Part 13: Reunion (feat. Toothache)

Chapter 8: Reunion (feat. Toothache)


With them stalwartly defending Castle Ostia's gates, the castle had long held the reputation of being impregnable. However, that reputation was to be shattered. By Roy, who, ironically, was determined to save the castle.





...the castle? What the hell was Devias doing out there! Were the mercenaries from Ilia that strong? ...Or perhaps we underestimated the Alliance Army... In any case, they have broken through the defenses of the impregnable Castle Ostia! We must drive them back, or Bern will most certainly look down upon us... You, over there!

Yes, sir!

Dispatch troops all over the castle. Especially around the throne room! Prepare your defenses! We must not let the Alliance Army intrude any further into our castle!

Understood, sir!

One more thing. I want you to discreetly kill Lilina during the battle.

What? ...General Leygance, weren't we supposed to keep her alive?

I was planning on using her as a bargaining chip, but there are still many soldiers among us who still put faith in her. If we openly use her as a hostage, they may turn against us.

But... If we kill her, they'll surely turn against us!

So I said to do it discreetly, didn't I! Kill her quietly, and pretend that she was hit by a stray arrow. Then we can make the enemy responsible for it! Now go!

Yes, sir...



Who are you? An enemy!?

Nope, I'm on your side. Greetings, my name is Astol. I used to work here in the service of Lord Hector.

Excuse me, but what kind of work were you doing? You certainly don't look like one of Ostia's servants...

My, my, aren't we a little rude, old man? Well, I can't blame you for thinking that way. See, I'm a spy. I go on secret missions to gather information, steal things, check on people...that kind of thing.

Hm, I see.

If people can tell that I'm working for a noble just by looking at me, then I'm not much of a spy, am I? Anyway, for about a month now I've been running around Lycia to gather the latest news. When I heard about Lord Hector's death in Araphen, I rushed back here as quickly as I could. Then what do you know, those idiots Leygance and Devias have started a rebellion! I didn't make it in time to save Lord Hector, but I don't want to be too late for Lady Lilina.

We feel the same way. Let's work together to get through this mess. Do you know where Lilina is?

Of course, looking into stuff like that is my job. Lady Lilina is locked in a small room near the center of the castle. And that bastard Leygance is sitting on the throne like he owns the place.

All right, let's get going. We need to defeat the rebels and rescue Lilina before Narshen arrives from Bern!



Chapter 8 isn't so bad unless you want everything, in which case things to hell very quickly. To guarantee our haul, we need to have our horsemen out in the center where Lilina is by turn 11 or 12, preferably with Roy in tow if we can. Considering that there's at least two places we're going to have to wait a turn or two, that's easier said than done. To that end, Alan, Lance, and Zealot are going to be the vanguard, with the rest of the army following behind and picking off anyone they leave alive.

That looks like a hell of a walk. I guess this is about the point where the game starts seriously shitting on knights...



Astol is essentially the Legault to Chad's Matthew. He's already well trained and can easily replace Chad if necessary.



Lilina has the durability of a wet paper towel, but we have plans for her. Oh, do we have plans...

What is it with this game and derpy looking portraits?



Anyway, our immediate priority is to get the heat off Lilina. The other archer near her would rather move forward and come toward our army, so it's mainly just this guy we need to worry about. To keep Sue safe, Alan and Zealot knock out the soldiers.

You can beat the AI easily here by shifting Lilina away from the archer. As soon as she is immediately out of range, he loses interest in killing her pretty quickly. Guess Leygance doesn’t command as much authority as he thinks

Fire Emblem AI.



Is there a battle going on? I wonder what's happening outside...



Sue starts off by finishing the archer threatening Lilina.



Alan follows up by gutting a mage on turn 3.



This guy is our first waiting point, since he's packing a Horseslayer. Alan, Lance, and Zealot hop into the pocket in the corner to keep out of his range, and everyone follows behind as usual.

That horseslayer can be a bit of a pain if you’re low turning. Does a lot of damage to the paladins, and the unpromoted cavs will be hard pressed to survive the hit without significant Def blessing



Well, two can play the effective damage game.



And I play it a lot better than you do.

GBA fighter animations suit the hammer a lot better than the later ones do.



Lance takes the nearby archer and Alan kills the soldier.





We can break through if we strike the weak parts with our weapons.



I have a decent idea of her whereabouts. We know this castle from corner to corner, after all. Hm, I do wonder what's causing all that noise, though.

Could it be a battle?

Probably. It could be Ilia's mercenary knights, or if we're lucky, it could even be the Lycia Alliance Army.

The Alliance Army? Then my brother must be with them...

...We don't know if he's still alive. You shouldn't carry any false hope.

Oh...yes.

Sir Barth, you don't have to be so cold. He's Wendy's only brother, right?

