Part 19: Secrets

Last time, we wiped Marth's homeland clean of Grunians, but they still hold the Aritian castle.



I'm the most powerful servant of Mediuth: Moses of the Basilisk.

But you're too late. I already killed your mother and gave your sister to Garnef. If you are angry, face me!

Like we needed more motivation here.



There's two branches here, with a sizeable treasury to the west and the boss guarding the throne to the east. The game actually ratchets up the interest factor a fair bit from here on out.



The usual Silver Bow Sniper is guarding the treasury again, joined by a couple Magicians wielding Elfire and Volcannon and a Hero with a Steel Sword.



The group to the northwest isn't very threatening. Besides the two Magicians each carrying Elfire, the Armor Knights have just Javelins and the Mamkutes have the same Fire Dragonstones that Banutu has been sporting since the early-game. The Thieves will go after the treasury, but we'll be able to easily intercept them from where they're positioned.



The northeast group has two asshole Clerics at the end of a long winding path that each have a Reserve Wand (+10 HP to all allied units) and will not be afraid to use it, but they're close enough to the wall that we can somehow snipe them through it. The Sniper once again has a Silver Bow, and while one Armor Knight again has a Javelin, the other has a Thunder Sword. The Priest flanking the boss has a Worm Tome. There's also a suspicious door behind the throne...



Despite the game saying 'Demon' here, Moses actually has what's usually called a Magic Dragonstone - it has 18 Might, gives him +15 Defense, and makes the wielder immune to magic. A nasty surprise if you're not prepared for it. Fortunately, like all Mamkutes his Speed still sucks. In the DS remake, Moses actually gets even more powerful, as the Magic Dragonstone attacks against a user's Resist there.



Lastly, our army. Everyone but Banutu is here, and Ricardo tags along as an extra Thief, with surely no ulterior motive on our part at all.


Turn 1:



Sending a strike team in each direction. Rena cast MShield on Navarre, since it'll probably come in handy here.



The enemy Magician can barely scratch Navarre now.



The asshole Clerics moved out of sniping range. I didn't want to pick them off on the first turn because that Sniper would've had a chance to kill anyone who tried.


Turn 2:



Navarre takes out the mage here and plugs the gap so the enemy Thieves can't break through.



Marth will be able to take some of the heat off him, too. Poised to really do some damage next turn here.



Might as well make Ricardo useful while he's here.



Gordon takes the opportunity to get rid of this Sniper using the Partia.



He takes a strong counterattack along with a crappy level. I actually had to reset here the first time around because the enemy Sniper crit and one-shot Gordon for 33 damage. Not a huge deal on Turn 2 but not really a great sign for the rest of the chapter.



I then have to park Hardin here, because that Priest could finish off Gordon in one hit with that Worm Tome, and like an idiot I already moved Rena so she can't heal him.



Thanks to the Amulet, Roger is immune to the Thunder Sword, so he takes a free shot at this Armor Knight.



Linda wipes out the other Armor Knight, taking a shot from the Javelin in the process.



She gets a Not-Speed level from it.



Chainy transforms into Roger to help protect Gordon.



Ready for another round.



The Armor Knight with the Thunder Sword goes after Julian for some reason.



Hardin is ready to take the hit from Worm, but he actually manages to dodge it.



On the other side, Marth successfully baits the ranged units, dodging the Elfire shot.



He also counter-kills both Mamkutes.



And this Magician who could only attack from melee range, and decided that getting counter-killed was worth dishing out 9 damage.



Not Navarre's best matchup - he takes 10 damage.



This attack also could've hurt - it would've done 12 damage if not for the MShield effect - but Navarre dodges it anyway.



Not much of a contest here. Navarre takes 8 damage, but misses one of his counterattacks so can't quite get the kill.


Turn 3:



The Thieves have been successfully blocked off, but we have some cleanup to do here.



Wolf kicks things off by taking out this Armor Knight.



I worked out the odds on this. Barts will only hit himself 6% of the time, and should have enough HP to survive both that and a counterattack. He needs the extra power to get through that Armor Knight's Defense, so...



Ugh, one HP short of killing him.



And Barts misses the second attack. Didn't hit himself, though!



Kashim cleans up for a pretty good level.



And Sheeda takes out the Magician here.



The Sniper here is the biggest threat to Navarre, so he takes it out.



10% chance at Defense, how many times will we hit it in his remaining 13 levels?



Rena patches up Navarre from afar, and Marth hangs back this time.



On the other side, Hardin takes out the Priest, while Daros and Gordon finish off the last Armor Knight.



It's not much, but he capped Speed I guess.

Now, the boss. If we were foolish enough to let him attack us...



