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.

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[ Rei, Terry, and Yamato are shoved through the second door. ]

[ It's dark. Unlike the previous "room" that had the flames to light up night, there is only a pale full moon that looms overhead the river that the team falls into. The waters are swallow, only coming up a few feet, but it's cold and slows down their movements. It's impossible to climb out of the river as the lands on either side stretch upwards like tall walls. The only way to move is forward. ]

[ And through a hoard of the undead. ]

[ A hundred of dead humans, lumbering through the water and moaning. It doesn't take long to recognize these men as the ones that previously invaded the village; the ones that Terry viciously slaughtered. As proof, they have a deep hole through their chests that his arrow penetrated. They all point and scream at him, asking how could he do this to them? Why didn't he show them mercy? They had families too. ]

[ They all converge on Terry, ignoring Rei and Yamato unless they intervene. They're not that strong. They're rotten and their flesh is starting to falling apart. Some of them are already missing limbs, so it's their sheer number that you'd have to be concerned about, but a single attack from Terry should blow them away, right? ]

[ No. As soon as the three fell through the door, they have lost all of their offensive regain bonuses. Did you have super strength? It's been stripped away. Did you have an ally who can help? They cannot be brought forth. Furthermore, your Personas are bound by a strange curse that rendered all of their strength and attacks useless. Only support and passive skills can be used. Rely on them and whatever items you might have brought along. You can either fight them all or push through to the end. ]

[ Terry has no time to admire the scenery of the clear night skies when all these zombies are making way towards him. Maybe it's better that he lost his memories of 40k years, because he sure would have hesitated upon seeing them and hearing what they're saying. Instead, Terry grins and throws a molotov to light the group on fire in the middle. Even without his powers, Terry was reckless and charging in. It's a little like Summer Terry, except he won't hold back in absolute glee.

Maybe if he still had half of his inhibitions, he'd stop to think that flying over the zombie horde with Vassago would have been a safer and much better idea, but the need for violence is astoundingly high, and his innate thirst for blood can't be held back.

He laughs when they point and scream at him. It's fucking Murder Terry now. Goodbye, self-restraint. ]

Mercy? Mercy? You guys wanted that? After I saw you guys slaughtering the townspeople?

[ The zombies are so weak. Even as a normal human back in July, Terry was still pretty fit and athletic, so he can still pack a punch. That's why he easily shoves a zombie away with a kick while half of them are being concerned with the burning in the center of the zombie group. ]

You wanted mercy and the best excuse you can come up with is because you had families? When you were the ones slaughtering the young and the old, and entire families yourselves? What a load of horseshit. Don't scream your hypocrisy at me! If you thought dying once wasn't enough, then come at me! I'll just kill you all over again!!

[ Despite the numbers, Terry looks like he's holding his own very well. There's the river width to consider and a hundred zombies when half of them are panicking over fire that's spreading. Terry punches, kicks, and stabs any zombie in the way, crushing their heads in the river with his foot if they happen to fall into the water. Occasionally, he uses his ziodyne taser, which makes the rotting flesh smell even worse, but it doesn't look like Terry cares about that. ]

[ There is so much going on at the same time. One second, Rei's blind then thrown into a burning village and the next, she's shoved into a freezing cold river. It's hard to process it all when it happens merely in seconds, but her first concern is Tokidoki. She's no longer holding his hand and she doesn't see him around. They got separated and she wants to go look for him, but she can't because, well... someone is having way too much of a good time with these guilt-tripping zombies. ]

[ She doesn't know what's going on with Terry, but that is definitely not the oniichan that she knows. Is he affected by a status ailment? Just in case, Rei summons Ananke and uses a quick Amirta Shower on him, but she also tries to get over to him quickly. It's difficult when she's small and a "few" feet is a lot for her. She's slow and it takes her some time before she can try to grab onto Terry's arm. ]

T-chan! Stop!

[ She knows that it's probably best to get rid of the zombies, but this isn't the way to do it, especially when they seem so... human. ]

[ It might as well be, if you want to count the ~symbolism~ of how he no longer has his demigod identifier. The usual smell of cinnamon isn't there, and it's pretty obvious, since the identifier makes it clear when it's around. Amrita Shower gives Terry a calm feeling for half a second, before he goes back to slaughtering zombies. When Rei grabs onto Terry's arm, he almost swung a punch with that arm while she was holding onto him, but thankfully he noticed before he did so.

He stops for two seconds before tossing a greek fire bomb at the zombie frontline over his shoulder. The fire burns, even though they're at the river. The water won't douse the flames. ]

What is it, Rei? I'm a little busy right now.

[ The lack of cinnamon is definitely concerning... did he get replaced with someone? Is this the real Terry or not? She's not sure, but regardless, she doesn't let go of his arm. Whoever he is, he shouldn't be having so much fun killing things like this. ]

You're acting strange. I-I don't know why, but you're too happy right now.

Why? Is that wrong? It's better than being in fear.

[ Terry pockets the ziodyne taser and slams his foot into a flaming zombie's chest when it gets too close. Null fire is still amazing. ]

Besides, I'm not scared of these zombies! We need to get out of here as fast as we can anyway!

T-Then we should just run past t--

[ She doesn't get to finish her sentence because one of the zombies grabs hold of her arm and tries to pull her downwards into the cold waters, trying to drown her. She's talking with the monster so casually. She must be an ally. Kill the ally as well. She probably also has no mercy for them! ]

[ When Rei is getting pulled into the water, Terry immediately socks the shit out of the zombie who did that. The flaming zombie is still a flaming zombie despite the river and he makes sure to pry its weak zombie grip off Rei and pulls her back away from the zombies. ]

Don't touch her! I'll kill you!

