Miss extra af

Entrance

The players found themselves standing on the street outside of Leblanc, everything looking pretty normal and standard-- expect for the building. In its place stood a blue building the colour of the velvet room and a tall metal fence that prevented them from progressing. Speaking to Lavaneza, who stood outside the real Velvet room’s door, told those who asked:  "I do not have any methods nor information to assist you with, young trickster, for those who enter are already dead.”

Through some investigation, the players were able to find a broken piece in the surrounding fence. Someone clearly had been there before them, taking a literal sledge hammer to the metal and bending it upwards so the thieves can slip underneath and get inside. Two security towers loomed over the area, however one seemed to be damaged-- another indicator that they likely weren’t alone.

Floor 0-- The fool

After making their way into the palace and dodging out of the light of two search towers, they find themselves in a room that holds a strong resemblance to the velvet room. 3 cells each line the walls, labeled with a name plate and hand scanner: looking at them closely, the players can see that they hold the names of the Phantom Thieves: Ann, Futaba, Haru, Makoto, Yusuke, Ryuji... Is there a name missing?

In the center of the room is a huge hole covered by thick glass that allows you to see downwards to all of the palace.

The cell doors only opened depending on who the players had in their party. Since they had an Ann and Futaba, they were allowed entry into their respective rooms and spoke to the cognitions there. It was revealed that the cognitions weren’t of themselves, but of the Phantom Thieves’ Akira lost in her own timeline.

After exploring the two cells, Shadow Akira showed herself to the group, asking them to leave. The group refused, and she gave one of the players (Akechi), a folder with a keycard to progress further into the palace before she allowed herself to fall through the glass, descending to the floors bellow.

Floor 1-- The Chariot

On the next floor was two smaller towers with spotlights on them, shadows manning each tower on the lookout for intruders. The players sneaked past and took out each shadow, Akechi causing a small blackout after shooting his gun at a electric socket. The group also stumbled upon a treasure chest, retrieving a special sword for Akechi. 

Making their way past a puzzle, they overheard shadows speaking to someone called Miss Kurusu-- Akira’s mother. Tricking these shadows, the group got the keycards needed to move on to the next floor.

Floor 2-- The Lovers

The group was starting to get worn out from their leader’s constant need to fight every shadow, so they took a small break to recoup as they weighed their options. They ended up making it further through the floor and found a large screen and two doors. A cognitive Futaba of one of the muses hacked through the feed to talk to the players--and they promised to meet up to exchange notes as it’s revealed there was a cognitive group of phantom thieves trying to get into the palace--the same friends Akira was trying to protect.

The group manages to solve a puzzle and get through to the next room, which is divided in half by a wall of glass.

In each room, there was shards of glass with masks painted on them--masks of the phantom thieves. However, when two members of the group went into the opposite room to try and get the rest of the shards, both exits locked and the room on the left began filling with water. Fun! That’s when they first met the Lupeux--a shadowy being with sharp white teeth that could melt into shadow. It almost took out the leader of the party, but when the group on the other side figured out the puzzle, it escaped to the next floor.

This is where the group took a break and returned back to the entrance of the palace to talk to the cognitions of themselves. That was a time LOL

Floor 3-- The High Priestess  

On this floor, the players were given two options. Go through the first door, or go through the second door. First door was a puzzle involving tarot cards that ended up being unused, and the second door was a logic puzzle. Only thing is, that logic puzzle was 500% hijacked by a certain persona that the group let escape... 

Fight: Lupeux

To be honest, the Lupeux wasn’t supposed to be such a big deal. In my concept writing, it was just another shadow--but I ended up going all out with it! Here’s a little excerpt:

Bullets lace into the mirrors, easily shattering any surface that comes into contact with the barrel of a gun. The cracks of the mirrors extend the length of the hall, growing in intensity before giving out and sending thousands of sharp shards flying. Not to be one left out, Mona draws his slingshot and joins the fray, aiding in the shattering of more mirrors.

Laughter fills the hallways as gunfire threatens to drown it out, however Lupeux is loosing places to play it's game. Distorted images of the Phantom Thieves don't even remain anymore-- only showing the backing wall that held the mirrors up. Bullet holes lay scattered across its surface, growing the cracks in the very foundation of the walls and leaving very clear exit marks.

"Here! Here! Let me help you!" It giggles, voice of Crow melting and shifting until it became almost unrecognizable.

All at once, the walls cave and crumble, remaining mirror walls left in shambles as everything falls to the ground. The group is left standing on the thin pathway, now exposed to the open air. All around them is only darkness, and a giant pit that leads downwards that you cannot see the bottom of. You can see the exit, now clearly visible and lacking any tricks, and the walls of the other path you could have taken very far away from you.

