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

[ Wei Wuxian takes advantage of this new height to look over at the villagers to see what they're doing, and then over at all of the different animals huddled together. He doesn't get down, deciding to stay on Akira's back unless he tells Wei Wuxian to get off. It's nicer being at this height.

He nods at Akira's comment, humming thoughtfully. The fact that they've been doing this for over a week is alarming, and with such determination too. ]

I wonder what they're after. It's got to be important enough to go through all this and something they would consider worth cutting everything down for. If only we could go up and ask them.

[ The squirrel shakes its head, unfortunately unable to help with any more of this. But he considers Akira for a moment, and says that maybe one of the other ~~Warrior~~ cats might know more, since the cats aren't afraid of the humans, and spend some time in town for food and then goes out into the woods to play and sleep. The cats might not be able to fully understand human speech, but they might have a sense of what's going on, better than the other creatures who solely live in the forest. ]

[Akira makes a thoughtful noise, and it comes out as a soft mrrr, because if nothing else he sure is a feline right now. Maybe that could be used to his advantage in dealings with the cats.]

That's a good idea. Thanks.

[He shifts a little bit under Wei Wuxian's weight, but doesn't tell him to get off just yet. They'll have to go find ThunderClan soon.]

...Hey, actually... what about the crows?

[This is addressed more to Rio and Wei Wuxian.]

Edited 2020-01-22 04:06 (UTC)

[Rio's looking around to see if there are any crows now!]

[ There are some crows in the trees. Waaaaaaaaaaaayy up there on the tops of the trees, but there aren't very many, much less than would be expected. With all these trees cleared, though, it'll be easy to spot the castle and the shrine, both of which has some more crows congregated, the rest of which can be assumed to be in the town where they're more than comfortable living. ]

Does someone want to talk to the crows while someone else talks to the cats?

[They don't have too much time to spare.]

I can talk to the crows.

[ There aren't many of them around here, but maybe he can make it over where he sees a number of them grouped together. Hopefully they'll want to talk to a rabbit. ]

[Akira flips his tail up a little bit, as acknowledgment. The squirrel's uneasy reaction to him served as a nice tipoff that, just like in movies about animals, there are different dynamics at play depending on the food chain. So he'll keep his distance from the crows and let the inoffensive bunbun take care of it.]

I'll do the cats.

[And then he looks at Rio, silently asking if she's coming along with either of them.]

I'll go with Wei Wuxian.

[Because those dynamics mean that he is the potential prey around here, so having someone who can help watch his back should help.]

We'll meet back once we're done.

Meownds good—

...

[Akira stops, and scrunches up his nose a little bit.]

I'll be back later.

[Quickly making an exit before he says anything else s-mew-pid, bye.]

[ With the crows up on top of a high tree, it would take Rio yapping at them to get their attention in a way a quiet bunny cannot, but the birds are warier of an omnivorous fox than they are a rabbit. Three of them are huddled together on a tree, occasionally unfurling and refolding their wings. How will Rio and Wei Wuxian approach without scaring them off? It'll be a pain if they just flew away.

Lower to the ground, Akira can find one or two cats— they roam independently of one another instead of sticking together as one large clan, and he'll quickly come across an older cat napping underneath a sunspot near the edge of the forest where the trees have been thinned, as well as a younger cat a bit further away who's busy chasing that same squirrel they'd just parted ways with, who thought it was spared the fox's jaws, directly to becoming a play thing for this kitten who's driving it up a tree. Which will Akira talk to?

We can split this thread off into two threads; just reply to this comment separately! ]

[The older cat probably has more insight (when awake), but as soon as Akira sees that living thing being used as a toy, his decision is made. He bounds over in the direction of the younger cat, deliberately making himself hard to miss, meowing loudly to get its attention. In a perfect world it will create an opening for the squirrel to run away.]

Hey!

Edited 2020-01-25 00:13 (UTC)

[ It might not be a perfect world, but it gets closer bit by bit, and with Akira's interruption, the squirrel takes a moment to watch the little cat turn towards Akira, and it scampers down the tree and darts safely into the bushes. The cat doesn't offer a meow, but it turns to face him, tail upright and bent at the very tip in friendly confusion.

What's up, bro? ]

What the hell happened to the humans?

[That seems like a good way to start off.]

I haven't been here for so long, and they're destroying everything.

