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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[How they got here was confusing and there was shoving and chaos. This room is hot with a heavy air, like being outside in the summer. The crowd of people aren't screaming like the last room, more... chanting and happy shouting.]

What's going on? Something about the Kotengu?

[The voices are perhaps too far away to distinguish everything right now, or blending together. Toki's low-key freaking out, because he knows Rei isn't here. They were separated. If she'd ended up in this room after that, she'd already be holding his hand or talking to him.]

[Sasuke sees Cyrus pausing, and is about to ask what's wrong when--

Nothing... comes out... He puts a hand on his throat, but sure enough, there's no vibrations there no matter how hard he tries, even though he can hear everything else perfectly fine.

Oh. Yeah, this is super going to suck. The most he can do is look questioningly at Cyrus and hope he understands the concern.]

[So. He can't hear. One of the boys is putting his hand to his throat like he can't speak, but he looked at Cyrus when he spoke. And that third one... it was apparent from the previous rooms that he doesn't have his sight. Reading the boy's lips, he picks out a few key phrases like "on" and "Kotengu", but it's apparent that he's going to need some more practice before he can readily communicate with anyone. Or perhaps a pen and paper, that would also help.]

[Since Cyrus is the only one who can't hear, he speaks for their benefit, desperately hoping that the words don't sound wrong now that he can't hear and correct his intonation.]

Certain senses have been stripped from us, it seems.

[Sasuke can only communicate visually, which cuts him off from Toki. Toki can only communicate verbally, which cuts him off from Cyrus. Cyrus can communicate but will have a hell of a time understanding either of them if they speak verbally.]

[Toki isn't really aware of Sasuke's presence, and he's focusing on the voice that's speaking. It's not one he knows instantly. Thinking back on who the group was composed of, he starts eliminating people. Luckily, he spoke to Nero a bit before they went into the dungeon, as he and Cyrus are the only ones Toki wasn't too familiar with. He decides it's Cyrus, even if his voice sounds a little strange, a fluctuating volume. Maybe he always talks like that.

When the words resonate, Toki is a little confused at their meaning; not be able to observe what else is going on. Though the room Minato and Terry ran into first apparently blinded them somehow. It has to be related.]

Like in the first room? You're... Cyrus, right?

[Hey Toki, can Sasuke take your hand? Because if so he'll try to trace the first character of Yes in whatever their shared language is right now. He does it very deliberately, pausing for a moment before repeating the trace so that Toki can hopefully understand what he's trying to get at.]

[This is weird. Toki knows what Sasuke's trying to do, but it's hard to picture the character in his head. He moves his index finger of his other hand, repeating what he thinks the strokes were.]

Yes? Yes.

[This is not a good room.]

That's right. I'm Cyrus.

[He still doesn't know Toki or Sasuke's names, but he's content with calling them the small one and the tall one for now. Considering their communication is going to be limited.]

Last time, the issue was resolved by completing some goal on the floor. Meaning there must be something we need to do here.

[He can't hear the villagers talking, but he could pick out a few words from Toki.]

You mentioned the Kotengu? Nod or shake your head.

I-

[Toki cuts himself off to just nod as instructed. This is already tedious. He points in the direction the villagers' voices are coming from, and then gives Cyrus a thumbs-up. They like the Kotengu. Hopefully, that gets across.]

[They seem to be figuring this out, so at least there's that. Sasuke catches Cyrus' eye to point down the two routes: shrine or castle. He tilts his head questioningly: which way?]

[Shrine or castle, right... they don't have much information to make a decision, though. He moves towards Sasuke, and speaks (what he hopes is) quietly:]

The locals might know more than we do.

[He can't tell, aside from the fact that they know of the Kotengu. Exploring after they've gotten a better bearing of their situation, instead of charging into the unknown.]

Edited 2020-01-18 22:42 (UTC)

[He has a point. After a second of thought, he holds his arm out to indicate the village, and then places a hand on his chest to indicate himself before he taps at his ear.

Should he go listen and see what he can find out?]

[After the initial information gathering through eavesdropping, they'll be ready to interact directly with the villagers.

Their current set-up of communication may be a little slow at times when asking questions to the townspeople, but they've figured out a system that works. Cyrus and Toki are free to ask whatever questions they want, but Sasuke will have to resort to writing his into the ground with his dagger or the end of a small key Toki brought. Cyrus can't hear the answers to his own questions, but both Toki and Sasuke will have the information; Sasuke likely to give clearer interpretations or exact wording when they have the time to convey it to Cyrus.]

[ A lot of what Sasuke hears while eavesdropping aren't really things he needs to be very subtle to hear, considering the shouts of the townspeople praising the Kotengu for saving the town is abound. Most of the chatter is praise for the Kotengu, of pride and triumph and security with their new god.

