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

[infiltrationtools]

[From eating something? Why...? –But no one has time to ask those questions. Ignoring the bird child's squawking, Akira attempts to summon a drastically shrunken version of Sandalphon. He's never tried to manifest a Persona at a different size before, though... so when Sandalphon arrives, floating in the air, it is smaller than Hiroto.]

[Nonetheless, it completely ignores the tengu, and starts casting a healing spell. Will this work? Without knowing what's wrong with Jiro in the first place, who knows!]

[cicadashell]

[The healing spell doesn't work, but black smoke rises from Jiro's body and Rago manifests himself. He'll be around to fill a spot if hardly anyone from the other team shows up. Perhaps he'll talk to the Daitengu, god to god, if necessary.]

[tarotcards]

[ Well, that's not what Hiroto thought would happen. ]

I-Is he all right? He didn't die, right?!

[ He is very focused on that. ]

[cicadashell]

[Rago looks down at Jiro. His tail swishes.] Not yet. [He leaps off Jiro and trots up closer to Hiroto.] Why is that your concern? [He's curious why Jiro's life matters, when the Daitengu have been the enemy. All this back and forth between the different tengus and their lore matters even less to him than it does to Jiro.] Why are you involving humans in your mess?

[tarotcards]

I-I'll answer whatever questions you have, but you have to make sure that he lives first!

[ Hiroto is extremely distressed by this, looking at the others for support. ]

Every time you die and you're revived by the Kotengu, the more corrupted your soul gets!

[toybombs]

[She really can't trust any of you with the simplest tasks, can she.]

What do you mean, corrupted?

[tarotcards]

[ What part of "you have to make sure that he lives first" did you not understand? ]

I'll explain everything after! Just help him first!

[ And now Hiroto will just say screw it and go over to Jiro to pick up his arm. He'll drag him out of the shrine if no one will help :/ ]

[infiltrationtools]

Not yet??

[This is a nice conversation but Akira does not care about the deep lore right now, he's more preoccupied with Jiro in shock on the floor.]

[He's definitely no doctor but he can conclude either that Jiro's body reacted badly to something in the food, or said food was poisoned. Since that trail mix came directly from Souji there would have been no reason for him to poison it, so... ah. There's nuts in. Allergy? Fuck, and his brain was addled when he ate it too, fuck!]

Rago, Rio, cut the shit! Tell me what I need to do to help him!

[cicadashell]

[Rago wants to know about the corrupted souls as well; Jiro has died so many times already. Others, too. Are they all here with corrupted souls? But he will address Akira first, bounding over to inform him that... he can't read Jiro's mind and he has no idea why he's dying there. Sorry.] He's not dead yet, or I'd be too. I think... [They really never figured out what the fuck happened, nor talked about things like peanut allergies.]

[infiltrationtools]

Useless. You're fucking useless.

[And then Akira starts digging through Jiro's pockets. Any bags he brought with him. If he's right and this is an allergic reaction, and if Jiro had access to it, he might have one of those... emergency syringe things?]

[He doesn't know what he's doing, but no one else except Hiroto seems to care. Fuck you guys, he's doing it anyway.]

[cicadashell]

[Akira will find nothing of the sort in Jiro's pockets, because they're Souji's pockets. Jiro got stabbed with a pitchfork during his and Ala's confrontation with an angry mob of villagers, and bled all over the place. So they stole clothes from the Velvet Room.]

[infiltrationtools]

[It's getting worse. Jiro's breathing is getting shallower and Akira's run out of ideas.]

[He looks up at the bird again, looking... kinda scary.]

You. We're continuing this later. This place had better be open when we get back.

[Then he looks at Souji.]

You. You can make portals like Minato, right? Take me to Orien.

[Sandalphon dissipates and Akira stands up, holding Jiro in his arms. He's a bit smaller, which is fortunate.]

[cicadashell]

[Rago wants to stay, so...] Don't damage my vessel further or I'll kill you! [He really can't be intimidating as a cat, but he tries.]

[infiltrationtools]

YOUR VESSEL'S GONNA FUCKING DIE AND YOU DID NOTHING!

[Maybe shouting at him was a bad idea.]

[cicadashell]

[The ends of Rago's fur start turning to smoke and he hisses at Akira. How dare that human scream at him like that? Only Jiro is allowed to.] I have no healing powers! [Rago's useless for anything but pure destruction.]

[infiltrationtools]

So what, you just fucking ignore him, you sack of shit?!

[Stay here and play with the bird.]

[cicadashell]

He won't die! The bird said it- a corrupted soul! It's still viable! [It was a corrupted soul before they even came to Hirajiro. Rago tells himself this, because he cannot look weak in front of all the humans. He's an all-powerful mononoke, and he's- flopping over. It looks like he does die when Jiro does. It will be soon.]

[defragment]

[ 45 has been watching all this unfold and just really holds back the urge to sigh. Not that she needs to anyway, but. ]

Make him lie down on his back and give him CPR. It might give him some time that he needs until he gets medical attention.

[ She sounds serious this time and not doing that usual smiley thing. ]

[infiltrationtools]

[Fucking thank you.]

[Immediately Akira stops responding to Rago because that's no longer important, and sets Jiro back down. CPR is something he knows how to do, he learned it on the Internet one week after a particularly nasty stint in a dungeon. It's sloppy and done from memory so if 45 wants to kick him off and do it herself she can, but if not, he's just gonna sit here and repeatedly alternate between kissing Jiro and pushing on his chest.]

[cicadashell]

[Jiro will continue to lie there, wheezing in between Akira's attempts at CPR. Maybe he'll survive a little longer with minimal increased oxygen. Gold star, Akira.]

[tarotcards]

[ Souji has already left, saying that he's making a portal straight to the Black Cat House. He'll let Orien know what's happening so as soon as they're ready to move Jiro, they can come through and get him looked after right away. ]

[ Since Akira picked up Jiro, Hiroto has stepped away, letting go of Jiro's arm. He looks frantic and nervous, but he flies back up to the pedestal to grab his fan. ]

Are you ready to leave? I'll get you to the exit in a few seconds!

[infiltrationtools]

[God. Finally. Akira picks Jiro up a second time, a bit more gently.]

Yeah. Go.

[The rest of you can stay here and kick the dirt around with your foot, he doesn't care right now because the only thing that matters is he's not letting Jiro die.]

[tarotcards]

[ He nods. Flying in place, he raises his fan. ]

Come back on the night of the third! I'll still be here! I promise! Just don't die!

[ And that's the only warning everyone will get before the Daitengu waves his fan at them. A powerful gust of wind is conjured as it picks up all the Persona users, not just Akira and Jiro, and carries them back to the entrance. Like a rapid river, none can escape and none can "swim" back. They'll all be kicked out of the shrine and land outside, where Souji's portal awaits them. The dungeon can no longer be accessed. It is sealed. ]

[infiltrationtools]

[For the first time ever in his life, Akira allows himself to be yote. And then he's going to go through the portal and immediately start screaming for Orien.]

[Ganba, snerapist.]