Part 26: Open Fire - Part 1

...I feel sorry for him.
If I may, sir... Rist directly went against his commander's orders. He only got what he deserved.
...Perhaps not. I was never in favor of the attack on Tahra. My hesitation has led to many soldiers to their deaths. ...It's my responsibility.



Damn, that's surprisingly heavy. It's nice that there are obviously some good, non-recruitable people amongst the enemies.

But I won't hesitate any more. I am a warrior of Freege, I must fulfill my duties. Will you help me, Baldack?
Yes, of course, Commander Paulus! The main forces of my 8th Legion have arrived. Let us commence the attack!
Yes, I will send my forces to aid you once they are ready. Knowing you, I doubt I need to say this, but... Be careful.
Yes, I will swear to my honor that I will bring Tahra down!

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The prince is having a meeting with the other commanders.
I see... Is Dean with them?
Dean is watching the south gate because he doesn't feel comfortable at meetings... My brother can be difficult at times.
No, I would never have survived without him. After my father was killed, our mansion was taken away, and for two years I was unable to even go outdoors freely. The cruel surrogate would constantly threaten me to tell him where the prince was. The thought of that abuse still sends shivers down my spine... But then...Dean rescued me from that nightmare. He protected me from assassins from the Empire, and always cheered me up when I was about to break down. He always laughed it off, but I was sure he was a well-known mercenary. I never knew he working under Lord Arione...
Prince Arione knew about the danger Tahra was in, so he secretly ordered my brother to rescue you. Dean was so pleased at the trust the prince was putting in him that he abandoned the army to fulfill the prince's commands.
Lord Arione...went through that much...?
He couldn't leave the country, but then again, he couldn't let you, his fiancee, die... I can only imagine how troubled he was. Anyway, please don't worry, Lady Linoan. Your kindness has not gone unnoticed by Dain and Nova. You must believe in our victory. Now, I must go out and fight as well!

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Let me explain the map a little bit. First, the red circles are again ballistas. The red arrows are weak areas in the wall that the enemy will break through, meaning there are essentially 4 main chokepoints, with other potential chokepoints further within Tahra's walls. Then, there are three different kinds of houses. The houses with blue roofs are impassable, the ones with yellow roofs are passable but not visitable, and the red roofed houses can be visited, although only the ones circled in blue give you anything. However, 6 non-rewarding houses have to be visited to get to 14x. Our goal is simply to survive for ten turns.



Here we are. Dean and Eda join our forces today, with Dean being the one hanging out near the southern wall. He has the much talked about Dain scroll in his possession, which gives +30% defense, as well as +5% strength and +5% Move, in exchange for -10% speed. This scroll is phenomenal for a lot of different characters.



Leading one group of armors is Baldak.



He's got an damn impressive set of weapons, the master lance has the brave effect, but isn't unique, killer weapons can ruin anyone without a scroll, although his bow is probably his weakest weapon to anyone with a scroll, and his horseslayer does exactly what you may expect. Unfortunately, his twenty build and the high weight of his weapons means there's no way for us to get them (technically, Tina could do it, but it would be a waste of her 4 use thief staff.) He also has 3 leadership stars, and a movement star.



Here's the left side of the pincer. The two axe armors have hammers, and the lance armor has a great lance, a very powerful, very heavy lance. This same group will continuously appear as reinforcements, meaning Dashin will be torn to pieces on this map.



The right side of the pincer is a perfect mirror of the left.



Here's one of the three visitable villages. If we visit it with Dean, we get his Dragon Lance, a powerful lance with the brave effect. It's also positioned in a borderline impossible position to reach, right next to a boss, multiple armors, a bishop with siege tomes, and we only have ten turns to reach it. I am sane and will be reaching the village the easy (sane) way.



Paulus isn't to be trifled with. Master axes have a 1-2 range for some reason, beyond having the brave effect, and Tornado is one of the three most powerful tomes in the game, having 18 mt. If Tina dropped a holy water first, she could steal it. However, whether or not it's worth using one of her uses of her thief staff to steal it is another matter, especially since nobody can use it yet.



Here's the second village. This one is somewhat more feasible to reach, and I may actually fight my way to it. We'll see.

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And that's pretty much the map. We need to bring Marita, Safy, Lara and Nanna along with us, leaving us 9 vacant spots. Marita's finally going to get to level with Elite and a bunch of scrolls. For fun, here's what her cumulative growths look like (with Baldo, Fala, Dain, Neir, and Heim):

Hp: 85 Spd: 95
Str: 80 Luk: 80
Mag: 50 Def: 55
Skl: 80 Bld: 20
Mov: 8

This'll be fun.

Anyways, vote for 9 characters from: Carion, Karin, Olwen, Seram, Marty, Fin, Asvel, Shiva, Othin, Makua, Havan, Ronan, Bryton, Fred, Pahn, Tina, and Trude. As always, have an up to date character guide here.

Fatigue Counter:

Carion: 43/44
Karin: 21/34
Nanna: 23/29 (Although she's coming anyways)
Olwen: 12/25
Seram: 24/27

Fergus: Fatigued
Glade: Fatigued

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Voting will close either Saturday evening or Sunday afternoon.