Part 34: Fuck Sand

Update 21: Fuck Sand (Prep)

Last time, we made a harrowing escape from the Archanean army and Emperor Hardin.

The journey was so full of excitement and danger that Steve dropped all her photos, meaning I completely forgot to screencap the pre-chapter dialogue on this one. Serenes should help though.



Narration: Marth barely succeeded in escaping, disembarking in the desert of Khadein. He elected to await his subordinates' safe arrival.
Khadein, the city of magic, is a sanctuary for mages. Many prospecting mages come here and undergo rigorous training.
Magic relies on containing nature's energies in "tomes" and "staves", freely manipulating these energies to harness great power. A few centuries ago, a lone sage founded an academy here, teaching magic's secrets.

However, instead of bringing happiness, magic was soon used as a tool of war and a thing to be traded. The sage was disappointed, and vanished from the pages of history. Though there is no confirmation, some say that was the Archsage Gotoh.

Currently, advanced magic like Aura cannot be made without the orbs' power, and their use is restricted to a few chosen ones. Those conditions are set by their creator, and they can only be inherited by those who qualify. Khadein, the city of magic... the proud Sanctuary of Sorcery.

Fascinating. Glad to know one of the last tomes of advanced magic in the world has been resting in our inventory since Chapter 2.

: Sire, am I glad to see you!

: Steve! Thank goodness. Is everyone else okay?

: Yes, everyone who survived is here.

I imagine this line makes more sense if you've been losing people, but in this context it makes Steve sound like she accidentally dropped Draug into the ocean or something.

: Amazing. I don't know how you all managed to escape that onslaught...

The actual story depends on your luck level. Since Steve has middling luck (I'm fairly sure 13 counts as "middling" for this, I'll include High too just in case):

: (Middle) Your thoughts are mine. But somehow we were able to shake off the enemy and escape.

: (High) We were most fortunate. A sandstorm was brewing as we were making our escape... Thanks to the obscuring sands, the enemy lost sight of us, and we were able to escape with ease. Even during normal battles, I seem to have lucky moments like that.



Pre-map session, you know the drill, How's Everyone?



In the desert? So like...a camel?















Onto the map itself...



This is a reused map from the prequel. There are quite a few of them in the game, the last one was also in the prequel. Though, you were going from North to South instead of the other way around.



Both of these chests are super useful, the top right one is absolutely required. You all know what I mean by now, there's a Starshard there. Restart if you miss it.



The enemies here are predominantly mages and Dracoknights, who aren't impeded by the terrain, so bow users are going to be handy to pick the fliers off.



There are also, unfortunately, two Swarm Bishops making their obnoxious return from Chapter 6 flanking the boss.



The boss here is a Bishop, Yodel. Not the Bishop Yodel from FE6. Different guy entirely.





Two thieves with interesting items here. Chasing them down is worth your time.



And in the top right corner is a village. This one houses not only a recruitable character, but also a Starshard, so we need to get to it, fast.



Last but not least, this guy is hanging out in this pack of enemies. That's a class we haven't seen, they're promoted Dark Mages, and basically tankier but weaker hitting Sages. Dark Magic doesn't exist in this game, so they just use standard tomes/staves.



Lots of dialogue this time around.

Murder for Dinner



: Yes. Today, I made candy. I was thinking of sharing some with everyone... Here. This is for you, Steve.

I'd bet Caeda makes those old people candies that are shaped like fruit. I actually really like those.

: Thank you. Such an elaborately-crafted candy... I'm sure Prince Marth will be touched, too.

: Heehee, thanks.

: ...Maybe I should learn how to cook, too. If I could cook as well as you, Princess, then perhaps I could become a bit more lady-like, maybe...?

: Are you bad at cooking, Steve?



: "I'VE CHEWED ON LOTS OF SWORDS IN MY DAY, KID, AND THIS IS A SWORD WITH SALT ON IT"

: Oh my gosh.

: Many times I'd attempt to cook, but... Grandfather always stopped me. When I told him I would become the world's strongest, he'd tell me: "I'm sure you can do it." But when I said I wanted to make dinner, he'd say: "If you must insist, then you must strike me down first"... just like that.

: Oh my.

Is it just me or has Caeda totally checked out of this conversation?

: Since I was raised like a boy... I don't know how to do anything girly. But, I think it'd be wonderful if I could make candies and share them with others as presents...

: Gosh. Steve, don't tell me you have eyes for someone?

: N-no, there's no such person!

: You don't need to be embarrassed. We're both girls, remember.

: Eh-heh, I'm no good with this sort of thing...

Marth Has Not Been Paying Any Attention

: Hello, Steve. Are you doing anything?

: Yes. I am off to the drill grounds.

Pssh, no you aren't. I'm not spending money to level the highest level person in my army even more.

: The drill grounds? That's the place where you can acquire further battle experience, correct?

Marth we've had these for like 7 or 8 chapters now.

: Yes, it's a wonderful place. It costs money, true, but if you land a winning streak, you can obtain more experience than in actual battles. So I'm sure we can all become much, much stronger if we visit it.

: That's how you plan to become stronger, Steve...? I'm amazed by your commitment.

: Yes, I shall work hard so that I may live up to your expectations. If I become stronger, I can also fight stronger opponents... It's quite thrilling. Oh...

Steve's bloodthirst is peeking out again.

: Is something wrong?

: No, I just realized what I just said wasn't very feminine...

I swear I didn't get these two base conversations back to back on purpose. This is just Steve's identity crisis day.

: Haha, perhaps indeed. Does it bother you?

: Yes... Even as a child, all I ever did was training. I don't know to do girly things, like cooking or sewing. Until now, I told myself I'm a knight before I'm a woman, but... As of late, I noticed I've even started thinking like a man, and... That's just embarrassing.



Steve knows what some of you folks have been doing.

: Though I think you're girly enough, Steve.

: Y-you speak truly?

: Yes. When you heard me talk about bathing, your face turned bright red... No doubt, I think that part of you is very girly.

Marth is kind of a dick.

: A-ah, about that episode... Please don't mention it again... Oh dear, how embarrassing...

Here's everything that just happened to you

: After hearing that our homeland Altea had been crushed by Archanea, we rushed to its aid. However, we were stopped in our tracks by Emperor Hardin of Archanea and now we must run away from Altea's direction. This is just too much for these old bones to bear... Hardin is protected by an arcane power... We won't be able to save our homeland if we don't do something about him. Right now, we have no choice but to take refuge in Khadein and search for a method to defeat Hardin.

Jagen just really wishes he got to be the narrator in this game.

Just Deserts



Oh yeah, Linde is here. Remember her from Chapter 2?

: Are you familiar with Khadein, Linde? If there's anything we should pay attention to during battle, I'd like you to tell me.

: Oh yes... As you can see, Khadein is a desert. Most people get their feet caught up in the sand and have a hard time moving. But as mages dress lightly, they can move around like normal in the desert. Of course that goes for enemy mages too, so do be careful.

So, here's the thing about deserts and sand. We saw a bit of it back in Chapter 4, but it's out in full force here. Knights? Useless here, they have almost no movement. Same goes for Cavaliers. The only units who have no movement penalty are mages and fliers.

So we're pretty much all going to be slower here, and people like Luke and Roger are going to be much less useful unless they get a reclass, so I'll probably just leave them out of this one.

Oh, speaking of that.



Back to Myrm for you right now, Steve.

To close things out, I sold some of our Bullions and spent the money on some Drill Grounds runs for our lower level characters.









Next time, Jagen will die of heat stroke. See you then.