Part 30: Chapter 14x: The Infernal Element
Chapter 14x: The Infernal Element
One of the Divine Weapons was said to be hidden in its depths. In an attempt to recover the Divine Weapon before Bern got their hands on it, Roy carefully set foot in the temple...
Ooh, self referential.
We think it is inside this altar, but it won't open...
Break it open, then! We don't have much time. But we must also deal with the enemies that have entered the temple! We don't have enough manpower to use force on the altar. Very well, defeat the enemy first! Then we shall examine the altar with leisure.
There's so much...water.
That is why...plants and animals can live near here... I see, so that's why you were able to build a village here. Still, how did you find such a convenient place like this? Athos... Archsage Athos is the one...who led us here... What? Do you mean Athos of the Eight Heroes? Yes... After the Scouring...Athos traveled around Elibe... At the end of his journey, he arrived at our village...in which men and Dragons were living in harmony... But he said that...it would only be a matter of time before we were found... So he led you here... Yes... And he hid his Divine Weapon...inside this temple... Can we use his Divine Weapon? Yes... Athos told us...to use his weapon to protect Arcadia... And your fight against Bern...will lead to our safety... All right. Thanks. Some of the temple's passages...may suddenly sink into the water... Please be careful...
And with that rather ominous statement, we're thrown into 14x. After all the bullshit of Chp 14, the game throws us a bit of a breather chapter; none of the enemies here are particularly dangerous and there are no reinforcements. What this chapter does have, however, is a second heaping helping of bullshit to serve up to you, though nothing as bad as Chp 14 proper.
Let’s also chalk up another Thing I Thought Was Original In Blazing Sword. Is anyone keeping score?
We'll see the main gimmick in a second, but this chapter is our formal introduction to Bolting. Unlike Eclipse (which A: Cannot actually kill your units and B: Will never hit anything, ever) and the various status effect staves (easily fixed with Restore staves and don't actually do any damage), Bolting is a nasty motherfucker. Combining a 3-10 panel range with 12 Mt and 70 hit (In comparison, Elfire has 8 Mt and 75 Hit, and the legendary Anima tome only has 14 Mt), and it rounds out the package with 10 Wt. A huge number in comparison to magic in this game, but for comparison's sake, the exact same tome in FE7 is 12 Mt/60 Hit/20 Wt. There is a very real chance that you might get doubled by Bolting in this game, and since Lilina and Saul are really the only units with any resistance, that is very much A Bad Thing™.
I always thought it was odd that weapons designed to inflict one single powerful hit did so by being heavy as opposed to an arbitrary “cannot double” flag, as seen on ballistae and such. That said, though, since we’re in FE6 and tome weights are practically nil, Bolting stands out as a tad imbalanced, seeing as how it’s so easy to eat that weight disadvantage with Con and Speed. And this isn’t just about doubling; part of the “idea” of seige tomes is that they kill your Avoid dead along with your AS, and 10 Wt doesn’t really cut it for that.
Funfacts: Bolting (and other siege tomes) went back down to 10-13 Wt in Path of Radiance and suddenly became a bit interesting when they gave mages Strength as well as Magic and tied weapon encumbrance to Strength instead of Con (resulting in a wide variety of proficiencies across the game’s mages). They then went back up to ~18 Wt in Radiant Dawn but then everything went to shit because it was trivial to crank up any given mage’s Strength to ridiculous levels.
And here's the chapter gimmick. Every turn, a part of the floor disappears or reappears. Aside from the obvious potential of leaving units stranded behind, it also has absolutely no qualms about cutting you off from ahead either. Depending on how you approach the chapter, there will be times where you are literally sitting in one position for 5-10 turns because you have no way forward, and no way back.
At any rate, the pirates (and a wyvern or two) are going to come straight to us, so about half of the crew hangs back a bit. Roy, Ray, Oujay, Saul, and Shin rush forward.
He says, while dropping a Bolting on Saul on the second turn.
Miledy starts taking out the trash.
This is an example of the game being a dick with the platforms disappearing. We're nowhere near here, but we've already been forced to either sit around and wait to go around, or charge directly into the range of two Bolting users.
The biggest pain about the beginning of this mission is that the opening corridor condenses down to being one-wide over the first four turns, and then it cuts you off completely, so anyone taking point needs to move quickly. Roy acquaints this pirate in the way with business end of his sword.
I don't know why the gods have chose to grace me with a competent Roy, but I'm totally okay with it. A shame he's so damn squishy.
