Part 40: Marth Meets Morzas, The Matricidal Mage Manakete (Battle)

Chapter 17: Marth Meets Morzas, The Matricidal Manakete (Battle)

Been quite a while since we fought inside a castle. By “a while” I mean five chapters, but that’s substantial in Fire Emblem time!





I think this is the only time in the series that the name of Marth’s mother is mentioned. She’s already dead and she never even got a line of dialogue. Poor Liza.

: So what will become of you, little prince? Will you run for your life a second time? Or will you stay this time to die? Emperor Medeus would not put me on this throne if he thought you could remove me from it, kee hee hee…




Time to open up by causing a ruckus with those thieves. The smart move would be to Warp Wolf into the doorway and let him tank everything with a Javelin, but blocking the map exit with Abel also gives me the chance to down this Manakete. I swapped to having the Dragonpike equipped for that reason.




These manaketes are really no joke, so Wolf is going to take up the duty of pulling the other one. I’m going to clear out the whole west side of the map before taking on the throne room. It’s the slower way of doing this, but it’s safer and less confusing in an LP format.




That is extremely worth trying to steal back!




That is...less so, but I’ll take it.




Yikes, That’s a sizable hit.




Wolf fares even worse, getting doubled here. This is a rare physical enemy who is actually a threat to our acclaimed wall.



Thankfully, even with the Fortify bishop topping him off, Top Left Manakete is still within kill range for the Dragonpike.




Huh. That’s...not very useful.




Abel does need some healing, though, because evidently the Manakete’s friends have decided to avenge his death.





The other one wasn’t so lucky.




Hopefully Ogma’s going to start getting good levels again soon. This is a decent start.




Wolf’s a little banged up, but with all foes in range being physical damage, he doesn’t have much to worry about here, and I can start chipping away at the Sniper in the treasure hallway.




This hallway up top is congested enough that Abel can start spreading out the damage he takes, and even forces the Javelin Knight into melee range. Choke points are pretty cool.




The Hero also comes for Marth, but he misses. The real threat here is that Sniper, although he’s preoccupied with shooting arrows through a wall at another wall, but the second wall is named Wolf and he has a Javelin.




Since Caeda’s not doing much of anything at this point, she noticed that there’s a bit of unfortunate architecture in Castle Altea here. It almost looks like, if there were a lone mage with a death wish, he could shoot through here at a high-res unit and get a Javelin for his troubles. She investigates, because she’s nice like that.




Abel’s just going to start kiting his enemies now. This spot puts him in range to counter both Knights with a Javelin, but he’s just out of range of the Mage who would clip him for quite a bit of damage.

In retrospect, a Vulnerary would have been good here, but I guess I can’t win ‘em all.




Marth, however, totally wins ‘em all, mostly by standing menacingly in this doorway. Thankfully, it’s enough to block off the incoming thieves.




I feel like I’ve gone a whole update without saying Catria’s good, so here’s another reminder that Catria is good.



The knight did a suicide charge into Abel’s Javelin.



So far things are going pretty smoothly!




Oh no. It seems this enemy mage has made a poor choice, entirely of his own volition. Whoops!




Marth takes a little damage from the Sniper, but he can hold his own here just fine for a little while.




Time for Abel to beat a retreat here. That mage is looking awful scary.




I want to clear out this chokepoint of enemies ASAP, so the Linde Bomb gets deployed on the bulkiest of them, the Sniper. Killer Bows are terrifying.




Other things that are terrifying include: Catria. Good Level Ups in Shadow Dragon. Trying to make this update interesting.




Not bad. You know how many doors there are in this game?



You know how many doors there are in this game that you can just warp right past?




I couldn’t deal with all the enemies this turn, but Caesar here should stop Linde from getting a sword through the gut.




I considered getting rid of Fortify Bishop ASAP, as Caeda could do it here, but with the Sniper available to take his place, I don’t want to put her in range.




To my surprise, the Thief here actually equipped the Devil Sword he stole. I didn’t know enemies did that in this game.




It didn’t help him, but it was cool!




Now, you might think I forgot to move Abel here, and it’s total luck that this wasn’t a restart. You would be completely correct.



Oh yeah, this guy survived Abel, didn’t he? Well, I had backup.



I’m not an expert, Marth, but I don’t think that’s how you hold that. He got the kill, so I’ll take it, but I’m just saying.




Be careful entering the Treasure Room, by the way. This second Mage is nasty.




Thankfully, Marth is nastier.

That didn’t come out right.




Now then, with all the treasure ours for the taking, I can start focusing on the actual objective. Definitely need to remove this Fortify guy.




Hmm.




Hmmmmmmmm.




Thanks to Maria’s healing, Bars is able to hold that point just fine, eating hits from the second Bishop and the Sniper.





And he is justly rewarded. The level up is fine, but I’m really into the Fortify staff. That’s incredibly handy.




