Part 21: Orbs

We've arrived at the Raman Temple to retrieve the Star Orb and Light Orb. If you've lost track of this convoluted plot thread, we need to get the orbs and bring them to the sage Gato to make the Starlight spell, which we need to defeat Garnef and retrieve the legendary Falchion, which in turn we need in order to defeat the Dark Dragon Mediuth or whatever we're calling him in this translation.

Regardless, there's a bunch of treasure here, a bunch of bow-users locked away to protect themselves while they shoot over/through the walls at us, and a few Magicians and Heroes guarding another Mamkute boss. The three Thieves aren't a problem since they can't actually open any of the doors, but there is one treasure already missing....



Speaking of Garnef, apparently he's here to give instructions to the boss.

Burn the trespassers of this temple with your power.

Remember, I saved you from Mediuth when you were separated from Banutu. Don't forget!

Fortunately Garnef doesn't stick around to fight.



Marth decided that assaulting a temple with a dangerous dragon in charge necessitated bringing only 12 people, so we're stuck with a bit of the B-team here. And in case the opening conversation wasn't enough of a hint, Banutu is brought a long for a special purpose.



Banutu was looking for Chiki when we first recruited him way back in Chapter 7. Wonder if that will have any relevance now.



Chiki happens to be the boss of this chapter. She's a little girl Mamkute with terrible stats. Not exactly your typical boss. Her Divine Dragonstone is a bit special, for reasons we'll get into later.


Turn 1:

So this chapter doesn't have a lot of enemies, the boss is a pushover, and there are no reinforcements. We have plenty of secondary objectives, however, starting with all the treasure scattered about.



To that end, after Julian opens the first door, Chainy transforms into an extra Thief to help out with the looting.



I said this chapter was easy, right? Well, Daros still sucks. He does 8 damage to the first Mercenary, then gets doubled and takes 18 damage in return.



Gordon finishes off the Merc for this rather odd level.



Jake is going to spend the chapter dueling with the locked-in Hunters. He'll take awhile to kill them but his Defense is high enough he won't take any damage.



The 6 Exp he gained from the attack was actually enough for this pretty great level.



This Mercenary poses a bit of a problem. He's got a Kill Sword that will make short work of Daros even if it doesn't crit.



Banutu gets warped up to hold a line with Kashim. Not the best duo for the job, but if the Merc gets a lucky crit we can just reset anyway.



Kashim, like Daros, gets doubled for 18 damage, but this Merc just has a Steel Sword so no worry about crits there.



The Kill Sword Merc is just left with Banutu. He doubles but only does 2 damage. Stupid Reserve Wand Cleric up at the top healed up the damage that Banutu did on the counter-attack, though.


Turn 2:



Kashim and Banutu bring this Merc down to 1 HP.



Enter Daros, who managed to restrain his inherent suckiness long enough to get the kill.



Gordon, meanwhile, handles the Kill Sword Merc all by himself. Never thought when we first started that Gordon would end up being one of the good ones.



Jake also gets a lucky crit. Let's see that asshole Cleric with the Reserve Wand heal that.



Chainy starts off the looting with this very important item. The Bishop Ring will allow a Magician or a Cleric to promote into a Priest. If the translation actually made sense, it'd either be called a Priest Ring, or the Priests would be correctly called Bishops, oh well.



Not much to worry about here.



George draws in the next enemy, a Hero with a Kill Sword. He takes 20 damage, but no crit.


Turn 3:



Getting Linda the Bishop Ring takes priority over looting another chest for Chainy.



For some reason Linda doesn't get a unique battle sprite in promoted form. That won't hurt her upcoming awesomeness. Neither will her not getting any stat gains from the promotion.



Let's see if Julian's become a sufficient badass yet...



Goddammit.

Okay, after replaying the last few turns again and substituting the new levels in the previous text (better ones, too!)...



Time to break out the big guns. Yes, that means Gordon.



He doesn't disappoint.



