Part 34: Retaking the Capitol (feat. Toothache)
Chapter 16: Retaking the Capitol (feat. Toothache)
...Roy led his forces toward Aquleia.
As the capital of Etruria, Aquleia was the largest, most prosperous city on the continent. Preparing for the Lycia Alliance Army's attack, the Revolutionaries were concentrating their forces in the palace. The Revolutionaries' original plan was to use of the city walls for defense, but since the Elimine Church had turned to the Alliance Army's side, they were forced to retreat and shell up inside the palace, fearing that the Church may have encouraged the civilians to protest.
The Elimine Church was established by Saint Elimine, one of the Eight Heroes. The Church had followers all around Elibe, primarily in Bern and Etruria. With the Church's support, Roy was able to arrive at the palace with ease. However, Bern's southern dispatch led by General Narshen was waiting for him inside.
The Lycia Alliance Army still stands! How could they come this far...!
G-General Narshen... The leader of the Three Dragon Lords, Lord Murdock is here! What!? H-Hurry! Send someone out to escort him here! Make sure he gets the utmost attention... He already is here...
L-Lord Murdock... What a pleasant surprise! What brings you all the way from Ilia?
Narshen, I believe you owe me an explanation. I-I'm sorry, my lord, I'm not sure I understand... Princess Guinevere has escaped. Again. Flaer, your lieutenant, has failed on the Western Isles. Also, you have neglected your mission of capturing the hidden village in Nabata, as given by the king himself! Narshen! I want explanations. Now! Y-Yes... Well, you see, my lord, there have been many complications, and... ...Enough. I have orders from the king. You are to be demoted from Dragon Lord status. What!? His Majesty wants Gale to take your place. M-My lord! Please wait! One more chance, please! Just give me one more chance! ...The Lycia Alliance Army is approaching this palace. Stop them to show me your worth. If you succeed, I shall negotiate with the king. Lord Murdock... Narshen... Don't fail the king...or me, again.
Just once I’d like to see an enemy get this speech and then see them actually class down and get negative stats or something. It has so much potential.
And my replacement is that Gale...! Never! I will never allow that to happen! B-But what can I do... No...! My honor, my status... It's all collapsing! General Narshen, the enemy is approaching... Shut up! I know that. ...Wait. The brother of that traitor, Miledy, was here, wasn't he... Ah! I can say that we failed because he was working with his sister to leak information to the enemy, and kill him off later! Hehehe... General Narshen... What are you thinking? Hm? Oh, do you know Miledy's younger brother? Do you mean Sir Zeiss? Right, Zeiss. Anyway, he's suspected of leaking information to the Lycia Alliance Army. Capture him and bring him here. What? But Sir Zeiss would never do something like that... Shut up! All you must do is follow my orders! Now bring him here!
If we get caught, we shall be prosecuted as the initiators of the coup d'etat...!
... ...Arcard! This is all your fault! If you had done your duty and gotten rid of the Lycia Alliance Army at Djuto...
B-But Lord Roartz...! ...No! This is not the time to be arguing, my lord! We must escape! But escape to where...? ...Let us turn to Bern! This was originally their plan... Y-Yes, of course! We have done what they asked of us. They would be sure to help us. ...May I ask what you intend to do with the king? Er... W-Well, I'm sure they wouldn't harm the king. After all, King Zephiel's mother was an Etrurian. Anyway, Douglas, you must escape as well... I refuse. I was originally fighting alongside you because King Mordred's safety was at stake. I had no intention of going along with your plans. Hmph! Stubborn as always, I see. Suit yourself. Arcard, let us escape! Lord Roartz! Please wait...
Fleeing at the last minute... It must have been easy for Bern to seduce them. I suppose I can leave those two to the Lycia Alliance Army... If Prince Mildain returns...Etruria will pull itself together again. And until then... I shall fight and prove my loyalty as the Great General of Etruria!
According to the information we have gathered, the Revolutionaries have holed up inside.
