JANUARY DUNGEON

[citta]

JANUARY DUNGEON

premise ⬥ taken ⬥ faq ⬥ navigation

→ 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

[parhellia]

[ It's cheating, a little, having all three in front of her at the same time instead of doing the reading one by one, but she lets herself give the sparknotes version of the cards. ]

The three cards represent the past, present, and future. First is the Fool, a free spirit who is just out there enjoying his life and having fun, a carefree life full of innocence. I hope people's lives were like this, not just yours... that they can look back on a past that was peaceful.

[ Like their time in this fake world, if nothing else. An idyllic life, one that can't last, and Ala moves her hand to rest the tips of her fingers over the next card. ]

But then the Chariot's been overturned, and there comes a time where you feel like you've lost control of your life- again and again, nothing's going right and so many bad things are happening that you can't change no matter how hard you try. You feel lost, helpless...

[ And the present is very much so, to Ala at this moment, sitting in this booth talking about this life and this family that she wishes so badly could be real, but it's not, and it feels like her entire life's been uprooted all at once. And then, ]

The future is Death. Rather than an end, Death is a card of change, of new beginnings, the end of our lives here and the start— the return to our lives that we had before, outside of this dungeon. The cards say we need to leave.

[lotusroots]

[ It's weird, how those cards mirror the experience in this part of the dungeon and his life back home. But he's not going to burden Ala with all of that—it was a lifetime ago, and here it feels like two lifetimes. As much as he wants all of this to be real, it isn't. Still, Death means new beginnings, so they still have a lot ahead of them.

He stands up. ]

You're right. We do need to leave. [ He smiles at her. ] New beginnings and change though... that's not bad. We can make more good memories back in the outside world.

[ At least, he's going to try to! ]

Are you ready to go? I've said my goodbyes already.

[parhellia]

[ New beginnings and change, all of this is her life of a month and a half and the same can be said for so many people, she thinks. Good things will come to them, as long as they're not afraid of change. ]

Yep, I'm ready to go. I want to leave while everybody's happy~

[ Aka, she did not say her goodbyes, and she doesn't plan to, wanting to disappear while the festival is in full swing. When they're all gone, this world will cease to exist, so their disappearance won't make anybody sad; their time here has made so many people happy, and she'd like to leave it at that. ]

We need to get up to the mountain shrine. Let's go~!