Our usual boss-cheesing strategy is out, too:



Linda can't attack at all, and Roger can't use the Thunder Sword to bypass Moses's Defense.



Gordon can scratch Moses with the Silver Bow, but he'll just heal up on the enemy phase. The Partia will do a bit more damage, though I'd rather not use up four or more uses of it here. Navarre and Marth are on the other side of the map. This one isn't going to be easy.



Speaking of Navarre, he takes another hit from this Hero on the enemy phase, but finishes the job with his counterattack this time.



Also the last enemy Magician goes after Sheeda for some reason - she dodges.


Turn 4:



The Thieves are making a run for it.



Barts and Sheeda put a stop to that.



And Barts slams head-first into the level cap. He ended up behind in everything but Weapon Level, including 2.5 each in Power and Defense.



That leaves Navarre free to take out the mage.



Also, this level.



Marth heads towards the treasury, while the rest of the western group looks to rejoin the others to the east.



Hardin pulls out a Dragon Killer to solve our little boss dilemma. Moses still has 3 HP left, which puts him just in range for...



Gordon to pick up the boss kill, avenging Marth's family.



Gordon gets one of those good-bad levels, and also picks up a Speed Ring.



Ricardo opens the door behind the throne. I'm sure something will happen there later.



And Linda finally gets around to using the Dragon Shield, boosting her Defense from 5 to 8.



Hunting down the asshole Clerics. The chapter's all but won in just four turns.


Turn 5:



Still chasing down the Clerics.


Turn 6:



Roger closes and takes off half of the first Cleric's HP. Chainy does the same with the other Cleric.


Turn 7:



The asshole Clerics healed themselves - the Reserve Wand even heals up the user, after all.



After Roger got in another attack, Julian finished this one off. He also gets an interesting item - the Member Card. Wonder what that does?



But where are those shops?

Barts visits the house for some timely advice. I bet I can guess where one of those shops is!



Chainy transforms into Hardin this time.


Turn 8:



Julian finishes off the other Cleric, and we finally get our own Reserve Wand.



There's still more to do here. You might think that with no forts, there wouldn't be any reinforcements, but...


Turns 9+:



Starting on Turn 9, these guys show up at the end of the map. They vary from levels 3-7 with Steel weapons, so they aren't much threat in and of themselves, but they will keep coming for the next 40 turns. Ricardo was heading for the emergency exit....



and gets met with a sword.



Ricardo puts it off for one more round...



but can't avoid the final arrow seeking his heart.

Running supplies back and forth is a bit more involved this time with the Storage so far away, but I'll spare you the boring details of fighting off the many, many rounds of reinforcements.



Barts also visits the Shop to show it off - the Pure Water here has the same effect as the MShield Wand.

Eventually Marth finishes looting the treasury:



Another Warp Wand is nice, and we could promote another Social Knight if we wanted to now.



The money isn't important anymore, but a Devil Sword has very interesting possibilities...



Finally, we get another Dragon Shield, as well as a Secret Book (+5 Skill).



Visiting this tile while holding the Member Card allows us to access...

Secret Shop



The first Secret Shop. This one's a bit easier to find - a door behind the throne that leads nowhere is pretty suspicious. A bunch of Reblow Wands for Rena and Torron Tomes for Linda will definitely come in handy, and this shop is the only place to buy them, so we're going to stock up now. (These prices are half-off thanks to the Silver Card.)

So, 120+ enemy reinforcements sure led to a lot of levels, brace yourselves....



Daros!! I bend over both backwards and upside-down to get you a couple levels, and this is what you give me?!





Surprisingly mediocre 3-stat levels, since all Jake really needs is Power, and he didn't get any.



Sheeda hits the level cap a bit shy of gaining the promotion item, but this'll do nicely. Four stats capped (three that matter), 3.5 ahead in HP, and Power and Defense will get +4 and +5 gains on promotion, too.



Julian was too frail to contribute for most of the chapter, but he did make the most of the one level he got.



More than I can say for Wolf, but he's close enough to the level cap that I didn't want him to do much anyway.







Not much to say about Navarre, all HP, no hits on Defense.





Lots of Speed (and HP) for Kashim. Could've used some more Power or Skill - he's 4 behind in each - but I'll take it.







Hardin did a lot of the work early on, but his levels were so terrible - and yes, that is an empty level in there - that I decided not to waste any more Exp on him.









Gordon's levels weren't great but he had a good run of Power at the end that was apparently fueled by my constantly bringing him near-death.









Roger did most of the heavy lifting, absorbing ranged attacks while unable to counter. He picked up some Speed and Power, and even another point of Defense. The inability to promote is really going to hold him back in the end, though.













