Part 9: The Trap (feat. Sydin)

Chapter 6: The Trap (feat. Sydin)


...bodyguard, into his ranks, Roy led his forces through the mountains into the territory of Thria, located just to the southeast of Ostia. Thria was governed by Lord Orun, a half-brother to Lord Hector and known for his peaceful personality. Orun's home castle seemed to be a safe place for Roy to rest. However, Bern's malicious grip had extended to these lands as well...



And with that, we're rather unceremoniously dumped into the preparations menu. Everything does pretty much exactly what it says on the tin, though the Trade menu does allow you to purchase basic tomes and equipment from Merlinus if you need to. We'll talk strategy after the pre-mission plot. Today's guest brings my two favorite people in the world together, Fedule and Sydin.

You’re just mad because we’re stealing all the good levels.

You’re just mad be- yeah, what he said.





The room in the north seems to have some treasure, but the security is so tight... ...Are those footsteps?



Yes, our soldiers are stationed all around the castle.

Good, lead them inside and ambush them, just as we did with Lord Orun.

Yes, sir.

I want Princess Guinevere alive. The rest don't matter. Now go.

*soldier leaves*

Hahaha... The Silver Wolf's granddaughter, and now Princess Guinevere... With these prizes to offer, Bern will be sure to allow us on their side.





I wonder. The man who said he was Lord Orun's advisor...

Wagner? Did he bother you in any way?

He seemed to be in control of everything, as if he owned the place. And we can't see Lord Orun because he's ill? Something's not right...

Hmm... You do have a point, Master Roy.



There seems to be an awful lot of soldiers patrolling the area.

I think we're being spied on.

What? No...

???: You noticed? Impressive.

...!? Show yourself, intruder!



And...who might you be?

Aw, we can talk about me later. You know, I overheard that Wagner guy talking in the main hall, and he said he's going to ambush you guys.

Lord Orun would never do that!

Oh yeah, that person's dead. That dark magician assassinated him or something.

What!?

And he's going to capture you guys and turn you into Bern so he can join up with them.

Hold it, Master Roy! Don't trust people like this so easily!

You can believe me or not, it's up to you. But don't come crying to me when you find yourselves in trouble!



Let's set a trap. We'll pretend we're leaving. If Wagner is after us, he'll do something to persuade us to stay.

If you're gonna go outside, use the room in the north! That room leads to the courtyard, so you'll be out of here in no time. Good luck!



I will escort you into the castle, so please follow me.

My apologies, sir, but I have just received an urgent report. Excuse us, but we must be going now.

Oh... But I surely cannot see you off without paying my respects and offering you a place to stay! Lord Orun would never forgive me for that! Please, Master Roy, will you not spend just one night here with us?

Do not worry, I shall tell Lord Orun myself that you are not to blame. I ought to pay my respects to him anyway. Please show us to his room.

As I said, Master Roy, Lord Orun is ill and cannot see you.

I am sorry, sir, but if we cannot see him, we have no reason to stay here. We are in a hurry. Excuse us, but we must be off.

You are leaving...no matter what?

...

Then I have no choice but to kill you now! Everyone! Attack! Kill them all, but leave Princess Guinevere alive!

Damn! So they were after us!



Even if we escape this way, we'll just be attacked from behind!

Then we'll take over the castle! Everyone, follow me!



Now, the chapter proper. Lots and lots of lances, so of course you guys voted against bringing Lot. No matter, though. Lance and Lugh are taking the west corridor, and Alan is heading up the east one. The rest of the army is going to plow up the center, with Bors and Dieck as our front line, and Thany to deal with the mages.

To be fair, Lot would have been burned alive by those mages.

You see, it’s funny because there’s guys called Lot and Lance.

Also: I bet there aren’t going to be a ton of enemies in any of those rooms. I just bet.



Saul is a welcome addition to the army, because we can now kick Ellen to the bench. Dorothy, on the other hand, is an archer, which is all that really needs to be said about her.

Hey, she’s better than Wolt. Not a high benchmark I know, but still.



A battle? What's going on outside?

There's another new unit locked up in one of these rooms as well. Starting in the lower left room going clockwise, the rooms have: Stairs for reinforcements, treasure, the captured girl, enemies, enemies, treasure, treasure, reinforcements.

Oh. So much for my surprise. Which would totally not have been feigned. No, seriously, at this point I would’ve been shocked if one of those doors had opened and there wasn’t a horde of enemies inside.

Also, seriously. Another map in FE7 I thought was original turns out not to be.

Wait, which map? The closest one I can think of is Kinship’s Bond, and even then it’s not quite the same.



Lance starts things off with a bang trading blows with a mercenary.



These mages aren't really the biggest threat, just the most accurate one. Dieck crits on this mage and carves a path for Bors to hit the soldier behind him, and Thany gets the other mage.



