Part 58: Bonus Chapter #3: Assassins

Bonus Chapter #3: Assassins





: And so, we had vanquished the fearsome Sorcerer, Gharnef, atop his tower, and moved onto…

: You didn’t really vanquish shit, Sir Jagen. He came right back.

: What? I mean...it took him a little while! What’s the worst he could have done in the meantime?

: The assassin cult!

: Oh. I always forget about that. I’m getting old, you know.

: ...Step aside, Sir Jagen,

: I’m lying down.

: Roll aside, Sir Jagen, I’ve got a story to tell you this time, courtesy of Katarina...





: The world slowly started to regain stability in the wake of Medeus's destruction. However, the dark powers that Marth banished to the abyss began to rise once more in corners unseen…




Most of the characters in this map are sequel exclusive. We won’t see Katarina, for example, at all in this game.

: Apparently, most of them were vanquished by Prince Marth in the War of Shadows. However, we have reports that the survivors have set up a hideout in this forest and are expanding their influence. They've been caught raiding villages, kidnapping women and children. They're just as evil as before.

: Sigh... It's not like I care what they get up to. Lady Eremiah's order was to kill every last one of them, right?

: Yes. Every last one. The Soothsires have committed far too many crimes. If we kill them, nobody will have to suffer by their hands again…

: Why should we care though? It's only natural that the weak should suffer.

: …Roro, are you going to help us?




(“Eine” is Katarina’s name, or rather, “Katarina” is Eine’s name. It gets explained.)

: Me too.

: Me too, too.

: Alright. Then, let the operation begin.

: Wait. I'm not letting you take the lead. Eine, Roro, let's go. We must fulfill Lady Eremiah's order!




Alright, so, the goal of this one’s pretty clear. Kill every enemy on the field. They’re a mix of Thieves, Hunters, Mages, and Barbarians, so they’re pretty diverse. They’re also separated into small clumps of 5 or so around the map, with a larger group about twice that size in the middle.




Oh, there are also two Heros towards the top. They’re the closest thing to “bosses” in this map.




We get to play as the bad guys in this one!

First up among our units is Roro. That Immortal Axe is basically just a Steel Axe that can be Used to regain 20 HP. He’s decent, but his low Luck opens him to a lot of risk of enemy crits. Being a Berserker, though, he also gets a lot of them.




The other four Berserkers we have are all identical. In fact, they’re identical to the “prime” Roro, but the Roro clones have a different inventory, and no attack/death quotes. Still going to keep them all alive.

(this all probably makes zero sense if you haven’t played new mystery, sorry.)




Kleine is a lot more useful than Roro, honestly. She’s got solid enough speed to double just about anything that she needs to sink two arrows into, and anything quicker than that usually goes down in one. She also has zero luck for some reason, but hopefully she’s not getting hit enough for it to matter much.




Katarina pulls double duty as a magical damage dealer and healer on this map. She might be the most useful unit here, honestly. She’s got some issues with squishiness, but you’ve got a pack of HP sacks in the Roros to play meatshield. Unfortunately, those meatshields do have a tendency to get crit to death.




I start the map off by heading to the right side. Splitting the units seems like a bad idea here, since it’s easier to hold a position and defend than to attack.




I wanted to get all the battle quotes. Even this one.




Spoilers, he can’t.




He REALLY can’t.




This guy is all that’s left of the bottom right group when the Enemy Phase swings around.




The traditional Roro Handshake is given. Unfortunately, another pack of them is descending on the team. Who can help us?




Good.

: Ve vill not forgive selfish creatures who make people suffer. Ve vill rescue the vee vuns. It's vat any voman vould do.

: Do you have to talk like

: Yes.




Athena is...also coming. By complete accident. She’s honestly not very useful here, her speed is just barely too low to double much. But, I mean, Wo Dao crits could help. Those two potions in her inventory are sequel exclusive consumables that up a stat by 2 for one chapter. Kind of like a temporary Energy Drop and Dracoshield. For the purposes of this DLC, though, you can drop the “temporary”.




She can also chat with Katarina.




: Athena. Ve are Athena. Ve came to save the vee vuns.

: Athena... you say? The myrmidon who fought alongside Prince Marth in the previous war...?

: Vat? Have ve met before?

: Oh no, this is the first time. Miss Athena, you should stand back rather than force yourself. We can handle the rest.



She’s giving pretty good advice. I’m trying to stay on the defensive here, rather than charge into that whole clump of enemies.





Yikes. Athena’s issues on this map are kind of a microcosm of the problems with Shadow Dragon/New Mystery Myrmidons in general. They rely on doubles/crits to do anything, and they’re squishy melee units in a game where hit rates are really generous.




Thankfully, nobody dies, and the enemies are in convenient range for me to do whatever I need to on this turn.




I spared you the house-cleaning, but it pretty much all just looked like this.




Of more concern, perhaps, is that by the third turn the enemies have tired of my turtling and have started to rush the safety corner.




No better time to have a chat (and drink a potion).

: What the hell's with you? Why have you come here?

: Ve came to save the vee vuns. You too?

