Part 57: (Part Four, Chapter 4) More like "Disciples of Hors D'Oeuvres"

Prince Kurthnaga tells of the connection between Daein and the dragon tribes. Ranulf reveals the identity of the Black Knight.



Ike becomes convinced that the answers to all of his question lie within the Tower of Guidance, and he is determined to reach the tower at any cost.









I can't remember the last time we got to sleep indoors! We can be thankful for the rain, I guess.

Yeah, the decorations are a little... overdone, but the beds will be warm and dry. I'm glad I remembered this mansion was here.



I understand the senate confiscated his lands and property immediately after the Mad King's War ended.

Well, someone must be living here; the place is spotless. By law, there shouldn't be anyone here. I wonder if someone is squatting.

---



I feel that we are being watched. I sense no malice...but there is definitely some sort of presence. Perhaps the master of the house?

Hmm. I'll be we find out soon.

---



And here we are in the Base. There are no conversations to view this time round.

Well, not exactly. If we'd put Volug on the team, we could've had this one:

...

Er. Hello. What can I do for you?

...

Hey, that's an Elixir.

...

Yes, I like them too.

...

("Volug, speak out loud. Ike is confused by your silence.")

("But, Your Majesty... He doesn't understand our language.")

("It's better than staying silent.") Sorry. I don't mean to leave you out of the conversation.

No, that's fine. I would have been confused either way. I didn't know you could speak the ancient language.

It's Hatari's common language. I would never have known about the Tellius language if I hadn't met Rafiel.

The Tellius language?

You don't know? The language we are using right now is called the Tellius language. You call it modern speech, I suppose.

Oh, I see.

Long ago, beorc created the Old Tongue. The ancient speech is what we laguz call it. The language was too difficult for the laguz to master. So the language of Tellius was created in its place.

Huh. I've never heard that before. The only people I'm aware of who know the ancient speech are the heron laguz. I think Nasir of Goldoa said he could read it. Among beorc, only mages know how to use it, and that's only for spells.

Well, the laguz who live a long time, such as dragons and herons, have all the time in the world to learn it. Beorc probably left the ancient speech behind in favor of a newer and improved language, with the exception of spells.

That makes sense, I suppose. Mordecai once told me that speech lets you avoid fighting when it's not a good idea. He said that's why it's a good idea to know many languages.

Did he, now? Volug, did you hear that? You can learn the language of Tellius with Mordecai.

...I will... I... will try.

He understands what you're saying, for the most part. It's the speaking that's the hard part for him.

You don't need to feel obligated. I mean, it isn't like I can understand ancient speech.

("Here, I want you to have this.") Um, here... Take.

Oh, I understand. Thanks.

("It's about time!")

I think I understood that. You were happy that I understood what you just said.

("I guess you could say that.")

Good. As long as you have the desire to learn, words will soon follow.

I see. I'll try to learn a little ancient speech from now on, too. Volug, you can be my teacher and I'll be your teacher.

("All right. It's a deal.")

[Received an Elixir!]

Fortunately, it's not a big deal if we miss out on one Elixir.



There are Chest Keys in the Bargains section today, as well as Door Keys in the regular shop. This is so you're not completely screwed if you didn't put Heather in Ike's team; there are six chests in the upcoming mission and one more Chest Key as an enemy drop, so if you buy all of them (or have some leftovers from earlier missions) you can get all of them. Alternatively, you can be forewarned and put Heather on Ike's team.



If we ever run into money troubles... we know what to do. But don't get ahead of yourself; there's plenty of sellables to be gotten soon.



And don't forget; we have a White Gem to sell, and it doesn't look like we'll have need of many Arms Scrolls.



Rearming, resupplying, no real support options, so let's get moving.



All right, let's get everyone mobilized.



Friends?



Hey, it's those guys!





It's Tormod! We haven't seen him since the Mad King's War!

Extinguish them!

Funny you should phrase it that way, you soon-to-be cinder!





Sadly, Tormod's complete lack of training, combined with the arbitrary better-ness of the Disciples of Order, means he no longer has cutscene-powers.

Tormod, your backup's here! Just hold your position!

Much appreciated! Don't worry. We're not going anywhere! Wait a second...Ike? What happened to you, musclehead?

It's definitely Sir Ike. But beorc growth always amazes me. It's like looking at a different person.

Between him and Sothe, I'm starting to feel a little inadequate! Well, that settles it! I've still got a lot of growing to do, so I've got to survive! I can't die like this!

All right, let's help these guys out. Get ready for battle!



Well, here we a-

-hey, wait, Tormod, Muarim and Vika are showing up as Player Army, rather than Other... that means...



I knew this would come in handy some time!



Since all our other training is going so well, we're going to take something of a chance and try training Vika.

The thing about Vika is that she's got really good growths - like, stupendously good. And she's a laguz. She's got very little scope for gaining EXP in Part 1, and then she's absent from the game until now, at which point she's near completely outclassed by every enemy in sight - but her low level combined with her high growths (over 50% in magic, skill, speed and resistance, plus the traditional laguz overkill HP and luck) can combine into a hurricane of +1s, making Vika very useful, very quickly.

Step one in our master plan is to throw her two BEXP levels.





Not bad at all.

This step is necessary because...



Vika's SP increases by 15 at Lv 15, allowing her to equip Paragon. She'll be gaining a level per kill while transformed.



Tormod hasn't gotten any stronger during his exile, but he has reequipped, bringing us free tomes of Arcfire, Bolganone (which he can't use) and Meteor. Very nice.



Finally, we support Vika and Muarim so that Vika can benefit from a mite more survivability. Every little bit helps at this stage. Don't worry. She'll be ridiculous by the time we're through, just you watch.



Alright. For real this time.





Here's our team. The mandatory inclusion of Tormod, Muarim and Vika means we've got no room for anyone other than our A-team, plus Janaff, whose main purpose is going to be carrying Tormod around using Savior.



Attention to detail fail: this halberdier has been pre-damaged, purportedly by being Arcfire'd twice by Tormod. However, if you run the numbers on this, Tormod would only have been able to do 10 damage per hit with Arcfire. So, yeah, that's odd.





This is another uphill, ledge climbing battle, with us at the bottom and the boss at the top. There are three covered up rooms (each with an entrance guarded by a general) containing treasure, otherwise it's a pretty straightforward path of the boss with a few shortcuts up ledges. Unlike the last time we did this (the endgame of Part 1), we're totally awesome enough to assault up ledges now, although with the AI as incompetent at chokepoint holding as it is, that's not really saying much.

That said, we're going to be taking this mission nice and slow. No rushing for us; we're going to take a few turns training Vika's strike rank - we want at least an S rank by the time we're through. And don't worry; there are plenty of Asshole Reinforcements™ to keep us busy while we do that.



Wait a minute...



You! You're still alive! What the fuck?

Well... leaving aside the obvious confusion as to what the fuck he's doing here, Oliver is notable for a few reasons. First, he's the game's first ever third tier enemy; he's a Saint, promoted from Bishop. Second, he's packing Nosferatu, so unless you send in a unit with high resistance or really good avoid, he might be something of a pain to actually kill.



Corona, the Saint's mastery skill, negates enemy resistance and halves enemy accuracy for a turn. It's a pain to be hit by, although it's usually survivable if you're on full health and aren't a heron.



Our plan is to send the majority of our guys east up the main path, while Aran, Mia and Heather go after the first treasure. I'll just improvise the rest. It's not a strategically difficult mission, although there is one particular Asshole Reinforcement™...



Whatever. Let's go.