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

[compendiem]

[ The townspeople won't like him touching the honden and disrespecting it, but as long as he doesn't touch it, they don't speak up. Either way, the door won't open, and the building as a whole doesn't look any different than the usual honden, with the bird statues flanking either side of it. ]

[not_that_sasuke]

[He is a polite boy and not touching it!

Can he spy any keys on the people sweeping, or is he going to need to hunt around some more?]

[compendiem]

[ Good boy.

There aren't any keys visible from any of the people around the shrine. Can he pick pockets? Maybe he can find something if he pickpockets them. How's your conscience doing, Sasuke ]

[not_that_sasuke]

[...Actually, he's going to get the attention of one of them and write a message in the dirt nearby. Hopefully there's dirt nearby. Please let this not be completely paved without any plant life.]

Something important fell in the offering box, how do I get it out?

[compendiem]

[ For convenience's sake, there is dirt! The townsperson opens their mouth to speak, can't decide what other sense Sasuke might be missing, and takes a stick to write their response too. ]

What did you drop? A child might be able to reach in and fish it out.
Otherwise, the box is emptied every night, and anything that's not coin is taken to the mayor's office to be picked up.

[not_that_sasuke]

[He will look to them and tap his throat and shake his head, before tapping his ears and nodding. He can understand speech! He just can't talk.

And then writing back:]

Who has the key? Can I ask them to open it for me? It was a keepsake from my mother.

[compendiem]

[ The townsperson digs around in their pocket and offers Sasuke a cough drop to soothe his throat. Hope his cold improves soon so it won't be painful to speak!

They tell him that the person with the key isn't around to open the box, since they only come at night for this one job, but if Sasuke describes the keepsake, they'll pass along the message to either the person who has the key if they see them, or let the mayor know so nobody else but Sasuke can claim it.

Either way, the person's not here at the moment. They will likely come at night, though— somebody to keep in mind both for talking to and for opening the box, if the group chooses to wait until then. ]

[not_that_sasuke]

[He takes the cough drop in surprise but bows his head gratefully and mouths "thank you" before leaving.

Time to find Cyrus! He'll report back with some more writing in the dirt:]

The person with the key to the box only comes at night to collect everything inside. Anything other than coins is taken to the mayor's office.

[technical]

[Hmm, hmm. Cyrus reads the message, and nods. He bends down and quickly scratches in:]

Come back tonight.

[Then he straightens up and scuffs the whole conversation away with his foot. His gaze then turns to Toki, who knows none of this, and he quickly touches the boy's shoulder to get his attention. Quietly (or what he thinks is quietly), Cyrus tells him:]

We're leaving for now.

[He'll explain the rest of the plan later, where they can't be overheard.]

[yokeye]

[Toki nods. He has no problems with that, and only the basic idea of what's going on; that Cyrus wants to open the box. Sasuke told him that much, and most of the information Toki gathered is of little use without more context.

When they return to the shrine at night, what will they find?]

[compendiem]

[ They find that the shrine is empty, people leaving well before sundown so they won't get caught in the forest when it's dark out. If their stakeout is nearby, it'll be pretty easy to tell when somebody is headed the other way, up the steps of the shrine.

There's some time in between when the shrine grounds is completely deserted, however, if there's anything they want to look at before talking to the person with the offertory box key. The honden door remains tightly shut, if Sasuke were still thinking about trying to open it. ]

[technical]

[Cyrus is not going to crack open the offertory box knowing full well that someone is coming to see it later. If anything, he will crack open the box after the caretaker leaves.]

[In the meantime he is going to make another round of the area, now that it's cleared out. The water basin, the lamps, any other differences between this shrine and the future shrine they know.]

[compendiem]

[ The water basin's water is slightly less crystal clear after having been handled all day and is in due for a change, as opposed to the water in the future shrine that's always crystal clear. Maybe because nobody touches it? Who changes that water anyways? It's not important, water is water.

The lanterns have died down somewhat and the person who'll empty the offertory box will relight these lanterns if I forget to mention it later. It's regular fire, instead of the blue-white flames Cyrus is used to seeing, which don't offer any heat at all.

Nothing else is different that hasn't already been mentioned. ]

[technical]

[Interesting.]

[For the time being, he's appeased. Time to wait for the caretaker.]

