JANUARY DUNGEON

[citta]

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

[not_that_sasuke]

[Red...?

Sasuke's eyes go wide, and he hurries to help with the man's body.]

Are we... already reaching our limits here?

[devilshocker]

Hey, look the gangs all here. We're miserable thanks for asking.

[Nero grumbles and makes frustrated noises under his breath.]

Red's not waking up yet so I guess all of us are screwed.

[They left for 1 single room and have a casualty. Rei is probably upset with them...]

[flowerclips]

[ Rei is soaked from head to toe and she's absolutely freezing. She wraps her arms around herself as she shivers. She just got over her cold, but maybe she'll get another one after this dungeon. ]

I-I'm okay, Tokidoki.

[ She comes up to him, taking one of his hands. Hers is cold and wet. ]

I'll heal everyone. M-Maybe we're all just tired.

[ She'll summon Ananke and use Salvation on everyone, but alas, it won't work on Red :( ]

[yokeye]

[Toki's not letting go of Rei's hand for a long time. Now that he knows she's okay, he can pay more attention. Something about reaching their limits and Red not waking up.]

I-is Red a zombie?

[No one is making it out of the dungeon.]

[compendiem]

Sorta. He's not dead, but... sorta.

[ Not technically a zombie, but functionally, it's the same thing. With Sasuke's help, he gets Red onto his feet. ]

Nero. Terrence. One of you has to carry him. We need to hurry up... [ He wants to fight, but there's not going to be a Daitengu here to fight, so he forces calm again. Souji's team needs to hurry up. He just needs to get all his teammates out in one piece. ]

Our room was a waste of time. What about the other two?

[not_that_sasuke]

We were in the village... I think it must have been right after that battle. The people were rebuilding and praising the Kotengu for saving them. The villagers we talked to said that the village was attacked by a neighboring town, but the Kotengu was able to protect the town and drive the attackers away... he gave people inhuman strength and raised the people who fell in the battle. Because of all that, they were going to build a castle in the forest for him so he could watch over the town more closely than the Daitengu. Although... apparently the Kotengu started offering his power to them maybe three to four months before the battle.

After that, we went to the Kotengu's shrine. The box had a hole for a key that time, and we got someone to open it up for us. Cyrus has the paper that fell out.

[compendiem]

Oh... We were in the other village. The one that got their asses kicked by Terrence.

[ He can't tell if those things— people getting stronger, people coming back from the dead— are details they should take literally or if they're just exaggerated. Exaggeration is how gods and heroes come into being in the first place. ]

Does the paper look important? Let's give it a look...

[devilshocker]

Let me carry Red. T-man can take it easy for a while.

[Nero stands up and picks up Red in order to support him properly. Poor guy's still out cold. It's sad that things turned out that way.]

I really don't think that piece of paper was meant for the trash disposal bin. Make sure you don't lose it.

[flowerclips]

Umm, T-chan, Yamato, and I were in a river with a bunch of d-dead people... the ones who attacked the village.

[ She's really glad that she didn't come out as a zombie when arriving in Hirajiro. That would have been traumatizing and the thought of that happening makes her shiver once again and grip onto Toki's hand tighter. She'll continue to try and heal Red while everyone talks because he can't be a zombie. He's probably just tired... ]

We didn't find anything.