[ He smashes that specific zombie's head against the bottom of the river anyway, killing it rather brutally. ]

[ Rei is absolutely terrible in water. She doesn't know how to swim or stay calm when she goes under. She panics and as a result, she's coughing when she's pulled back up. It takes her seconds to stop, but that horrible feeling of inhaling water doesn't go away. ]

L-- Let's just go, T-chan, please!

[ They don't need to kill everyone. They can just speedrun through this. ]

Anyone who even tries taking a life should be prepared to die in return.

[ There's so much malice dripping from those words and it's Terry's reasoning that since they weren't afraid to take any lives, the same should go for them the other way around. Terry always fought with this in mind, but it doesn't mean he's suicidal. He just has to be better than the other. Kill or be killed. Don't start shit if you can't take it either.

Rei or Yamato better give a solid good reason to overcome Terry's lack of impulse control because he kills another zombie that approaches. ]

[ Rei will go back to holding onto Terry's arm, trying to at least slow down his carnage. She doesn't think he wouldn't hurt her to get her off so she holds on tightly. ]

I-- I know that you want to make them pay, but we don't have a lot of time! The dungeon is more important, T-chan!

[ Even with his one arm held on to by Rei, he still kicks and punches with his other hand and leg at the burning horde of zombies if they get too close. He's no longer charging in and he would never hurt Rei with the small amount of self control that he still has. He looks over at Yamato who's been helping out and pretty much dealing with this side drama. Sorry, dude.

Terry clicks his tongue and summons Vassago. He looks so done with Terry but he doesn't disappear. Instead, he grabs Terry, Yamato, and Rei and flies over the group of burning zombies. ]

Thank you, T-chan...

[ The zombies can't do much against a flying dragon, but they still point and scream. It'll be a long ride as this river seems to go on forever, so Rei is glad that they're no longer trekking through the waters. However, she's completely soaked and freezing, so she puts her arms around herself. ]

You don't smell like cinnamon anymore...

[ Terry doesn't even consider Rei's discomfort if he does this, so he just goes ahead and hugs her from the back because she looks cold. ]

I didn't smell like cinnamon either when I looked like someone else, remember?

[ As if that matters. ]

[ She doesn't mind it. She's still concerned and a part of her still does wonder if this is the real Terry, but since he summoned Vassago, she's pretty sure that this is him. ]

That's true, but you were still acting funny... is it because you're worried about neechan?

No.

[ Terry knows Rei has a neechan, but who that person is? No clue. Therefore, he can't be worried about a person he doesn't know. ]

People always tell me I'm weird or whatever, so don't let it get to you too much.

Okay...

[ She still can't shake off that something is off, but she doesn't want to keep prodding him so she says nothing. She just hopes that they can escape this terrible room and luckily, they'll find their end destination. The river has split up into two paths with a door on the floor of each stream. They're hardly visible in the darkness of the night, but the water is perfectly clear and a keen eye might spot them out. However, they'll be difficult to open due to the water resistance and the team will have to go underwater to pass through. That might have been an easy feat if the waters were still steep, but it became progressively deeper and deeper the further the river went so it'd be a deep dive to reach them. Even besides that, which door is the correct one? There are no indications on what lies behind each door. ]

[ Terry isn't the one that's paying attention, but Vassago is. He spots the door on the floor of the riverbed. Vassago hovers over one of the doors, because it's not like he can tell the difference between either one, so it's no use fretting over which one to go to when there are no differences they can tell from here.

When Vassago stops moving on, Terry peeks over from the dragon's back after letting Rei go. ]

Huh. We gotta dive. Do you still have the water breathing charm?

[ ... oh, that's what she was forgetting. ]

I... didn't bring it.

[ Terry will give Rei his. Here you go. It's a miracle that his breathing charm still exists from how fragile it is, and how much he gets hurt on a weekly basis. He puts it into her hand and assumes Yamato can swim because he looks like a capable guy. ]

I'm gonna go first to open the door!

[ And without hearing back from either of the two, Terry dives into the water in an attempt to open the door. ]

[ He sure just dove right into that idea pretty quickly... Rei honestly has absolutely no time to say anything like how they should all go down together or that she has no idea how to swim so what is diving? Do you just wait to sink? The lake dungeon was easy because she would literally just walk until it got deeper and deeper but this is already deep... oh well, she'll figure it out. ]

[ The door is heavy. The water pressure makes it difficult to open, especially as it swings outwards rather than indoors. If Terry manages to open it, there'd be nothing to see asides from a bright yellow glow. There'd be no knowing what the team will literally jump into, but at least they can take their time to decide on it. Despite being open, none of the water funnels through the exit. ]

[ Terry manages to open it, but it was a very hard struggle. He gave his water breathing charm to Rei, but it's not like he'll die no matter how long he's in there, but he feel his strength sapping the longer he's underwater--he still needs to be in stable condition, after all. He manages to float back up to the surface and pokes his head out of the water. ]

I opened it!! Come dive in so you can swim less!

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JANUARY DUNGEON

premise ⬥ taken ⬥ faq ⬥ navigation

→ 1/12 Lockdown: The Final Dungeon

Legion of the Dead

Champions of the Just

→ MOD NOTES

ROOM FOUR (TEAM B)

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