Part 38: Chapter 16a: The Norden Line - Part 2
Last time, we successfully breached Lenster's gates, after listening to August's sage advice on how to best approach Lenster. However, to put off doing chapter 18 as long as possible, we now go back and imagine we listened to Dorias's advice. While Dorias's advice is pretty dumb, we get to kill Kempf this way, so there's some good in it. Again, this route is non-canon, and as such we will be killing Olwen to recruit her replacement, Eyrios, for two chapters. Also, we're doing it for real this time.---
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Our party for today's battle is Karin, Nanna, Olwen (not for long), Tina, Safy, Linoan, Fin, Marita, Makua, Fergus, Marty, Asvel, Shiva, Lara and Carion.
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This asshole is going for this village. It's not hard to stop him, just annoying.
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Shiva and Marty go East while everyone else, spearheaded by Nanna, go North.
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This guy's more frustrating to stop. Still, we'll manage somehow.
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Nanna takes down the nearest Armor.
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Asvel gets sniped by a nearby ballista, but manages to dodge.
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Not having to worry about keeping a character alive is so liberating. Miss, hit who cares. Forget it baby, it's Shadow Dragon.
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Next up, Asvel takes down the ballista, and Karin visits the closest village.
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So, yeah. Holy Water. Can't go wrong with those here, because they let you use status effects on nearly anyone. Anyone
.---
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Marty keeps heading east. He'll be the corner stone of our master plan for this map.
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Everyone else just settles behind Asvel. The cavaliers and social knights accompanying Eyrios either have Horseslayers or Rapiers, so you don't want to mess with them.
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Yeah pretty much. Still it could be worse. You could be on our side
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For all his talk about commoners and nobility, he's awfully quick to strike down random soldiers with super long ranged death thunder. Wait a minute, I specifically made sure I was more than 10 spaces away from Eyrios...
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Oh, he moves. That sounds about right.
...Say, we need to kill Olwen. We've got a bunch of enemies with Horseslayers and Rapiers
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So now that Olwen has saved the village, it's time for her to face trial by combat. She has Daimthunder, let's see how many she can take before she misses. Luckily the village only had a bridge key, which I don't need, because it's going with her.
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Makua's sturdy and horseless, she'll be able to hold off the knight's once Olwen can't.
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You live.
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I made myself sad. 074.png)
With Olwen gone, Makua's going to take her place. Some of the Knight's have Sleep Swords, but they have twenty speed and it's not worth using a Thief staff to use it. (I am never going to actually use the Thief staff. I'm just going to accept that.)
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Makua takes some scratch damage, her enemies take slightly more severe damage.
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Well at least he's consistent in who he bolts.
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On our phase, Karin kills an enemy, gets rejuvenated by Lara, and talks to Eyrios, continuing the long standing tradition of conscripting enemies using Pegasus Knights. Fire Emblem men can't get enough of them it seems.
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Hey, can you switch to our side? Please?Well, she's certainly more direct than Caeda, that's for sure.
Huh? What are you talking about? Weird girl... No? Oh well, I thought so. Fine, then. Good bye... Hey! Wait a sec! Yes? All right. I'll switch sides if you'll do me a favor in return.083.png)
That shouldn't be too hard. You want to be a noble? So you're a commoner? Wow, then you must have worked really hard. A commoner becoming a higher knight in the Freege army is a rarity. Stop calling me a commoner! Yeah, I'm no noble, but I'm not ashamed of it! I'm proud to be a commoner! Then why do you want to become a noble? Erg... Well... That's none of your business! I'm Karin. What's your name? It's Eyrios... Your name sounds really noble. Is it your real name? Of course it is! My old man gave it to me hoping we'd make it to nobility some day!086.png)
Okay, Olson, so you're now on our side. See you around! H-Hey...---
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And with that, Olson joins our forces. He's pretty good and has great weaponry, and so he can take care of himself.