Let's just get you out of the way now, especially since you have a Physic staff as well.
Ray misses a pirate, so Saul cleans up after him.
I took the opportunity to give Sophia a few levels this chapter, and looking back, I can't figure out why for the life of me. I guess I was hoping that if I caught her up, she could be an alternative to Ray, but I would need to feed her a ridiculous amount of kills to make her usable to the point where I could safely let her be in range of enemies. But alas, you all will get to see the levels that don't matter because I'm never going to use her again.
I hear that. I mean, normally I’m all for taking fullest advantage of characters like this, but even I consider Sophia here a lost cause.
I’ll give you props for managing to work that one in, but that was a pretty weak execution. Just saying.
Like so. To think, I even save-scummed to make sure the levels she got were good. Or at least not shit.
I don’t like to think about what would cause you of all people to savescum in Fire Emblem.
Ray offs a merc in the south and gets a very needed offensive level. Shin hits the second druid for a similar level.
Fir crits a guy I was hoping to feed to Sophia. Probably for the better, really.
The game finally opens up the path around, as it closes off the path to the center. It's for the better anyway, because you really don't want to get stranded out there in range of both the boss and the Bolting sage.
Saul is less than impressed by the wyvern rider.
Just as the game is rebuilding the bridge for anyone stuck back at the beginning of the chapter, it cuts them off at the southwest corner. Thanks game, I didn't really want to catch them up.
More magical shenanigans from Saul and Sophia.
These two are the only enemies immediately accessible by going around, so Saul and Ray start heading up the side, while Roy and co sit around the south area waiting for the entrance crew to join back up.
I mean, they're not my first choices for dealing with a wyvern and merc, but what am I supposed to do when this happens?
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[/b]You are all sick, sick people. Go swoon over someone with actual art talent.
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Right, where were we? The entrance group has caught up with Roy, Oujay, and Shin, and Miledy is hanging out in range of the sage to see if he'll move (he does not).
Ray and Saul have finished murdering everyone on the north side and are making their way down to meet everyone else for the boss.
Since he won't move, Miledy brings the fight to him.
She crits, saving me the trouble of having to Physic her. All that's left is the boss now.
Ohtz is a dick. Magic is so damn light that mages will almost never have any AS (and therefore avoid) penalties, we have no one with good resistance, and thrones are still assholes.
Fir has been Barrier'd up, but it still doesn't paint a particularly favorable picture.
Shin helps speed things along.
Alright Miledy, come on. One more kill, then it's promotion time.
Goddammit Miledy.
Clarine patches up Fir, fails to get any magic.
Wait no fuck why are you attacking Shin
Because the Fire Emblem AI™ has detected you don’t want it to.
Alright fine, I guess Miledy's promotion will have to wait until next chapter.
... It won't open. This altar is made...so that only those of the village may open it... Please allow me... Okay. ...Here... This is the Divine Weapon... Athos' Divine Weapon? Then... Yes... The Infernal Element...Forblaze...
I came with Sophia to protect this village.
With Sophia...? Then it was you who drove off Bern's soldiers? Oh... Please forgive my impudence. I am the Elder of Arcadia. Elder... Then are you the Dragon? Dragon... They once called me that. But that is a story of a time long since past. ... Let me see... The only real Dragon we have is Fa right here.
This little girl is a Dragon? Yes, although she is far from her mature form. Elder, do you know anything about the Dragons in Bern? What! There are Dragons in Bern? Yes, we have seen them. Why...? Dragons do not exist anywhere except here.
What is it, Igrene?
Sophia said that she could detect evil energy coming from Bern's troops. That may have something to do with the Dragons Master Roy says he saw in Bern's army. Perhaps... But I am too old to detect such energy now. Energy? What is that? Sophia is half Dragon, half human. That gives her the ability to detect the pulses emitted from other Dragons. But because she can't detect them clearly, she only said that she felt a force...twisted and unnatural. I think that we should look into it. Elder, if you would allow it, I would like to join Master Roy and look at Bern's Dragons myself. I really do not want to deal with matters of the outside... But this is a time of emergency. Well then, Roy, will you take her? Certainly. I am Igrene, the Guardian of Nabata. I have confidence in my skills with the bow. I believe I may be of some help in battle. Thank you.
Fa's going, too! What are you saying? Of course you may not. There is no telling what could happen if your existence were exposed to the world! ... Well then, let's go. Yes.
Fa will just follow them anyway!Nothing bad could possibly come from this. No sir, not at all.
Five to go.
