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

[parhellia]

Yep, that's right! We just gotta keep going, and whatever happens, happens.

[ When you do what you want and don't care about the effect on the rest of the world, things can be easy. It's made easier if you believe all of this is a fake world filled with fake people, or the idea that all worlds are fake except your own, or maybe everything is fake except yourself. Way too existentialist for Ala to want to consider, and she shuffles the cards back into the deck.

You mold the cards to fit the story you already have in mind, and Ala's story is one that wants to be hopeful, but can accept whatever end comes about because she doesn't feel involved in any of it, having no strong attachment to people and not having a home to pine for either. This is the beauty and uselessness of tarot. ]

Want to ask another question? Or maybe you can do a reading for me!

[cicadashell]

[No. He wants to maybe impale himself with Ala's sword if they actually have to wait here seven hours.]

I'm good.

[parhellia]

Boo... You're boring, Jiro. Go to sleep, and I'll wake you up at midnight.

[ She has Toki's entire library stuffed into her pocket, so she can entertain herself without him. ]

[cicadashell]

[He'll eventually fall asleep, and luckily not die and end up back in the hub. Though that might get them places instead of being stuck in this room at the wrong shrine.]

[parhellia]

[ Dying and hoping somebody comes across his unconscious body in the shrine and can revive him is one option. We can keep that in our back pocket.

Once Jiro seems like he's fallen asleep, Ala lies down next to him and curls up by his side; she's not human enough to offer much body heat, but she can at least block out some of the wind as she hums under her breath, soft and tuneless.

Three hours later, a gust of wind starts to blow, and the bell hanging over the offertory box starts to gong, barely loud enough to be heard over the gusting wind. ]

[cicadashell]

[The change in wind is what wakes him up. He's not expecting Ala to be curled up next to him like a dog, but he sort of appreciates it. Though he'll never say anything. Instead he shoves her aside and slowly gets up from the frozen ground.

The bell is barely audible, and it could just be the wind. If Ala's still lying on the ground, he'll nudge her with his foot.]

Something's happening.

[parhellia]

Mm...

[ She's slow to get up, not exactly having been asleep, but zoned out enough that she's still present while not having to be conscious for all those hours. ]

The wind...? Like the dungeon wind, when there's a new one...

[ Except. The wind is blowing away from the shrine, not at all towards the honden she turns around and looks it, door still closed and there is no bright blue light or anything like that. ]

It's blowing back towards town. Or maybe the other side, to the school or lake or other shrine?

[ There's also the castle that might be deserted now, but wherever they check, they're only going to have the one hour to do it before having to wait another full day for Lockdown. She tugs Jiro's sleeve, leaning towards the castle, because first things first is getting Jiro to survive until the next Lockdown. ]

[cicadashell]

[Fuck. The picked the wrong place. He doesn't linger at the shrine either, following Ala towards the castle. His steps are a little shaky, and hopefully the Velvet Room is open.]

It has to be the other shrine, right? Since we're... in it.

[parhellia]

That's so far away, though. I guess this is what the crows meant when they said we'll probably be stuck in the dungeon for a while, huh?

[ Even though literally no other group had to stay for very long. Jiro just keeps getting the short end of the stick with overstaying his dungeon visits.

Ala keeps close enough to be within arm's reach of Jiro until he's safely down the stairs and hasn't slipped and fallen and cracked his skull open on them, then looks to the castle and finds that it's deserted, just like they'd hoped. The Velvet Room wasn't originally going to exist, but I am a kind and benevolent mod, and so now it does, glowing faintly in its usual place behind the throne. ]

[cicadashell]

Fucking crows.

[The won't get any more ham sandwiches.

At least the Velvet Room is there, though they'll still have to trek all the way to the mountains after. Jiro steps inside, to who knows what's going on in there.]

[parhellia]

[ asldkfjh it's not the crows' fault!! They did try to warn people, and if they were smart, Jiro and Ala would have brought food and bandages and extra blankets and not be in this mess.

Inside the Velvet Room, the first thing that's immediately apparent is how quiet it is. There no music playing, no sound from the kitchen, no cats wandering around, no couch squeaking as somebody turns on it, nothing. The second thing they'd notice is that the train isn't moving, when there's normally some sort of motion in the Velvet Room, whether that's smoothly forward or a slight rocking. There are no names on the placards next to the door, and if they look out the window where pinpoints of light used to drift by, they all seem stuck in place.


None of this probably matter at all to either of them, least of all Ala who makes a beeline for Souji's room to raid his closet for clothes for Jiro and then the kitchen to see if there's any straw tea or healing items in the cupbaords. ]

[cicadashell]

[Jiro's only been in the Velvet Room once, for maybe five minutes, and half of those things he'd never notice were different; like the lights out the windows or noise from the kitchen. He does notice the lack of cats and placards.

It still looks like the same train, and therefore Jiro isn't too concerned about anything else. He lets Ala search the cupboards, as he wouldn't recognize any healing things like beads and leaves anyway. He'll drink the presumably disgusting straw tea if Ala finds any.]

