Part 22: (Part Two, Chapter 1) The peasants are revolting
Queen Elincia encounters and defeats a wing of Begnion dracoknights trespassing in Crimean skies.
While Elincia's show of loyalty to her laguz allies causes an uproar among the nobles at court, they are aware that the heron princess is under the mutual protection of the mighty laguz hawk king and raven king. Because of this, there is no public show of distaste.
However, dissatisfaction with Elincia's rule now spreads from a single faction to a larger group. Crimea's unity is slowly rotting from within.
We're going to Ohma! You know what that means!
Look atcha, always sowin' yer seeds! It's lookin' like it'll be a fine crop this year--a real dandy!
Heck, I just work the fields. It's the rich soil beneath m' boots and the fine sun over m' head what does the hard stuff.
Well, if it isn't Nephenee. What's the story with the armor? Haven't ya heard the war's over?
You'll be needin' armor too. A revolution's brewin'. Better suit up--and make it snappy! Revolution?! ...Oh yeah. Nobody tells us ol' geezers much, but I hear talk about some young hotheads over yonder. They're jawin' about bein' fed up with the queen, and how they want change... I don't get it! Her Majesty is a fine, fine lady... ...even if she is a tad young to be passin' laws instead of havin' fun. I guess I'll go have a look for m'self.
We do not rule Crimea. Our towns have been destroyed. We need coin to ease our suffering. Who's to blame?
The queen!Er… what? Ashnard was defeated by the Greil Mercenaries and the Begnion Central Army. Crimean soldiers had little to do with the victory. And what the hell is with this "our towns have been destroyed" crap? Your town is looking pretty good to me!
We've been violated! Daein robbed us of families, friends, and homes! We cannot reconcile with monsters! And now, our hated enemy is rebuilding to threaten us again. Will we stand by and accept this?
No! We will not!Your "hated enemy" was Ashnard, not Daein itself, you tool.
To arms, I say! We are not afraid! We shall fight for the prosperity of our fatherland, as did Ike the patriot!Oh, you did not just compare yourself to Ike.
That's it. I want this fucker dead. Now.
Notice that all the "revolutionaries" have armed up. Not good.
Oomph, hoaa... Lemmee tell ya... It's been a while. This armor feels like a ton of bricks. Brom... Didn't you say somethin' about usin' axes these days...not spears?Brom has kinda-sorta class-changed, and this is just the game handwaving it.
Uh, yeah... I suppose I did. What, ya went and brought armor AND weapons? Here, you take this axe... And hold on to it good, ya hear? All right... Let's go! Hey now... What's going on?
Together, we can make a difference. Together, we have the power to dethrone the queen! ...What're y'all thinking?! You don't know the first thing about Queen Elincia! Maybe this is all some big mistake? Our queen is a splendid gal. Ain't nobody out there with a kinder heart. We should know as well as anyone... Heck, we fought beside her. ...You fought with the queen, eh? Hmph... I see. Brothers! Do not be deceived! These two are the queen's agents, and are undoubtedly spying on us! Listen, fella, you're talkin' nonsense. Queen Elincia wouldn't dream of usin' spies like that! Do not be deceived, my people! If they go to the Royal Knights... ...they will return bearing torches, burning homes, and taking prisoners! We must silence these spies! Listen up, you blockheads... I guess you forgot 'bout the war. After fighting for years, we finally have peace...and now you want to fight again? Ain't no good, Brom. These folk got their blood a-pumpin'. Ain't got a lik'a sense left in 'em.
'Horsefeathers'?
…I guess there're pegasi in Tellius, but still…
And with that, we are unceremoniously dumped into battle.
Notice the few myrmidons and fighters scattered around? They're the "revolutionaries" from earlier. They aren't real soldiers and they're not really your enemy. In fact, you get a pretty decent heap of Bonus EXP for each one still alive at mission's end.
Of course, they'll suicidally rush you the second you step into range and they're really weak, so they'll probably die. And just as a kick-in-the-teeth to the player, nearly all of them have items they drop when they die.
Well, let's get reacquainted with Brom and Nephenee.
Nephenee is essentially an alternate take on Aran; a halberdier with less strength and defense but much more speed. Seriously, Aran can keep up in speed if he's lucky but he caps lower than Nephenee does, but of course the same is true of Nephenee's strength and defense. She can hold her own in a fight but she lacks staying power. She's a good character though, and a common endgame pick.
