Part 50: Chapter 20B: The Silver Wolf (feat. Cake Attack)
Chapter 20B: The Silver Wolf (feat. Cake Attack)
...Dragons were slowly beginning to unfold.
With more unknowns still needing verification, Roy directed his troops toward a large manor on the outskirts of Bulgar. There, Advisor Roartz of Etruria was preparing his defenses against Roy...
Damn! If I am to go to Hell, then that Roy shall be going down with me!
Lord Roartz! The remnants of the Djute clan are saying that they will come to our aid once they have securely hidden the Miurgre. Miurgre? Ah, one of the Divine Weapons. Good, then we must hold our own until then!Thank you for clarifying that for us, Roartz.
I understand that this mansion holds methods of attacking through little cracks in the framework. You must not think you that are safe just because your back is to the wall.
Do you know much about this place? Well, I am at least slightly known to know more than most people. The rumor about this manor is something I picked up back in the city.This is how they handwave putting goddamn ballistae pointing inward on the map. Also longbow snipers and Bolting assholes, but the latter is a given, really.
Better then their usual justification of "fuck you, that's why."
Though, honestly, most players who reach this point will already know to be constantly wary of all of these things.
Well, I can't say I'm absolutely sure about that. But I would love to see it with my own eyes. I was thinking... Maybe the Dark Dragon is in human form as well. Perhaps. Maybe all the Dragons are in human form now. I've also heard stories of Dragons in human form living with people. Arcadia... Hm? Did you say something? No, nothing. I don't know anything specific, but I've read in an ancient scroll that Dragons started taking human form only after the Ending Winter. The Ending Winter... You've heard about it, right? Yes, only in legend. 'At the Winter of Ends, the laws of nature were turned upside down. Day became night, and summer became winter.' That's it. These scrolls are so old and damaged so I couldn't decipher all of them, but one thing is clear. The Ending Winter was a disaster powerful enough to bend and twist the planet.”Also it was an Anima tome. I can’t read those.”
What caused it? Who knows...? Popular belief says that the laws of nature were twisted when the Dragons unleashed vast amounts of magical power, but I have no idea about what really happened. But it does seem certain that Dragons started taking human form after the Ending Winter. It must be more than coincidence. Yes, I agree. Well, either way, the truth lies in Bern.
Right, let's go kick the shit out of Roartz. The team splits in two to clean the place out - Hugh, Niime, Astol, Percival, Echidna, Rutger, and Fir are heading east to the chests, and the rest are going up the west side.
Niime makes her debut, and she's pretty good. She's about as resilient as a wet paper towel, but she's in good shape otherwise and comes with Dark-A/Staves-A meaning she's a Physic-bot right out of the gate.
She can, at least, hold up okay against Bolting Assholes, although, yeah, Ballistae. Ow.
Astol starts things off by wounding a fighter. It's a pretty terrible level, really, but he needs all the avoid he can get.
This warrior and one of the fighters have Swordreavers, which can be a nasty surprise if you're not careful. That said, Rutger is far beyond giving a shit about things like Swordreavers.
Fir was carting around some of Niime's toys since she doesn't formally join until the start of the actual chapter. God only knows what we were supposed to do with an Eclipse tome.
Miss, mostly.
Our poorly targeted spells will blot out the sun.
Lilina smites the other warrior and we clean out the opening area.
The swordreaver fighter challenges Rutger. It ends poorly for him.
These motherfuckers.
There are two Bolting sages hanging out in the courtyard, and they fucking love to target Astol. Thankfully, both of them have to hit, but until they wander into view and range, Astol's survival depends on me winning at least one coin flip every turn. I lost 6 recordings to these fuckers before adopting an alternate strategy, but some of those deaths were literally on the first turn before I could do a goddamn thing about it.Kaga may have left Intsys, but his legacy lives on
Wholly unpleasant odds.
Also featured are Physic assholes and Berserk assholes who double as Physic assholes. Also, Niime's battle sprite since I'm probably never going to use her in combat.
YOU.
