Part 54: (Chapter 2, Continued)
Astrid gets the ball rolling. She's taken up the Brave Bow, which went to her pretty much by default, since Rolf is broken enough as it is.
("You know how hard it is to be this charming when you never say anything? You should try it. It's hard.")
Volug has the best supports.
Fiona busies herself crippling a general, and Oscar finishes the job for her.
Reyson provides her with a second turn, which she uses to cripple a second one.
Nolan and Zihark, meanwhile, busy themselves murdering their way west. Even unpromoted, Nolan is more than able to massacre everything up here, and with Zihark in tow, both of them might as well be invincible.
We're all set up for lots of countermurder, and we end our first turn.
I'm sure that cheeky little queenlet is still amongst you? I hope so. I'm going to make her pay for defying me! Uwee hee hee!I'm going to enjoy killing him.
Good luck with that, mate.
His luck wasn't good. Then again, with 0% hit chance, that wouldn't matter much anyway.
Astrid doesn't have all that much speed or an earth support, but she does have her absurd luck and terrain benefits. So she's quite survivable.
Oscar, too, is quite well able to dodge. Sadly, he's not fast enough to double this guy.
The enemy hordes advance, and it's our turn ag-
Hey, isn't that-
...huh.
Oh, King Pelleas. You shouldn't... endanger yourself. Besides, I don't think we'll have too much trouble with these guys.
I appreciate your concern, but as the king of Daein, I fight for the people of all free countries. It is my duty. Wait, where is your mother? W-well... Listen, I don't know what she's been telling you, but don't throw your life away. I appreciate that you want to help, but this battle is beyond you. Try to stay out of the way. ...Y-yes, sir.Well then. I guess Pelleas just joined our team. That's something.
Also, this guy teleports in. He has a Blizzard tome, and is going to waste most of it trying to hit Nolan and Zihark.
Pelleas is a tricky one. His most obvious crippling drawback is that he joins you on Lv 12 of second tier at a time when the rest of your army is well into third and the enemies are balanced accordingly. His less obvious drawback is the fact that he has fairly low second tier stat caps.
His plus points, on the other hand, are there. He's got good growths where they count - particularly in magic, speed and resistance, and also somewhat in skill. Further, when he hits the caps on these - which will happen almost immediately, you can easily BEXP the rest, granting him the strength and skill to effectively use the heavy and unwieldily dark tomes he's accustomed to using. Playing into this is the fact that Pelleas will gain levels quite fast due to his low starting level. He also comes equipped with some very nice dark tomes, including Fenrir, the long range variant.
The other notable thing is that he is, of course, the only user of Dark magic you can have in your party. Dark magic is, like Thunder magic (which Pelleas can also use) inaccurate, but unlike Thunder magic, powerful to compensate. As such, if you can work on Pelleas' skill, he can be quite effective.
Really, the thing with Pelleas is that you need to get lucky with his first few levels. If you can get him to hit three or so caps in this mission, you're in business. Otherwise... less so. Let's see how he does.
Pelleas also brings us another Miracle scroll. Whatever.
Pelleas' biggest immediate problem is actually hitting things. Especially things on thicket tiles.
His getup is appropriately swishy for a sage.
And King Daein's battlefield debut is complete. Micaiah would be proud.
...why is Pelleas with Elincia and Tibarn, anyway? You'd think he'd go with Micaiah. Yes, I know there's one good reason why (and we'll see that later), but... it's quite a leap, plot wise.
Now that she's promoted, Astrid can wield lances in addition to bows. This means she is now able to defend and counterkill - and, y'know, attack at melee range. As pictured.
Paragon + Blossom is a frightening thing sometimes.
While Oscar and Fiona deal with the swordmaster, Nolan and Zihark move forward with their murder operation. It's a little hard to see from this angle...
But they're actually forming a wall with the terrain. So that's nice.
Our last actions this turn are feeding Reyson a Laguz Stone and having Elincia eke out some EXP by using Mend on Astrid to grant her the 1 HP she gained on level up.
End of turn 2.
Bad idea.
Very bad idea.
Silver Knight Astrid, ladies and gentlemen.
Oscar gets a Sol off too.
Blizzard guy has a go at Nolan. But it failed.
For whatever reason, this turn has been a great turn for skill activation.
A crowd of enemies closes in on Nolan and Zihark. Nolan is 6 EXP from promotion. This will be fun.
Fiona has herself some murder, and also finds a Coin afterwards. How nice.
Reyson chants to all three silver knights, and they all charge forward.
Slightly. They're actually forming a counter-wall for the units to the south. There are crossbowmen among them, so we want to get them dead before Elincia can move in.