Choosing to talk to the townspeople before deciding on where to go, the three of them find a couple who aren't busy with repairs or construction to answer their questions. They sort of scoff at the group for not knowing what happened, both curious and wary of the group because they're not recognized from being from Hirajiro, but a few are willing to take the time to explain. They say that the village was attacked by a neighboring town, but the Kotengu was able to protect the town and drive the attackers away— he strengthened all their men to the point that one of them fired an arrow that passed through a hundred mens' hearts and killed them in one blow, and he had brought those who had fallen back from the brink of death as if they were never fatally wounded or thought to be dead on the field. They claim that this god does more than """protect""" like the Daitengu does, their original gods being passive while the Kotengu played an active role in cinching victory, and that they plan to construct a castle in the forest next to the shrine so the Kotengu can watch over the town closer to earth instead of being hidden way up there in the mountains like the useless Daitengu who claim to be guardians and yet never lifted a finger to help them fight off invaders. ]

[The next questions the group asks are "when did the Kotengu start offering assistance?" and "have the Daitengu done anything about your decision to abandon them over their inaction during the raid?"

From here, they may decided to ask more questions building on the answers received, or head off for the shrine or the castle instead.]

[ The townspeople have to think back about when the Kotengu first started offering assistance, with the consensus being that it was less than a half year ago— maybe three or four months ago? They're not sure of an exact time the Kotengu reached out to the very first person, but the growth of his support has been very quick and widespread. The Daitengu have been quiet so far, and since the raid was just last night, if they do do something about the townspeople being swayed to the Kotengu's side, it's still something to be seen. ]

[They've decided to ask no more questions at present, opting to go to the shrine for more information.]

[ Making the trek through the forest, they soon come to the shrine. It's much like what they're used to, stone lanterns lining the path but lit with normal fire instead of the usual blue-white flames, and the sign with the Kotengu's name just doesn't exist. The water basin is filled with crystal clear water, and the offertory box holds golden coins instead of gemstones, but the largest difference is probably the amount of townspeople here— a hell of a lot more than the usual zero— praying in front of the offertory box, burning incense at the center of the shrine, or sweeping the ground and making sure everything is neat and tidy.

Is there anything they would take a closer look at? Otherwise, the townspeople here give the team curious looks before returning to whatever they're up to, and can be asked questions. ]

[Wordlessly and with his hands clasped behind his back, Cyrus is going up to that offertory box and looking around, simply standing off to the side of the people praying. Anything unusual stand out about the coins or the area in general?]

[ The coins look like the sort of currency the townspeople use, seeing as they're being taken out of wallets and tossed into the box, and on the side of the offertory box Cyrus is standing on, there's a keyhole for opening the box to empty out the coins when it gets too full, that wasn't present on the box outside the dungeon. If anybody of them pay attention to that sort of thing to recognize the discrepancy, anyways. The gemstones sort of disappeared by magic every month, so there was no need for that sort of thing. ]

[Apart from the keyhole, does this box look noticeably newer or different than the one they're used to — like a villager brought in a whole new box? Or is it just exactly the same but intended for manual coin collection?]

[ Overall the box looks to be the same one, except it's in better condition— newer, in that this place seems to be the Hirajiro of the past, back when the Kotengu was at the height of power. Aside from the keyhole and the lack of wear and tear from the natural progression of time, it's safe to assume it's the same box they're used to seeing. ]

[It's a box. The same box, but at a different point in time, which at least gives a tangible point of reference for the timeframe.]

[It also represents a discrepancy from what they know.]

[Cyrus begins casually looking around for someone visibly carrying a key or accessing locked doors in the shrine. If no such person exists, he'll go back to the other two and attempt to quietly inform them of the box, by muttering into their ear that he's interested to find the person with the key. The volume fluctuates a bit as usual, but it's pretty normal whispering, and he makes sure to act conversational and curious in case a villager overhears.]

[The box needs a key...?

He tilts his head questioningly like "Why are you planning to go in there?" But he does begin keeping an eye out for a key.]

[ Looking around, it doesn't look like there's anybody waving keys around. House keys stay in people's pockets with no reason to take them out, and anybody with a key to this box presumably keeps it inside a pocket as well, not wanting to lose something so important.

It looks like most of the people here are regular townspeople just visiting the shrine, none of them dressed up in priest's clothing or anything that would denote them as being somebody in charge of the shrine. The only people that stand apart from the rest might be the ones sweeping, who aren't dressed any differently, but are focused on maintaining the shrine instead of being here to pray. The only door in the area is the one to the honden, but nobody is anywhere near it and the door is closed. It's a sacred place meant for the kami, after all, not for people to enter normally. ]

[Yeah, the owner of the key to something in the shrine would have to be someone actually involved with it...

Can he use his ninja stealth to check out the door?]

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→ 1/12 Lockdown: The Final Dungeon

Legion of the Dead

Champions of the Just

→ MOD NOTES

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