Nothing quite as satisfying as turning the long-range bullshit back at the enemy.
It’s pretty much what the precious few siege tomes the game permits your army to own are for.
Precious few...Oh how little you know.
Miledy blocks off the Swordmaster on the west side. The mage is more of a threat with Aircalibur, even if she does have the Delphi Shield.
She misses with her Iron Blade, but I'm not going to complain about the results.
I shall fight those Bern troops alone, to the death!
Dayan shows up just before turn 3, but he can't really go anywhere with our troops in the way. Sue, Shin, and Roy can all bring him around.
Shin, you've returned! Good, now you can join us...
Chief... I am currently in the service of this army. What?! Is it the Etrurian army? Yes. ... This army wouldn't invade Sacae. So will you fight alongside us as well? All right. I shall take your word for it.Wow. That was easy. Some iron resolve on that guy.
Dayan is...pretty bad. I mean, he's not terrible, but if you've been putting any amount of work in Sue or Shin, they should both be blowing him out of the water. And the sad part is that his counterpart on the Ilia route makes him look Percival-levels of competent.
He's got an excellent 'stache though. Just sayin'
Speaking of Percival, he's pretty good at cleaning these guys up.
God I love that animation.
Imagine if you could use the Four Sword in Fire Emblem...
Deploy the murderchicken.
Against 4 HP? Dat Overkill.
This is probably unequivocally the worst level I've ever seen on a manakete. But I can't possibly hold it against her.
Berserk asshole burns his last charge on Dayan, and reverts down to a simple Physic asshole.
Didn't some old guy tell us to give this to Gonzales and bust some heads? This one's for you, old man.
I really didn't want to have to burn the extra Bolting charges on this guy, but the next door is in range of both Bolting and the Ballista, so I'm not taking any chances.
It is never too soon to eliminate Bolting Assholes.
He's a tanky motherfucker for a mage, plus his con means he's barely eating a penalty for Bolting. I could get used to this.
I've never really used Hugh to be honest. I think I should reconsider, he seems pretty good.
Right, let's try this again. While I'd love to feed the warrior to Fa, I kind of need this guy dead to be in a good position for the Silver Sword swordmaster to the north.
Fortunately it's just enough for her to squeeze out a level. Not the best, but she's picking up defense, which she's been lacking in a bit.
Dayan pulls a short bow crit out of his ass, and Gonzales polishes the warrior off.
This guy is a Wo Dao swordmaster, and the myrmidon has a Killing Edge. You can't attack the myrmidon close up without drawing his attention, and you're almost certainly going to eat a crit in response. A bad idea when there's a ballistician waiting in the wings.
Percival gives no fucks, though.
Three nothings is nothing, after all. And even three somethings isn’t very much.
Welp, this is bad.
Super blurred Swordmaster crit is pretty great looking.
There were some pretty interesting infoposts in my FE9 thread on the subject of Smears, which is what this animation technique you’re seeing here is called. Find them here, here, here, and here. Credit: Orange Fluffy Sheep.
Note to the future: If you’re reading this in the LP Archives and/or after 21st October 2012, you will need an SA account with archives access to read those posts.
I...er...well alright then. For bonus points, find the difference between this and the normal ballista animation, because I sure as hell don't see one.
To be fair, it's hard to make pulling a lever seem cool. I mean, you could have him do a flip or something before hand, but it'd really just seem like showboating.
oh and yeah, what was the AI thinking?
But... everyone knows that showboating before an attack somehow increases damage!
Both swordmasters get physic'd. Fa crits a bitch in response.
Treasure! The full haul includes an Axereaver, Dragonshield, Nosferatu tome, Guiding Ring (IntSys!
), and Sleep staff.
Niime weakens our Wo Dao friend and Echidna takes the kill for a pretty great level.
Percy attracts a few friends from inside the boss room, but all the Javelins in the world can't fix his level.
It is now turn...8 or so, and it's just us and Roartz.
