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JANUARY DUNGEON

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→ 1/12 Lockdown: The Final Dungeon

When preparations are complete and the team is ready to tackle the dungeons, both Attendants can be found at the castle, with Minato sitting on the armrest of the throne with a plain short sword balanced on his knees, and Souji standing to the side with several backpacks full of food, water, and blankets at his feet. "Last chance to change your mind and join the Champions of the Just," Minato pipes up from where he's sitting. "They've got trail mix." The team he's heading, incidentally, he named the Legion of the Dead and there is no trail mix or any other supplies provided by Minato, because Souji is a responsible leader who comes prepared, and Minato just doesn't care.

A several day hiking trip up the mountains for the sake of team bonding was considered but ultimately vetoed, so Souji simply opens a portal up from the forest shrine's torii to the mountain shrine's, and from there, it's only a short trek through the drifting snow to reach the honden. At the stroke of midnight, each Attendant places their hand flat on their door, the surface glowing bright blue and turning translucent: a one-way barrier swallowing each person whole as they pass through the portals.



Legion of the Dead It's a straight ten-foot drop once you step through the ofuda door in the castle, with nothing to break your fall but hard stone— or Minato if you happen to be the next person after him. It's a large stone chamber, with two large indentations on the far wall the size and appearance of doors, but neither open when touched or attacked. The only other thing of note in the room is a pedestal at the center with three omamoris slowing burning in a weak flame, one with Rio's name and arcana, another with Kido's, and the last with Yamato's, the same ones that were thrown away at the forest shrine on New Years as a statement of rejection of the Kotengu and his lent powers. Really, it's just Rio and Yamato's, though, because Kido had two omamoris to start with and doesn't need this second one. But with nothing else in the room, the first choice is a time-limited one: will you save the omamoris from the fire so Rio and Yamato can have it to summon their Personas, or will you respect their decision and allow the omamoris to burn to ashes? Depending on your choice, one of two doors will open.

Champions of the Just Entering the honden brings the group to a large stone chamber reminiscent of the forest shrine dungeon: a circular hub with a dozen arches along the perimeter, clearly meant to entice the impatient to spread themselves thin. Instead of multiple Shadow ghosts appearing from the ether to ambush the group, however, there is only one: a semitransparent ghostly form of a young boy huddled against the archway on the opposite side of where everybody had entered. He looks to be around seven, with very little distinguishing features other than pale eyes staring at the group. The moment anybody takes a step closer to him, calls out to him, or tries to attack, he starts in fear and turns to run through the archway— anybody who gives chase is met with a barrier; in fact, every other archway is blocked by the same invisible barrier, cutting their potential routes in half. The rest of the room is empty. There should be a way to get the barriers to drop in one of the five available passageways... Will you proceed all together, or divide and conquer?

There is no Velvet Room within the dungeons, and using a traesto gem or goho-m will only bring you to the beginning of the dungeon in either main hub, not outside. Falling unconscious within the dungeons doesn't bring you anywhere to be revived either; all it means is that your unconscious body lies there to rot or get eaten by Shadows until somebody hopefully saves you. So look after one another in the dungeons, and don't be afraid to rely on your Attendants. Souji will keep everybody safe.

→ MOD NOTES

⬥ Both dungeons are team-based and require some coordination with other members of their team, with some decisions involving the entire team (e.g. Legion of the Dead's first decision regarding the omamoris). The teams will make their way through several rooms to find the exit, either split up or all together, with each room containing a battle, puzzle, decision, or another obstacle. The team as a whole will bear the consequences of the actions taken, so please give each choice careful consideration. As actions may affect subsequent rooms, new rooms will become available after the previous are cleared, rather than all the information given at one time.
⬥ A toplevel for the boss will go up once a team ICly reaches the boss' chamber, and overall, this deadline is the end of the month to avoid IC consequences.

Comments

[yokeye]

Because we don't need them to summon parts of ourselves!

[He's answering Rei, having no idea Terry took his omamori. He thinks it's burning.]

Right?

[compendiem]

Technically, yeah.

[ Minato has no stakes in the omamori, and is instead hanging around at the doors running his hand down the surface of them as if trying to coax them open like he did the ofuda door. ]

You can force them out through another medium like I used to do. Or call for them naturally, like Souji and the rest of my senpai could do. I dunno anything about the process, so you're outta luck for now.

