The City of the Specter, Atem's Palace

[metagame]

The corpse sinks to the floor
Even the brightest gold, even the sharpest blade
Becomes sand, becomes dust

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phase two

[metagame]

"Courage... Faith... Love... Bonds between your friends... These are all such wonderful answers," Mana says to everyone.

"Keep these answers in the forefront of your mind. Remember what happens next isn't real--- you are the Lady of Connection's Chosen Heroes, and you can overcome any obstacle. Lead with your heart forward."

"I wish we could do more for you."

The door to the basement is open, the flickering of torches along the walls light your way.

As you descend the stairs, you see etched upon the walls are two murals: one on the left, the other on the right.

First mural on the left tells the tale of how the Millennium Items came to be... In the peaceful village of Kul-Elna, renown through the Black Lands for their talented artisans and workmen, tragedy struck. One day the Pharaoh Akhnamkhanen's army lead by his brother, a priest named Akhnaden, raided the village and captured every villager, except for one. The villagers were used as a live sacrifice in a horrific ritual of black magic, their bodies melted into gold and forged into the seven Millennium Items.

The mural further explains that the Millennium Items shouldn't exist as they trespass into the realm of gods, their abhorrence so great.

The second mural on the right depicts a great war sparked by the rebellion of the only survivor of Kul-Elna, a man named Bakura. Pharaoh Atem soon found himself in an impossible situation as two of his six priests, Priest Set and Priest Akhnaden, betrayed him. The gods then turned their back on Atem, and without their help a great evil struck the Black Lands. With no other choice, he sacrificed himself to seal away the great evil in the Millennium Puzzle, shattering it.

From this point onward as your characters descend the stairs and investigate the murals, please roll 1D2.

1 means your character walks with their right foot forward. This will trigger a Shadow encounter of three Black Ooze, they are weak and will go down in one hit but will try to cast Makajama on your characters to inflict Forget so your character can't remember their answer to the Riddle. To speed things along, you're allowed to handle the Black Ooze encounters and choose if they Forget. You can clear the status with any status recovery skills.

2 means your character walks with their left foot forward. This will not trigger an encounter.

Mana has given you a hint on how to avoid the Shadows, if your character figures it out and actively chooses to walk with their left foot forward, then it's unnecessary to roll.

[privatedomicile]

Lead with your heart huh...?

[Jesse can't really tell what that means, so he just starts walking with his left foot forward and starts humming to himself under his breath. Music comes from the heart right??]

[townmusician]

[quietly, just in case there are monsters lurking:]

What are you doing?

[beautifulknight]

[ Argenti immediately absorbs this information as much as he can...he is certain all of this will be important.

But also, apparently he listens well to the hint Mana gives (2), he will continue to remember this for later.

He continues onwards with his left foot forward. And honestly, considering the person he is?

Argenti has always taken every step onwards with his heart at the forefront. That is who he is. ]

[cleansewithfire]

[ Sunrise totally missed that Mana had given a hint, but fortunately she walks with her left foot forward anyway (2). And in a way, maybe it's telling, given how she's guileless as can be.

She is looking at the murals along the way down, her expression difficult to read.]

[emptyself]

Thank you. This is already a big help.

[ is it really? well, for soujuurou maybe, considering that his smile is genuine.

soujuurou somehow managed to figure out mana’s hint (2), and leads with his left foot. ]

[townmusician]

[Looking at these murals, Haruka thinks he should really try to find a way to get rid of that ring that keeps showing up in his room. Maybe he'll give it to Atem after this...

He's also walking with his left foot forward (2!!), even if he didn't pick up on the hint. He's not thinking about anatomy right now!!]

[prozaic]

[Well a certain someone's just woken up... but he missed the entire mission briefing, and feels like hot garbage besides, his neck stiff and sore, and even a good crack can't help him right now. RIP he'll just be stuck here forever...

But it's not as if he wants to actually be here with everyone else, who have seen his rampage, so he's looking for a way out right now. And not forward. Definitely does not want to go to the basement. Which he opened--]

apparently this is real now

[metagame]

Mana stares at him then blasts him into the basement.

[moodwrecker]

[Lead with your heart... wait a second. Aubrey is vaguely remembering some history classes where left and right were important because hygiene and stuff. Does that apply to walking, too...?