The theme of this turn is basically "brace for impact". Only the impact is really more of a problem for the impacter than for the impactee.
Of course, an indirect guy and Blizzard guy all attack Nolan first. It's like the AI is trying to waste the most EXP from whoever finally gets counterkilled by Nolan.
Our knight-wall also sees some action. Astrid even takes a hit.
And Oscar gets a useful level off a overbold pegasus knight.
Finally.
Nolan finally joins the ranks of the longcoat society.
And gets some bitchin' stat-ups. Seriously, 29 speed on a
Also, its funny because from behind it looks like he's wearing a pink skirt.
And his first attack as a reaver is a miss. Fuck.
That's more like it.
Another one has a go. He gets crippled. And now it's our turn again.
Here's the Reaver's mastery skill, Colossus. It's nice and simple; it triples the user's strength. The nice thing about it is that it takes up only 25 of the 30 SP you gain upon promotion, meaning that you actually see a gain in spare SP. A few other units (i.e, Rolf), also manage this. Stun is the only other mastery skill that costs 25 SP but only pegasus/dracoknights can get it, and they're stuck with Canto, which costs 10 SP as opposed to Shove's 5, so they only get 25 spare SP, just like most footsoldiers. And paladins? They get screwed - Canto plus Sol means 40/60 SP tied down from the word go.
Pelleas snags another kill.
So does Fiona. And now I'm really regretting taking that innate Imbue from her way back when.
Some help from Reyson...
...gets Pelleas his third kill. And with it comes:
His first level! And it's like a dream.
Nolan and Zihark continue tidying up in the north.
The enemy turn involves a lot of enemies missing with ranged attacks, although there is this guy, who gets Sol'd by Fiona. The best thing about Sol on lance users is this bit, where they stand on their horse while it rears up. It is
as fuck.And we are using "
as fuck" to describe Fiona.
Eventually, a dracoknight and a general attack Nolan and give him a level that includes strength and speed. Good work.
And it begins. We're not going to actively chase these guys yet; we'll let them come to us. For now.
Astrid kicks off our next turn by schooling a nearby archer. Also, Fiona has a surprise for the nearby pegasus knight...
Surprise! Just as Astrid gets to use lances on promotion to silver knight, so too do lance paladins get to use bows. And that means lots of opportunities to ruin flyers.
And just when this couldn't get any better.
Bow Sol is really underwhelming compared to lance Sol. They just wave their bow around for a while and then shoot it for somehow-tripled damage.
Oscar and Pelleas kill one of his buddies, then Reyson moves in...
Allowing Astrid to move in and gain a second amazing Blossom level, and Oscar to move up.
Nolan and Zihark just keep doing what they're doing. In Zihark's case, this means being amazing despite getting tons of levels like this.
Also, coin.
So ends turn 5.
Even without Volug's help, Fiona can still dodge this.
And a half-dead dracoknight decides to attack Zihark. It ends poorly.
And +1 assholes. That's pretty much it.
Pelleas magics an archer...
Then Reyson. Then Pelleas magics him a second time.
I think we're in business.
Nolan hasn't gotten to play with a Hammer in a while. We rectify this.
Once again, we set up defensively. Most of the enemy generals protecting the path to the boss will stay put, but some units will move from behind them.
Blizzard-guy uses the last charge in his tome to fail to hit Tibarn. Why Tibarn, of all people, I'll never know.
This genius general attacks Hammer-Nolan.
Aaaand there's our karma from the great levels Pelleas got. I'm OK with this.
Here's Pavise activating. That's nice. It's not something you should rely on, but if you put it on a unit that's going to see a lot of combat it'll save a fair bit of HP here and there.
More assholes.
On our turn, Ranulf sniffs out an Arms Scroll.
It's quite situational at this point in the game, but Pelleas is actually a pretty good mage-killer. Dark magic gets a triangle advantage against Anima magic of all flavours, good for an extra point of damage and some precious, precious accuracy points. Of course, he's still rather weak now, and by the time he's trained, mages won't really be high up on your priorities list... but all the same, it's a thing.
Verrine, the S-rank Dark tome, is appropriately much flashier and longer than Carreau.
Fiona demolishes another pegasus knight.
And that's defence capped.
She also drops a Panacea, an item which, when consumed, will cure the wearer of any condition. It's not that useful, because the only conditions you'll run into besides Poison (which has its own healing item) are Sleep and Stun (which invalidate the user's ability to use items) and Silence, the latter being the only real point to Panaceas - they're good for getting Silence off of your staff users (who can't use Restore on themselves). Of course, we'll be finding out all about how to deal with conditions later.
Oscar finishes off the mage Pelleas weakened, for an OK level.
Elincia gets some great results from throwing Mends around.