[ Part willpower, part being touched by a mystical being, whatever. It's second nature to Minato now, summoning without a medium, so he can't explain it at all, because his Personas are always there right at his side whether visible or not. ]

Anyways, are we going to let these burn? If we wait any longer, they're going to be too damaged to use even if they're saved.

[overstrain]

There's probably a reason why they're here.

[ Terry eyes the fire and then back at the "entrance". ]

One of these belongs to someone who's still back there.

[yokeye]

Minato just said we don't need them!

[That's what he's taking from that explanation.]

We should all burn ours!

[overstrain]

[ It hasn't even been five minutes and Terry feels like he's getting a headache. ]

We don't have another medium and Minato just said he doesn't know the process of naturally summoning them, so we're not burning anything. When a Persona forcefully comes out without all that, that means you're having issues with your Persona, and that's the last thing we need right now.

[compendiem]

Terrence is right. If you want to stick it to the Kotengu, burn your omamoris after leaving this place and figuring out another way. Freedom from the Kotengu doesn't matter if you die here.

[ Minato walks up to the pedestal and pokes Kido's omamori into the center of the fire so it can burn first. This really can't go on forever, maybe another handful of tags or until Eon wakes up and has Yamato chime in on the fate of his own omamori. ]

[technical]

...These three sacrificed their omamori themselves, before any of us were involved.

[Hi guys, Cyrus has been here the entire time just watching. The drop was fairly small and not a huge issue with Honchkrow's assistance, so now man and bird are just standing with the rest. Honchkrow is looking at the omamori, or the fire, or both — perhaps it wants to take the objects, or perhaps it's just intrigued by the flames.]

Barring the one still coming through, who can decide perfectly well on their own, I don't see any reason to take the objects back.

[devilshocker]

It's already burned to a crisp.

[Nero lightly pokes Minato in the back with his prosthetic hand. Rude.]

Sometimes a sacrifice is necessary. Do whatever the hell you need to do. I suck at teamwork.

[compendiem]

[ "I suck at teamwork." Terry's going to have an aneurysm at this rate. But Minato just nods, because that's what he does: whatever the hell he needs to do. And right now, that thing to do is to stop wasting time, so he summons Orpheus at his side to hurry up the burning process. ]

If it's a trap, I'll take responsibility.

[laconism]

[Red simply watches everything unfold quietly, so it's probably safe to assume that he agrees with this course of action. Charizard pitches in a Flamethrower to help out with the burning as well.]

[not_that_sasuke]

[Sasuke's here, and he's actually got a lightweight bag with him - which he's using to carry all the healing stuff Rio got for the teams.]

...They decided on it...

[It was something that occurred to him as well, but in the end, he didn't have the courage to try.]

[astralchain]

[ Yamato is a bit slow on the movement due to looking around. He can't sense anything both physically and... well.... you know, an attempt at spiritually, but. ]

Leave mine there.

[ He folds his arms, an uncharacteristic bitter undertone to his voice. ]

I chose to not use it.

[ Being weak to Fire means he can't help with the burning process, but everyone is getting it lit real fast so they should be able to move on soon. ]

[devilshocker]

[Looks like they've settled on it. Nero's not joking when he says he's bad at teamwork. He feels that his opinions won't weigh on too heavily so he decides to not comment. The Holy Knights used to critisize him for having a fowl mouth. Perhaps it's best to just let them carry on in their own way.

Still, he gets restless waiting for the burning process to finish. It feels like it's taking forever.

Then he pulls out his revolver and starts charging it incase something comes out to threaten them.]

[overstrain]

[ Cool. Goodbye, omamoris. They really don't have time to waste. Once they're completely burned to nothing but ashes, the door on the right opens.

Terry takes cautious steps into whatever is past the door. ]

[not_that_sasuke]

[Following! Surely that wasn't a bad choice.]

[yokeye]

[Assuming Rei has told him one of the doors opened, Toki will ask the important question to whoever's gone through it.]

What's in there!?

[They shouldn't all just wander in when it could be a certain death situation.]

[compendiem]

...I can't see.