Did I mention that halberdiers get Critical +5 for free? I think I forgot to, but there it is. Nephenee also has innate Wrath, and let me tell you, I'm much more comfortable having someone like Nephenee on low health than someone like Edward.
You might remember Brom as being Meg's father, and might be unsurprised therefore to learn that Brom is also a knight/general. Unlike Meg, however, Brom is actually properly specced for his job. He's good at taking hits, although he lacks the strength and speed to effectively dish them out. His ideal purpose is holding up a chokepoint somewhere, with people backing him up to actually kill the enemies he's stopping.
Brom has a new skill; Disarm. Disarm has a [skill stat/2]% chance of causing an opponent to unequip their weapon upon being attacked. This will prevent them from counterattacking until their next turn, when they can reequip their weapon. Disarm is absurdly useful therefore, but difficult to reliably trigger, especially on units like Brom who have low skill.
We have three objectives here:
1) Kill Yeardley
2) Don't kill any Volunteers
3) Visit all the houses
So let's get right on that.
Brom uses his massive build to shove a volunteer out of the way, and Nephenee runs to the first house.
If anyone were to get hurt... We've got to do something. Ohhhh, I hope Sis is all right...[Received an Ashera Icon]
Thanks, lady!
This ends our turn.
The enemy turn consists basically of this, twice. An archer also moves in our general direction.
So on our next turn, Nephenee hits him over the head for 14 damage while Brom makes for the next house.
The enemy responds to this by continuing to come after Nephenee, with a Javelin hitting her for 8 and the archer missing. But then…
One of the stupid stupid volunteers decides to attack Brom.
And Brom hits him back so hard he drops his weapon. Fortunately, Brom's too slow to double him, so he survives.
More stuff comes flying at Nephenee. Her lowered defense is compensated for somewhat by her increased evasion.
It's turn 3, and before visiting the next house, Brom unequips his axe so as not to accidentally kill any volunteers.
You know, I came to this village for some peace and quiet! Isn't there something you can do? Heck with it! Just take this thing. I'm fed up with war![Received a Steel Axe]
Thank you kindly!
Nephenee moves to the ledge, and heals. She's got a lot of people after her and she's not as guaranteed to survive as Brom might be.
To wit;
Fuck. Neither Brom nor Nephenee have any means of ranged attack right now, so this guy is now officially Being A Problem™. We'll see if we can't get him to move next turn, but… annoyed.
See: Earlier assertion that Nephenee is not that survivable yet.
The thing about the Volunteers is that they have a couple of somewhat useful AI tendencies; first, they'll only attack you if you come into their range (they won't chase you across the map), and second, the ones with healing items (or the ones in range of the ones that have healing items) will always run away and heal when they're on low health, so if you cripple them, and they run away, and you move out of their range, you can avoid killing them. Of course, this guy is now standing near the boss, so we'll have to deal with him again later.
On our fourth turn, while Brom disposes of that annoying archer, Nephenee keeps up the healing.
The enemy responds by sending her the customary Javelin, and then…
Exactly as planned! The mage chases her up the ledge, and just to rub it in, his attack misses her.
Turn 5, and something interesting happens!
Lucky me! Time to find one ripe for the picking, get his goods, and be on my way. Be home soon, Mom!Looks like we have our replacement thief! We should be able to bring her round to our cause before too long; that priest should keep her occupied while Nephenee gets within shouting range.
Brom gleefully disposes of the annoying mage, and Nephenee runs as far towards the thief as she can get.
Some enemies waste their turns trying to harm Brom. Other phase, and the thief moves to attack the priest, just as pl- hang on a minute…
Oh buggering hell, she has Pass. If we can't get Nephenee into range next turn we're probably going to lose her, and she's very likely to suicide herself on the boss (instead of doing something sensible like, oh, I don't know, stealing all the useful stuff from the Volunteers. It's been asserted in the thread that Fire Emblem's AI isn't concerned with making units behave in a manner appropriate to their characters or the plot, but is actually focussed on making the player, rather than the friendly army, lose. I have seen nothing that can outright refute this theory.
Fortunately, and thank fuck, she is able to kill the priest, and Nephenee is able to talk to her.
