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]

[ Minato also lets the stones drop all at once, clattering loudly before being drowned out by the toll of the bell that he pulls just the twice. ]

Yo, Kotengu. We want to talk to—-

[ "Have all the people been gathered?" A low, slightly gravelly voice sounds behind them, and it's great that Toki is blind so I don't have to describe anything visually. Though not loud, the voice has a certain weight to it, compounded by the fact that most of the conversation dies out when the voice is heard. ]

...Not yet. Not everybody's here.

[ Minato keeps a tight hold on Toki's hand as he moves through the crowd, trying to position themselves in front of the Kotengu instead of to his side or back. Not that it makes a difference, when the Kotengu can just turn, but he wants them to be in the center of the crowd instead of the outskirts where they're more likely to be ignored. ]

[yokeye]

[It just appeared behind them! Toki is internally screaming, imagining the Kotengu in the most monstrous way his brain thinks up. He stays slightly behind Minato and probably would have run off if his hand wasn't still held tightly.]

P-please wait for everyone, Kotengu-san!

[compendiem]

[ The Kotengu sure is... hm. Minato has to look up at him, but he's also on the shorter side of things compared to other people. However the tengu appears, though, none of the townspeople seem to be scared of him at all, pleading for him to wait because their husband isn't here yet, or they can't find their grandmother, etc. but their cries are drowned out by a tremor that runs through the ground. Somewhere under their feet, the foundation to the shrine cracks, and the ground tilts just enough to be noticeable.

"I will hold off as long as I can, but realistically, we do not have much time," the Kotengu's voice raises above the crowd. "The town will be engulfed soon, and I must bring you all somewhere safe. We cannot save everybody. Any longer, and we shall all perish." ]

...Toki, where is everyone? You said they were coming?

[ Or are they still out there playing hero, trying to save a dying world? ]

[yokeye]

[The shifting ground starts off a little panic inside. He shouldn't have left Rei, not for some ridiculous confrontation with Kotengu!Minato. What was he thinking?]

I don't know that they're coming! I mean, I didn't talk to anybody and I just assumed they'd get here like they were supposed to and help the villagers get here and I don't know!

[Why is Minato asking him?]

I'll go get them!

[He tries to pull his hand from Minato's grip.]

[compendiem]

[ He will not go get them. Minato's grip is tight, and although his strength exceeds even Terry's demigod level strength when he feels like it, he's still light and easily pulled if Toki tries to run. ]

They'll come. Trust them a little. I wanted to come here first so we'll be sure the Kotengu doesn't leave without everybody, remember? Help me stall him- ask him something.

[not_that_sasuke]

[Well, the good news is, at least one of them is here! He's got a family with him - a mother and a father both carrying children, and Sasuke carrying a third child on his back. So there's at least five!]

[yokeye]

[Good job, Sasuke! Please ask better questions than Toki will...

Stall and ask him something. Toki can do that.]

Uh, Kotengu-san! How are you this fine evening?

[Is it evening?]

[compendiem]

[ Five plus Toki's seven makes twelve, but Minato can't tell how much of the townspeople are still unaccounted for as he looks back over to the rooftops past the trees. Likely... there'll be people who have already died, who they'll be waiting for forever and will never show up.

Minato raises his arm over the heads of the crowd to get Sasuke's attention, though Toki's head probably sticks up from the crowd pretty clearly. As does the Kotengu, a large opposing figure with a long black cape draped around him, a crow's beak of a mask or maybe that's his face, neither of them are close enough to be able to tell.

The guy needs no introduction, so Minato refrains from yelling anything silly like "Hey, Sasuke, that's the Kotengu!" and instead tries to tug Toki away from the Kotengu and towards Sasuke to join them together, because oh boy the Kotengu looks mad somehow even though he can't clearly see his face. "My town is being destroyed and my people are dying," is his curt response. How does Toki think he's doing? ]

[not_that_sasuke]

[It's okay, once he's allowed the child to slide off his back and said his goodbyes to the family before running back to his team, he'll be the stupid sixteen year old all like:]

--The Kotengu?!

