Welcome to That One Chapter. At least it has the dignity of discretely being the end of Act 2.
"Honestly, though, it could be anywhere."
Soren seems to be on top of things.
How, exactly, we don't get to find out.
I'm sure sitting in the muck is more pleasant.
"And in the meantime..."
Elincia and Sanaki take him up on this offer. Sanaki is a playable character in Radiant Dawn, but I'm not sure we're supposed to believe that she's got this talent in Path of Radiance. I wonder at what point she was taught to fight.
Sigrun's blinking frame is apt. These four will be in good company.
Well, doesn't this image just look pleasant.
If you look real close, you can make out Duke Tanas and a gaggle of soldiers.
"It's been three days and I haven't had cake in this manky forest!"
And more delusions about Oliver's place in a heron's life.
Probably a problem for him.
...Sure we are. Well, OK, we are, but...
At least his soldiers share that opinion about his delusion. Not that they have much of a choice.
Figured.
Oh yeah, we are protected by the apostle's favour.
...Well, if that isn't a quiet moment about how much Oliver thinks he can get away with.
Well, just the women and children. I lost an attempt of Part 1 on the first turn because I didn't consider I was leaving Ike in range of an enemy.
Let's knock some heads.
9 non-Ike people is all we get. 9 non-Ike people is all we need.
Only 14 people? I guess they're making each individual map shorter, a bit?
If you scroll around the map, you can actually see the later areas we'll be fighting in. These are 4 and 3 respectively.
Nephenee kills a guy here with her Javelin, ready for the archer. It's the other myrmidons in range that got Ike.
Jill intends to speak for this one this time. 68% accuracy, perhaps she should avoid making a habit of this.
You can see he's still alive in the corner. Astrid shoots this myrm down with no regard for her personal safety.
Ike is sure to stand outside of enemy range this time.
Yeah, Astrid is fine.
Marcia doesn't kill this guy. She is using an Iron Sword, I guess.
These Knights have made their way up, and Nephenee isn't pounding them into dust yet.
Jill is, though.
Astrid finishes off Nephenee's Knight, trading so Neph has the Javelin in preparation for a Sniper in range.
Ilyana finds a nice safe spot to stand in because of all this bog. Not that she needs it.
Marcia coming in with the crits. A lot of enemies have come to attack her, and apparently not to their benefit.
There's that Sniper I mentioned dealt with.
Oh yeah, these guys appear at the starting position. I haven't prepared a plan for them. Only this one has a Killing Edge, at least.
I chose to send Lethe, for some reason. She was probably better off using her Support bonuses with Jill for my plan this turn, but it turned out to be a nonissue.
Jill is going to be baiting a Killer Lance Halberdier and a sword unit. Ideally, she hits the sword guy.
Ilyana got a Staff rank. She needs to hit C for my purposes, and this is D.
Lethe isn't doubling the Myrms. She is still Demi-Banded.
Jill hit this guy no problem, at least. Turns out she oneshot him, too.
The Killer Lance guy is dealt with, and we acquire it for ourselves. Nephenee picked up an extra space in her inventory, but this won't be making its way into it.
Something kinda rude about the end of turn 3 is that two groups of reinforcements appear. These two guys...
...and this guy. They're not difficult enemies or particularly awkward to deal with, but they both spawn at once, and the camera kinda splits the difference and focuses on the area in between them, where both are off-screen.
This mage stayed where he was and Astrid goes to deal with him.
And gets a promotion off of it.
Her horse gets a cloak! And I think her armour's more ornate, too.
And some statups! My Astrids are normally better than this, though. No matter.
As a Paladin, Astrid can choose any physical weapon to use as a supplement. The other cavaliers get bows in place of whatever weapon they start with. So, swords, lances or axes...
Steel Axes are an E Rank weapon, axes are the strongest weapon and there are a limited number of female axe users compared to lances and swords. This was more of a choice than staves vs knives, but it was also decided before Astrid even joined the party.
Mia stabbed a guy with a Venin Edge, and got hit with the weapon back. She didn't actually take damage from the sword, but if a Venin weapon connects at all, you get Poisoned. Poison does 1-4 damage at the start of your turn until it runs out, and is mostly known in the Fire Emblem fandom as "free healer EXP."
Lethe kills the Killing Edge guy on her turn. I could un-Demi Band her and switch her out or something, I dunno.
Jill can crush this guy with ease. This is why Astrid is also using axes now.
I forget if Nephenee was taking a lot of damage from this guy or very little.
She's certainly bulking up in response, though. Although no Res.
Yeah, if Jill could just cap those three stats, she doesn't need the rest of it. Defence would be nice, though.