After Gel and Monke, Roartz is a fucking joke. He's a bog-standard general, and there just so happen to be fucking pillars next to the throne for casters to stand on if they weren't already safe.
It is all over if I am hurt!
You wear your sin as though it were armor, and cry foul when you can no longer escape your fate? Prepare yourself - judgment is at hand!Thanks to Materant and Alky for bouncing around ideas with me. My first idea for this line was terrible.
Saul always did like judgement.
Hugh and Saul quickly tear down Roartz from the pillars.
But Gonzales is the big winner when he rolls a crit with a lower hit rate than crit chance.
That's what, a 9% chance? That's how it's done Gonzales.
15.96%, actually. But yes. That’s how it’s done.
It is still not too late... I shall...forgive your crime of turning your blade...toward me... Guh...!
And that's a wrap. We hang out until turn 24 grinding supports (I kill Roartz on turn 11), and then it's off to 20x.
Master Roy! We have reports that the remainders of the Djute clan are hiding in some ruins near here. Ruins? Yes. And we also have a captive who says that a bow used during the Scouring is hidden there. What? Then... It's highly possible that it is a Divine Weapon. We must get to those ruins! Let's go!-----
Level 18 Druid
Dark - A, Staves - A, Affinity - Anima
HP: 25 (25%)
Magic: 21 (15%)
Skill: 20 (15%)
Speed: 16 (15%)
Luck: 15 (5%)
Defense: 5 (15%)
Resistance: 18 (20%)
Con: 4
Sure hope you like those base stats, because that's all you're getting out of her, even if she does still have two levels of growing room. That said, she comes with good bases, an A in staves, and as long as you keep her away from big physical units, her durability problems won't be a huge issue. She'll probably be inferior to a raised Ray or Sophia, but she makes a great backup druid. She can healbot and throw out status staves with the best of them, which gives her a lot more utility than most of the late-game prepromotes.
She's pretty much Pent plus 12 levels and sans durability, which is enough to get by here. Because god was Pent great.
Still, Pent couldn't use Nosferatu but she can, so as long as she can survive one hit she can tank somehow. I miss broken Dark magic.
Level 12 Nomad Trooper
Bows - A, Swords - C, Affinity - Anima
HP: 43 (55%)
Strength: 14 (20%)
Skill: 16 (20%)
Speed: 20 (15%)
Luck: 12 (20%)
Defense: 10 (10%)
Resistance: 12 (10%)
Con: 9
We're definitely into endgame prepromo territory with these growths. Dayan isn't too impressive, but he's definitely capable of holding his own if he needs to. Aside from maybe his defenses, Shin and Sue should both be mopping the floor with him if they've been raised up, and since they have to be to go down the Sacae route in the first place...well, yeah. Still, you could do worse. So much worse.
Bonus:
Roy recruits Dayan
Are you the Etrurian General leading this group? Yes. And you are? I am Dayan. Dayan...? I've heard that name somewhere... I must first thank you. My clan was always fighting against Bern and the clans that submitted to them. We were forced to reside to guerilla warfare instead of going up against them honorably, face to face. However, now that you have attacked Bern, the tables are beginning to tip in our favor. I see. I am glad that I could help. But I want to ask you one thing. Once this battle is over, do you intend to withdraw your troops right away? After this battle? Yes. Sacae belongs to us Sacaeans. If authoritarian rule by Bern is only to be replaced by Etrurian rule, then we would have to fight you next. Right after this battle... That would not be possible. We must have Sacae as a base to launch direct attacks on Bern. What... Directly into Bern's lands? Even if we could drive off Bern now, it would only be a matter of time until they strike back at us. We must destroy their roots. Right? Yes, you are right. I see...in that case, I shall aid you. That would help us tremendously. But once Bern is defeated, you must withdraw your troops from Sacae. Is that all right with you? Of course. You have my word.Douglas vs. Roartz
Douglas... Hmph! After all that you said, you too are following those with power!
Perhaps it may seem that way from the outside. But there is no hesitation in my heart now. Silence! I have just about had enough of you. Die here!