[compendiem]

[ He's! here!! and is very surprised to see that there's people all the out here in the shrine at this time. He greets the three of them with a smile, and says he's very impressed by their devotion to the Kotengu, for paying respect to him so late at night. ]

[yokeye]

[Toki's going to talk to this guy, so Sasuke doesn't have to write in the dirt and Cyrus won't yell at him accidentally.]

Hello~! Yes, while we are here in part to continue our sacred worship of the Kotengu, we seem to have a little dilemma~! You see, tragically, my friend Sa- Tarou-kun there-

[He waves vaguely somewhere not at all close to Sasuke.]

-unfortunately dropped a very previous heirloom in the offertory box! He cried for hours and we simply had to come back to retrieve it, should you be so kind as to open the box for us~!

[It's followed by an elaborate bow.]

[not_that_sasuke]

[Maybe it's dark enough that the person won't see completely unimpressed look Sasuke shoots Toki's way at that part.]

[compendiem]

[ lmfao

The man looks at ...Cyrus, because Toki's gesturing at a tree. Anyways, Cyrus looks to be doing pretty well, considering he's been crying hours on end, and the man pats him on the arm. He asks what the heirloom looks like, so he'll be able to retrieve it from the box when he opens it. ]

[yokeye]

It's um, his wedding ring! Yes, passed down from his grandfather~!

[Toki doesn't know if he's being watched by the caretaker, so he casually puts his hands behind his back. He removes his ring and keeps in one hand. He'll give it to Sasuke to throw in the box once it's open and the guy's not looking. It's a plan... maybe.]

The old man only lived long enough to see Tarou-kun get married and died the next day! So sad, so very sad...

[compendiem]

[ Cyrus gets more pats on the arm and an offer of condolences, but says he'll go open the box right away so they can find that ring. He leaves them to head over to the offertory box, first setting on the ground a bag which he'll use to carry the coins, and also a ledger so he can make a note of how much was donated to the shrine that day.

If they're going to throw the ring in, now's the time to do it, while he pulls out a key— small and silver and looking exactly like the one Toki has. ]

[not_that_sasuke]

[Yeah, Sasuke's just going to walk over and lightly add the ring to the mix, hopefully it takes the collector a while to find it.

Once it's in, he looks over to Cyrus. Well? You're the one who wanted in the box.]

[technical]

[Cyrus can hear none of this, and he watches the man pat him sympathetically with a truly impressive lineface. Look at him. He's distraught. The man is speaking to him, but he can't understand a word the man says, so he remains silent and instead taps a finger to his ear, shaking his head.]

[For the time being, he's deaf, sorry mate.]

[Still, when the man turns away and Sasuke drops the ring into the box, he gets it quickly enough. So he watches with rapt attention as the man pulls out the key — and which pocket he took it from.]

[compendiem]

[ The key came from his left pants pocket, and he unlocks the box to pull out the drawer at the bottom half of it. The ring is right on top of the pile of coins! How lucky. The man grins and holds it out to Sasuke, who's standing the closest since he's the one who dropped the key inside, and then he gets back to work sorting through the coins, making stacks of the different denominations so he can get an accurate count, and setting aside the junk that's fallen into the box: loose rocks and leaves, and a scrap of paper that blows away from the pile without anything to weigh it down, sliding across the ground before coming to a stop a few feet behind the man, in a glaring "PICK ME UP" fashion while the man's back is turned.

There is nothing else but coins inside the box. People are usually pretty good at keeping a tight hold on their things. ]

[technical]

[...Aside from the coins, the paper is the only man- or bird-made thing in that box. The rocks and leaves don't seem relevant. So Cyrus quietly bends down and pockets the paper as quickly as he can, not stopping to look at it because that takes too long.]

[Then he's walking over to Sasuke, examining the ring with... let's call it interest. Acknowledgment that the ring is important to Sasuke, or at least the version of Sasuke that this caretaker needs to know. It's not a smile, or a brightening of any kind — because even as an act, Cyrus refuses to give anything like that purchase in his mind or on his face.]

[He has no talent whatsoever with thievery, so taking that key would likely end poorly. He certainly won't stop either of the others, though.]

[compendiem]

[ The man opened the box for you guys already, leave his key alone!! That said, they can pilfer it if they really really want to. It's just been left sticking out of the keyhole until call the coins have been counted and collected and the man locks the box again.

He pauses in his counting and turns to the three of them, asking if that's the ring they're looking for, because he doesn't see anything else inside the box aside from offerings of coin. ]