There's more reinforcements if it takes you longer than 4 turns. It did not take me longer than 4 turns.
You'd think the first two facts would contribute to that.
Yeah, we'll stick to who we have. (Also, Titania will only advise us on things if she is in the party- Nasir does it otherwise.)
And that concludes Part 1.
A sound! Ulki, your turn!
Intriguing!
Perhaps. Though why would Ulki have never heard the sound before?
Perhaps because we disagree on something?
Tibarn doesn't bother checking what the humans are up to.
And off they go.
We hear the sound too! Well... Mist does.
Ike didn't hear a thing.
Lethe heard it too. This cutscene, of course, is dependent on whether Mist, Lethe and Mordecai were brought along to this map, with Nasir hearing the sound if you brought none of these three.
It's a very delicate sound, you see.
Ike and Mist in general are pretty laguz-like for beorc. Maybe that whole "born in Gallia" thing actually did rub off on them.
Ike makes sure Mist doesn't get a swelled head.
Nasir is still here to talk about this new topic, though.
We don't know that many galdrar songs, but there's a few more in Radiant Dawn that no one ever used because it's so esoteric to obtain them and the basic song was too good.
Also, "galdr" is the singular, "galdrar" is the plural, I'm fairly sure.
"Give one the speed to do the work of two men" is the series traditional Dance, repurposed in the world of Tellius (no skimpily dressed dancers for this army!).
Ike points out that, as much power as the herons had, it didn't save them from Begnion.
Herons are made sick by the Chaos of war, and flourish in the Order peacetime. Violence would make Reyson empty his stomach. Not that this stops him.
Time to move forward.
Ike thanks Lethe for telling him about the sound. Lethe in particular is the only one that really has this moment.
It's to support her own transition into trusting beorc.
Found Reyson! Mission over?
Oh yeah, right, Reyson hates beorc. That won't help us.
I feel like you should totally be listening to the forest first, unless by "I must drive these wretches out before", you mean "you can't speak to the forest unless you do."
Well, doesn't that sound pleasant?
You can select 2 additional people before every round to join your party. We will be doing this zero times. Reinforcements appear on Turn 3 Player Phase (we not only get reinforcements, we get same turn reinforcements!)
We cannot reposition our army in the starting formation. I do not know if anyone knows the positions, but if it's anything like FE's historical approach, it will be determined by what order your characters appear on your roster (ie the person who is listed directly under Ike on the first Choose Units screen will always appear in the same position).
"Items" also only allows you to edit your reinforcement's inventories. You can't manage your own.
The end of the first map is that area beneath us. We have to reach the Arrive tile this time.
Generic pleasantries are exchanged.
Astrid will be heading to the Arrive point.
Everyone else will fight the enemies on the left.
Everyone goes for Marcia, not that it makes them live longer.
Marcia gets a very pegasus-like level up.
Astrid is critting soldiers with her axe. Damn, what's her crit rate? Paladins aren't supposed to be very critty.
Ilyana remembers she has a Thunder tome and shoots over this broken tree to eliminate a cavalier.
And Jill deletes this promoted unit. Promoted units are good for a lot of EXP if you can secure the kill.
Titania and Marcia move Ilyana over around the obstruction so she can continue assisting. I'd like Marcia to not kill all of these enemies- save some for the other units!
Lethe pushes Mist, despite her horse, so she can present herself a target too.
Astrid ambles through the muck. She can't beeline to the Arrive point- if I wanted to solve the map as fast as possible, Marcia would be doing this.
Mist continues to not yet be capable of one rounding cavaliers.
A single soldier spawns as a reinforcement in the middle of my formation. I feel like he has a friend that was prevented from spawning because I was occupying his starting position.
Mist hit C Swords from those cavaliers earlier, so she uses this Arms Scroll to get to B. Why did I do this? I'll tell you next mission, but honestly, maybe Mist could've got to B reasonably on her own before that becomes relevant.
Nephenee runs all the way around this soldier before stabbing him from this direction. Not that it gets her much closer to the action.
Lethe kills a cavalier and renders the other one incapable of doing anything other than attacking her. He ran in there on his own accord.
Astrid is getting there!
She's trying her best to speed it up.
More Skill, and some Speed is nice, but I do want her to get to max Strength.
Also, the whole "remaining movement" thing still applies when it's swamp you're surrounded by and not desert, it's just a lot rarer.
All of these cavaliers had the choice of going along Astrid's route or the western route, due to their starting positions. Fortunately, they chose this route.
Astrid's got two people to worry about. Unfortunately, I don't think she can reach Arrive from here, but it's close.