[parhellia]

[ There's a whole bunch of stuff here that Ala's not quite sure which is best or how much she needs to heal up a hole in Jiro's side, but there's no overdosing on this sort of stuff; she'll just be wasting the excess, putting a pot on the stove to boil water, empty out an entire jar worth of straw and tossing in some leaves and rocks and a roll of bandages. ]

We'll let it simmer for a bit, and then you can drink it and you'll be fine! I'll find a thermos too, so we can keep some with us along the way.

[ Yeah! Dungeon prep while they're in the middle of the dungeon. ]

[cicadashell]

[Things they should have done beforehand, and heeded the crows' warnings. Jiro will look through a couple of the rooms for anything else useful, or some fruit or other food left out to collect as well. They may be in this one dungeon room for days if anything happens on the way to the shrine, or if the mountain shrine isn't the exit after all and they have to wait until the next Lockdown to try something else.]

[parhellia]

[ As long as it's done at some point, it's fine, they're fine. They can stuff Ala's infinite pocket full of food and other supplies, and in the meanwhile, she brings out a pot of """tea""" to the lounge. Some of the tea has been poured into a thermos for safekeeping, and what's set out on the small table in the lounge is a pink tea set with golden sakura— the one Ala pilfered from Toki's mansion.

One teacup is filled with tea. Drink up! It smells like feet, but if he drinks it, it should heal that wound right up and leave him with just bloody clothes that he can swap out for Souji's. ]

[cicadashell]

[That's such a fancy tea set for this, Jiro thinks. The tea smells horrible, so he drinks it all at once. It burns and he regrets that instantly. The punctures from the pitchfork itch for a minute as things heal themselves. Maybe he should have kept the waraji from the jail cell for later use.

Jiro leaves his blood-soaked clothes on the floor and takes Souji's things. They're probably warmer than what he had anyway.]

Alright, let's go. We only have an hour.

[Or maybe 40 minutes now.]

[parhellia]

[ They could've kidnapped Souji's waraji, but unfortunately it doesn't seem to exist in this Velvet Room, so they'll just have to make do with the remains of the tea. ]

It's too bad the train doesn't move, but I guess we gotta go on foot. I wonder if there's a way to make the portal open out somewhere else besides the castle?

[ She goes back to her room and sticks her head out the portal hopefully, but it's still the castle. All four stories built up, freezing because the windows are all still open, walls adorned in brightly colored murals like what they say in the ruins, from a time before they all got covered in dirt and blood and grime. ]

[cicadashell]

Do the train controls do anything?

[Maybe they do, maybe they don't. Can they dial in a portal somewhere? Who knows.]

[parhellia]

I dunno!

[ She pulls back into the train and makes a beeline for the conductor's cabin. ]

Minato's always up here, but I never see him play around with the controls. Sometimes he sleeps with his feet up on the buttons? But they never did anything.

[ Maybe they're fake dials and buttons, maybe it's some mystical art she doesn't know, it doesn't matter because she pokes and pulls random ones and nothing apparently is happening. Not inside the train, anyways. ]

Hey, you wanna stick your head out the portal and gimme a shout if anything looks different? I'll push a button every five seconds to give you time.

[cicadashell]

I'm not gonna fucking decapitate myself because you hit the wrong button or some shit! You look out the portal.

[He'll take over the controls if Ala has less self-preservation than he does and would sacrifice her head.]

[parhellia]

I don't want to decapitate myself either...!

[ But she does let Jiro take the controls... ]

I'll go look, but you better keep my head safe, okay, Jiro?!

[cicadashell]

I'll guard it with my life.

[There are too many buttons and knobs. They probably do nothing at all, but he'll try each one, and then every combination of them, and they might spend the entire hour in just the Velvet Room if Ala never sees changes in the portal exit.]

[parhellia]

[ They don't do anything, any about five minutes of standing there with her head poked through the doorway, Ala's gotten tired and ends up just lying on the ground with half her torso through the door and the other half inside the Velvet Room, feet kicking idly in the air while she stares out at the empty castle.

Eventually, the hour passes, and Ala gives a squawk and pulls her head back in. ]

The guards are back! Jiro, Lockdown's over!

[ Now they have to wait 24 more hours for midnight. And since time passes a lot slower in the Velvet Room, it might actually end up being a lot more than 24. ]

[cicadashell]

Fuck.

[This is awful. Jiro's already decided he's not going into any personal Shadow dungeons in the future, and now it's any dungeon. He's done with this shit.

He'll sleep most of the day in the nearest train room. The remaining hours will be spent gathering any more provisions or weapons available.]

[parhellia]

[ Thankfully, this is the last official dungeon to get stuck in, and it isn't terrible in here now that it's nice and quiet and not crawling with cats. Ala leaves Jiro to do his thing for the entire day, leaving her hoodie in the lounge for him to stuff whatever he thinks he'll need into the infinite pocket, but there doesn't seem to be anything of weapons around. Not guns or swords or anything like that, anyways, but there's regular kitchen knives? Souji keeps them sharp and in mint condition, and there's a whetstone too that Ala should maybe use for her sword, but she doesn't know how to sharpen a blade.

There are no battle items or things like firecrackers or protective devices to be found around the place, but they won't be without food and drink, at least, and clothes shouldn't be a problem once Jiro finds the warmest things out of Souji's closet. ]

...It's getting late at night again. The guards are yawning. Do you have everything you need? We can go straight through town and up the mountain— I've been on the path before, clearing it of rocks, so I know the way.