You must never look away from reality.

But...

It's all right, Oujay. Sir Barth is right.

As an Ostian Armor Knight, you must never panic, no matter what the situation... Understood, Wendy?

...Yes.



So we have some new friends in the northwest corner.

More like new sources of weaponry. Also, Barth looks like a Lego person. I cannot unsee this.

God damn you.





One of these is not like the others. I'll leave it as an exercise for the viewers to figure out who the useless one is.

Goody. More Knights!



Let's start by busting them out of that corner and making them potentially useful.



Chad picks off a weakened archer in an attempt to make himself more useful. He barely succeeds.



Saul shows him up healing Sue.



This mess is the second big waiting point. Zealot hangs out on the right to draw the knight/soldier, and Alan takes the left side with Lance waiting in the wings.



On the next turn, we knock out the mage, which pretty much neutralizes the threat. The right mage only has a Fire tome, so he's not really a threat. Oujay makes use of his Armorslayer and kills the north knight.



I mean, how stupid can these nobles get? I can never understand what the fun is in fighting all the time. Oh well, guess I'll swipe what I can.

Turn 10 means this bitch is back to annoy us. Fortunately, we've made enough progress that we can spring a trap on her. She and the other thief will, by default, open the door to Lilina's cell and the east door to the first treasure room. Considering that I already have the west door open, we're way ahead of her on that front.

Dealing with Cath is pretty easy if you’re going for low turn count. She and the other thief that spawns prefer to go for the first set of chests, but if they are blocked from heading that way, they’ll go for the other set and you’ll have a hard time catching them.



Let's start looting ourselves, but not the entire room. In order for the trap to work, there has to be at least some treasure in here, because otherwise the AI has no reason to head for that room. This room also has a Killer Bow, Knight's Crest, and Elfire tome.



Sue snipes a mage with a Longbow crit. A shame the level isn't so great.



One of the mages by the boss has this new toy. Aircalibur is way more of a bitch to deal with than it looks like. It has the strength of Elfire, it's more accurate than Thunder while being just as light, and it has the added bonus of effective damage against flyers. All of which is fitting, as it is the B-rank Anima tome, but you can expect basically every mage from here on out to have either it or Elfire. Basically, fuck your peg knights and their resistance.

We are on chapter eight. That is a Level 7 mage. What the fuck.



And of course, passing through means you're in range of both the mages in the throne room.

Or you could have picked them off at 2 range while you were dealing with the set of enemies near the chests.



Zealot sets the first half of our trap and takes a potshot at the thief we actually care about killing.



Just don't go too far south. It'd be a shame if you didn't realize this guy had a Killer Lance.

Anyway, since Bors and Wendy are both Ostian knights, let's have them chat. Barth is an antisocial dick who has nothing to say.

Well he is made of plastic...



Why, is it Wendy? I'm glad to see you safe as well. ...? What... What are you wearing!? You look like an Armor Knight!

Ah... Actually, I applied for the Ostian Armor Knights. I was knighted just the other day.

What were you thinking... I thought I told you to leave the fighting to us, and live your life as you wished! No one was forcing you to become an Armor Knight...

Yes, well... I thought about it, and I decided that what I truly want is to be a knight like you.

But...

I don't want to just sit here and wait for you to return from battle. I want to be a knight, so I can fight alongside you as your comrade!

...

...Bors?

Well, you always were the stubborn type, weren't you, Wendy? Very well, if that is the life you choose, then live it to the fullest. Mother and father would have said the same thing, if they were alive. But remember, the way of the knight is no easy feat!

Yes, I'm prepared! I'll never give up!

So yeah, Wendy is Bors' little sister if it wasn't obvious.



As expected, thief number one opens Lilina's cell. Cath moves north as well, falling right into our trap.



And with that, both thieves are trapped. This one in particular is dead, actually.



I now collectively have four sets of lockpicks and will get a fifth once Cath actually joins, assuming I don't steal any more from other thieves. You will never, ever be short of lockpicks if you have even a basic idea of what you're doing in this game. So let's go ahead and get her out of our hair (again).

They sell well too.



Crap... Er... What a coincidence! Hahaha...

...If you're coming to battles just to steal, you shouldn't be. It's not right.

Don't worry. I only take from the rich. No one's going to starve or anything.

That's not the point.

Oh, really? ...Then let me ask you this. You nobles take food and money from the people living in what you call 'your territory.' Who said that was your land anyway? And you say you're collecting taxes, but what you're doing is the same! Looting!

What! But we protect the people in return...

But you're not! You're killing your own people, starting a war like this!

Well... Bern started to invade, so we had to fight to defend our people...

So you can just do whatever you want as long you say you're protecting us? You can burn down villages and ruin our crops?