[ The cat's ear flick towards the town, where the people are coming from. It shouldn't be more than fifteen minutes before they get here, and every day it's faster because there's less trees to deal with.

The cat says it doesn't know if anything "happened" to the humans, but they started cutting down all the trees over a week ago, and it's been messing everything up. It's not very fun to hunt in a wide open place... It asks if Akira's been living in the town all this time, if he hasn't been out here for a while? Maybe he can tell the cat why some of the buildings are smoking late at night, and fire can been seen through the windows, even though it's summer instead of winter. And then there's the smell of metal, and that makes the cat's nose twitch in disgust. ]

[That gets Akira quiet for a moment as he tries to figure out the meaning of what the cat's saying. Cutting down lots of trees, smoke coming out of buildings late at night... fire? Firewood, is that what they need it for? The smell of metal, that could be metal or...]

I haven't been in town. I came back here from far away.

[He looks meaningfully over at the mountains visible in the distance. Whatever's on the other side of those mountains (nothing, probably), that's where Akira will say he was.]

The metal... does it smell like metal, or does it smell like blood? Are the buildings still standing the day after?

[Are the humans burning their own buildings? Are they burning each other?]

[ ...The cat decides Akira must be a descendant of one of the mountain lions. That sounds about correct, especially considering his size.

"It smells like metal— blood is different, and I definitely know what blood smells like..." the cat insists, trailing off while looking around at the trees. It's not just hunting, it's all this destruction that's happening around lately. Blood is so much different.

But the buildings are still intact. There's this huge one by the lake, it says, that they do a lot of whatever they're doing in there. Burning and clanging and something with metal. With all the trees cut down and there being a clear view of the town, Akira can probably see the building the cat's talking about: the largest building by the lake stands where the school building does- or will, in the future. But it wasn't a school in the past, as evidenced by the dungeon. Before, it used to be a field. Then it was burned down, replaced with iron furnaces for forging tools. Weapons. ]

[Akira looks towards the town again, subconsciously searching for the building the cat is talking about, and finds it easily. The fact that it stands where the school will someday be is deeply unsettling to him, but he can't put a paw on why.]

...They...

[He's getting it now.]

They need to burn the trees to make the metal into those things they're holding.

[His gaze drifts from the town to the horde of humans, still quickly approaching and holding a variety of metal objects -- not all of which are used for agriculture. What he's witnessing here is the beginnings of industrialization, done in a week, for the sole purpose of destruction. Destroying nature, destroying something else. Destroying the tengu?]

They're getting ready for a fight... but what are they fighting? Did anything else happen a week ago that might have caused this? Did they start... I don't know, building other things?

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compendiem - 2020-01-29 02:58 (UTC) - Expand

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[ Wei Wuxian knows that there's really not much he can do to get the crows' attention, and that would have to be up to Rio. But... they'll probably fly away when they see a fox trying to get their attention too.

He looks over at Rio. ]

How do you want to get their attention? I don't know if there's anything I could do, but you might chase them away... [ He sighs. ] Maybe if they see us together, they'll know you won't chase after them.

I can try...

[She settles on the ground, laying there with a relaxed look before yapping a bit. Maybe if she doesn't look ready to fight plus bunnyfriend, they'll actually approach?]

Hey! Can we ask you some things?

[ The three crows look down at the pair, but rather than coming down to talk on the ground, they stay up on the high branches for the time being, forcing them to shout between each other. One of the crows caws down to them that it isn't a great time to talk (given the approaching humans, you know) and another says they'll answer three questions but that's all they have patience for until the humans are finished and have left again.

What will they ask? ]

Do you know why the humans are doing this?

[ One of the crows caw, and answers that the humans are cutting down the trees and bringing them back to town inside the buildings. In there, they're probably doing something with the wood, but the crows hang out on rooftops and typically bother looking through the windows at something they wouldn't understand anyways. Another crow says that it's always very warm and smoky around the buildings, even right now, when it seems to be summertime. ]

Do you know when or why they started so suddenly? Maybe they started talking about something in particular that made them decide to do this...?

[ The bird shuffle on the branch and look at one another, consulting each other to see if any of them know the answer. Like they'd said, they don't know the reason behind the people's actions. They don't understand human speech, either, the first bird informs Rio and Wei Wuxian, but they think they started cutting down the forest around two or three weeks ago, and this is the last stretch.

This timeline, at least, matches what the squirrel told them, being over a week ago. ]