Part 9: The Exalt and the King

Chapter 5: The Exalt and the King



Just a look at what we get access to after beating Chapter 4. Nothing we need here, especially since we got a free Thunder last mission. Let's start the chapter battle.



Music: Now that's a declaration of war if I've ever heard one!





I fear I must shield my eyes! Bwa ha ha ha!

King Gangrel, I've come for the truth of this unfortunate incident between us.

The truth? I can give you the truth.

Perhaps milady might first share her name?



Very well, Aversa. Is Maribelle unharmed?

Who? Oh yes, the little blonde brat.



Maribelle!

Lissa? Darling, is that you?

This girl crossed the Plegian border without our consent. And what's more...She wounded the brave Plegian soldiers who sought only to escort her safely home.

LIES! You speak nothing but lies, hag! Did they not teach the meaning of the word "truth" in wretched-crone school?!

...You see? No manners at all. Such a nasty little bird simply had to be caged.



And if she were to later confess to being an Ylissean spy? My goodness!

It would take an act of CONSIDERABLE good faith to repair our relations.

I have done nothing wrong! It is they who should confess! They are the ones who invaded Ylisse. They razed an entire village! When I attempted to intervene, they took me and dragged me across the border. Let the plundered shops and charred homes of that village serve as my proof!

That would only prove Ylisse has a bandit problem-something I hear oft of late...But indeed, tonight I shall weep salty years into my pillow for your dead villagers.

Your Grace, please!

Peace, Maribelle.

I believe you. King Grangrel, I request that you release this woman at once. Surely you and I can sort out these affairs without the need for hostages.

Without so much as an apology? Why should I even bother with parley?



You black-hearted devil!

Control your dog, my dear, before he gets someone hurt.

Rrgh...

Now then, Your Graceliness. Perhaps we can arrange a trade? You give me the Fire Emblem, and I return Mari Contrary here in one piece.



You would ask for Ylisse's royal treasure? But why?

Because I know the legend! The Fire Emblem is the key to having all one's wishes realized. I have desired it for years. YEARS! ...Yet my birthday comes and goes each year, and nothing from Ylisse. Heheh...

The Emblem's power is meant for a single purpose, King Gangrel: to save the world and its people at their hour of most desperate need. Would you claim a more noble wish?

I want what every Plegian wants-a grisly end for every last Ylissean! What could be more noble than that?

What?

Surely you have not forgotten what the last exalt did to my people? Your father named us heathens! His "crusade" across Plegia butchered countless of my subjects and my kin!

...I have never denied Ylisse's past wrongdoings. But I have sworn to never repeat those mistakes. Ours is now a realm of peace.

Yours is now a haven of hypocrisy! Now give me the Fire Emblem!

No, Your Grace! I'd sooner die than act as a bargaining chip for this filthy reprobate!

No, Maribelle...

Ugh... Taaaaaaalk talk-talk-talk-talk. It's time to speak louder than words! This negotiation is over, Your Luminosity! I shall have the Emblem if I have to pry it from your shiny dead hands!







Now that's a declaration of war if I've ever heard one...

A big, messy war that will bleed you Ylisseans dry. Bwa ha ha!

*cut to Maribelle*



Years from now, you'll be remembered only as she who destroyed HOuse Ylisse.

No...That's not...Oh, Lissa...Please, no...



Maribelle! Go! You're free!

RICKEN?! What are you doing here?

Just run! We can talk about it later!

Oh, is this your little boyfriend? Isn't he just precious.

Don't talk down to me, witch!



Nngh! W-wind magic?

Come on, Maribelle!

Right! *flees*



No. Our soldiers have them outnumbered.

The brats will be dead long before they can reach their comrades.



This is a fairly large map with a lot of tough enemies combined with Wyvern Knights flying in, unhindered by the slopes. Wyvern Knights are extremely hard-hitting Axe users that sometimes come equipped with +2 Str, further adding to their damage.



This is the thread's team. Kellam and Fred would make this much easier for their tough Def and high HP, but alas our best tank right now is...Chrom?



Vaike gets the Glass Axe in case of an emergency haymaker, Miriel gets the free Thunder and a Wind Tome for the Wyvern Knights, and Sully offscreen gets Kellam's Javelin. Let's start.



Captain Orton! Remain here, and take down as many Ylisseans as you can. You can expect reinforcements from the forts as well. Now, do your best-at doing your worst! Bwa ha!



Battle Music: Destiny

This is the enemy commander, Orton. A Short Axe is a stronger Hand Axe (7 Mt). He also has the ability Tantivy, which gives +10 hit/avoid if there's no allies within a 3 tile radius.



Maribelle and Ricken are stranded deep behind enemy lines. That safe spot where Maribelle is the only place where they can survive for the 1st turn.



Maribelle is a Troubadour, a healer on a horse. She comes with a Mend staff, a much stronger Heal.