Rena warps Jake over to the next Hunter, and he immediately gets another random crit. Keep in mind this is on a 6% chance each time.



We've got a mostly clear path now, though that's a mildly intimidating force hiding out at the throne. George is leading with his face.


Turn 4:



I'm kind of over-abusing the Warp Wand to speed things up here, but as a result Chainy picks up another critical item - the Dragon Whip will allow a Pegasus Knight to promote into a Dragon Knight.



This Hunter has a Silver Bow. Rena's been too busy warping people around to bother with any healing, but Kashim should be able to survive one hit and barely kill off the Hunter with a Silver Bow of his own.



Barely.



The enemy Magician trapped in the last treasure room is somewhat threatening - it has a Volcannon Tome that could do 24 damage to a slow unit like Daros or Banutu, instantly killing either one. So they stay out of the way while Gordon acts as counter-kill bait. Marth is also in range of a Silver Bow Sniper, but should be fine.



Gordon takes the hit like a champ and gets a nice overkill critical for his trouble.



He also picks up some Speed, probably the only thing he really needs at this point.



Marth doesn't have any trouble getting out of the way of wall-traversing silver arrows.


Turn 5:



Time to make Est even more awesome.



I'm not sure if she switches out her Pegasus for a Dragon, or if the Dragon Whip somehow transforms the Pegasus into a Dragon.



Regardless, the +5 to Defense (and +2 to Movement) immediately makes her the most valuable member of the team. Like most of our units, however, she's still vulnerable to magic, so will have to be careful approaching the throne area.



Linda gets warped up to unleash her power to bring the Sniper down to 1 HP. I would have Daros try to get the kill with a Hand Axe, but he'd have only a 53% hit rate and if he missed would surely get counter-killed. Instead Gordon takes care of it, picking up an extra Orion Bolt. There's only two Archers in our army, but I guess if we were for some reason using both of them we could promote the other one now.



Est can hold down the western front, but it's dicier than normal. The Hero has a Silver Sword, which is bad enough, but the Thief actually has another Devil Sword. Fortunately, Est now has enough Defense to take a hit from both if needed. George is prepared to take on the enemy Thieves to the east.



The enemy Hero strikes first for 8 damage, and Est counters twice for a total of 40 damage. Est also gets the Hero's Silver Sword. The enemy Thief knows a suicidal attack when it sees one and stays put. The Thieves to the east also stay put, apparently coded to only move if they can go after a treasure?


Turn 6:



Julian opens the door so that Chainy can go grab another treasure. Daros tries to throw a Hand Axe at the Hero but misses. Linda softens him up but leaves him alive, for now - her fixed damage is actually pretty good at weakening enemies for others to kill. Also, George is going to heroically sacrifice himself to draw out one of Chiki's guards.



George actually dodges the Hero, and is just fast enough while unarmed to avoid getting double-attacked.



Thus George actually draws over two enemies.



And dodges again. And again the enemy Magician isn't fast enough to double-attack. Do we have another Paola on our hands?


Turn 7:



Linda softens up another Hero, and Daros fails another 50% hit chance.



Jake gets warped up to finish off the more immediate threat and grabs another level:



I could get used to this. Two Defense gains for Jake this chapter on a 10% growth rate.



The last Hero goes after Chainy, but misses.



Linda critically injures another enemy that dared to attack her.



The other mage also goes after Chainy for some reason, managing just 7 damage.


Turn 8:



Rena has run out of people to warp, so she breaks out our own Reserve Wand for the first time. The battle screen just has Rena alone and a bunch of magic healing particles flying around.



Daros gets another chance to suck less.



I'm as surprised as anyone.



Kashim handles the last mage.



His last level manages to be pretty good. He ended up behind by 3 in Power and 4 in Skill, but 2 ahead in Speed.



Chainy untransformed just shy of his goal and has to waste another turn here.



Gordon takes out the last Hero.



And gets this level which is definitely a level all right.



