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]

Maybe. I dunno.

[ He looks over at Naoya, who shrugs because he doesn't know either. It's not like he spent all these years chilling with the Kotengu getting to know the guy. The Kotengu isn't even here. ]

If he honors the contract and brings my team back, I don't care what happens to me. I guess that's why I didn't write it into the contract. [ It was stupid. ] If he's free, he doesn't need us. Souji could leave too.

Do you want to fight him?

[ Sasuke was all about freeing the people from the Kotengu's influence, wasn't he? Whether or not they have to fight the Kotengu, he believes that they should. Not necessarily to kill him, maybe, but to make him stand down. ]

[not_that_sasuke]

[He wants people to be free. That's his priority, whether it means negotiating, fighting, or killing. Although... truth be told, he doesn't particularly want to take it to the death.

He'll do what he must, but he's not necessarily keen on it.]

I... don't like killing. So I'd rather not. But I don't want him to be the one dictating what people should do, either.

[compendiem]

[ It's tough, but that's just a fact of life. Sometimes you have to make those hard choices and do something you don't like for the sake of a better future. ]

...Going through this dungeon, do you get the sense that the Kotengu was dictating what people did?

[ In one room, the townspeople were praising him for saving the town from the attack from the neighboring village, and chose to build a castle and give thanks at the shrine. In another room, everybody was escaping from the destruction of the town and flocked to the Kotengu, putting their faith onto him, and he presumably made good on his promise to save them. ]

[not_that_sasuke]

Maybe not dictating, but... I'm still not sure about his motives. The people here...

It feels like they're really easily swayed.

[He doesn't know which view is most trustworthy...]

[compendiem]

[ Like they've been brainwashed, the same as everybody's been seeing happening in the town proper when the townspeople all turned on the Persona users all at once. ]

People tend to be when they're emotional... War does that. People get desperate. They want a savior.

[ The Kotengu was that savior, whether or not the entire thing was orchestrated. ]

[not_that_sasuke]

But is he really one?

[That's the important part.]

[compendiem]

...Depends on your point of view.

[ To the people who saw their town being attacked and the Kotengu blow them all away, isn't that being a savior? Somebody who allowed them to stand up to attack, to expand their reach, with the promise of strength and glory and to finally breach the mountains and see what else there is in the world?

Maybe. To the people on the inside, just maybe.

Of course them on the outside, Sasuke and everybody else who were dragged here against their will and had nothing to be saved from, the Kotengu isn't their savior. ]

What do you think, Sasuke?

[ just casually turns that hypothetical question of Sasuke's into a real one. ]

[not_that_sasuke]

[He hesitates, thinking it over.]

He's definitely not a savior. [That he's certain on.] But I doubt the Daitengu was unbiased when he talked about him, too...

It's not like people should be completely defenseless, but they didn't have to go to war, either.