Everybody else is going to start marching on the throne now. No use dawdling around the treasure.




Marth’s got that covered. The Secret Book is a permanent +2 to Skill for the user.




Barst didn’t quite finish this guy off, so Maria gets her first offensive action of the game. Yes, I did use the top left save point before this, because that guy can double her!




Thankfully I didn’t end up needing it. Maria gets the same stats as usual.

Before I start the attack on Morzas, Marth has to rob his own house.







Not bad at all!




I chose Barst with a door key to open this up, because he can survive even if all the possible enemies hit him. Julian could not.




And here we go.




The Swarm Bishop hits Wolf, which is mostly just a waste of his turn. A knight showed up to Javelin Barst as well.




Caesar wasn’t a fan of this action.




I think he might be starting to outdo Ogma.




The second Knight goes down easy with a rush attack from Caeda. For some reason the Stairs leading to the throne count as special terrain, but they have no advantages.




Ten Movement counters Swarm Bishops pretty handily!





Every turn after you enter the throne room proper (through the doorway), a Knight and Cavalier will spawn out of that eastern entrance.




The Knight has a Javelin and the Cav has a Steel Lance. They aren’t very threatening, because this guy is Level 6 in Chapter 17.




They’ll repeat for up to ten turns, or until you kill Morzas.




Yikes. Little close. I didn’t mean to leave Linde there, but that does give me an idea.









Abel and Caeda are going to be intercepting the Cavaliers. Mostly Caeda, Abel’s there for moral support.




Barst can now use every axe in the game. Minerva’s Hauteclere is about to find a new owner.




Our stalwart, blue haired protagonist is going to take on the Dragon. Morzas has some seriously high Resistance with his Magestone, so simply chipping him down with Cord or Linde would take quite a while, as well as waste uses on my good tomes.







He crit him immediately

I’ll, uh, I’ll show off Morzas’ model on the Normal run.




I can’t think of a better way to hit 20.




I know a few people who could use this.




C’mon, Caeda. Be more like Barst.




Well, with Morzas dead and the reinforcements gone, I think we’re done.




Or...not. It’s time for the dumbest secret in the game. Something that I assume had to be discovered out of sheer luck and boredom. You’ll need that VIP Card the Bishop had. I don’t know why it shows up so late in this game. The Silver Card is also a fantastic idea.




Maria needs to level up. This is not necessary for the secret, but I like it when my units level up.




On this exact square, four north of the Throne, move a unit with the VIP Card.




Welcome to Anna’s Secret Shop.




These are dotted across several maps in the game, always a pain in the ass to find, but loaded with good stuff. Look at all those specialty weapons!




Look at even more of them! Including the Longbow, a weapon that the player can otherwise never get in this game. I bought one of each, and three Longbows because I was excited.

The locations of these shops are never really hinted at more than “this terrain looks kinda weird”, so I’d advice using the trusty “internet” to find them. Or this LP, if that’s your thing.




We’re done now.




: …My sister was taken by Gharnef. She is no longer here… And my…my mother is… She is dead. Slain…by that Dolhrian dragon…

: …! Marth, I am truly sorry…

: I thought there would be something…some part of my old life I would be coming back to. I fought so hard…

: You fought wonderfully, Marth.

: Sire, might I have a moment?

: All the moments you want, Malledus. What is it?

: Your people have gathered outside the castle. They are overjoyed to be free again, sire, and would like very much to see their prince.

: Alright, then. I’ll go at once.

: Marth...perhaps you should let that wait, just until you are able to share their joy with them. We could send someone in your stead-



: People of Altea! Today I woke up and my bed was lopsided. It turns out I left a whole pile of lances under there. Now you see, I like Iron Lances. Steel Lances are okay, but those Iron Lances are a treat. Silver Lances are for kids who don’t understand a good Iron Lance. 20 Uses? I used 20 Uses going to the post office in my day!

: You know that I was there, right?





: No, that would not do. Today is a momentous day for my kingdom and my people. I must celebrate with them now, not later. Anything else would be a disservice to those who died to save Altea. I am a prince before I am a son or a brother. Come, Malledus. Let us go greet my people.




: Its people, ragged from years of Dolhrian tyranny, scrambled to the castle and flocked beneath its walls, eager to celebrate what, for many, would be remembered as the happiest days of their lives. They clapped each other on the back, laughed; and when Marth, their prince, appeared up above, they saluted their hero with a thunderous cheer:

“Glory to Marth, our prince of light! Glory to our star and savior!

Marth smiled down at his people and waved. The great commander’s last victory of the day was commanding his tears not to flow.

: Next I have to tell you about the Wizard.

: But, the liberation of Altea seems important!

: He had a monocle.

: continue



Next time, not this chapter. We’ve got Normal Mode catchup to do.

Bonus Content



Abel, But In His Heroes Art Because The Cipher One Was Acting Weird For Me