Burned? We never... ...Wait a minute, was your...?



He said that he had no choice because he needed to prepare for Bern's attacks.

Well...that's...

We always only had just enough to eat and survive, and then... Just like that, we lost everything...our homes, our crops... And you have the nerve to tell me not to take from other people? Ha! Don't make me laugh. You bastards up in your nest take from us to live in luxury, while we suffer!

I...don't know what to say.

...Sigh. We're getting all gloomy now. This sounds like one of those, 'Oh, boohoo, pity me' kind of arguments. But you're the one who started it.

I...

Ah, to heck with this. It's no fun stealing after a talk like that. Well, I guess I better just bail out, then. See ya!

...

It should be noted that she is a lying bitch and will totally loot treasure on the way out if she still has her lockpicks. So let's move on to happier things, like Lilina and Roy's reunion.



Yes!

You came! Thank you.

Thank goodness you're all right. Here, take this spell book. Use it to defend yourself for the time being.

Thanks.



So Roy pulls a Thunder tome out of his ass to give to her. No complaints here.



Lot picks off the Elfire mage in the throne room for a pretty sweet level. What is there to say, the man wants to tank.

And he does it well too. Now are you glad he’s been coming along?



Okay, I lied. Now you can leave.



Yep. That's a Clarine level all right.



Bors has apparently decided being a knight with speed was boring. That's a disappointing revelation.

Bors by name, bores by nature.



Enemy reinforcements prove obnoxious as I miss about 5 times with 80% accuracy. But this is just the RNG warming up. It will not go so quietly into the night.



There's a pretty steady flow of soldiers and knights from the west, so Zealot holes up until Lot can get down and take his place.



Yes... That's what we want to see.



Eh, substantially less awesome.



Jesus, Sue. You really like that level.



So we have three knights, all of whom know each other pretty well...Seem like a setup for anything familiar?



Why can the knights do a triangle attack? Who the fuck knows, but they can. This is probably the only chapter you'll ever actually be able to use it on though, because you're probably never going to actively bring all three knights.

Strangely enough, there’s a hidden animation in FE7 for the armor triangle attack too. Guess even IS realised it was a terrible idea.

Hell, three Knights sounds like a terrible idea even in the later games.



There's Roy.



I will never understand how he manages to make the horse run in place like that. But hey, it gets results.



I think we've cleaned up pretty nicely, all things considered.



Alright, so that got a little obnoxious at the end, but nothing serious. Should be smooth sailing, right?



So the odds aren't great, but still fundamentally in our favor.



I shall cut down all of you!



Wait, what? That's not how it's supposed to work. Okay, okay, just one battle. Plenty of time to turn this around, right?



Wrong. This motherfucking cheating cocksucker and his throne can go straight to hell. Between Lot and Oujay over the course of about 20 turns and 35 or so attacks, I landed exactly twice. And Lot's one hit wasn't a crit either. This motherfucker landed about 3 times as often despite having a lower hit rate against Lot (though I won't begrudge him for Oujay, he did have a 60% or so hit rate against him).

It’s often better to use the Armorslayer even against lance users (which most armors/generals have) because they’ll actually be able to hit consistently on throne bosses. The two you get early on can last you entirely through the game too if used sparingly enough.

So instead I'll spare you the bullshit and jump to the levels that we picked up in the meantime and the treasure behind the throne room..



We also get a Secret Book, Elysian Whip, and Silver Axe





So how about some special boss dialogue?



Are you not ashamed that you betrayed Lord Hector!?

Barth... Shut up. Lord Hector's stupidity caused his death. I do not plan on falling with him!

You shall pay for those words!

Right, so anyway. We have a boss with obnoxiously high avoid and defense so that even if we do hit him, it's not going to be for much damage. The only mage we have on the field is Lilina, and she'll be murdered by the counter-attack. So how do we negate all this?



We tell the RNG to go fuck itself.



It's not pretty, but it's 9 or 12 guaranteed damage every time Barth and Bors attack. Speaking of Bors:



Of course. Taking Ostia while we weren't around...

Is that a problem? Then try and take it back with your own hands!



Another level for Clarine patching Barth up.

And after four triangle attacks...



...to be trampled upon by Bern... How can you...fight so...hard...



Oh, Bors. You are the silliest knight.

Sometimes, the fact that the Triangle Attack leads to a guaranteed hit is as useful as the fact that it leads to a guaranteed crit.



Thank you, Roy. I'm glad that my father won't have to go through the trouble.

...

Roy, is my father still in Araphen? I heard that the battle there was tough... Does it look like it's going to take much longer?

Lilina...haven't you heard anything?

What?



What...?

I'm sorry...when we arrived at Castle Araphen, it was already under Bern's control.

It's not your fault...don't apologize.