If I were a lesser, sane man, I would call this sort of thing a sign from the RNG gods, given how often it seems to happen. But fuck that noise, we soldier on.

I swear, Bors has some kind of aversion to hitting things. I was hoping you’d have better luck.

_Ahahahaha-



Chad and Roy position themselves in a very specific spot for the next few turns. It doesn't happen until turn 6, but moving them forward and bringing them back in time is



Alan refuses to be upstaged by Lance.



That...that sure is a Bors level.

You might just have upstaged Gatrie in Fedule’s FE10 LP for best anti-knight level.

Well, Gatrie had a 60% speed growth. And 30% luck and 35% res. Ludicrous growths by GBA Fire Emblem standards. It’s funny when he gets totally un-knight-like levels, but actually not that rare. This, though? This is... a thing.







This is the room we want for our new friend. I took the liberty of giving Lance the door key from last chapter so we don't have to wait until Chad drags his ass up here.

I always forget about Keys.



Goddamn, Dorothy didn't even last 3 turns before she was obsoleted. She won't move, but she has to talk to Roy to be recruited, so Lance grabs her and comes back to the main army.



It's a knight! A KNIGHT! How the fuck are you missing a knight?

I voted for him: I take all the responsibility for this.



Immediately followed by him sniping this guy twice in a row with lower hit odds.

This too.



A decidedly defensive level from Dieck for killing the other knight.



Bors, you are the worst knight in the world.

You’re complaining about speed on a knight. Even if he didn’t get a drop of defense for 4 more levels, he’d only be slightly more tanky than everybody else.

I’m not complaining about the speed growth, just that in 5 levels he’s gotten 2 points of strength, 1 point of skill, and 1 point of defense. He’d be a great...I dunno, thief or something, but his growths are terrible for a knight.



Rutger cleans up the last knight, and the center is ours. All that's left to do is press forward to the boss.



...throats now. Suppose I'll take what I can.



So, Cath. Cath is not recruitable, merely a hindrance. She appears on every treasure-heavy castle-type level until you talk to her with Roy three times, at which point she'll finally join up. The earliest this can happen is Chapter 12, but the later you recruit her, the (slightly) higher her stats are. Regardless, her choice of wall to spawn in means she's stuck here for now, so Roy talks to her immediately.

That is... actually pretty interesting for a recruitment process. Out of curiosity, exactly what is the stat difference? And over how many chapters?

I don’t know the stat difference (and Serenes just has her Chp. 12 base stats), but she shows up in Chapters 6, 8, 12, 16, 20, and 22.



Oops...

Wait!

Hey, what do you think you're doing? Let go of my arm! Ow! That hurts!

Oh, I'm sorry. But...what are you doing here?

Well, um, you know, it's complicated. I have things to do, you see? Hahaha...

Things to do? Here? On a battlefield?

Dummy, it's because this is a battlefield... ...Whoops.

...Do you have some ulterior motive that we're unaware of?

Ulp...

Wait, is that why you told us the way out...?

Um, what? I have no idea what you're talking about!

Who are you...?

Now, now, don't worry about such trivial things! Oh, I gotta go. Bye!

Hey, wait!

Next turn we recruit Sue as well.



What? What's a girl doing here?

...? You aren't from the castle?

Who are you? Oh, my name is Roy.

I am Sue. Are you the cause of the sound outside?

Sound?

The sound of battle.

Oh, yes. We're fighting the denizens of the castle. It's a long story...

I see. Then I am on your side. This castle's residents are my enemies as well.

What? What do you mean...

Please give me a bow. I will fight alongside you.

Wonderful.



I'm pretty sure that once you talk to Cath, she'll ignore treasure and just flee the map, but because I am a dick, I steal her lockpicks just to be sure.

She does leave yes, but hey free lockpick.

Never a bad thing.



With that taken care of, let's clean up here.



Oh yeah, we're cleaning right up.

Now I just feel bad.

This is just cruel.



That sure is a Clarine level.



Thany's viability has been pretty thoroughly shot at this point barring something ridiculous like several perfect levels.



This is probably the single most useful level in the entire goddamn chapter.



What's behind door number one? (A Silver Lance and 2000 Gold)



Just when you think you've finally cleared the place out, asshole reinforcements. Doubly so since Chad is out there with Sue and Roy, and the rest of the crew is up by Wagner.



I like these odds a bit better. Thany and Sue kill the closest soldier, and Lance kills the next one in line. Alan lines up next to him for the enemy phase.



Pictured: Lance dodging a bullet, considering there was still a Fire mage to go (who landed, no less. Lance survived with 5 HP). Lance misses said mage twice, so Thany and Sue take him and Lance kills the remaining knight after getting patched up by Saul.