[He... didn't really expect him to show up in the flesh, because Sasuke's too frazzled from the current situation to realize this is still the past's Kotengu, not the present.]

What's causing all of this-?

[yokeye]

I apologize, Kotengu-san!

[Oh shit. Toki looks horrified at the Kotengu's response, and he'll attempt to hide behind Minato and Sasuke. He won't ask any more questions. What was he thinking? Making small talk for a distraction when people are dying.]

[compendiem]

[ The Kotengu, at least, doesn't immediately strike Toki down for his lack of awareness, although he doesn't get the chance to answer, either, once Sasuke asks that question.

Rather than the Kotengu, it's the townspeople who answer Sasuke, both fear and fury in their voices. They tell him that it's the doing of the Daitengu— that they disagree with the people's decision to follow the Kotengu and instead of being protectors of nature, they're now turning nature against them. It's the Daitengu's fault there are earthquakes and mudslides happening, and they don't care of the people here die— if they have to be coerced into turning against the Kotengu, that's what the Daitengu will do. They value nature over the lives of people, and don't care of all the townspeople are wiped from the town, because the animals and plants will still thrive and that's all they care about, not like the Kotengu who will save them and bring them all somewhere safe, far far away from this hellhole of a place controlled by the Daitengu.

Minato sort of looks back over to the set of stairs, hoping for more people to show up soon. ]

[overstrain]

[ After rounding up and performing first aid on people who didn't get healed all the way with Rei's Dia, Terry finally arrives with a lot of people. There's probably twelve, thanks to Vassago's quick work. Vassago helped carry some more injured people too. Terry sees the Kotengu, and honestly, he doesn't care. After getting the townspeople here, he just looks off into the forest for a second or two and goes back to help Rei get to the shrine and its million steps on the stairs, because she was the one spamming healing spells. ]

[flowerclips]

[ She will certainly need help getting to the shrine because she's passed out somewhere down in the village so thanks for getting her, Terry. She'll just sleep this off until someone wakes her up. ]

[compendiem]

[ One last wave of people arrive from up the stairs, the old and the young and the wounded, and the others waiting spread out to help their neighbors up to the center of the shrine under the protection of the Kotengu, who looks over them all and says this looks like everybody they can save. They saved everybody, way more than thirty, and the victims express their thanks for staying and helping. For making them feel better, for carrying them to safety, for making sure nobody gets left behind. A little girl hugs Sasuke around the legs, says thank you for saving her, and slips something into his pocket. It might look familiar.

Before they leave, though, the Kotengu turns to face the Persona users who stand together but also stand out from the crowd. He gives their help recognition, and thanks, and the chance to ask any last minute questions— though they're ones he can't answer well. To him, they are strangers, and he does not know how they arrived- surely not by his doing (though thanks for the idea? maybe this is also a self-fulfulling prophecy)- and denies knowing the term Persona. As to where they're going, it will be a world away from this time and place, where the people may live freely without the undue influence of the Daitengu who the Kotengu will keep at bay.

Are they ready to go?

Is everybody here?

Minato does a quick headcount: Joroko, Headmistress, Vassago, Ananke... there's Bishamonten, Quetzalcoatl... Amarok... Helios. His heart plummets, watching Nero stand with the burden of Red over one shoulder and Cyrus over the other. Rei is going to kill him. Souji is going to kill him. He's finallly been put back on a team in the front lines and he's already lost two members, just like what happened back then. But this is everybody, and he nods, silent. It's time to leave.

The wind picks up all around them, there is a sharp pain that stakes through each person's head, the feeling of fire consuming one's body, and then darkness, weightlessness, unconsciousness. Their feet touch back upon stone, just their team alone standing before large double doors to the last room in the dungeon. ]