Part 23: Pirate Ship

At last, they spot a fog-enshrouded isle on the horizon. Eliwood's father is on the isle, as is the Dragon's Gate. As they draw closer to the isle, Eliwood no longer fears that his father is one of the conspirators. As the moment of truth nears, Eliwood only prays that he is safe.





: I'm fine, sir. This is a beautiful ship.

: Gwa ha ha! For a sea rover, eh?

: May I ask you a question? Why did you agree to give us passage? When we said we wished to travel to Valor, the people in the harbor treated us like we were mad.

: I'm sure they did. It is the Dread Isle, after all. If not for a good reason, we wouldn't want to go either.

: And yet... You've given us free passage. Why is that?

: Listen to me, laddie. Men are strange beasts. We can't resist a challenge. Something appears on the horizon, and we immediately set sail. Some dreams we conquer, others we abandon. ...I've grown old. I haven't had a good challenge in many a year. Then you mooncalves appear, seeking passage to the Dread Isle. I was impressed with your courage; you may be the ones to survive the Dread Isle.

: We won't disappoint you. We will return.

: All right, we'll weigh anchor and wait for you. Light a signal fire when you want to return, and we'll pick you up.

: Thank you.



: It looks like there's someone aboard. What're your orders?

: Bring 'em aboard. Looks like we've got a visitor. Odd though, finding a boat adrift near here... The sea currents in this area... Anything drifting around here must've come from the Dread Isle.

: Oh...

: Well, shall we greet our guest?



: You saw us?

: No, I heard you'd gone off with him. You learn anything?

: …We can trust him. We got lucky, finding him.

: Hmmm. If you say so.

: Hey, you two! Come here! They've pulled the dory aboard! I wonder who's on board. It's… It's a girl!?

????: …Uh…uhnn…

: Oy! You there!

: Me?

: Give me a hand, will you? I don't know where to…grab her.

: …OK.

: Such the gentleman.

: Stow it!



: Ninian! Wake up!

: Unbelievable… What are the chances?

: Do you know her?

: She's how Lyndis and I met a year back. I rescued Ninian from a band of villains.

: Please, Ninian! Open your eyes!

: …Ah…

: Ninian, can you hear me?

: …Unnn… I…

: Are you well? Why were you on that boat? Where is Nils? Why wasn't he with you?

: Ah…ah…

: Ninian?

: Lyndis, something's wrong with her.

: Who… Who…



: Do they dare attack Captain Fargus and the Davros? They must be mad!

: What flag are they flying? I've never seen that pattern before.

: These seas belong to us! Whoever they are, they're in our waters! This is a day for strange occurrences, it seems. You whelps watch your own hides. We've no time to waste on you!



Welp, here we go again.



: Water! The hull's been breached! We're taking on water!

: Breached? These scum are more dangerous than I'd thought!

: It's bad, Captain! We need all hands belowdecks, or we'll sink!

: Take care of it! I'm going to carve these scallywags some new gizzards!

: We need your help! The water's up to the galley! You must come below, Captain!

: Grrr…

: Fargus! Leave the enemy to us!

: Fighting is something we're good at! But a sinking ship? That's your affair! You have to do something, or we'll all drown!

: We'll deal with things up here. Please! Hurry!

: Fine! The deck is yours! I'll be back as soon as we've plugged the breach in the hull!

: Go!



: I will.

: Here they come!



And with that semi-ominous tone that we've certainly never heard before, it's time to get started. The crew for this mission is Hector, Lyn, Priscilla, Raven, Oswin, Rebecca, Matthew, Florina, Canas, and Lucius.



We start here in the north, and our main objective is to survive for 11 turns.



To the east, mercenaries, and a lot of them. There are a couple goodies to be had of off these guys, including a Longsword and a Red Gem. Raven and Oswin are going to be holding the line here.



To the west, a whole fuckin' lot of Shamans. Lucius and Canas are going to be cleaning house on this end.



If waiting around isn't your thing, killing Zoldam will end the map. Aside from missing out on reinforcement experience, this isn't always the wisest idea. For one, he's a very high level shaman and has very good defenses for a magic user. Secondly, that weapon of his is hands-down the most broken item in the game. Luna is relatively heavy (weight 12), and no might to its name, but it has 95% accuracy (the highest of any usable magic tome), 20 critical, and most importantly, it completely ignores enemy resistance. This is absolutely devastating to magic users, and is so good, IS had to nerf it down to 50% accuracy in The Sacred Stones to balance it out.

Slightly less importantly, he's got a Speedwing to snatch. Now let's get down to business. Lucius starts by attacking the closest shaman and gets a Light Magic level, while Canas moves into position and finishes the shaman off. Oswin moves down to the lower right mercenary, and Raven takes up position blocking the closest plank. We also take one last chance to go shopping and pick up an extra Lighting and Flux tomes, a couple of Mend staves, and a couple axes. Lucius gains the first level when he's attacked by a shaman.