Bishop Yodel, I thank you for your help. Thanks to the Elimine Church, we were able to avoid fighting in the city and killing innocent people. No, I must thank you. Our order was being persecuted by the Revolutionaries, so if you hadn't come along to fight, we would have been driven out of the land a long time ago. Persecuted? Why? Most likely because we were investigating into Bern's Dragons. Saint Elimine, our founder, said this before she ascended to heaven: 'Never allow the Dragons to be brought back to the world... It would spell death for many a people.' Therefore, we are making our best efforts to find a way to send the Dragons back to the world in which they belong. If the Revolutionaries had joined Bern, then they would naturally want to stop you... That's right. Also, we found out this: The resurrection of the Dragons is somehow tied to the Fire Emblem, Bern's greatest treasure. That was where I sent Saul and Dorothy to investigate. I see. Master Roy, you must stop the Revolutionaries. And if you would allow me to give you further advice, I would suggest that you do not do any unnecessary killing. I am sure there are troops that had no choice but to join the Revolutionaries due to inside reasons. Yes.No! I know where this road leads, IntSys! Don’t go along with this, Roy! Can you hear me? Roy!
...fuck.
May Saint Elimine bless you, Master Roy.
Enjoy your breather last chapter? Good, because that's all you're getting before being thrown back into things. By now you should have Cath recruited, so this is a pretty straightforward, if slightly obnoxious chapter. First, before they run away in the opening, you can check Arcard and Roartz out on the map screen. Arcard hasn't changed from Chp 12, but Roartz is new.
Not shy about throwing a bunch of text here, as well as a large map with several objectives. Definitely something you can get your teeth into if you like planning low turn count playthroughs.
Pretty typical general, nothing special.
Douglas isn't anything to write home about either, but here's the wrinkle for this chapter. As you might notice, Douglas is an enemy unit. In order for us to head to 16x, all he has to do is survive the chapter. Easy solution, right? Just send one of the four or so units (see the bonus stuff at the end of the update) to have a chat with him to recruit him and stuff him in a corner.
Oh come on, you didn't really think that would work, did you? This in an IntSys fresh off of Thracia 776 and one that put us through 14/14x not two chapters ago. No, that's not nearly dickish enough. What actually happens is that Douglas will gleefully shove a Silver Axe in the face of anyone who gets close enough (up to and including his own goddamn daughter), and god help you if he finds Lilina or something because you'll either have a dead mage or a very dead Douglas. All the characters that can have conversations with him? They won't recruit him, merely make it so he won't attack that specific character.
It’s a pretty simple matter to give a low Str unit a sword and have him work as bait for Doug. You can even chip him with something stronger for some minor exp gain.
Why does no-one listen to meeeee~
We also have this guy just hanging out.
Hugh is not particularly impressive, but he does have a Member's Card for our taking. And lord, are we going to want that Member's Card. At any rate, all we have to do is have him talk to Roy.
Speaking of Roy, the general strategy is nice and simple. Roy needs to haul his ass over to the east entrance, but otherwise the right group is taking the right entrance, and the left group is going in the left one.
First priority on the east side is to longbow this fucker. Shin will be doing lots of longbowing in this chapter.
One of the many things that changed in FE9 is that Longbows became usable only by archers/snipers. This was promptly undone in FE10 (which also added several new tiers of longbow). Isn’t that interesting?
At least this game gives you plenty of incentive to use the Longbow beyond the usual capacity of avoiding 2 range counters.
oh my god even her dragon form is adorable
Er...Anyway, as you can see Fa doesn't really fuck around. Even when they're attacking her lower physical defense, she takes all of 2 damage from an attack, and dishes out most of his in a single blow.
And being a L1 unit, she gets a veritable shitton of experience simply for killing the merc.
Shame there’s a 100 exp cap per kill, otherwise levelling Fa up would go much quicker than this. Anything to get more use out of that limited Dragonstone.
Why did you summon me here...
