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

[not_that_sasuke]

[Sasuke nods, even if he's pointedly ignoring that first part.]

We've... dealt with memories like that before. They couldn't talk, though.

[nOT LOOKING AT MINATO RIGHT NOW.]

Maybe... what your team was like? It sounds like you all worked together pretty well.

[compendiem]

[ Naoya, on the other hand, does look over at Minato. "Does it seem that way?" he laughs, because with the way Minato acts, it's surprising to hear.

"We were a pretty ragtag group, to be honest, but it works out because most of us hung out with a ragtag group on the regular anyways. Maki and I were classmates, and Tatsuya and Maya knew each other. Along with Minato and Souji, we all had experience using Personas before being brought here. Whatever differences we had, we could set aside, knowing there's something larger at stake we needed to work together for, and together, we lead the rest of our team."

Instead of just one, there were six Persona senpai to lead the team, and everybody took everything seriously from the start, because it wasn't the first time they'd been called to save the world. Overall, they worked well because of that. Personality-wise, they got along too— he, Maya, and Souji were all pretty optimistic and kept the morale up, while Maki, Tatsuya, and Minato were the more practical sort and kept the team focused. They'd gotten to be good friends, he says, because isn't it impossible not to like somebody after working together for months and months, learning to rely on one another and live together and fight for a common goal, shoulder to shoulder? ]

[not_that_sasuke]

[Hahaha yeah, about that...]

I... don't know if we all get along like that. [He's pretty sure not, actually.]

[compendiem]

[ With the schedule the dungeons adhere to, they must have had plenty of time to get to know each other. In such a situation like this, bonding can occur in less than the time spent inside a dungeon, like some sort of campaign event.

Naoya's smile softens a little, looking down at Sasuke. "Not all teams are made up of friends, and not everybody has to get along. Do you want everybody to?" ]

[not_that_sasuke]

It just seems like it would be easier if we could get along better.

[Not necessarily well. Just better.]

[compendiem]

[ Naoya laughs and claps Sasuke on the back— there's no weight behind it, and feels like nothing more than warm wind ruffling his clothes.

"If you want to, you want to! That's all that matters," he says, because it wasn't something he needed a reason for. There's no need to justify anything, and it doesn't matter that the reason is for everybody to get along for sake of convenience, rather than friendship itself. Wants are wants.

"Nothing will happen if you just sit and wait, so go out there and make that wish come true yourself. It can't be forced, so don't worry about it too much— your team will come together." Theirs did, despite all odds, and Naoya steps back to rejoin his team once more, so his can move on and Sasuke's can leave the dungeon. ]