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After Olson takes down the brigand, keeping the villages safe for another day, the rest of our forces make fairly quick work of the remnants of Olson's forces.
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Our forces press onward, while two pirates appear from the top of the map. They're going to go for any of the villages we haven't visited yet.
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To stop them, we let Karin take one down and have Marty visit the village at the bottom of the map.
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Yay, a Knt'sPqSVBn/. We need more of those.
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Now, we could charge Kempf and his forces, but we'd have to deal with the ballistas while fighting, and that's just not any fun. Fight smarter, not harder.
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This is what we're going to do.
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[Marty: Lv. 4, Hp: 55, Str: 19, Mgc: 7, Skl: 11, Spd: 19, Luk: 15, Def: 19, Bld: 20]
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I probably could have died here from the ballistas, due to Marty's shit defenses while carrying the Bishop.
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Still, I didn't, and now Marty's got some nice swag out if it. I end up healing him back to full with a psychic staff, I figure it's okay, seeing as how we just got a new one.
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In the meantime, Karin intercepts another Pirate, this time coming from the south, and flies into the nearby mountains.
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Oh my. All of these Pegasus riders have Horseslayers, so if you have any mounted units in their range, you pretty much lose, but I was prepared and they have shit stats.
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Shiva and Karin take them all down on the enemy phase.
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Oh, hey look, a fort.
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I like forts.
Damn! Damn! If it weren't for you... If it only weren't for you...!138.png)
Easily.
[Marty: Lv. 6, Hp: 55, Str: 19, Mgc: 7, Skl: 11, Spd: 19,Luk: 15, Def: 19, Bld: 20] Level 5 was an empty level for the record.
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And with that, Marty singlehandedly killed an enemy commander and removed all their siege weapons. Good times.
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She's still fifteen... Don't you think she's too young to die in that dark monastery...---
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Conomore and all of his men proceed to charge at us.
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Conomore is the alternate path's version of Amalda. We can't recruit him on this path, and so we have no choice but fight him. He also has an Awareness manual we'd like to steal.
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To do so, Lara and an accidentally dismounted Fergus head toward Conomore and friends, accompanied by Karin.
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Getting back to the main course, our forces make quick work of most of Kempf's remaining troops.
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We position ourselves right outside of Conomore's force's range.
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At the same time, our main force wipes out all of Kempf's men.
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Conomore isn't leading the charge, so I have Karin rescue Lara and head west, while Fergus falls back. Don't worry, what I'm doing will eventually make sense.
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Next turn, Fergus kills one of Conomore's men, eating a critical from a rapier, bringing him down to 10hp. Uh-oh
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Karin drops Lara over here. Wait for it...
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...So this is the power of Lenster's Lansritter... Perhaps we should pull back. All troops, retreat!---
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There we go.
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And with the Awareness manual in our possession, the men from Alster continue their retreat, ignoring Lara entirely.
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While that fun stuff was going on, we were also making our way towards Brook. His men all have Killer Lances, but aren't that dangerous beyond that.
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...I had forgotten they moved. What could have been ugly turns out fine, as Nanna kills two, sparing the one who used a vulnerary.
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We give Marita an Armorslayer, and let her go to town on Brook.
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She procs Luna and one shots him.
[Marita: Lv. 2, Hp: 39, Str: 20, Mgc: 12, Skl: 20, Spd: 20, Luk: 19, Def: 13, Bld: 7]
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Before we finish the map though, there's one last thing to do.
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---
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This is just like the image I saw at the Tower of Blagi... A youth with the light of Zwei...strong power... Bishop Claude... It is just as you said...
Tower of Blagi? Light of Zwei? What are you talking about? You will understand when the time comes. For now, I will join you, Prince Leaf.---
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I'll talk about Sleuf when we're not seconds from beating the map.
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Lenster... My homeland.