Not the worst level, I suppose. Matthew starts the next turn off by killing a mercenary.



This is a hilariously defensive Matthew. I don't know how long it's been since I've had one that wanted to tank so badly. The strength is nice too, though. Rebecca misses a mercenary, so Florina picks up the slack.



Hey, now we're starting to look good. Let's hope this keep up. Oswin moves forward to completely block the path, and picks up his A-rank in lances attacking a mercenary. On the other side, Lucius and Canas pick off some more shamans and Canas gets a level.



Not cool man, you don't have a backup I can turn to.



Raven picks this up on his side. The Longsword is effective against cavalry, much like the Horseslayer.

Lucius starts moving forward on turn 3, and gets a level in a shaman fight.



About damn time we get this train rolling. Raven's next.



...And train derailed. Rebecca knocks off a mercenary with a lancereaver (who still had absolutely no chance of hurting Oswin) and Oswin kills off an archer with ease.



Not bad, not bad. Very Oswin-esque, and he even gets a Red Gem for his trouble.



Now here's a new toy. Nosferatu, predictably, drains the target's HP (Nosferatu being a common term for Vampire). Not that it helps him, since he was already at full HP and Lucius is about to wreck his shit.



Canas picks this up on turn 4. The Guiding Ring is good for promoting just about any magic user, so it's by far the most common promotion item. Lucius finishes off the Nosferatu shaman and gains another level.



That's what I'm talking about.



Well now you're just being difficult. A pair of shamans pop up at the start of turn 5, but Lucius and Canas pretty much kill them off immediately.



More speed is nifty, since Dark tomes are pretty damn heavy. With that, we've got two turns before any more reinforcements show up, so Matthew heads down to steal Zoldam's Speedwing, and Lyn heads down to prepare to kill him off.



Speedwings predictably raise Speed by 2. Florina grabs Matthew and gets the hell out of there.



: That's where they should be waiting... That's where they'll die.



Turn 7 brings more reinforcements, but they can't do anything to stop us. The shaman manages to make it up to Rebecca, but she slaughters him.



I'm not going to have a great endgame archer, am I? Turn 9 brings more mercenaries and some Peg knights, but again, nothing special.



Canas manages to take one out in style, though. Enemy phase of turn 10, and Zoldam tries to pick a fight with Lyn.



: You don't know how to fight? Go now, or die here...



Ouch. Fortunately, Lyn doesn't critical and we get to see turn 11. Raven and Eliwood kill off the last of the enemies, and Lyn finishes the job.



: Must warn... Must...



And that brings the chapter to a close.



: Now, who wants to die first?

Oh Fargus, you are the best.



: Nicely done, whelps!

: Those sea dogs were no match for us!



: There's blood everywhere!

: …Blood?

: Look out!

: …Ah! I'm sorry.

: Are you OK? Ninian?

: Ninian? Is that…me? Is that…my name?

: Ninian! What's happened to you…

: …I… My head…is so foggy. Am I…at sea?

: Yes. We found you adrift in a small boat.

: Those scum were after the girl, it seems. Will you take her with you? The men are afraid she, well, she might be cursed, you know?

: Cursed…?



: We can't take her with us, can we? We're heading for the Dread Isle. It's dread for a reason, you know!

: Regardless…she goes with us!

: Lyndis?

: When I saw her, I remembered something. The last time I saw Ninian… She and her brother were being hunted by some dark-robed men.

: Dark-robed? Are you sure?

: Yes, I think it must be the Black Fang. It didn't occur to me before, but now I'm certain.

: How can you be sure?

: I can't explain… There's something in the air that hints at their involvement.

: If it's true, then she's likely to be attacked again.

: Almost certainly. We can't leave her behind. I will watch over her. Please…

: I understand. We should be by her side to protect her.

: Thank you.

: We're all going to that island. Will you come with us?

: Yes… Please…take me with you.



: Thank you very much.

: We'll wait two weeks. Finish up by then.

: That's more than enough time!

: And I've got a half-wit sailor who wants to go sightseeing. C'mere, Dart!



: We're pleased to have you.

: His only redeeming feature is his sturdiness. Maybe he'll come in handy.

: Come on, Captain! I'm better'n that!

: You've done so much… I can't thank you enough…

: Come back alive! That's all the thanks I need.

: All right. Farewell!

: We'll be back before you know it!

: …There are good people, even among pirates.

: I don't think the old man and his group are your average pirates.



: Eliwood! No matter what it takes, we're coming back with your father!

: …We'll surely find him. We'll all do our best to make it so.

: You're right. Let's make preparations to enter the forest.

: Oh!

: Dragon's Gate…

: Ninian? What is it?

: It's…nothing…