Zihark finally puts Blizzard-guy out of his misery.
And that's that for this turn.
Save for these guys closing in...
...and the additional assholes, this enemy phase is completely uneventful.
Elincia goes to personally deal with these two guys. She takes a mild beating, but she's fine.
Ranulf helps. In Part 4, Ranulf can finally start gaining meaningful amounts of EXP.
With Reyson's help, Ranulf attacks again and kills his target.
Thanks to his speed gains, Pelleas is able to double the slower enemies here, like this general.
You know, I'll bet you anything these runes translate to something.
Oscar and Fiona take care of the other general.
Astrid Sols a defenceless priest.
I think perhaps the only thing less believable than seeing Fiona do this is seeing Astrid do this.
Meanwhile, Nolan is attacking from the north.
Colossus' animation doesn't translate too well to screens, so... just picture the Great Spin Attack from [insert Zelda game] followed by Cloud Strife's Braver and you've pretty much got it.
So turn 8 ends with us closing in on Valtome.
I don't know why these people bother sometimes. I really don't.
Five enemies with 0% hit chances come after Nolan and Zihark. Zihark gets this level off one of them. It's a pretty great level.
We're now in range of Physic-bearers, so this guy who Oscar wasn't fast enough to kill gets restored.
So we have Oscar soften him up for Pelleas.
It looks sparse, but this level puts Pelleas at two stats capped (magic and speed).
Astrid pops up to help Zihark and Nolan out, and this is how turn 9 ends.
Damn Physic priests.
Fortunately, the guy uses his second chance at life to attack Zihark again. This time ends worse for him than the first time.
He is followed by this foolish general, who gets Astrum'd.
And the status-quo is restored.
After some more enemies failing to hit us and most dying, one more asshole arrives in the south-east, and another in the north-east too.
A kill is fed to Pelleas.
Three levels after joining, and the guy's not doing too bad for himself.
Nolan realises he's been holding onto a perfectly good Tomahawk for ages now. He finally puts it to use against a nearby mage.
Damn, Nolan is turning into a beast.
I mean, christ, he's probably going to cap everything without needing any more BEXP.
Astrid helps out with some cleanup.
Some quick Elincia Mend-spamming, and we're done for turn 10. Can you spot the stupid, stupid mistake I made?
FFFFFUUUUUUUUU-
-uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-
-hew. Wow. Let's hear it for Herons' ridiculous luck.
The second attack hits, and hurts, but it's not enough to kill Reyson.
Fortunately, the experience gives Reyson a whole load of TP, so he can transform again next turn.
Also, Astrid fucks a guy up and gets another amazing Blossom-fueled level. That's pretty much it for this turn.
Elincia immediately heals Reyson up to full.
And Pelleas starts work on the dracoknight who almost killed our heron.
A quick transformation and double-chant later...
Reyson gains a thoroughly uninteresting level...
And Pelleas kills the dracoknight for a pretty great one.
After killing this guy, Astrid charges west to intercept the Assholes.
Nolan and Zihark, meanwhile, head to the boss area.
Oscar and Fiona join them.
This has been turn 11.
Once again, a halberdier is given a second chance with Physic, and wastes it on Zihark.
Valtome comes for Fiona.
Despite having a unique map model, he doesn't get a unique combat model. Shame.
His magic is pretty flashy though.
A swordmaster thinks to further the damage...
But instead triggers Sol and reverses it.
And also gives her a level.
The assholes now start appearing in full force.
Taking on Valtome with Pelleas is generally a very bad idea, because Pelleas is quite weak, and Valtome's technically-still-light magic completely negates any combat viability Pelleas has.
He gets dialog, though.
I... I am Pelleas, king of Daein. Oh, how precious! I was hoping that I'd meet the simpering moron who signed the blood pact with Lekain... Uwee hee hee! Y-you will regret this!
He doesn't regret it.
We do, though. Friggen' ow.
Fiona pokes him a little... but we all know there's only one unit with a right to this kill.
Uwee hee hee hee!
Lord Valtome, I desire no battle with you. Withdraw your troops immediately. If you do so, no more lives will be lost. Uwee hee...uwee hee hee... Are you touched as well as homely? I offer YOU the chance to surrender! But you, Elincia, I will only forgive if you beg. And crawl. And lick the sole of my left boot. I'm sorry that you feel that way. If that's how it has to be, may the goddess have mercy on you, Valtome.
Besides the obvious sense of catharsis and the whole "ridding the world of a complete asshole" factor, we also profit numerically from his death.
While everyone else gets to work cleaning up Valtome's escort, Astrid busies herself with the first wave of assholes. She's using a bow here because the other nearby asshole is a bow paladin, so she can counterkill him and deal with general-Killing-Edge later. Incidentally, there's no sense worrying about that Killing Edge, since Astrid's ridiculous luck will negate any real crit chance.
