Part 28: Chapter 3, Part 4: Mountain Graveyard

Overwhelming support to give Celica her turn. Given the pattern I'll keep alternating the rest of the chapter.



So it's off to the Mountain Graveyard for Celica and her crew.



To no one's surprise, she's pulled into a random battle.



Like most of the repeatable 'random' battles, this one is pretty small and simple. Three zombies, five skeletons, and two gargoyles, all at level 1. The skeletons are strong and slow, the gargoyles are fast but won't hurt as much, and the zombies are just fodder.


Turn 1



The battle is simple enough that I'm going to hand around the Angel Ring to try and maximize level gains. Leo's at 99 XP so he'll gain a level the first time he does anything, like shoot at this zombie.



Not super worthwhile. Leo's base Luck went from 6 to 8. But he can promote into a Sniper now.



The most important part of this battle is to not let May or Jenny get exposed. Everyone else can pretty much fend for themselves, especially with the enemies all spread out like this.



A gargoyle reaches Celica for just 2 damage, and Celica gets a critical on her counterattack for 15 damage.



The skeleton doesn't fare any better, missing Celica entirely and taking 8 damage in return.



Boey gets double-attacked, but still out-damages the skeleton.



Valbo shrugs off this skeleton.



And Kamui makes short work of the zombie foolish enough to attack him.


Turn 2



May roasts a skeleton but can't quite finish it off.



That lets Kamui in to get the kill.



Palla and Boey get in a couple of attacks but no kills.



Celica break out her Angel magic and wipes out the other gargoyle.



Saber finishes off the first gargoyle.



Hiding Jenny behind a wall of meat-shields, not much else to worry about here.



Two of the remaining skeletons attack Leo and Catria on the enemy phase, not much damage though.



Celica and Boey both dodge their attackers. She gets a crit while he outright kills his skeleton.



She also punishes this zombie for daring to attack her.



The other zombie falls to a critical from Leo.


Turn 3



Boey starts off the turn with another kill. He's actually been pretty useful this battle.



Palla flies off to wipe out the zombie.



May and Kamui team up to take out another skeleton.



The Angel Ring strikes again. Double Power is quite nice, though.



Who needs healing - Jenny strikes out at the last enemy. Leo and Catria chip in, as well.



Valbo's not fast enough to get in two attacks, but he does bring the skeleton to the brink of death.



I was hoping the skeleton would just suicide on the enemy phase, but Jenny missed both of her attacks.


Turn 4



So she kills him off at the start of the next turn instead.



Something new - a wandering army has formed up at the enemy fort. Each time we move on the world map, so too will this new army of thieves until it catches us. These thieves aren't very tough, though.



Let's check out the town while we're here.



A few people to talk to, but nothing too exciting.



This guy is a bit special. We can use him to send items from Celica's army over to Alm's army. It's not super useful normally - Alm's army can fight for itself pretty well already, really. If you're trying to max out both of your armies, a good strategy is to finish Celica's half of the third chapter first, send the Angel Ring over to Alm's group, and then have him do his half of the chapter. But that sounds like a lot of work, so I'm not going to bother.



Dragons have settled there, though. Anything that draws near gets devoured.

While the series highlights permanent death of allied units that fall in battle, in reality many of the Fire Emblem games have a limited-use method for bringing back dead allies. In this first game, the second-to-last chapter offered a one-time use of a wand but only if certain items were collected throughout the game. Gaiden is a lot more straightforward, though it'll still be some time before we see the shrine mentioned.



He attacked and took all of our children as slaves. What should we do...?

We just saw a group of thieves coming out of Geyse's fort.



If so, let me help out. My siblings got captured by him, but I don't know where they're at....

You should probably talk to the other people in your village, dude. Not that you have a prayer of getting into Geyse's fort without us, so....



I guess you can come along.



He's terrible. A pretty good Power stat, and as a villager he has room to grow and can be placed in whatever class we want, but it's not really worth it. He has a base Speed of 3 and a 10% Speed growth.



Of course, to leave the town, we have to go back through the graveyard, which means another fight. The mountain town isn't going to get a lot of visitors that way.



It's the exact same battle, though Atlas is along for the ride this time. He doesn't really help.



Of course I got too aggressive and let May get surrounded and killed, so had to restart. Just the one battle, at least.



Staying a bit more conservative keeps the battle as simple as the first time around, so I'll spare most the details this time.



May gets another terrible level by killing off a skeleton at the start of the second turn. Angel Ring hasn't helped out very much so far.



Saber and Celica make sure both gargoyles fall on the second turn.



I gave Atlas a kill after Boey and Palla weakened the skeleton. He got all of 6 XP from it. That'll be the last kill I give him.



The only healing of the update occurred at the start of the third turn, since I decided I didn't want to risk losing May again.



Saber hasn't been highlighted much, but he's still awesome - almost single-handedly taking out this skeleton with 24 damage. I'd forgotten, but the Holy Sword actually is effective against the undead monsters so he's getting a pretty good attack boost here.



Like last time, there's only one skeleton left by the start of the fourth turn. Boey weakens it and Kamui takes the final kill.



Celica will be back here again before the chapter's over....



Next up for Celica is a band led by Wolf that holds the Desert Fort. Although that roaming band of thieves might catch up first....


New Characters

Atlas is the only villager to join Celica's army. In theory, he could be a high-growth candidate that the player could place into any one of five different classes. His Speed base and growth are just terrible, however. He has a solid Power base and growth, and his HP matches Valbo, though he's without a lot of Defense. He can get in a strong single ranged attack as an archer or a mage, but oddly enough he's a good fit as another mercenary (who isn't, really) since that class would boost him up to a base Speed of 10 and really make the best use of his high base Power.
Next time:



Alm takes on a few paladins guarding Grove Town.