Lord Hector was already severely wounded when we arrived... If only we had gotten there earlier... Maybe we could have saved him...

No...it's okay. I... I was prepared for this... I'm a warrior's daughter... I've...been taught not to panic in times like this.

...Lilina.

So...everyone should have told me, you know...? They're just...too considerate... I'm not...that weak...

Lilina... You don't have to hold back in front of me.

Roy...I...

It's okay... I'll be here for you.



------



Level 1 Mage
Anima - C, Affinity - Light

HP: 16 (45%)
Magic: 5 (75%)
Skill: 5 (20%)
Speed: 4 (35%)
Luck: 4 (50%)
Defense: 2 (10%)
Resistance: 7 (35%)
Con: 4

Lilina has one purpose, and one purpose only. That is to nuke the ever-loving shit out of anything that crosses her path. She's begging for some defensive supports, though, because that's all she's good for. Her defense growth is atrocious, her HP growth is bad, and her speed growth is questionable at best. Her skill is also pretty terrible, but that's mostly mitigated by magic being pretty accurate to to begin with, so it's not too much of an issue. As long as her speed growth pulls through, it's hard to find a better mage than Lilina.



Level 10 Thief
Swords - C, Affinity - Dark

HP: 25 (90%)
Strength: 7 (35%)
Skill: 8 (40%)
Speed: 15 (50%)
Luck: 11 (15%)
Defense: 7 (20%)
Resistance: 3 (20%)
Con: 8

Given that thieves can't promote, Astol is essentially your "prepromote" thief. His growths aren't nearly as good as Chad's (or Cath's, for that matter), but he's basically set for life in terms of being a thief anyway, so it really doesn't matter. Probably your best bet for a thief unless Chad has seen a lot of combat.



Level 9 Knight
Lances - C, Affinity - Ice

HP: 25 (100%)
Strength: 10 (60%)
Skill: 6 (25%)
Speed: 5 (20%)
Luck: 2 (20%)
Defense: 14 (40%)
Resistance: 1 (2%)
Con: 16

Not much to really say about Barth, he's your "traditional" knight. Great HP, Str, Def, and everything else will be terrible. At least IntSys was nice enough to not just give him a zero in the resistance column, because you know, 2% is so much more likely to happen.



Level 3 Mercenary
Swords - D, Affinity - Wind

HP: 24 (85%)
Strength: 7 (40%)
Skill: 10 (30%)
Speed: 9 (45%)
Luck: 6 (55%)
Defense: 4 (20%)
Resistance: 0 (15%)
Con: 8

Oujay is our first backup for Dieck, and he's actually pretty good. He trades a little of Dieck's skill growth for a better speed growth (and a much better luck growth) and on average he'll only be a point or two behind Dieck's strength. His support options aren't nearly as nice as Dieck's, but otherwise he's a perfectly fine unit, and there's no reason to not use him if Dieck isn't turning out.



Level 1 Knight
Lances - D, Affinity - Fire

HP: 19 (85%)
Strength: 4 (40%)
Skill: 3 (40%)
Speed: 3 (40%)
Luck: 6 (45%)
Defense: 8 (30%)
Resistance: 1 (10%)
Con: 10

Wendy is a joke. Well, that's not entirely true. If you're willing to baby a knight with no HP, low defense, and enough speed that she can be doubled by basically anyone that's not a generic soldier with a Steel Lance or something, then her growths should pull her up pretty nicely. The problem is that it's not worth it when Bors has similar growths and has had plenty of time to establish himself, and Barth is a much better pure knight.

Plus, using her means bringing a Knight, which I’m starting to think of as a bad idea in this game.

Bonus Conversations:

Lilina/Bors

Lady Lilina! Are you all right!?

Bors, I'm sorry for worrying you.

Not at all, my lady! You were alive... That in itself...

Thank you, Bors. And you kept your promise that you would protect Roy for me. I knew I was doing the right thing when I asked you.

Thank you, my lady!

Lilina/Barth

Barth!

Lady Lilina! I am happy to see you safe.

Barth, you were right. ...Leygance was planning a rebellion.

...

I'm sorry... If I had listened to you in the first place, this wouldn't have happened...

No... Lady Lilina, you are not to blame. Leygance is the one who must pay, after insulting your trust in him. It is your kindness that we respect the most, my lady.

Barth...

Lilina vs. Leygance

Lady Lilina? Damn, you were supposed to have been dead by now...

Leygance...why?

Times are changing, my lady. I'm just making sure I don't get left behind. I'm not like Lord Hector, who was too foolish to recognize the change.

Silence! You will not insult my father any further!

Wendy vs. Leygance

General Leygance! You shall rest here!

Ah, Bors' sister, is it? I admire your bravery, but that won't be enough to defeat me!