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

[reveilation]

[ The man scoffs and claps 45 on the arm, telling her not to buy into the paranoia the other townspeople are spreading. With Hirajiro surrounded on all sides by the mountains and thick forests, the other towns never bother with them, as it's too difficult simply reaching Hirajiro. There's an understanding between the towns that Hirajiro operates independently and doesn't have much of any contact with the rest of the world, neither needing imports nor offering exports.

In short, the guy's in denial that any of this war preparation the Kotengu's insisting on is even necessary, which Kido gives 45 a Look for, though she stays silent. Whether other towns came to fight Hirajiro, or Hirajiro went out to conquer other towns, the fact is, in this man's future, there will be war and he is a peace-loving fool who believes that shouldn't be. ]

[defragment]

[ Even if there wasn't a war, 45 finds naivety in the man's words. It's not this place is the only place with mountains and forests. Even so, when humans want something, they'll do anything to get it. Not to mention her own experiences in snowy mountainous terrains that had her fuck up the opposition with her squad--the man is indeed a naive, peace-loving fool.

45 just continues to hold onto the fishing net despite how there's nothing to fish up here anymore. She manages to bite back a I'll tear your arm off if you touch me again behind that smile she continues to keep up. ]

In any case, we'll need a better persuading power, don't we? Who's the leader again?

[reveilation]

[ No arm tearing today, thanks. It's all scrap metal inside the lake, and the man lets the net drop after they've hauled the entire thing out, scowling at how much metal and plastic and junk there is. He asks which leader 45 means. The mayor? The leader of their ragtag group? If it's the latter, he jerks a head towards Kido and says that he was hoping Matsuoka would take the mantle of gathering more people and persuading them that the Kotengu is doing more harm than good for the town. ]

[defragment]

[ 45 almost wants to laugh. Kido's role is supposed to be the leader of this bunch of misfits, huh... just like how it used to be. Amazing. Anyway, she picks up some of the scrap metal and looks at it. Maybe she can use these to meld them into replacement parts. ]

It can't just be a one person effort though~ we all need to put in work into persuading everyone, you know.

[ This is sure starting to sound like cults. ]

What did the mayor do anyway? Did he auto approve of this? Did he follow the Kotengu?

[reveilation]

[ It's too bad the leader of the misfits is going to be running and leaving them all to die once all these questions are over. She's going to hate that.

45 can be the judge of how cultist this is. The man says that they're all trying to put in work, but Matsuoka's the one with the most influence amongst them, and that they have people who believe in Matsuoka over a new powerful god. The Kotengu's charismatic and almost all of the townspeople have taken to him, including the mayor who was bought in by claims of the Kotengu planning to make the town strong and prosperous. But the man says he thinks that's all arrogance, that the townspeople are going to become more and more greedy and destroy everything to get what they want, whether that's nature or other towns, and he doesn't want to see that happen to their peaceful little Hirajiro. ]

[defragment]

[ Everybody except 45 hated that.

45 looks over at Kido with a mock-surprise expression on her face. ]

So influential, Matsuoka~ I didn't know you had it in you!

[ lol

Anyway, it's clear that the Kotengu opposition is the minority, which is weird, because she thought this place worshipped the Daitengu. Hm. ]

What about the Daitengu...?

[reveilation]

[ Here is the Daitengu fanboy, who lights up and nods vigorously, saying that yeah! people are just brushing the Daitengu off, but Tatsuda-san gets it! The Daitengu have been protecting the town for ages— ever since the land was populated and Hirajiro was born— and everybody's taking this long standing protection for granted. He says that it's almost as if the people were brainwashed into accepting the Kotengu, with how quickly and thoroughly it happened, who gave them a little taste of power and now they're greedy for it even though their good fortune in where and how they live is all thanks to the Daitengu. He bets the Kotengu is manipulating things and treating them all like puppets—-

"Matsuoka!!" A voice barks out from the streets nearby, and Kido turns, because that's who she's supposed to be. But instead of a friendly face, there's a large number of people coming towards the town with farming tools in hand, and decidedly not farming business in mind. "We've told you time and time again not to spread that bullshit propaganda around!" the other man yells. "We've heard your plans to overthrow the Kotengu! You'll pay for your treason— you and the rest of your insurgent group! We have you marked!"

For death, you know. The peace-loving fool of a man is no fighter, and he gives 45 and Kido a fearful look, and bolts the other way. ]

[defragment]

[ Considering how the persona users and townspeople alike have been affected by the Kotengu in some shape or form as in, being forced to do something that they weren't going to, that checks out. But she also thinks that magic doesn't have to be a thing for humans to turn their back on whatever they had for so long, so quickly. It just takes persuasion with a combination of weak willpower.

Weak, all weak.

She picks up the scrap metal and chucks it at the other man's eye and another person's eye for good measure. She has two hands. After that, she takes Kido's hand and they are gonna run for it. Bye guys. ]

[reveilation]

[ 45 continues to despise humanity more and more.

Kido yells out indignantly, and can finally talk because we're done with the infodump part of this thread, but she can't break out of 45's grip and is forced to continue running alongside her because stopping means falling and faceplanting. ]

Hey— hey!! We have to go after that other guy! The guy's a wimp; he's going to get killed by that mob!

[defragment]

We're not here to save fake people inside dungeon rooms.

[ She's not sure why she has to remind Kido of this fact, and it's obviously she's thinking that from the her tone of voice. 45 continues to run and run in an attempt to find an exit. Maybe it'll look like a glowing blue door like in the shrine dungeon. Or maybe it'll look like some regular door. Either way, she's not afraid to run here and there in an attempt to look for it, and she's not slowing down. ]

[reveilation]

[ ...45 is right, and Kido hates that, clicking her tongue and picking up the speed so she doesn't drag 45 back. ]

It's still hard not to think of them as real...

[ There's no glowing blue door conveniently anywhere on the streets that Kido can see and immediately notice, whether she knows to look for one or not. Not by the lake, not at the school house, and neither the Black Cat house or the clubhouse exist in this version of the world.

They run until they hit the forest and make the decision to go inside of it, and the voices start to die away behind them. They run and run and run, and there is no path, no castle or shrine or stream. Nothing but trees that get taller and thicker until it's difficult to run and difficult to see and they're forced to slow down a little bit. Against the corruption of human nature, they are safe inside the forest, with nature. The darkness is safe, and the next time they blink, it's to stare down a long hallway, darkness behind them and light up front, where it leads back to the main hub. ]