Part 56: Bonus 5 - Chapter 18A: The Frozen River (feat. Wind God Sety)
Bonus 5 - Chapter 18A: The Frozen River (feat. Wind God Sety)
Soon, they entered the thick forests that characterize Ilia's central land. However, a general of Bern, Bishop Martel, was waiting for them with an ancient spell that was said to have been lost centuries ago...
So, wait, is he a general or a bishop? Ah... let’s just file this under “editing, lol” and move on.
We have brought Lady Niime, as you asked.
Good. Let her pass.
Are you Niime, the Hermit on the Mountain?
So, some have begun calling me that, have they? Then I must be that Niime. I hear that you are capable of using the ancient spell book that we found in this castle. I should be able to. I've been studying the dark arts and ancient magic for decades now. I understand that this spell can change the weather around the caster... It wouldn't be entirely improbable. Then I order you. Use the spell book and create rainfall. Make it rain so that the rivers will overflow and push back the advancing Etrurian Army. Well, I can try, but I frankly can't guarantee that it will work. Also, powerful spells like these can only be cast once. Are you sure? Silence! All you must do is follow my commands. You were the one who came to us and said you wished to join our forces. Then make yourself useful. ...This exchange is causing me to imagine Fire Emblem with CO Powers or something.
Roy’s power could level the playing field by preventing the enemy from having promoted units until the end of the game.
*Ask me about my brother's regicide! Or don't, actually*
...No, it's nothing. Did you need something?
Yes, I have gathered some more information. We may have some trouble with this battle. A powerful dark magician by the name of Niime resides in the enemy ranks. Dark magician... A Druid, probably. She is apparently extremely learned in ancient sorcery. She has much more knowledge than any scholar could dream of. But we can't pull back now. No, but we can always be careful. I know. We must be wary.
So circumstances are a little different this time. Niime is technically an enemy (entirely off-screen, fortunately), and they have some kind of spell that will inevitably kill us all in some super-blizzard or something because the dumb fuck wants to make it rain when it's clearly already cold enough for it to be snowing.
I dunno. Really cold temperatures plus really dense precipitation equals some nasty hailstorms. It’s not implausible for that to really ruin an encroaching army. But... like hell the writers thought of that.
On to the chapter itself, the first important thing is that the snow is entirely cosmetic. Unlike FE7, the white stuff won't slow us down or anything, it's just there to set the scene. There are three villages to save, and the closest one to the castle is a massive pain in the ass to get to. The main idea here is for Geese to cross the lake to the southern village while Thany grabs the northwest corner one and swings east for the one by the castle. All the while, the main army will be slowly marching east through the forest.
That's a bard level all right. Getting this chapter started with a bang.
Dieck trades blows with a merc to actually start things off, and gets a pretty great level out of it.
The murderchicken capitalizes on Dieck's lack of speed to get a kill of her own.
I will never get used to this.
Even Clarine gets a little offense going.
Yeah, no.
The nearby merc barely survives because of the one point of defense that the forest offers. Thany doesn't find that very amusing.
There’s something incredibly nice about seeing Thanny with not-terrible Strength.
Two non-crit hits.
Vindication! Or something.
The peg knight squad is on the move, and they are really obnoxious. There's no way to run from them, and they're substantially more accurate than Bern's wyvern riders even if they are weighed down by their weapon more often than not. Silver Lance Falcoknights may go down easy, but you're probably going to have to eat the hit before you kill them, and there are Axereaver, Killer Lance, and Steel/Javelin varieties of peg knights.
I always prefer the phrase “Stave Asshole” to “Status Asshole” because, well... this.
Personally I’m fond of Staffhole.
Right, let's fix that. I can't reach the berserk priest (he's the one in the back), but we can put this physic asshole out of his misery.
Speed! I'll take it.
With the dangerous parts of the peg knight squad taken care of, Thany makes a break for the north village.
I wouldn't push your luck, buddy.
But I pray to it every day, and nothing happens. That con man tricked me! Here, take it. Just looking at it is making me angry. [Got Goddess Icon]
So... how exactly do we use these things, anyway, if not praying to them?