Est takes advantage of the opportunity to get rid of the Devil Sword Thief without even getting hit.



She also picks up this nifty prize, which the Thief is supposed to have looted before we got here I guess.



The orbs are actual items that sit in your inventory. The Light Orb, here, has a special effect - whoever holds it will negate all terrain effects in combat for the enemy. It's especially useful when going after bosses that like to sit on special tiles that give 30% extra avoidance.



The two Thieves that are left are good opportunities for units that have trouble getting experience to try and catch up, especially with two enemy Clerics on healing duty. Though Jake has been performing remarkably well this chapter so far already.



Just mopping up now before facing the boss.


Turn 9:



Chainy finally reaches the north-most chest, gaining the Star Orb. I'll show it off in a minute.



Jake finishes off one Thief, Daros works on another.



And Daros finally gets a level - a surprisingly competent one, at that.



George is going to go have a chat with Chiki, because why not?



Chiki doesn't seem particularly enthused about her job.



She's also, uh, not very good at it.



Actually George is surprisingly sturdy with his 8 Defense.


Turn 10:



Julian and Jake take some potshots at the remaining enemies.



And both get some much-needed extra Power.



Also Daros shows that he remains incompetent, failing to hit a lowly Cleric.



Linda is finally ready to fulfill her destiny, though it won't happen until next chapter. The Star Orb also has a special effect, and it's a total game-breaker - it prevents the user's weapons from losing durability. With it in her inventory, Linda can use her overpowered but very use-limited Aura Tome to smack down 40 damage on almost any unit in the game as much as she wants. We could also use it to have Gordon use the Partia as much as he wants for 37 Attack, but he can't really counterattack as effectively and is only one level away from the cap. Similar for Marth with the Miracle. Linda just promoted and has another 19 levels to gain, so she's a great choice for now.



Oops. I "forgot" to move George out of the way.



Farewell George, yet another throwaway unit who doesn't even get a death quote.


Turn 11:



Jake misses, but Daros gets in a hit. Julian finishes off the Cleric, just leaving Chiki.

There are a lot of options for taking out Chiki. Linda or Gordon could easily manage it from range, and Est or Marth with the Dragon Killer (or the Miracle, for that matter) would make short work of her as well. But even if you haven't figured out how to recruit anyone else in this game, there have been enough hints thrown at you to at least try to talk to her with Banutu.



Banutu can also be dumb and attack her, but nothing special happens, even if you kill her. If you leave Banutu just standing there, Chiki actually won't attack him, so that's something. Let's talk instead.



You've been hypnotized by Garnef.... Wake up....

Oh, so that's what was going on at the beginning of the chapter.

Uh.... Ah...! Grandpa.... What....happened?

You awakened! Are you fine?

What happened? It was so scary, like a bad dream.

I'm sorry for making you suffer....

And for making you sacrifice George to the RNG gods before awakening you....

But don't worry, from now on we'll be together.

As long as the whims of the thread concur, at least.

Promise? I don't want to be alone ever again.

And with that, we recruit the boss. Chiki has the same stats as before, and carries just the Divine Dragonstone she started with. It has just 12 Might, but like the other Dragonstones has a big Defense boost (in this case, 13) and also has the bonus of, for some reason, being effective against other Mamkutes (not Dragon Knights, though). Since the only Mamkute we had was Banutu, and Chiki wouldn't attack him...there was really no way to lose to her except on purpose (sorry, George).

For whatever reason, Chiki can't use Banutu's Fire Dragonstone. Both Dragonstones have infinite durability so Chiki is set for the rest of the game anyway, but it'd be nice to be able to use the slightly stronger weapon.

Did I mention she has, far and away, the best growth rates in the game? She only has 15 levels to grow, but she'll make the most of them, unlike Banutu.

Anyway, all that's left is to go back and get all the treasure we rushed past:



Another Speed Ring is great, but what's this, another orb? Gato had only mentioned the Star Orb and the Light Orb, but there's also an Earth Orb.