Door number two! (Killer Axe, Goddess Icon, Short Bow)



Enemy room 1. Conveniently, unlocking the door from below also unlocks the side door. Sue sets up Rutger for the southwest soldier, Dieck attacks the knight, Lance kills the mage, and Alan kills the other soldier. A combined effort from Dorothy and Rutger finishes the knight as well.



Hey, it...could be worse...

Huh, your Alan wants to be a Green Knight too.



Enemy room number two, this time with treasure! (an Unlock Staff) The strategy is much the same as before for these jokers.



Woo.







On a brighter note, it begins.



Last door we care about. (3000 and 5000 Gold)



Wagner is a dick. I mean, anyone on a throne is a dick, but units that already have a good speed score are especially dicks. Thany with a Slim Lance had a 51% hit rate, and even Rutger, my goddamn myrmidon, has about a 65% chance of hitting him. And no, absolutely no one that can actually fight back has any resistance yet.

They really went overboard with the damn thrones in this game. Seriously, 30 avoid? Also, why is a shaman so damn speedy?

I stand by my assertion that the bosses are just standing on the seat for the height advantage.



Dieck has the dubious honor of being able to survive two hits and a hit rate above 60, so he'll start things off.



Well then, I have no choice. Witness my magic... and bow down before its power!



After a couple rounds with Rutger and Dieck, Roy's ready to polish this chapter off.



...was flawless...



This "Good Roy" thing still unnerves me.

He’s siphoning off the good levels from your other units, it seems.

Can’t be. He should be a god by now if that’s how it works. Where are the rest of the +1s goi- oohhh...



One last Clarine level for the road.



Grandpa is the strongest warrior in Sacae. People call him the Silver Wolf.

The Silver Wolf... I've heard of him. But what are you doing in Lycia? Sacae is to the east.

Bern invaded Sacae, so we of the Kutolah clan decided to fight. So grandpa let the women and children escape to Lycia, but...

But?

Traitors... The Djute clan turned to Bern and ambushed us.

...

We were all separated. I found my way into these lands and was rescued by Lord Orun. But his adviser, Wagner, assassinated Lord Orun and took over the castle.

And so you were captured...

Is your army fighting Bern?

Yes... Our lands were invaded by Bern as well.

Then let me go with you. Fighting Bern will let me rescue grandpa. I also want to avenge Lord Orun.

We're headed for Ostia. It's in the opposite direction as Sacae, but is that okay with you?

I don't mind. No matter where we are, Mother Earth and Father Sky will always be watching over us.



The messenger I sent to Ostia just returned, and he says that Ostia is in a state of chaos!

What!

There has been a rebellion among those who want to surrender to Bern.

Is Lilina safe?

She has been taken hostage. The rebels are currently in control of Castle Ostia, and they are fiercely clashing with the soldiers who wish to retake the castle and rescue Lady Lilina.

We have to hurry to Ostia! Lilina, be safe!

-----



Level 5 Priest
Staves - C, Affinity - Ice

HP: 20 (60%)
Magic: 4 (40%)
Skill: 6 (45%)
Speed: 10 (45%)
Luck: 2 (15%)
Defense: 2 (15%)
Resistance: 5 (50%)
Con: 6

If Clarine doesn't strike your fancy, and you don't feel like dealing with Ellen's abysmal non-magic/luck growths, Saul's your man. Not having a horse definitely hurts him in comparison to Clarine, but his growths are much more reliable overall than Ellen's, and he has pretty good bases to work with. It's unlikely he'll outshine Clarine, but until people start promoting he's right there with her, and makes a hell of backup healer regardless.



Level 3 Archer
Bows - D, Affinity - Fire

HP: 19 (85%)
Strength: 5 (50%)
Skill: 6 (45%)
Speed: 6 (45%)
Luck: 3 (35%)
Defense: 4 (15%)
Resistance: 2 (15%)
Con: 7

Hey, remember everything we said about Wolt and archers in general? Well, it all still applies here, except Dorothy has marginally better bases and growths to work with. It's still not enough to justify using her long-term, but she'll at least be more usable than Wolt if you want to try. I guess I can at least complement her "high for an archer, I guess" Con, which is nice for using the heavier bows.



Level 1 Nomad
Bows - D, Affinity - Wind

HP: 18 (55%)
Strength: 5 (30%)
Skill: 7 (55%)
Speed: 8 (65%)
Luck: 4 (50%)
Defense: 5 (10%)
Resistance: 0 (15%)
Con: 5

There's no better way to welcome a new archer to the team than by giving you another one that's better in almost every way in the same chapter. Sue has the immediate advantage of a horse, gains a real weapon on promotion, and has better or equal bases to Dorothy across the board except for resistance/HP. Her Achilles heel is her strength growth, but she can still give the second nomad a run for his money as the best archer in the game (for whatever dubious worth that title has).