Now I want to see fanart of any unit depicted “using” as many stat-ups as possible
Yeah, fuck you too.
Clarine fries the last of the peg knights harassing Elphin. Sweet, sweet magic!
Oh look, reinforcements. Bandits are perfect right now. This is the majority of the difficulty in the chapter - If you aren't sending a flyer right to the northeast village, you're going to have to push really hard to beat this bandit there. And no matter who you send, you have to contend with an entire peg knight squad sitting right next to the village on top of being within Purge range of the boss.
I did mention he had Purge, right? Because the list of candidates with high defense, high resistance, and flight-capable is...well, non-existant would be putting it mildly. At best you could hope to tank the pegs and eat a big Purge hit.
Dude looks smug as hell. He has you cornered trying to get that village, and he knows it.
Even the Mend guys are assholes!
I think at this point it’s safe to say that pretty much every enemy in this game is an asshole.
There's also a bandit to the north, giving him the option of continuing south toward the northeast village or heading west to the far one. Love you too, FE6!
Right, so here's the plan. By sending Thany here to kill this merc, Thany is exactly 8 spaces away from the village and will draw two of the pegs on the enemy phase, leaving the Silver Lance falcoknight, a Killer Lance peg, and an Axereaver peg. She must be able to reach the village next turn, because the bandit is two turns away right now. We could theoretically kill the bandit instead, but that would leave Thany wielding a sword versus the peg knights, and I'm not in the mood to give Killer or Silver Lances any better hit odds.
...I'm warning you for the last time. I really have no idea what will happen... Just shut up and cast the spell! Sigh... All right...
An enemy spellcaster? Everyone, watch out!
The rivers... The rivers have frozen over! My, my... Now isn't this a surprise... ...! You! You did this on purpose! What are you talking about... I warned you that I couldn't predict what would happen. Quiet! Someone! Throw her into the dungeon! Yes, sir. Sigh...Even if those rivers weren’t particularly deep, a cold blast capable of flash-freezing them should also have seriously injured every soldier on the battlefield. Just saying.
I really like this twist here. If you played FE7 first, you’ve learned that the weather changing largely serves to slow your guys down, so it’s refreshing to see it help you out for once.
Master Roy, we have a report. The rivers have apparently frozen over. What? The ice is think enough for knights on horseback to cross them safely. Oh... Well, good, we can advance more quickly now. Charge toward the castle gate!Forget the horses, with the rivers frozen everyone can now cross over the ice with no movement penalties at all. This is a huge boon for the main group, but it comes way too late to make use of for saving the villages.
And of course, the enemies get to make use of it first.
And there's this guy. Just a random merc with a Light Brand.
Thany pops a vulnerary to top herself off and all we can do is sit back and hope for the best.
I approve.
...Bern's army went marching by. When will we have peace again? Here, take this. Use it to end the war. [Got Secret Book]
Could have been worse!
No, don’t say-
Worse!
-that.
Fuck!
Better!
How could you have traversed through this snow... Curse that useless hag!
Oh fuck you, you're not even strong enough to matter.
Right. Let's get the hell out of here.
First, cleaning up a few of these assholes to clear up a route out for Thany.
...Motherfucker.
Well tha-
-...t's another recording lost?
Dear IntSys,
Go suck a dick.
With Love,
Artix
...God gave it to me? No way! Probably someone riding on a pegasus or wyvern dropped it. Here, take it. I prefer my dolls.
P.S.
Make it two.
[b]
[/b]
From here, it's just a matter of cleaning up troops and killing Martel.
There are a few peg knights that pop up, but they're quickly dealt with.
And we're not dealing with this guy's shit.
Too little, too late game.
You are? My name is Niime. I live in the mountains and study arcane magic. You say you were released. Did you not join Bern out of your own will? Well, I did, but it was only a guise. Bern's army had something that I wanted to study. What is that? The Dragons.*Bern has dragons holy shit*
So Niime joins up a chapter sooner than in Sacae, and just in time for the worst chapter in Ilia! Next time: Thank christ this isn't using FE7's rules.
Never let it be said that IntSys’ assholery is not constantly evolving.