Ricken is another Mage with some incredibly bad bases (5 Spd?!) but has the powerful Elwind, a 4 Mt D rank Tome. In Robin's hands, she can probably one-shot most of the Wyverns on the map.



Maribelle picks up a Volant Axe (8 Mt, 55 hit, 1-2 range C rank Axe, effective against flying units).

If you didn't have a Rescue Staff from Paralogue 1, the plan would be to pair-up Ricken and Maribble and stay in that safe spot. Have Frederick paired up with Kellam or Chrom to crash through the ranks. But we don't have either defensive monsters right now.



Miriel pairs up with Lissa to boost her Mag enough for the Rescue Staff to reach the two new characters.



The Dark Mage on the left is marked to avoid his range this turn, then Stahl pairs up with Chrom to boost his defense.



Chrom will take on the top level enemies and take on the upper left Barbarian.



Sully will support Lon'qu and stay in that sweet spot where the bottom Barbarian will attack while the Dark Mage can't reach him. The rest of the team moves out of the way.

Enemy Battle music: Aggression



Chrom gets the first victim and doubles him without any damage.



A sign of good things to come!



Or maybe it's a price of the RNG gods....



Be silent!

Lon'qu quickly shows off his Killing Edge combined with his high Spd/Lck to produce criticals.



Chrom takes out another Barbarian and heavily damages a Myrmidon while taking puny damage back.



Half the enemy army, most notably two Wyvern Knights, moves down to our team and it goes back to us.



So that random Mag/Res boost that Chrom received from the Barracks? Turns out to be quite useful, actually since it blocks 4 damage from all Tomes now. Not that the Dark Mage actually hit him, but it's the thought that counts.



Lon'qu tries to keep up the body count with a kill of his own, though he's blasted down to 1 HP because he can't dodge for shit despite the RNG telling me otherwise



Maribelle gallops all the way across and heals him back to full. It even gives more EXP per heal (25 per heal), which is good incentive to use the better staffs whenever possible.



The Vaike supports Donny as he faces off and spears the Myrmidon to his death.



Robin and Lissa move up to end the turn. Chrom the Wall continues his declaration of war as he kills another Myrmidon, this time with Stahl's help.



Enough with the Spd already! We get it!

Base classes gain a 2nd ability at level 10. The Lord class gets Charm, which increases hit and avoid by 5 to all allies within a 3 tile radius. Side-note, Donny's Villager class is considered special and earns their ability at level 1 and 15.



Hey Chrom, leave some for the rest of the team.



Okay, I guess Chrom is just going to kill all of Plegia now. Falchion is an Effective Weapon against dragons-type enemies like Wyvern Knights, so he deals a massive 22 damage per hit.



Lissa cleans the blood off heals her brother back to full health. Lon'qu hangs around as the only targetable unit for the enemies.



Oh right, asshole reinforcements. At the beginning of the LP, I mentioned the main difference between Normal and Hard/Lunatic besides the stats are the reinforcements. These enemies will pop right out of forts, stairs, or even sides of the maps periodically and attack in the same turn. This is why I'm always so cautious with my troops to hang back until the coast is clear.



No hard feelings.

The asshole Barbarian immediately springs from the fort and attacks Lon'qu. Of course, he STILL took a freakin axe in the face from a 32% hit



A miracle??



Lon'qu crits again and gains a meh level. I think between him and Chrom, they took out half the map already.



Lissa heals Lon'qu and gains a level where she increases all the stats I don't like.



Ricken chips in some good damage since his Res boosted by Maribelle makes him the ultimate mage weakener.



Donny finishes off the mage and gains every stat except Mag and Def. He's coming along nicely. Also gained D rank in lances.



Chrom walls off the north entryway while Sully prepares against the Barbarian with a sword in hand.



Two more Wyvern Knights appear, which they spend this turn by charging straight at us.



Chrom kills Barbarian number 5000 and damages a Myrmidon.



Sully eats a Hand Axe to the face because I forgot to check out his weapon. Oops.



Lissa heals back the mistake, then Sully hits the Barbarian up close and personal. Lon'qu crits from the support side this time for the kill. Sully sends a Hand Axe to the convoy from excess inventory.



Robin ends up with Ricken as her partner and snipes the Myrmidon for a kill. 99 EXP result makes me so annoyed every time.



Maribelle with Donny in tow heals Chrom. Stahl gets tired of watching and becomes the new wall with Bronze Lance in hand.



Oh goddamnit. A Dark Mage spawns right in Sully's vicinity.



Stahl holds off the Myrmidon with no problem, while Sully eats a Flux for decent damage (Flux can only be used by the Dark Mage tree and has 5 Mt, 70 hit).