Lupeux is nowhere to be seen for a short while, though the darkness around the group shifts and bubbles as if it's alive. A long leg of shadow climbs out from it's depths, familiar toothy grin spiraling and clicking as it reforms in front of the group's eyes. A red, beady iris flickers and hones in on the group as it pulls more and more darkness into its body, consuming shadow in seemingly infinite supply. It perches itself on the other path, growing in size as time goes on, and laughs silently. The only way you're able to separate it from the backdrop of nothingness is it's sharp teeth that it clicks, as if in challenge.

Check out Quire’s art from the scene! It was fun tormenting them :))

Floor 4-- Justice

This floor was a Bit of a Time(tm). Two player characters ended up in some of the jail cells due to them almost dying, and Akira’s mom and Sae ended up talking to them. After a terrible roll in trying to knock Sae out (it was eventually successful) the united group went to the main room where a trial was said to be held. There they fought the midboss of the campaign, Akira’s mother. 

Midboss:

Maragarethe [Null Curse. Resist gun]

way too many moves ngl. she just wanted to brainwash the party though

Akira’s mother was probably one of the concepts of the palace that never really changed? Her design remained the same throughout all my concept art and at this point it’s quite clear i have a certain Aesthetic haha. Those eyes especially were my favourite...

After beating her up, there was only a couple floors left.

Just a pretty empty foor--a transition to the next. In order to get through you needed a Morgana and Akechi in the party. Which, this group happened to have :)

Leblanc

After going through the prison the players opened the final door and... found themselves right where they started--inside Leblanc. Only this was clearly still a cognitive version of Leblanc, and had a lot of things about it that felt ‘off’. For one there were doors on the side, for another the windows were replaced with mirrors. Oh, and when the whole group went inside the Akechi of the group had a gun pointed at his head by Akira’s original Akechi. The one that died in her first timeline.

I’ll keep what happened a secret unless people asked, but the group secured the infiltration route and sent the calling card (it was an emotional time).

Boss floor

After the calling card triggered and the group was inside, they made their way to the treasure room (Leblanc’s attic). The treasure however was gone, and Shadow Akira found them, this time with her mask on.

The whole room collapsed around them, revealing a room no one could escape. And so, the fight began.

Boss Phase 1: Lady

Lady’s first phase was more on the easy side to handle--all she had to work with was a mirror of the personas I had originally played with during other campaigns. This meant she had a limit to what she could do, especially since I nerfed her early on with her persona choices. After being knocked down to around half health, she shifted into phase 2.

Boss phase 2: A̮̯̙̬͎͓̥̦̕r̡̖̩̩̣̲̪͢s̪̳̰̝̜̝͘͠ͅe҉͙̠̳͉̗̞̻̙n̡͉͘e̶̦̼̪͚?͏̪̭̀͞A͉̹̟͟k̶̟͖̟͈̩̼̰̞̯͟i̭͉̣r͔͓͠a̶̲͈̺͍͙

Phase 2 was rougher--I gave her a wide move pool with some original moves that if the group didn’t guard, they’d be automatically knocked down (and susceptible to an all out attack). Luckily that didn’t happen though! The group won, the treasure being Akira’s mask.

In the real world the treasure remained her mask, however in hindsight it should have been her original rounded glasses--since she only got her square ones in her second timeline, not the first.

Notes:

There were originally 7 floors planned, and I still have the designs for them! Each floor was based off of one of the PTs, but it turned out to be too long to reasonably go through in a campaign.

I have a book that is 30 pages of planning and plotting for this palace. I really wanted to make it personal to my players and to cater to their characters and give them content to allow them to explore sides of their muses they haven’t been able to do before. Because of this, I had several events planned just for each muse in mind. Not all of it got used in the end, but it was fun!

Some players had to duck out of the RP for their own health, so the palace was modified after their departure to accommodate such! 

Original Shadows

Where would a Palace be without some exclusive shadows? Nowhere that’s what! All of these designs were inspired by french folklore and stories

Matagot [weak to bless, resist everything else ]

Inflict Fear (high odds) to 1 foe

Instantly kill all foes under Fear

Medium Physical damage to 1 foe 2x

Medium Physical damage and inflict Fear (medium odds) to 2 foe

Inflict confuse (medium odds) to all foes

Wolf [absorb curse, absorb gun]

Medium Physical damage to all foes.

Medium Physical damage and inflict Forget (low odds) to all foes.

Colossal Physical damage to 1 foe.

Red [Reflect Gun, Absorb Curse,]

17% HP

Severe Gun damage to 1 foe. High critical rate.

24% HP

Severe Gun damage to all foes.

12 SP

Heavy Curse damage to 1 foe

15 SP

Medium chance of instantly killing 1 foe