There is no time to be explaining the details. Zeiss, you must hide. ...What do you mean? The enemy is right in front of us! Zeiss, listen to me. Just now, General Narshen gave an order to the entire army...to capture you. What!? Does he think that I am betraying Bern? He is trying to put the responsibility for all of his past failures on your shoulders. He is saying that you worked with Miledy to leak information to the enemy. With my sister? We don't even know where she is! Miledy has apparently joined the Lycia Alliance Army with the Princess. Miledy turned to the enemy!? I don't believe it... Then get the story from her yourself. I want to go with you as well, but I have been told by Lord Murdock to observe the battle and report back to him. Zeiss, I want you escape when you see the chance and speak with Miledy. Sir Gale! I... I do not intend on doing anything until we hear Miledy's story. ...
Zeiss will be hanging out way in the ass end of the map, and needs to speak to his sister to be brought around.
As powerful as Fa is, she still has to tread very carefully. Her defense isn't that great, and she's slow enough that literally anything on the map is capable of doubling her. This Killer Axe guy, for example, is not the sort of unit we want to throw her at with no regard.
Silence asshole. He gets dealt with.
The anti siege ‘n’ stave strike team, another proud entry in the IntSys survival handbook.
Wait a minute, then what happens to my payment? I haven't been paid for this mission yet!So yeah, Hugh is a mercenary. This may or may not directly tie into how we recruit him.
I thought he was a mage?
Woo, Shin.
Unlike physical fighters, mages are more or less fucked against Fa.
Another plus in Fa's corner is that most of her levels look like this.
It’s a positive, yes.
Purge assholes! They kind of hurt, though thankfully Purge isn't really any more accurate than Bolting.
They are really not shy about throwing all sorts of long range magic and staves now, that shit hurts.
He gets longbow'd.
A Bors level.
Oh, that’s who - oh, right, I see. The jaw. Yes. I see it.
So let's deal with this guy.
...that's attacking the castle, right? Do you have a shortage in magicians? ...? Well, I guess we could always use more... Really? Great! You see, there's a Mage willing to fight for you. You think you would want to hire him? Where is he? Right in front of you! ... Hey, don't look at me like that! I'm pretty decent with my magic. You can hire me for 10,000 gold. 10,000! That's expensive... Come on! I need money for my grandma... What? Is your grandmother sick or something? Er... R-Right! Something to that nature... Anyway, I need some cash. Come on, pal!
Alright, so we have a choice here. We can turn him down, and he'll drop his price a couple times, bottoming out at 5000 Gold, at which point he'll tell us to go fuck ourselves. The catch is every time he lowers his price, all of his base stats drop by 1. So, should we say no...
I'm sorry, but I can't pay 10,000 gold for just one person. What! ...W-Well, I could compensate with 8000... ... Come on, please?And say no again...
I'm sorry, but... S-Still no good? Um...well, I guess 6000 gold would still do... Er... Please. I really need the money...Once more...
... ...All right, all right! I'm really getting desperate now... 5000! How's that! ... Come on, I'm begging you! Please hire me!And one last time...
...I'm sorry. No... ...Please...I swear I'll be really useful... The money we have belongs to all of us. I have no right to use it on my own judgment. Argh! I give up! Fine! Have it your way. Just when I thought you were somebody... Ha! You've got some pretty nice beliefs, haven't you, kid! ...But of course, that's dumb. Even if we don't need another mage, it's not like we're hurting for money.
...you need money for medicine... You got that right! She's really sick, you know. She's always getting these really bad headaches around her back... Huh? Headaches around her back? Um, y-you know what I mean, I was just giving an example of the pain... ...Okay, got the money. I'll do my job well. You can count on me! ...”...” is pretty much spot on.
If all you want is the Member’s Card, then it’s just better to steal it from Hugh. It’s not like he’s a better mage than the others really.
There are several ways to deal with Douglas, but the easiest one is to just put his ass to sleep. You can also have him chase someone around, which I end up doing later to save my last Sleep staff charge.
Amusingly, the horseslayer does not get bonuses against Nomad Troopers.
Fuck off, manakete.
”Mamkute”.
...seriously, who the hell localized that.
No one did! It’s a fan translation!