Sully equips a Javelin and drinks a Vulnerary. Chrom finishes off the Myrmidon to prepare for the two Wyvern Knights incoming. Everybody else runs the hell back.



Sully eats yet another Flux (because her partner is Lon'qu the Bulls-eye), but counterattacks with two Javelin hits back.



Chrom the Butcher strikes again.



I mean, if the king knew about the Fire Emblem, surely he must've known that Ylisse also has a sword that destroys their main forces, right?



Stahl just hangs around on the fort with an Iron Sword, while Donny notches another kill.



Robin heavily chips out the Myrmidon for a leve-ARE YOU KIDDING ME, DEF

Ugh, whatever. She also learns Solidarity, which gives +10 Critical and Crit Dodge to adjacent allies.



Sully finishes off the enemy and gains a bad level.



Stahl counterattacks safely from his fort, then Miriel chips in with Thunder.



Teach gets the kill. The rest of the team moves up for the final wave, healing along the way.



Stahl sits in the woods to bait out the Wyvern Knights without much hassle.



Orton and the other Wyvern Knight started their move, which limits our safe zone for the mages and healers.



Miriel chips in with her Wind Tome, which Stahl finishes off.



The rest of the team moves away while Robin and Ricken handle the boss themselves on the fort.



Even despite Robin's shortcomings as a Tome caster, Orton isn't that tough.





You lost to a kid. We will put that on your grave. We got ourselves a Bullion (M), which is just sell fodder for 5000 gold.



The last Wyvern Knight decides that anything that killed his boss can't possibly kill him t-oh.



Gain some speed, please in the future.



Not sure what you're planning to be the best at with those stats.



Stahl baits out the Dark Mage. Lon'qu comes in and tries the very risky strategy of not activating a crit.



Success! On the other hand, he got freakin hit again!



Vaike gets fed another kill and still doesn't level up. Bah.



Sully spends her time getting the two last enemies to come to her, freeing up the last Event Tile on the map. She gained D rank swords for her troubles.



Repeat the same battle between Sully and the Barbarian, while Stahl kills off the Myrmidon with a Chrom support.



You and Robin have very lackluster definitions of "progress."



Tiki's Tear temporarily boosts all stats by 2 and HP by 5. Free stat boosts for a mission are always nice.



Miriel gets her first level and a great one at that, gaining Mag and Spd specifically.



What a rip. How did Chrom not get MVP, I demand a recount!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvYRU_3BpXs

*Maribelle and Lissa run into each other*



Nothing I didn't return twofold, darling.

I'm glad you're safe.

Who...? Oh. It's you.

Yes, I know you're not especially fond of me, but it's a relief just the same.

Oh, it's not a question of fondness. I am simply protective of Lissa. My treasure is very sensitive, and...

Wait. Am I really justifying myself to a commoner? Gods...Yes, well, I do...apologize for being curt. And...And...

And you have my thanks for your part in the rescue. There, I said it!



*a moment later*



It's all right, Chrom. King Gangrel is the one at fault here. You were only protecting me.

The Mad King will be rallying his forces, if they have not mobilized already. I suggest we make haste back to Ylissstol and discuss our strategy.

Of course, Frederick. It seems war is upon us. We must protect the Ylissean people at all costs.

Next Time: Foreseer

extras

Ricken
Starting Class: Mage
Weapon Ranks: Tomes (D)
Abilities:
-Mag+2

Mage Support Bonus: +4 Mag, +2 Skill

Base Stats (Growth Rates)

HP-20 (85%) Spd-5 (50%)
Str-3 (20%) Lck-10 (65%)
Mag-8 (55%) Def-6 (35%)
Skill-6 (50%) Res-3 (35%)

Ricken is...blah. If you want a slower Miriel, he's your guy? I mean come on, 5 base Spd is terrible for someone that doesn't have the best Def in the game like a Kellam.

Official Bio: A novice Shepherd who looks and acts like a child. While this endears him to the others, he hates being treated as anything less than an equal. He sees Chrom as a brother. The most popular with cute animals.


Maribelle
Starting Class: Troubadour
Weapon Ranks: Staffs (D)
Abilities:
-Res+2

Troubadour Support Bonus: +2 Mag, +1 Spd, +3 Res

Base Stats (Growth Rates)

HP-18 (65%) Spd-6 (50%)
Str-0 (20%) Lck-5 (80%)
Mag-5 (60%) Def-3 (15%)
Skill-4 (50%) Res-6 (55%)

Maribelle is your mobile healer, and her growths lean more toward a super Mag tank, along with extremely high Luck rivaled only by Donny. Her Support Bonus is great in general for Tome users, but can also make defensive units better resistant to opposing Tomes.

Official Bio: Lissa's best friend, a proud and sharp-tongued noble from one of Ylisse's most well-to-do houses. She is cold to strangers, particularly commoners, but warms quickly. The most likely to toss in her sleep.