Also, Ranulf and Volug have gone south to deal with the assholes down there.
Sure enough, Astrid gets to counterkill the bow guy.
Also sure enough, Killing Edge guy doesn't really get anything done.
The one guy in the south gets crippled by Ranulf, but four more appear.
Pelleas is healed to full and, with Reyson's help, kills the last Physic priest. I don't know what I've done to deserve these levels, but Pelleas is going to promote at pretty much full strength.
I mean, god damn. I'm a little annoyed I didn't hold back a Master Crown, since he's technically going to be wasting BEXP just to promote.
Ranulf does his part to help out.
As does Astrid.
Is Astrid redeemed yet? I think she's redeemed.
Anyway, there goes turn 13.
The northern assholes make a concerted effort to hurt Astrid but fail. The southern guys advance a little. Look who's waiting for them!
Elincia's been using the fuck out of that Mend staff. She gets another quite serviceable level.
Ranulf braves a fire hit to take out a mage.
Volug starts working on a halberdier.
And here's Tibarn. Damn, Tibarn's amazing.
This is the first time we can see Tibarn in full battle-animation mode. He has his own battle theme, too.
He can't resist showing off his mastery skill.
Awesome.
Astrid continues cleaning up.
That's turn 14.
...no.
...better, but still no.
Not a damn chance.
No.
5 damage. Mend staff. Thank you very much.
Our turn comes, and we get right on with finishing up.
And becoming awesomer.
14 levels to go, ladies and gents.
Nolan finishes the battle with a thrown Tomahawk.
Do you all feel as...alive as I do? This is proof that we need a little chaos. Everyone understand that now? Yes, but it doesn't make me fond of war. I know we can't stop, but... I understand, Elincia. Your path is important, too. Leave the rough stuff to us.
---
That was some good work you did back there.
...OK, just relax. Get it together... Haaa...haa... Hmm. I'll go get the others. You just sit down and catch your breath. Haa huff... Ahem.
I wouldn't worry about that being a problem for too long.
---
Hm? Pelleas?!
(brace for text...)
...Queen Elincia. I was worried when I didn't see you at supper, so I came looking for you. Hmph. I didn't think anyone in this merry band cared about me. After all, my own son is trying to avoid me. Don't say that. A lot of things have just happened... I'm sure Pelleas is just confused. He'll come around. I hope you're right. Lady Elincia, can I ask you a question? What of your mother? Was she also turned to stone? No... My mother died three years ago. Both my mother and my father were killed by King Ashnard... By Ashnard? I-I'm sorry. Lady Almedha, you were King Ashnard's wife, correct? There was never a formal wedding ceremony, so I suppose some would call me a mistress... But I was the only one he could ever call his wife. And I'm the only one who can be called the mother of his child... King Pelleas. Yes, Pelleas. We were separated so long... Finally having him back is the greatest gift imaginable. ...Forgive me for asking, but why did King Ashnard suddenly decide to invade Crimea? I want to know why my parents died. Truthfully, I don't know. You were closer to him than anyone. Didn't he say anything? Did he never explain his reasons? The last time I saw Ashnard was long ago, more than twenty years. I'm afraid I don't know many state secrets from after that point. But, why... You look so surprised. We had a falling out and ended up living separately... It happens rather a lot, I'm afraid. No, it's just that... Well, you said that King Ashnard had no other wives or children... I just assumed that you had always been by his side. Ha ha... There was always gossip, of course, and I hated it. But I know with absolute certainty... Ashnard had relations with no other woman. And so I said as much. So he did love you, in his own way? Love? Love?! Ha ha... Seriously... Ha ha ha...ha ha haa! Wh-what's so funny? There was no love between Ashnard and me. There was a strong mutual attraction between us, eventually resulting in a child... But all I ever was to him was a source of power. Once I became pregnant, I was useless to him. Bereft of my strength, he found my presence nothing more than an irritating distraction. After Pelleas was born, Ashnard became obsessed with the boy... But, once he realized Pelleas had no special powers... Ashnard rejected him, and used him as bait in a cruel trap for my brother... Lady Almedha? I... It's just that I... I'm sorry, it was not my place to ask. Where is he? Where is my Pelleas? He's the only thing that matters... I can't lose him...ever! Please, I beg of you. Bring me my Pelleas! Tell him his mother needs him... Hurry... Bring me my Pelleas! Of course. I-I'll bring him as soon as I can.
So we lost some turn bonus, but the amount of combat EXP we got more than made up for that.
Next time: The return of a Fire Emblem mainstay...