Miledy is hanging out here to bait the closest mage and paladin. This knight gets a crit to the face.
The mage is happy to comply with my plans, but the paladin finds Astol instead.
Gonzales just does his thing. Why yes, that is 141 damage.
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Treasure time! In no particular order: 5000 Gold, Bolting, Brave Lance, Restore Staff, Recover Staff.
Meanwhile, Gonzales and Miledy clean out the snipers so Astol can get started.
Fir and Oujay get in position for reinforcements. Fighters from the right staircase, mercs from the left.
Goddammit Douglas this is not the time!
Let's fix that little mishap.
I may not use him past this chapter, but there's no reason not to put him work now.
Mercs also come from the northeast corner, so Shin hangs out and stabs them.
West side treasure: Berserk Staff, Hero's Crest, Knight's Crest, Rescue Staff, Silver Bow.
Oooh, Berserk staff. I have complete faith that IntSys have made every effort to make its threat to the AI a fraction of its threat to you.
Another interesting thing: Fa can absolutely wreck other manaketes. Like, if this guy had been at full health, he'd have been dropped to 5 HP.
Damn.
Damn.
A bunch of mages pop up in the northwest corner. Fa and Hugh deal with them while Saul and Miledy get to work on the wall between us and Zeiss.
Gaze upon this, and realize this is probably the worst level Fa gets all chapter.
Shin is too busy being awesome to deal with pesky things like gravity.
Fa continues being Fa.
A typical level, maybe minus the defense. It's almost like she's learning.
What a way to max out, Oujay.
...Really, Zeiss? Your own sister? The one you had to hear from before deciding on anything?
What? He’s using a Javelin? Way to drop the ball, IntSys.
To be fair, he is throwing it through a wall. I’m sure that if it were broken, he’d gleefully attack Miledy head-on.
And one last level for Fa this chapter.
Percival carts Chad over to the throne room. He has some very important business to attend to.
Zeiss!? What are you doing here? ...I'm being accused of betraying Bern. Oh...! Is it...my fault...? Sir Gale said that you had joined the enemy. But I couldn't believe it until now, when I can see it with my own eyes! Why! Why did you betray Bern? I never betrayed Bern. I just wanted to help Princess Guinevere. So you threw away everything...your homeland, your family, even your lover...for the princess. For that...stubborn princess who betrayed her own brother! Enough, Zeiss! I will not tolerate you insulting Princess Guinevere! ... It's the princess, not the king, who is truly working for the good of Bern. Granted, I was angry when the princess left without consulting me at all. But now that I'm by her side, I understand more than ever...that she had not made a mistake. ...Sir Gale was right. ...? He said that he didn't intend on doing anything until he heard your story. Gale said that... I don't fully agree with you yet, but... I know I can trust you. Zeiss! Then...? If the Lycia Alliance Army's leader would allow it, I want to go with you. I want to see the princess' beliefs that moved you so.Now was that so damn hard, Zeiss? Had to attack your sister before you would hear her story?
Hey Douglas, let's play tag.
Oujay takes the Hero's Crest from Astol and picks up a new toy.
Way back where Zeiss was hiding, there's a Secret Shop.
A very, very important Secret Shop. Hope you didn't forget the Silver Card, because you'll probably need at least 2 or 3 Guiding Rings, to say nothing of everything else on offer. We pick up a pair of Hero Crests, 4 Guiding Rings, and a few Angelic Robes for good measure.
Wait, stat-ups too?
Not all of them. This one has your basic promotion items (for 10k a piece), Angelic Robes (8k a piece), and Lockpicks (1200 a piece).
This is only one of two secret shops in the game, in fact. The second is more important, but there’s no reason to avoid this in casual play if you want to promote all the units you’ve been using and had no items to do it with, mainly the lack of Hero and Knight Crests is a big issue.
Narshen hasn't changed from Chapter 13. Not terribly dangerous, but his Runesword is kind of irritating.
Chad embarks upon his important mission. Narshen’s Delphi Shield is the prize of the day, and it’s going straight to Miledy. Sadly, we cannot claim the Blue Gem for a lack of space on anyone in the throne room.