...Uh, hello? Argh, whaaat?! Do you need something? Hey, y'all best... Er... You should be careful hanging around here like that. I reckon you should clear out of here while you're still in one piece. Aww, that's so sweet of you! What's your name? Nephenee... Nephenee... What a cute name. I'm Heather. Pleased to meet you. Pleasure's all mine. So it's Heather, huh? You gonna get outta here, then? Well... It looks to me like you have an uphill battle to fight. I bet I can help you out. But you... Don't worry about it. I'm the type that likes to help nice country girls like you. Um...like me? That's right. Don't worry about it. Tee hee... This is turning out to be a great day. Uhhh... Yeah...…
…
…well, at the very least she's taking orders from us now, so that's something.
Heather is Very Definitely A
As we discovered to our almost-chagrin, she has innate Pass. This could be a handy thing for a thief to have, but it could also be a handy thing to take and put on someone else. Time will tell!
Our first task for Heather is to visit the houses that Nephenee had to frantically dash past to stop her from suiciding on the boss.
Calill was a character in Path of Radiance. Her thing was that she was the only mage stupid enough to promote into a sage and choose to be trained in knives instead of staves. Though I'll bet you anything she's mysteriously forgotten how to use knives.
You know what? I told her she was pretty, and she gave me one of these! People who can't use magic can use this, and then...well...they'll be able to use magic...or something like that. Here, you take this one![Received a Spectre Card!]
Spectre Cards are a lot like Reaper Cards but aren't as powerful. Still, though, they're a thing.
Brom continues to run away from people he could easily kill.
Enemy tu-
Ahahaha, oh, this is beautiful timing. This guy, as you can see, has been Disarmed. "So what?" you ask, "He'll just requip it next turn, or otherwise you can kill him without taking the 5 or whatever damage he'd maybe do to you in the process. What's the big deal?"
This is the big deal. Normally, you can't steal equipped items. Well, actually, you can never steal equipped items - but you can make the enemy unequip them and then steal them. Leaving this guy completely harmless (allowing us to deal with other threats), scoring us a new Javelin (which Nephenee wants right now) and getting some free EXP for Heather, and also being hilarious.
All of which said, Brom kills him anyway, because the guy on the stairs is a Volunteer and also won't move from that spot for… some reason.
Nephenee goes to the next house…
If anyone were to get hurt... Wait, you should take this. It's a kind of medicine we make. Ohhhh, I hope Sis is all right...[Received a Concoction!]
Nifty!
Enemy turn.
One of the idiots attacks Heather and receives 26 HP of knife in the face in the attempt. Fortunately, this will trigger his [crippled -> run away] behaviour, so that's nice.
And two Bandits shows up, one from the south gate and one from the west. They would be something of a problem if there weren't only one house left to visit.
At the right time, in the right place, Pass is wonderful.
I'm tellin' ya, I've had a bellyful of this war business. I don't want this anywhere near me. Toss it... Sell it... I don't care what you do with it. Just get it out of my house. It's all yours.[Received a Javelin!]
Sweet, spare Javelin.
Brom is busy moving towards the Boss, so Nephenee heals up in preparation for taking down the Bandit.
It's the enemy turn and the Bandit does not disappoint. Of course, neither does Nephenee.
The injured Volunteer runs behind the Bandit and uses a Herb to heal.
The Bandit also happens to be carrying a Coin, so Heather relieves him of it before Nephenee kills him.
In the next enemy turn, the second Bandit reaches Nephenee and is actually able to dodge one of her counterattacks.
This idiot Volunteer has a Venin Axe. Despite doing no damage to Brom, it poisons him. Brom does his thing that he does where he cripples the guy without killing him, that he might run away next turn to heal.
This Bandit could be a pain, and Nephenee is on low health. Heather does what she can to help out, and also blocks off his escape route at the same time.
We take a risk and go for the offensive. Nephenee is left on 9 HP and the Bandit 12. We should finish him next turn.
Brom shoves his Volunteer up the stairs, the better to allow him to run further away.
Pictured: Cutting it faaaar too fine. Nephenee is taken to 2 HP.
Big mistake.
Not that it matters, since Nephenee was doing enough damage to kill the guy anyway, but who doesn't love Wrath crits?