Yes. Perhaps you were too young to remember much... No, I remember. Especially that night. I'll never forget that.198.png)
I was just staring up at the sky in Finn's arms. I didn't understand at first... But when I looked up at Finn, I was suddenly consumed with sadness. I had never been so sad in my life... We forced a difficult task on Finn. But he was the only one we could trust you with. As long as the prince is safe, Lenster will rise again once more... I told him that and ordered him to escape. That was the last time I saw Finn's tears. Ever since then, he seems to have forgotten how to cry...or even laugh... His heart is still in Lenster. No, not just him... All of have have left our hearts behind in our homeland... I was certain we were doomed when Alster's army attacked us from behind." The enemy's confusion saved us there. But Count Conomore is certainly an admirable man. His speed in rounding up his troops was something to behold. Count Conomore? Yes, he is the greatest commander of Alster. He is a fine knight with a love for justice and his country. Why would such a man side with the Empire? Wouldn't he want to do something about its oppressive ways? He must have his reasons... Either way, he isn't someone I would want to face again.---
Before I do the post-update wrap up, there's one more conversation I haven't shown, that we would have seen if we'd used Olwen to bait out Kempf, as the map suggested we should.
It's so nice to see you again, General Kempf. You... You're Olwen! You dirty traitor! If I am a traitor, then you are a loser. A loser and a coward." What! Why am I a coward? You're too scared to fight. All you did was flee at Dandrum, and even now you're cowering behind the protection of your troops. You can never surpass my brother that way! Errrgh... You...bitch...! Someone! Capture her! I'll kill you all... I'll kill you, I say! Lord Leaf, my part is done... I wish you luck...(The next turn)
You! Order the troops to charge! Tell them there will be a reward for every enemy slain! Demolish them! Leave none alive!
B-But General Kempf! That would be going against General Nicarf's orders! Shut up! Everything will be fine as long as we win! Have you forgotten that I come from a part of the royal family? All troops, charge! Kill them! Kill them all!Kempf is not very smart.
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New Recruits:
Sleuf:
Hp: 35% Spd: 45%
Str: 3% Lck: 25%
Mag: 40% Def: 10%
Skl: 75% Bld: 10%
Mov: 2%
Class: Priest Weapon Ranks: A (Staves) Movement stars: 3 Skills: None PCC: 0
Sleuf's utility is all in his staff rank. He starts with an A in staves, giving you a free character capable of warping, which as I've shown, is really powerful in this game. That said, he doesn't really have a place in our playthrough. Safy already has an A in Staves, Seram is nearly there, and both Sara and Linoan will have A's when they promote. Sleuf can be really useful if you haven't done a great job of building up Safy or anyone else's staff rank, but if you have he becomes much less useful.
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Olson:
Hp: 50% Spd: 50%
Str: 40% Lck: 70%
Mag: 45% Def: 15%
Skl: 55% Bld: 10%
Mov: 1%
Class: Mage Knight Weapon Ranks: A (Swords), D (Fire), A (Thunder), D (Wind) Movement stars: 0 Skills: Prayer, Sunlight Sword PCC: 0
Olson is much better at the knight part of the whole Mage Knight thing than Olwen is. He's got better Strength, Defense, Hp, Luck and Build, as well as two useful innate skills to prop himself up with. His magic is lower, but melee enemies have bad magic and so he doesn't really need it, especially because of his high thunder weapon rank. His real disadvantage relative to Olwen is that he doesn't have the super weapons Olwen has, and his terrible PCC compared to hers. (Seriously 0 is bad). There isn't really a definitive answer as to the better character. (Yes, I copied and pasted this from chapter 11x.)
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Resets this Chapter: 0 (I'm not going to count resets on the non-canon route. There's not any grand reason for it, I just decided I wouldn't when I started the LP. That said, I'll still say how many times I had to reset for the specific chapter, I just won't add it to the cumulative score.)
Next Time on Thracia 776: My God, it's full of Leadership stars.