: ...Oh well, I suppose you could put it that way. Explaining it properly would be a pain.

: Very vell. Then count this voman on your side.

: Sigh. ...I think it'd be easier if we just killed her... Oh, who cares. As long as you don't get in the way, you can do whatever pleases you.

She’s charming.



So, uh, back to this. Slowly advancing upwards.




We’re getting pincer attacked, though, as the left group I ignored at the beginning has decided it’s high time to make their move.




athena









This happened a lot. You’re pretty reliant on either these or getting dodges off in the forest tiles on this map, at least if you play like me (stupidly).




Basically, I’m just continuing to push north, making sure that the healthiest Roros are always in the enemy’s path. Injured Roros use a Vulnerary, Katarina and Kleine snipe, and Athena sits there. Let’s have the final talk for this map.

: Kleine, are you safe?

: Of course I am. You can be annoying sometimes. Why do you always dangle after me?

: That’s because...I’m your big sister.

: That crap again? You’re really bugging me. Don’t say that crap again, not until you’ve killed many more people than me.

: Oh, Kleine…

: Ba-dum-chh!

: …

: It felt appropriate.





Cleaning up the remainder of this pack doesn’t take long, especially due to Kleine’s fantastic damage. Her growths do leave something to be desired, though, apparently.




That pack on the left has finally caught up to us, but thankfully Katarina’s surprisingly dodgy.




Also she’s gonna show up Kleine.




Now that all but the Heros are down, it’s time to finish this map.




Or not. Reinforcements!




LOTS of reinforcements. This bodes poorly.




We aren’t going to last too long against all these new units. They also all rush us.




Thankfully, the cavalry has arrived. Well, she’s a Bishop. But who’s that Sorcerer next to her?






: Yes, Master Gharnef.

: Good, I think I’ll watch as well. Heh heh heh…




Eremiah is extremely good. Both of these tomes are absent from Shadow Dragon. Nosferatu basically lets her survive forever, since it returns all damage done to her as HP, and Meteor has infinite range. There’s a reason they wait until the end of the map to give you access to her.




Gharnef is Gharnef. He is literally unkillable, so long as he has Imhullu equipped. Suffice to say that every unit on this screen is fucked.




Really, the bigger danger here is keeping everyone else alive.



But, for now, let’s just celebrate with our new busted units.
















So long as everyone survives this turn, I should be okay.




To remove one of the biggest threats on the map, Eremiah and Gharnef gang up on a Hero.










I just BARELY scrape by. Roro got attacked three times and had to dodge one.




Time for Roro to get the hell out of here and chew on his Axe for HP.





There seems to be quite a split in level quality today.




Still, with Eremiah and Gharnef around, there’s nothing that can stand in our way anymore.




Thankfully this doesn’t even matter.






Prepare to enter the EXPOSITION ZONE.




: There might be prisoners. Let’s search inside.

: Do we have to? What a pain. Hm? What’s this? These are rather expensive-looking paintings…

: It seems that stolen artworks are stored here; jewellery, paintings, furniture...

: Sigh...

: Kleine?

: ...You go ahead.

: ...Alright.




: Eremiah. You have raised your children well. I'm sure they will be of use. They're worthy of being my dearest pawns.


: Your praise is too much, Master Gharnef.

: However... One of the puppets has an interesting connection with the Soothsire subjugation. That girl... doesn't know, does she? Her origins... Why she lost her parents... Or who pulled the strings behind it all…

: Indeed. She knows nothing.

: Heh heh heh... Poor little puppet…

The scene changes again here. That happens a lot.

: Kleine, we’ve located the captives.

: …...


: Kleine…? What’s wrong, you’ve been acting odd.



: Huh…?

: A big, warm room... Soft carpet... A family portrait... The two of them smiled... And gently... patted my head…

: Kleine...

: But... but... Of course, they're... They're all...

: ...

: It’s only natural for the weak...to suffer...But…

This backstory on Kleine is kinda...strange, because it never really comes to anything. Even in the main game, her only real character trait is “i’m an asshole”. I can appreciate it, though, it’s a nice effort.




The blink timing strikes again.

: Thank you, miss!

: Err…

: Hmm?

: My name is Katarina. What's your name, miss?

: I... ...I'm called Katarina, too. The same as you.

So, I think this is where Eine gets her fake name, Katarina, but it’s a little confusing since her nameplate still refers to her as Katarina throughout the entire map.

: I see. I'm so happy... I have the same name as you, miss! See you later, miss!

: Yes, later…




: ...What are you doing? We're going back, Eine. Also... Don't tell anyone about what happened today, alright?

: Yes, Kleine.



: The end.

: Eh. Not a very good story, kid.

: It was great!

: Nobody changed class. No magical artifacts. No Prince Marth. I wasn’t in it. There were too many Roros. I didn’t like all the critical hits.

Bonus Content



Again, thanks to the Fire Emblem wiki. This artwork is from Katarina’s DLC appearance in Awakening.


: Nobody teleported. No Fortify staves. No Swarm bishops. Too many ellipsis. I didn’t like the map.