Anyway, Narshen's Runesword is a bit of a pain, if you're coming from any of the modern titles. Rather than being a magic-based sword like in FE9 or hitting resistance in FE7/8, it hits on your defense, meaning someone like Saul or Lilina isn't nearly as useful as you'd think here.
So it’s essentially a ranged sword then.
I never really got why they didn’t allow FE9’s magic weapons to use a physical melee attack and a magical ranged attack. I mean, since they went to all the bother of separating the strength and magic stats...
I am handsome...and I am right. Always! More than anybody!Holy fuck please just die.
This also means Narshen is basically ineffective against someone like Bors. He and Percy take over beating Narshen down.
Joining you...was the biggest mistake of my life. And now, I shall repent for it...by defeating you!And defeat him he does.
I will not be defeated...! Not by you...worthless... Gaaaaaaahhhhh!
And that is a wrap. Onwards to 16x.
My name is Roy, leader of the Lycia Alliance Army.
Hm... ... ...I must ask you of something. The soldiers who have been working with Bern have taken over the Tower of the Saint. The Tower of the Saint... That is where Saint Elimine's altar lies. Yes... That is a national symbol of Etruria. Please, I ask you to recapture the tower. I will do what I can. I am sorry. You may use anything in the tower that you find useful.
He must have been an easy target for Bern. I want to help him...but how?
When the time comes, I will return...I promise.Personally, this would be a logical place storywise for Roy to get his plot-related promotion, rather than having to be forced to wait until near the very end of the game. It would definitely allow for him to be a better combat unit, and make seizes easier. But of course, IS are very much in the habit of making things difficult without cause - at least they learned with FE9 Ike.
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Level 1 Manakete
Affinity - Light
HP: 16 (130%)
Strength: 2 (+12*) (90%)
Skill: 2 (+12*) (85%)
Speed: 3 (65%)
Luck: 7 (150%)
Defense: 2 (+15*) (30%)
Resistance: 6 (+20*) (50%)
Con: 1
*Divine Stone bonuses
oh my god look at her she's so cute how could you possibly turn her down you monster
*cough* Ahem...So, Fa. Fa is a trap. A glorious hate-filled trap, courtesy of IntSys. Her growths are amazing (second highest in the game), she gets ridiculous bonuses simply from holding her dragonstone, and damage-wise, she can outpace all but our most powerful units right out of the gate. While she does have to tread a little carefully at the start (16 HP and being doubled by literally anything will do that to you), she'll rocket up the levels thanks to being a L1 unit, and even if she doesn't see much offensive use, she's hands-down the best magic tank in the game. And all of it disappears the minute she attacks 30 times, and ends up wasting every bit of experience that you sunk into her. And no, you cannot Hammerne her dragonstone. The only way to make her useful past that requires the use of a glitch, and when you have to go that far to make someone useful, is it really worth it?I never liked the Dragonstone concept. It’s just so... self defeating. You’ve got this awesome thing with finite uses that naturally you’ll be inclined to save. However, it’s stuck on a unit that will stagnate and fall behind if not used regularly. So in order for this wonderful item to count for anything, you’ve got to waste most of it first. Great work there, guys.
In theory I guess it’s possible for her ample speed growth and batshit luck growth to turn her into a great dodge tank when that Divine Stone finally breaks, but that’s quite a gamble, both in the setup and in the execution.
Level 15 Mage
Anima - C, Affinity - Wind
HP: 26 (75%)
Magic: 13 (30%)
Skill: 11 (30%)
Speed: 12 (45%)
Luck: 10 (25%)
Defense: 9 (20%)
Resistance: 9 (15%)
Con: 7
Thanks IntSys, I really needed another mage. I'm certainly not sitting on 3 units stuck before promotion, no sir. And still not a Guiding Ring in sight... Anyway, Hugh isn't terrible, but he's really made for FE7. His biggest advantages are his high Con and decent Def for a mage, but since Magic is so light in this game, he just ends up being a compromise between Lugh's excellent speed and Lilina's insane magic, with middling stats all around and bad growths aside from speed. I suppose to be fair though, I'm not sure what I was expecting from Canas's son. Looking stylish and being incredibly mediocre must run in the family.
