Part 13: The Nova Emblem (Part 1)

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Well, as king, I must be aware of any and all happenings in my country. And besides, it's been a while since I have traveled with you, Altena.
Yes, I'm happy you decided to come with us.
I tried to get Arione to come along as well, but he said he couldn't leave the castle unattended. Oh well...
He's trying hard to be of help to you, father.
Well, when I was his age, I was already taking charge as king. I suppose I should commend his efforts.
I'm working hard so I can be of assistance to you two as well.
Yes. I want you two to lead Thracia in the future. The fertile lands in the north, and the rich minerals in the south... Thracia needs both of these to rise up to independence and peace again. A unified Thracia... My wish is to rebuild Thracia into that prosperous nation that Dain and Nova created.



Altena...
Yes?
...The wind is picking up. I suppose we should leave the rest to Merlock and start heading back.
Yes, father.



I'm leaving the rest to you. With all these troops, I trust you won't fail. Hunt down the bandits and kill them all. Give them what they deserve for making our people suffer!
Yes, your Majesty!



Trabant and Altena fly away, leaving Merlock behind. Meanwhile, in the north-west corner of the map





So, Trabant found out about us... Damn! Glade is in Tahra, and the people we have here still don't have any battle experience...
I'll buy time for you, so you can take them and escape in the meantime.
No, Selfina. According to General Hannibal, Lord Leaf is headed here with a band of fighters from Fiana and Manster. We must wait here for him.
Yes. In that case, I shall lead the defense of the mansion. Kein! Alba! Robert! We're going out. Follow me!

And now for our take on things.



Army? ...Damn! That's the Thracian Army!
What!? I thought that was General Hannibal's mansion.
Perhaps they found out. Or maybe General Hannibal informed them...
August! General Hannibal isn't that kind of man!
...Either way, we must help them. If that mansion is captured, there would be no hope left for Thracia's liberation or the reconstruction of Lenster...

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Here's our goal. This mission is somewhat odd in that it's both a defend and an escape mission; we need to escape from the arrow here, but if an enemy moves onto it we lose. Right now, it's being defended by the four Lensterian knights:





Which doesn't bode well for the mansion, these guys are not tough. Selfina is the strongest person here, and even that's just because of her Killer Bow, stat-wise she's pretty bad, especially for her level. The main force of the army is going to be headed towards here, and our goal is to hope they don't die before we can reinforce them.



And here our the enemies. They're not too tough, but there are a lot of them, and they're going to be making a beeline toward the mansion. Of particular note is Merlock and his goons:



Holy fuck, he's pretty much a flying Gomes with a killer weapon. That's not good at all, is it?



His goons aren't so bad either, all of them sporting killer weapons of some sort. Because they can fly, these guys are able to get to the mansion fast. Luckily we have two bow users to fight with, but still. They don't stand a chance against Merlock. There's also a bishop hanging about, he has 3 leadership starts, which along with Merlock's 1, gives +12 accuracy and avoid to all enemies. He also has a meteor, meaning taking him out quickly will be tough.



And here's us. We've got some rough terrain we need to cross to get to the mansion.

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Alright, we've got some voting to do. I'm forcing Carion and Asvel's deployment, leaving us 5 available slots.

So, choose one healer, and 4 characters from: Othin, Havan, Lara, Makua, Fin, Lifis, Hicks, Fergus, Karin, Dashin, Bryton, Shiva, Dagda, Tanya.

Fatigue Counter:

Othin: 34/38
Havan: 31/34
Lara: 3/14
Safy: 14/16
Makua: 25/30

(Just a reminder, sitting out on a chapter brings fatigue down to 0, regardless of if you sat them out voluntarily or not)

Musings: I didn't force deploy her, but it would probably be a good idea to bring Karin, so we could get a unit to the mansion fast. We don't need thieves for anything. Also, when it comes to last missions gang, don't think just because they are almost fatigued, they have to be left behind. It's really leave them behind now, or leave them behind next chapter. Either way, they skip out on one chapter. (In a strictly numerical sense, you keep fatigue lower by always fatiguing characters before ditching them, but that's not always feasible, or even a good idea.) You can always check here for up to date character statuses.

Voting will be open for 36 hours (+ 12 hours.)