And unlike the other orbs, the Earth Orb comes limited to three uses. It's pretty situational, in fact - it does a random (small) amount of damage to all units on the battlefield, ally and enemy. Rena can heal that back right away with the Reserve Wand, but, so can an enemy Cleric. Although, when I tested it out in an alternate timeline, only Banutu and Chiki actually took any damage, so who knows.



Hey, finally another Angel Robe. Also, more money for the giant pile we're hauling around with us everywhere.



Oh good, a spell weaker than what we already have stockpiled for Linda, and an item that just has the same effect as the MShield Wand. Way to end on a high note.

Let's finish this.



before we head to Grunia I need to tell something important.

Okay, guess we're going to Grunia now for some reason. Might as well finish them off after kicking their butts back and forth all over the world.

You know General Camus? He's famous as leader of the Black Knights of Grunia.

Durhua wanted to kill everyone carrying the blood of Akaneia's royal family, including me.

But Camus protected me even though he would go against the orders of Mediuth.

Once he discovered that, he was enraged. Then Camus freed me once we reached Orleans.

I believe he's now in Durhua to receive punishment.

I first hated him, but now I can't. I don't want you to fight him. I wish to see him once more.

Sounds like another recruitment set-up to me!


New Characters

Chiki - Mamkute

Chiki's kind of another Est - joins late at a low level with low base stats, but has fantastic growth rates to catch up with. Her Dragonstone is a little underpowered but is great against other Mamkutes. Unfortunately the fact that she can't promote will prevent her from becoming as game-breaking as some of our other units - she won't cap anything on average, and is stuck with her base Defense (though that's a very nice 18 with her Dragonstone anyway).

Growth Rates:

• HP: 80%
  
• Power: 50%
  
• Skill: 90%
  
• Weapon Level: 70%
  
• Speed: 90%
  
• Luck: 90%
  
• Defense: 0%
  
• Total: 470%

New Weapons:

Divine Dragonstone - Much like the Fire Dragonstone, it's an infinite-use weapon that only Chiki can use. It's as strong, accurate, and lighter than a Silver Sword, and is effective against other Mamkutes.

• Might: 12
  
• Uses: Infinite
  
• Weapon Level: Chiki only
  
• Hit Rate: 100%
  
• Crit Rate: 0%
  
• Weight: 1
  
• Special: Boosts user Defense by 13, effective against Mamkutes

Our current roster, with the active units in bold. (Full stats in this post.) Recall votes are suspended from here forward.

Lord: Marth
Pegasus Knight: Est [Dragon 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 [Priest], Marich, Wendel [Priest]
Bow Knight: Wolf, Zagaro
Mamkute: Chiki, Banutu
Shooter: Jake, Beck
Commando: Chainy

^{* Non-violently retired}

I need the usual four votes this time:

1) Six chapters remain, and I need another sacrifice from among the benchwarmers above. Not many chances left for our crew, so choose well.

2) The deployment space opens back up next chapter, but we still have to make some choices. Marth and Rena are required, and Daros is going back to the bench, but among the other 13 units we only get to bring 11, so pick two units to leave behind. Note that I'm automatically replacing Banutu with Chiki, because come on. Est, Linda, and Chiki could all do with some training, and we have several units that are already capped, but I'll leave the choice to you guys.

3) We got ourselves another Speed Ring (+6 Speed), and need someone to benefit from it. We actually have a number of units with capped or near-capped Speed anyway, so the choice is simpler than it might seem - Marth and Roger are the main standouts (even with Roger already receiving one earlier). Chiki or Jake might actually be able to double-attack someone. Kashim, Daros, and Wolf are your other three choices. Of these seven units, vote for the Speed Ring recipient.

4) We also got another Angel Robe (+9 HP). We don't have anyone remotely close to the HP cap (56) - Navarre is the closest - so anyone can use this item. Of the current starting lineup, vote for the Angel Robe recipient.

Next time:




We're done with liberating, it's time to invade and conquer.