Linda was the star, at least for the first 20 turns until she hit the level cap. That Dragon Shield definitely carried her, and the few extra points of Defense at the end will go a long way towards making our second god unit.



All those Torron Tomes and Reblow Wands put a minor dent in our treasury - we spent a total of 25k here, and that's with the Silver Card discount in effect.



One of the interesting things about Chainy is that when he transforms, he can use another character's unique weapons, such as Marth's Rapier. He can't capture the throne, though, that's a job that only Marth can do. (And he does.)



Listen! Citizens are gathering outside. They're chanting....

Eternal glory to Starlord Marth!

Starlord? Ok then...

And with that, we're 2/3 home!


New Weapons:

Demon Dragonstone - It's enemy-only, and for good reason - immunity to magic and a +15 Defense bonus would be particularly game-breaking in the hands of the player.

• Might: 18
  
• Uses: Infinite
  
• Weapon Level: Enemy Only
  
• Hit Rate: 90%
  
• Crit Rate: 0%
  
• Weight: 6
  
• Special: Defense +15, Magic Seal

Our current roster, with the active units in bold. (Full stats in this post.) Recall votes are suspended from here forward, except for special cases that I'll bring up myself.

Lord: Marth
Pegasus Knight: Sheeda, Minerva [Dragon Knight], Paola, Katua
Social Knight: Hardin [Paladin], Abel, Kain, Machis, Biraku, Roshe, Jeigan [Paladin], Midia [Paladin]
Armor Knight: Roger, Doga, Tomth, Mishelan
Archer: Gordon [Sniper], Thomas, George [Sniper]
Cleric: Rena, Riff, Maria, Boa [Priest]
Mercenary: Navarre [Hero], Oguma [Hero]*, Caesar, Raddy, Astria [Hero], Samson [Hero]
Fighter: Barts, Maji, Saji
Hunter: Kashim
Pirate: Daros
Thief: Julian, Ricardo
Magician: Linda, Marich, Wendel [Priest]
Bow Knight: Wolf, Zagaro
Mamkute: Banutu
Shooter: Jake, Beck
Commando: Chainy

^{* Non-violently retired}

I need six votes from everyone this time:

1+2) Next chapter, Est will be joining us. To celebrate, I'm having a special double vote - among the three Pegasus Sisters (Katua, Paola, Est), choose one Pegasus Knight to fight and one Pegasus Knight to sacrifice. I'll give stat summaries at the end.

3) We get to bring Marth and 12 other units with us, so three classes need to be benched. Banutu is auto-benched, while Marth, Rena, and whichever Pegasus Knight wins the first vote I'll be force-deploying, so among the rest vote for two classes to bench.

4) We got another Dragon Shield (+3 Defense). As last time, really anyone could use this - Defense growths are all generally low, so no one's going to threaten to cap it. So out of everyone we have (except Banutu and Chainy for obvious reasons), vote for the unit to receive the Dragon Shield. As a side note, the Pegasus Knight will promote in Chapter 19 (two from now) and get bumped up to 14 Defense, so any votes for a Pegasus Knight I'll lump together and then use the Dragon Shield at that time.

5) We also got our second Speed Ring (+6 Speed). This item can make or break a borderline unit - see Barts, for example. With that said, we have a number of units that won't need it - Sheeda, Hardin, and Navarre are already capped (and any of the other Pegasus Knights will easily do the same, too) so they're out, as is Barts who received it last time. Gordon, Julian, Linda, and, let's say, Kashim have a high enough Speed already so I'll eliminate them from the running as well. Rena and Chainy obviously doesn't need it for anything. And finally, I'm vetoing Banutu just on principle. That means, vote for the unit to receive the Speed Ring among the following: Marth, Roger, Daros, Wolf, or Jake.

6) Finally, we found our first Secret Book (+5 Skill). Skill adds to accuracy and crit rate, so units stuck with inaccurate weapons (axes and catpults for sure, and bows to a lesser extent) or those looking for high crit rates (Heroes, and...well, anyone really) will benefit most from it. We have several units with Skill too high to make the best use of it, so throw out Sheeda, Hardin, and Navarre right away, as well as Linda (it won't help her accuracy, anyway). Also throw out Banutu, Rena and Chainy, because come on. That leaves you to vote for the unit to receive the Secret Book among the following: Marth, Roger, Gordon, Barts, Kashim, Daros, Julian, Wolf, or Jake.

The Pegasus Sisters:
And their growth rates:
Next time:




We get around to following Gato's advice and head for the Raman Temple, with another filler chapter standing in the way.