[ That's to say, Minato cannot see anything at all when he enters the room after Sasuke, not because there's nothing in the room but because his sense of sight is completely gone, along with anybody else's who is already inside. With people piled up in front and behind, there's nowhere to dodge when something slams against his side and sends him hitting the ground hard with a cry of pain, dull on his back and shoulder but stabbing in his arm where he feels teeth sink into his arm and crack the bone. ]

Argh-- The rest of you stay out! ORPHEUS!

[ The room heats up immediately with the fire none of them can see, but whatever's latched onto his arm doesn't relent- it nulls fire, unbeknownst to Minato, a Chimera usually seen in the school dungeon.

There are five Chimeras and five Eldritches inside this room that must be defeated before the door on the other side will open, so. Yeah. Toki is smarter than the rest of us inpatient fools. ]

[flowerclips]

[ Toki is a lot smarter than everyone for not wandering in without first asking questions. Since Rei is sticking to him like glue, she doesn't venture in and avoids the fate of getting attacked like a certain Attendant. ]

V-Vice Leader!

[ She immediately summons Ananke and casts a Diarahan on him. Sorry, she's going to crowd up the doorway because there's her, Toki, Ananke, Zhn, and a bunch of bunnies blocking the way. ]

There are a bunch of F.O.E.s!

[yokeye]

What are F.O.E.s!?

[He doesn't know that terminology, or what any of the Shadows are called, so that won't help him either. He just knows it's bad, and he was right, and people really need to listen to him more. Of course, if they'd listened to him about burning all the omamoris, it would be worse maybe.]

[flowerclips]

They're really strong Shadows! They're different from the rest!

[ Rei has been using that term even before Hirajiro, coming up with the acronym with Zen (who made the full name). ]

They're the ones from the first and second dungeons!

[ Of course, Zhn is inpatient and he wants to help, so he runs right in. However, even with Rei looking into the room, he can't see so he just has to rely on his sense of smell and hearing, though hm... Hope that one of you in the room likes to have a giant wolf thrown at you because that's exactly what happens. There will be a loud pained yelp from both Zhn and Rei. ]

[compendiem]

[ Minato is going to get mauled on one arm by a Chimera and mauled on the other by Zhn, and he can tell right away that fire isn't going to cut it here. ]

Rei! Prepare to use samarecarm on Sasuke!

[ Who isn't dead yet, but he's going to be real soon, because Messiah is going to Megidolaon the hell out of this floor and everybody is going to get caught in the crossfire, with the damage even splashing over to the people outside, but Sasuke is at ground zero so he's the priority. ]

[not_that_sasuke]

[Well, so much for being much help!

Minato's shout is basically the only warning he gets before Megidolaon slams into him like a truck and, as per his luck, he's fuckin deda.

Good hustle, team.]

[overstrain]

[ Everything happened so fast. Suddenly he's blind, gets mauled by chimeras and stabbed by eldritches, and gets slammed by a Megidolaon. Everything hurts and he sure is a blood fountain right now.

He still stands despite the pain. He can tell where his allies are thanks to the stench of blood and where the enemies are, so he summons his longbow, nocks a very thick typeless magical arrow and immediately shoots without aim. It separates into many other seeking arrows that pierce through the FOEs, weaves into them like a sewing thread, and they die. ]

[flowerclips]

[ Thanks for the warning, Minato, because Rei has no idea why she needs to get ready to use Samarecarm. Also, Zhn was, like, right there. Whatever damage he takes, Rei takes so that Megidolaon fucks up her too. She can't even let out a pained cry because it's just so sudden and overwhelming. She can only fall to her knees and breathe heavily. I will be kind and say that she survives this so she doesn't have to waste her Enduring Soul so early on, but this really hurts and :/ ]

[ She casts Samarecarm a few seconds later on Sasuke and then a Salvation on everyone. She's healed but she stays on the ground to catch her breath while Zhn is very upset about the entire time. He's going to angrily bark at Minato after the battle is over. ]

[yokeye]

[Toki is beginning to think he really should have stayed behind. What's Samarecarm? Then everything is terrible, people are dying maybe? Are the Shadows dying?

But after Rei drops to her knees, that's the only thing he cares about. He also regrets burning his omamori because what if she's hurt and he can't heal her. Oh my god.]

Rei? A-are you alright?