Ilyana continues shooting Elthunders over trees.
Ilyana continues critting Elthunders. Female Sage crits involve her stepping backwards and forwards amidst the usual "arms spreading" pose that is all magic crits.
I call this a defensive line?
Mist remembers she has a staff and heals Ilyana. I don't think Mist will be using much of the interesting staves.
Full Guard or Wyvern Band, doesn't matter if you don't even bother getting hit.
Everyone comes to visit Marcia! Do I seriously not have a horse unit in range for this guy to handle? Maybe Titania was out of range and of course Mist doesn't count.
The dream of capping Lethe's Strength dries up. I'm not sure what her cap is, but I'm fairly sure she's gotten more Str-less levels than she can afford to hit it. Ah well, she won't need it in this game.
Mia gets critting. When Mia does it, I expect it, because she has an innate 15% crit bonus (only in the international versions, though) for being a Swordmaster on top of her Skill stat.
Ilyana gets this lovely level.
This priest has a Physic staff! If you brought Volke, you can acquire it for yourself- stealing staves is free in this game. If you brought Sothe, you need to make sure he's got a point in Strength, because staves have weight and Sothe isn't strong enough to steal Physics on his own.
So close!
Lethe takes this free turn to switch off the Demi Band.
No enemies appeared as reinforcements in the meantime, so off we go!
I'm not worried. All right, I am, but only like 5%.
Ike spotted something!
Fascinating. Must be some kind of natural phenomenon. Reckon someone of Serenes is responsible?
Looks it...
Nasir has found a heron!
...A heron?
Oh look, it's Reys... wait...
[Whatever is this...?]
Leanne is so cute! Just... sorry, if Sanaki is my favourite Tellius character, Leanne is definitely the one I find cutest.
That is a very good question, though. Where did she come from?
Truly, though...
[Who are you?]
She doesn't seem all that cooperative, though. Or... able to speak the modern tongue.
[Yaaaa...! Stay away, human!]
The game kinda skims over the details of how Leanne survived (it was some kind of ritual her sisters did to save her over themselves), but presumably she knows enough about the Massacre to be scared of beorc.
Also, for all his strengths, I wouldn't say Ike is the person to meet first after unconsciousness.
And she faints. The last thing I'd want to do after coming out of a coma would be fall asleep again, but then again, I've never been in a coma.
Herons are, as a rule, delicate. Reyson can take a beating because he's Reyson. Leanne, not so much.
Just who I wanted to see!
Oliver, you might want to take a closer peek...
If I'm depraved enough to own a slave in the first place, I don't want to spend all that money to have it run off after just one day.
I choose not to understand why Oliver lights up on hearing Leanne is a girl. He is still the sort to not be planning anything that would bump the game's rating up.
Ike, being Ike, decides that Oliver can have Leanne over his dead body.
And Rescues her.
No, doesn't seem his style...
Just once it's amazing for our guys to do that.
Now that is an army. Our goal for this phase is to Defend for 10 turns. We lose if Leanne is killed, which is not going to happen because Ike is holding her and refuses to drop her, and we already lose if Ike is killed. So basically, Defend Ike.
Ike suffers the Rescue penalties as per usual, so even a trained Ike might find that a little harder than usual. If he's trained, he might survive a few rounds, but... he's not going to be a fighter. Hope you've got yours at level 20!
Pressing "A" while in a stat screen allows you to check the stat screen of the person you're holding. Here are Leanne's stats, and if you're planning on using a Heron (hint, you should be), this is basically what their stats are going to be like. So hey, Leanne has a stat screen, that must mean she's playable later, right?
Yeah, nah, us All Girls runners aren't that lucky. The Heron's galdrar that provides their Dance effect is based on a Skill called Canto (yes, considering other FE games, this is very confusing, but bear with me), and even if we could... hack the game and acquire a Canto Scroll, it only works on transformed Herons and Herons can't use the Demi Band.
Also a trivia note, but the Radiant Dawn developers changed Leanne's Affinity. Good for her, honestly, Wind sucks.
Since we're on a new map, Lethe is now transforming correctly without her Demi Band- ie Turn 1.
Astrid stands in this exact tile with her bow. She can bait forward two 1-2 weapons from 2 range here.
Titania doesn't oneshot a mage. We're stuck with her in our party to get Ike/Titania A, so we should start being concerned about her stats again.
OK, she crits this one, but...
Marcia, on the other hand, one hit kills this mage with her Iron Sword. That Wind tome is Effective on her, you know!
Mia flips a coin on whether she's going to get Poisoned.
She got an excellent level!