Oh shit. I thought he was still in heal mode. Well, so much f-
Oh thank god.
Faaar too close.
This guy is in healing mode.
So is Nephenee.
Little secret: Those two knights on the stairs? And that mage next to them? Won't move. All Brom has to deal with are the wimpy volunteers.
Since we don't want to kill the Volunteers, Heather steals their stuff instead. Hey, it's free stuff, and free EXP for her.
Enemy turn.
Goes as expected.
For no adequately explained reason, the guy who was guarding the house comes to life. I imagine it has to do with the house being visited, but then why didn't he move before? Oh well. He doesn't hit Heather due to the whole thief=evasion thing. Nothing else of interest this turn.
Let's get to work on these armour guys. The southern-most of the two has a Javelin, so he's the first priority - this also puts us out of reach of the mage, which is nice.
Nephenee finishes the job. Heather moves in to accompany Nephenee.
In the enemy turn, some Volunteer finishes healing himself, and… no one else moves. Not even the knight and mage whose defensive line is broken. Not complaining!
We carefully position Heather next to Nephenee and within throwing-knife range of the mage…
Free up some space in Heather's inventory for later, also giving Nephenee a Javelin…
And then attack. One knife misses, the second hits, and Heather takes no damage.
Brom gets in on the action too! He takes an Elwind in the face but it's nothing he can't deal with.
And finally, Nephenee deals the coup-de-grâce with her new Jave-
Oh, bullshit.
That's better. Nephenee has decent resistance so the spell damage isn't much of a thing.
Not a bad first level!
On the enemy turn, the remaining knight manages to hit Heather for 18 damage, taking none in return because he's a knight and Heather is a thief using the weakest weapon in the whole game.
That Volunteer with the Venin Edge also hits her, but she at least hits him back and cripples him for the second time. He's not having a good mission, is he?
Heather runs away to heal with her stolen Herb, leaving Brom and Nephenee to deal with the remaining knight.
A task at which they fail. Brom has taken a lot of damage, so he's now healing.
This knight didn't get the memo…
If you're going to try and kill Nephenee, you'd be-
-oh for the love of…
I SAID, IF YOU'RE GOING TO TRY AND KILL NEPHENEE…
You'd best do it properly!
Oh look, the wounded Volunteer is running away to heal again.
It's actually possible for multiple units to use the same item in a single turn. One unit uses it, then another comes and stands next to them and trades for it, and uses it himself, and so on. Enemies can do this too, as these Volunteers demonstrate.
In fact, Heather and Nephenee do it too! Now everyone's at (more or less) full health again.
Brom charges at the boss!
…and uses a Herb.
As of the end of Part 1, we're starting to see bosses actually employ their Authority Bonus. Yeardley here has one authority star, so each of his subordinates gets +5% Hit and +5% Avoid. It's not that big a thing, but when you go up against five-star commanders later… it can get just a tad irritating.
On the enemy turn, Yeardley notices Brom.
Politics ain't my strong suit, so ya can spare me the details, but I know you're up ta no good, and someone's behind it. Hah! Clamor all you like, but it won't change a thing. Revolution is taking root across Crimea. Our plan is flawless. We're getting rid of that...girl! We shall have a new ruler in Melior... Soon... Lord Ludveck, duke of Felirae, will wear the crown. Ludveck? From Felirae? That is correct. And you shall perish with that name fresh on your lips, you blundering cow!He and Brom deal 11 damage to eachother.
There are still Volunteers around… sadly. Brom leaves this one on a single HP.
The two leftover Volunteers in the south continue passing that one Herb around, and manage to muddle their way back up to full health.
Heather relieves the northern Volunteer of his Vulnerary - in retrospect, this might have been a bad idea, since he now probably won't run away to heal on account of not being able to heal. So… oh well. Still, though, you can never have too many Vulneraries.
We should probably deal with the two soldiers flanking Yeardley; they can deal some respectable damage, and we don't want that happening. Nephenee starts the left guy out on two Javelins.
Brom circumnavigates the hapless Volunteer to finish the job.
Pictured: Everything a Brom needs. He's not so great at being offensive, and instead concentrates on being a complete wall. Skill is also helpful for Axe users because Axes are naturally inaccurate.
On his turn, Yeardley spots Heather and moves over for a friendly word.
