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

[compendiem]

[ The cat shuffles anxiously, looking out at the crowd and what they hold in their hands, knowing what they're used for. Like the crows in the other thread, the cat can't understand human speech and so can't pinpoint any specific enemies they talk about fighting, but lets Akira know that some of them have been going out towards the mountain most recently-- the area the cat gestures to isn't anywhere near the mountain shrine, but off to the side, a bit beyond, where there are supposedly other towns on the other side of the mountains.

It doesn't really know if they're building anything special, but every time they come out here, the metal in their hands grow larger and sharper, from knives to swords to axes. But at the mention of that, the cat perks up, saying that sometimes they leave the metal behind, in a structure in the forest, where all the animals are headed to, actually. Akira should come with them, and—-

then the cat freezes, seeing a rabbit and a fox come running towards them. Three questions are up, and your friends are back. ]

[infiltrationtools]

Structure in the forest. Thanks a lot. We'll be there.

[Akira also notices them very quickly. He waves his tail a little bit as another form of thanks, pushes his ears forward, and then turns to address the other animals.]

[compendiem]

[ The cat runs away as the other two approach, so the rest of this will be flavor text for you guys to play out at your leisure, whether the discussion of what each side learned is threaded or handwaved.

The structure the cat told Akira about is right in the center of the trees, the beginnings of a stone foundation and stone pillars, something that will be more familiar to Akira than the other two, because it looks like the ruins of the castle when he had awoken here the very first time, no walls or stairs up but this time it's because none of the other floors have been constructed yet. It's the castle that's nestled in the midst of the last of the trees in the forest, and at the height of the Kotengu's power and influence over the people, every last one of these trees will be cut down. With the passage of time and the history that they know, the Kotengu will be overthrown and locked up, the Daitengu reestablishing power, and the forest will come back to life and nature will thrive again— but the trees will not grow in this area around the castle, leaving the clearing surrounding the Kotengu's castle in present day Hirajiro, the land tainted by the Kotengu's influence.

In this castle, the throne hasn't been set up yet, but the ofuda door carved into the ground is here, four indentations on its surface but only a scrap of an ofuda can be found, easily removed if one of them paws at it. Please hold onto it! The moment it's removed from the stone, the door glows bright blue, and they may pass through it to exit the floor. ]