And the coin landed tails. I'd rather be poisoned with a good level than normal status with a crap one.
That myrmidon can't actually reach Astrid (and if he could, he'd probably find her hard to chew anyway), but Lethe takes point anyway.
This myrmidon was eaten by Mist. Mist.
That Speed continuing to tick up just fine.
Look at all these mages. And me without a 1-2 sword.
Jill gets in on the critical action.
And gains her Skill and Speed that she needs more. Well, Speed is dubious, I think she's faster than Marcia now.
Mist can handle these mages fine on her own terms.
Nephenee can oneshot hers.
And just in case, she can crit them too. 10 point landing!
Marcia plays with fire and finds herself lukewarm. C-.
Astrid finds a Longbowman! We don't get his, not like we can use them.
Astrid continues gaining lots of stats that aren't Strength and Defence.
She, too, is undisturbed by fire. Something about Oliver's mages being his scariest forces?
See, Marcia can afford to slack off on her Strength!
Is it sad I can't tell if this archer hit or missed?
Well, Astrid's part of the map has just gotten exciting.
Mia can overkill mages. Is "crushing mage's skull like sparrow's egg between thighs" still notable?
Lethe is Lethe, and her answer is "yes".
Astrid finishes off this mage and bolts. I want Lethe to have a turn killing all those one range units next to them.
The boss is about as well prepared for us as his mage friends: Actually, I think he did some of that damage to Nephenee. Maybe.
Really, they had the numbers, but they didn't have the stats.
Mist's avoid score: Yes.
Nephenee continuing to use the Reginleif for oneshots. She's getting her money's worth.
I look at this screen and reassess. Maybe the priests did die...
Here's a Nephenee level with her fundamentals. She almost definitely got that off the south priest, since he at least drops his Mend staff.
Mia's focusing on her dodge game.
Titania can still pull out usable numbers, even if I'm spoiled for size.
Turn 6 and the enemy is routed.
More cannon fodder!
Mist needed a push from Lethe to reach and kill this guy.
Jill does not.
Ilyana is frantically healing what she can in a world where there's not enough enemies to even get hit by.
I have the sneaking suspicion this guy's buddies were prevented from spawning by Mist and/or Jill.
The Strength no longer counts as Speed.
There's his buddies!
Jill is now Fast with a capital F.
Still done ahead of schedule.
He's cromulent as well as corpulent!
We'll take him too.
Marcia picked up Nephenee to try and drag her to Mist or Ilyana for some healer EXP. You can still see her holding her in this screenshot.
You tell him, Ike.
Now, if we had brought Boyd and/or Soren, we'd get some additional scenes, and Boyd's is worth showing.
Soren: I understand, but shouldn't we at least let someone else carry the heron?
Ike: Truth be told, she's unbelievably light. I barely know she's there.
Soren: Is... Is that so?
Ike: I think she weighs... Oh, I'd say about half as much as Mist.
Mist: Wow! I'm surprised!
Boyd: I'll bet you are...
Mist: What are you grinning about, Boyd?
Boyd: Oh, nothing... I'm just amazed...Did you know you're two times heavier than she is!? I'm glad I don't have to carry you around! It'd be like wearing an extra suit of armor!
Mist: You... You pig! You're the worst!
Boyd: Gaaa!
Ike: All right, maybe I exaggerated a bit. But she's still lighter than you.
Mist: Well, what do you expect? She's a bird!!!
Mist shoves Boyd 3 squares after "You're the worst!". It was potentially worth bringing Boyd just for that. I decided against it.
Reyson's almost prepared that doom spell. Very moderately concerning.
Rescue party!
Reyson apologises for getting into this situation in the first place. A fair apology, but Tibarn is happy that everything turned out well.
Reyson still has some business he'd like to finish.
Tibarn misunderstands him as "you want us to drive them out", and says we probably have him outmatched. I... highly doubt this. At least Astrid has a high Skill stat...
Reyson's idea is less blockable.
Tibarn's reaction is very... appropriate.
Reyson is focused on revenge. This does feel kinda Dimitri, focusing on retribution for the genocide. At least the people he's blaming are valid targets.
Yeah, if Reyson does this, the sheer pressure of the Chaos he'd exude would destroy him, at best. Tibarn looks out for his charge.
I don't have anything witty to say here. The Serenes Massacre is a tragedy on all fronts and it is played as such.
His brother and one of his sisters become plot relevant later. Or at least, one of his brothers. I'm not really sure how big Reyson's family ultimately is.
Also, Leanne is described as "infant" here, and I'm not sure how mature she's supposed to be.
I... I can explain?