...

A bit uncertain, but walking with her left foot forward and warily watching like she expects a rock to fall on her from above if she gets it wrong.]

Re: phase two

[beathollow]

( hey, remember how mafuyu finished the puzzle while just wandering around?

...

maybe she should have gone to look at the murals before she takes the final piece back. this is surely not going to go poorly at all. unfortunately, mafuyu does not know anything about being genre savvy, as she does not know genres.

whoopsies. )

[finalmix]

[ this is some time after mafuyu comes back with the completed puzzle probably but.

looks at the mural, looks at the puzzle and mafuyu. looks at the mural again. looks at mafuyu again. ]

Why do you somehow attract cursed objects?

[privatedomicile]

...

[Jesse finally notices the mural and the puzzle look extremely similar. He looks back and forth between the two several times before finally replying.]

How'd you even manage to piece it together so fast?!

[finalmix]

Such an obvious hint.

[ i'm so sorry to mana (and mahaad but mostly mana) who does not deserve this but this is how josh shows that he is maybe (?) a little bit apologetic about this entire fiasco. just a little bit.

even if they are just cognitions, it doesn't stop joshua from casting a media on them, before he goes down the stairs with his left foot forward. ]

[ledbythewind]

[The flickering of torches brings memories that Richard would much rather have stayed buried. He really doesn't want to go down these stairs into that darkness so reminiscent of the catacombs, but...

Taking a deep breath, he steps forward (2) and tries to will down the rising fear in his heart. He glances at the murals, but whether he's actually seeing anything they depict is hard to tell.]

final battle

[metagame]

[The further you descend the steps, the more it may dawn on you that this is a tomb, Atem's tomb.

Eventually you enter an even larger room that incorporates the entirety of the palace above. In the middle of room the sits an intricate-looking stone sarcophagus. It appears the Millennium Items can fit into the empty indentations. And sitting upon the sarcophagus is Atem, of course. One leg pulled to his chest as the other dangles off the side.

He turns his head to the group, one part of his face hidden while the other that stares at them blazes a sickly yellow. Underneath his tattered cloak he appears... skeletal. Nothing like how he appeared in the Palace proper.]

How long were you going to keep me waiting..?

[He slowly rises to his feet and hops off the sarcophagus.

A better look reveals that Atem is quite dead--- his skeletal rib cage exposed, his heart missing. He removes his crown and drops it to the ground with a loud clatter.

The third eye on his forehead opens.]

I want to play a game.

[beautifulknight]

...What kind of game?

[ Argenti is side-eyeing this now because Atem looks way unfriendly now. ]

[beathollow]

( mafuyu is... quiet. a little pale, both from the nerves from the puzzle and in sickened horror at the sight before her.

...

she will not be brave this time. )

[townmusician]

[Well, that's certainly a look.]

How can you talk like this?!

[ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS--]

[prozaic]

[Shalem sighs.]

And so it boils to this, at the very end. A straight-forward battle this will not be, I see.

[cleansewithfire]

[ Well now,,,

Sunrise instinctively tenses, because guess who normally busts other undead? ]

...What game is it?

[emptyself]

Ah...

[ soujuurou is... well, there's only so much that he can comprehend from the sight before him. from the head, he can tell that it's [ ]. it's [ ], right? no, it can't be. there's no way that [ ] has ever looked like that, there's no way that a human body could ever look like that or move. there's no way, there's no way, there's nowaythere'snowaytheresnoway--

unable to comprehend the situation before him, soujuurou's body sways and ultimately collapses on the ground with a dull thud. ]

[moodwrecker]

[Aubrey doesn't have much of an answer either, as she is a bit pale and distracted by the whole partial skeleton thing uhhhh holy crap.]

Re: final battle

[privatedomicile]

Nope! Not today, Jigsaw!

[Aaand he immediately goes to the shadow realm.]

[finalmix]

Sorry, we got lost on the way here. It wasn't exactly easy to get to you, you know?

[ he's seen the dead in many, many conditions - the skeletal grotesqueness and the missing heart don't really phase joshua all that much, but there is a little bit of unease mostly because that's... hm. he's remembering the penalty game thing from earlier even if it hasn't come into effect just yet. ]

... Do we get a chance to pick the game? Or you have already decided?