So! You're the ones sent by Ludveck of Felirae?! You've been stirring up these little revolts all over the place. What?! How did you know?!Idiot.
I see things here and there. But half of it was just a guess! ...Judging by your reaction, though, it seems I was right. You...little... Tsk... Don't get so steamed up, Mr. Fancypants! You just look silly. Nothing personal... I just don't like men like you!
Despite his slowness and her speed, he hits, and it hurts.
Somehow, the 1 HP Volunteer has lived through all this, and he's just milling around doing nothing.
With nothing left to do up north, Heather beats a hasty retreat and heals up. Maybe she can steal those guy's Herb before this mission is done.
Nephenee and Brom take out the remaining soldier.
Yeardley decides he doesn't like Nephenee either.
Duke?Y'know, I'm getting a decidedly "Metal Gear?!" vibe from both Brom and Nephenee in this mission. Just me?
Yes. Our master, Lord Ludveck, duke of Felirae, will rule over Crimea. When our plan is complete, the queen will be erased from history. Now then! I believe it's time for you to die... Right...
Annoyingly, Nephenee still has her Javelin equipped, and so won't be terribly useful in the offense department. To make matters worse, she's taking quite a beating.
Oh, did I mistakenly give the impression that when I referred to matters being made worse I was talking about me?
…well, it's still not very much damage.
Oh fuck. I knew leaving him with no Vulnerary would come back to bite me in the end.
Pictured: the third time this mission I have been saved from having to reset despite survival odds of less than 40%.
Y'know, I should be sad about having to kill a Volunteer and losing out on the satisfaction of doing this mission "perfectly", but I just have no sympathy at all for this guy. He just couldn't leave well enough alone and now he's going to die in a spectacular display of overkill.
Good riddance.
Idiot.
One of the southern Volunteers has an Antitoxin, and it occurs to me that Antitoxins are more valuable than almost entirely used Herbs, so Heather pinches that instead.
Nephenee and Brom both heal up and move into Thickets, and wait for Yeardley to come to them.
Am I capable of remembering to switch Nephenee's weapon? Of course not. At the very least, the thicket causes Yeardley to miss.
The southern Volunteers try to kill Heather and are made to regret their mistake.
At this point, I realize that Heather's inventory is full and I can't pinch their Herb after all. Oh well.
Well, time to leave this mission behind. Brom leads with his axe…
And Nephenee brings it on home.
I approve.
No! My duty is incomplete... Lord Ludveck... Please forgive me!---
Yes, by all means, attack Nephenee. Because this strategy has worked so well for you before.
Idiot.
M-murderer! You're a murderer! But I... Yeah. That's right. Nephenee and me... We been to war. When y'all were hidin' in cellars and attics, we were toe-to-toe with Daein. And look at us now... St-stop it... Please! I...was wrong! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! You got your head on straight now? You youngsters get so riled up... "Let me at 'em!" and "Bring 'em on!" Hmph! You know spit about war! Nephenee... Let's gear up and head out to the royal palace. Her Majesty's gotta know Ludveck's stirrin' up all kinds of nonsense. And my girl, Meg... She's off on her own... Knowing Meg, though, she'll be fine. All righty then. Let's get movin'. Sounds like a plan.---
We put the people of this village in danger. We can't stay here now, knowin' that. We'll hafta set things straight. I hate to leave, but...
Why did it have to come to this? I always thought our Queen Elincia was about as good as they come, lowering taxes and looking after orphans. The young folk don't care 'bout that stuff. They only care about what's getting' their dander up. Then they ignore everything else. I reckon that's why we gotta do what we gotta do. If we don't step up, the whole country'll be goin 'on the compost heap. That's why we've got to get to Queen Elincia right away. It's all gonna be just fine. If I know Her Majesty, she'll take care of this uprising in no time. Then we can return to our farms and grow some mighty good eats. All of ya just hold tight, now.
We could've cleared the mission a bit quicker if we hadn't been so adamant about protecting the volunteers and stealing things and visiting houses and recruiting Heather… but the gain in BEXP for all that loss would have been negligible. On the other hand, stealing that one guy's Vulnerary cost me 400 BEXP and could've cost me the mission if not for some absurd luck.
We have been cutting this entirely too close. That had better change…
Coming up next time: Political espionage!