Level 7 Wyvern Rider
Lances - D, Affinity - Thunder
HP: 28 (80%)
Strength: 14 (60%)
Skill: 9 (50%)
Speed: 8 (35%)
Luck: 6 (25%)
Defense: 12 (20%)
Resistance: 2 (15%)
Con: 10
Zeiss is arguably a better Est-like than the actual Est of the game. His growths are great, and while he does come in pretty underleveled, he's not so far behind that he can't be reasonably caught up. Whether it's worth doing is a different story, since you probably have at least one (probably two) of Miledy, Thany, and Tate promoted by now. His speed will be the fall stat - he starts with less than Miledy did, and has a lower growth than his sister to boot. Certainly not a bad unit, but not one of my personal favorites.
Narshen official art.
Bonus Conversations:
Lalum/Douglas
Father! Lalum! What are you doing here? I joined the Lycia Alliance Army with Prince Mildain... So the prince has returned! Now Etruria has hope... Father... Lalum... I'm sorry I put you through this. I had to send you off along to protect the prince. No! That was what I wanted to do. ...But just when I thought I had saved you from a hard life, I had to send you out to be a dancer again. ...You saved me from that terrible life with no food...no money... And you even raised me as your own daughter... From that time, I made up my mind that I would one day return the gift, that I would be of some use to you. Lalum... So I'm really...glad, now. I'm finally being useful to you... Lalum, thank you. ...Please take care of the prince from now on as well. What about you? You're not coming with us? King Mordred is still in the hands of the enemy. If I turn to Lycia Alliance Army now, then the king's life would be in danger. ...But still... Now that the prince has returned safely, I have no regrets, even I am to be taken down by the Lycia Alliance Army. ... Now go. If you are seen with me, you would be suspected of treachery. No matter where you are, you will always be my true daughter. Always. Father... May your life be blessed with happiness...Cecilia/Douglas
Cecilia.
Lord Douglas... Why is someone of your stature fighting for the Revolutionaries...? I am prioritizing the king's safety. That is all. But if this continues, Etruria will become a puppet state for Bern! There must be a nation for there to be a king. If the nation falls, so will its power. And in the end, all will be forgotten! If this nation is doomed to collapse...then so be it. But I will assure the king's safety! What...! We must fight for our people, for our nation! The Etrurian army is for the people. They are not the king's private soldiers! ...It is a matter of opinion. Cecilia, you must follow your beliefs, as I must follow mine.Douglas/Percival
Lord Douglas! Percival... I see no more hesitation in your eyes now. Lord Douglas, it is thanks to you. Because you saved Prince Mildain, I was able to return to being an honorable knight again. Good. What are you going to do, Lord Douglas? The king is still in the hands of the enemy. If I turn to Lycia Alliance Army now, then the king's life would be in danger. ... Now that the prince has returned, I have no regrets, even if I am to be taken down by the Lycia Alliance Army. I knew you would say that, my lord. Well, you have walked the same path as I. Please take care of the prince...and of Etruria. Yes. I shall dedicate my life to them.Narshen vs. Clarine
You...! You're that girl that was...!
...? Excuse me, have we met before? What! You have forgotten me, of all people!? That...must not be!Narshen vs. Miledy
You're Princess Guinevere's... Ha! So you betray your nation and turn to the enemy. Disgraceful! My loyalty is with the princess. And so it shall remain!Narshen vs. Zeiss
You... General Narshen... No, Narshen! I heard everything from Sir Gale! Do you not...have any honor left in you at all?! Gale...! Damn, is he ever a pain! Well, it shall be fine... Once I get rid of you, everything will be shrouded in mystery...Narshen vs. Cecilia
You're... So, being defeated once wasn't enough? Zephiel was the one who defeated me. Not you. Then I shall show you my strength now!