Tibarn and Janaff talk Reyson down, in their own pretty racist way. Not that they're wrong to have this opinion... it's complicated.
Ulki is much more circumspect about the tragedy. He's not very accusatory.
Not helpful. For us, at least.
Ike tries lying. I don't think anyone buys it.
It doesn't help that Oliver lives in his own little world and can't comprehend our goals, so makes up some alternatives.
And don't forget the egotism. Who wouldn't want to be Oliver? Most everyone.
He's gone.
Ike is just as perplexed as us all.
Ike's reaction is a very appropriate "oh please".
Marcia has put down Nephenee, let's do this.
Final mission. Ike still has Leanne on this back, for what it's worth. There's a giant river in the south that'll choke our main force. Incidentally, the goal is to defeat Oliver.
This guy has Meteor. Let's not have Ike in range of this guy. Meteor is heavy and unlikely to double, but Ike is also slow as hell thanks to Leanne.
If you've trained Rolf and he spawns in the right spot, this is the best use of the Longbow in the game.
16. Atk. Mist, Ilyana and Marcia are completely immune to him. If he connects, Nosferatu heals him for 100% of the HP he deals, but with that low a Magic score, who is he hitting? Magic seems a bit of a fool's errand, though.
This guy's holding an Adept scroll. Let's make sure to kill him.
So, we may not have Rolf, but we have our fliers in just the right places...
Prepare to meteor doom!
Titania does not one round an unpromoted enemy.
Mist finishes the kill.
Maybe Ilyana could handle Oliver, with these numbers? I think 20 Res with her Magic is still like slightly over the might of Elthunder, though.
Mist continues to draw everyone to her, and continues to handle myrmidons fine and struggle with cavaliers.
More Strength! Also, I think this means the Steel Sword is now without penalty. It is almost broken, though.
Marcia gets attacked by a pegasus knight. I'm not sure if it's the rarity of pegasus knights or what, but the fact this is a recoloured Marcia just feels so much more obvious.
We attract Tibarn's attention. They were en-route to Phoenicis, and then suddenly this became their problem.
Oh hey, that sound! Do we have an answer this time?
The forest is the one speaking!
[What is it? ...What are you trying to tell me?]
It sounds like the forest has something to say! Does it?
Janaff takes a closer look at the situation and comes to a critical realisation.
Oh hey, that sounds like something Phoenicis can get behind!
To you!
Reyson is here too.
The hawks appear on the maps as green units, and Tibarn transforms. They appear once you pass a certain line, and it appears Marcia killing that Meteor man got them turn 1.
They're also same-turn reinforcements, so Janaff transforms and they get to work.
Yeah... the hawks are badass. Let's not let them anywhere near Oliver: I'm of a mind to get the EXP and Adept scroll.
And of course, the best way to do that is to get this kill on the way. That is a General, he'd be tough to chew for a normal unit.
Jill moves in range of the 1-2 guards of Oliver, and Marcia makes her equip Mistilethe so she kills them from outside Oliver's range.
Funny how not having a point of Speed makes a decent level turn terrible.
...What kind of frame of Nephenee's crit animation did I take here?
Mist finally gets to kill a cavalier! I think she's the one who weakened this one.
Titania onerounds a generic cavalier exactly.
More Avoid and Defence for Lethe.
Think your Poleax can threaten Astrid, can you?
Jill starts one rounding her enemies in the boss's corner.
Strength and Resistance... weird, but OK.
Tibarn has taken too many kills. We should do something about that.
But first, there are bow horses at start, and Astrid goes to deal with them. Any reinforcements I might have brought for whatever reason would be forced to make themselves scarce to these guys through that muck.
This helps Astrid immensely.
Marcia and Jill decide to give up on clearing the level immediately to deal with Tibarn and Janaff. There's no real reason for me to do this, but I have the spare time. I think.
Astrid disappoints me immensely. There had to be one, didn't there?
This guy ate a Vulnerary, not that it helped.
Mist continues her trade of healing people. She seems to have picked up one of the birds from Marcia, so fair play.
Titania makes sure Ulki is off the map before he transforms and starts killing things.
Ilyana got the Adept scroll. Now we're basically done.
Astrid got enough EXP to have an easy level up next trip to the base.
Tempting. Iron Sword kill is hilarious.
And how he met his end in the other run.
But there's a more fitting end.
Who should kill Oliver but a laguz?
I mean, according to Gashilama and like half the internet, you're wrong, Oliver. Glad I made Lethe's day, though. So who else has interesting things to say to Oliver? Well, it's just Ike, the three laguz, and Devdan (well, Devdan was Oliver's indentured servant...), but they're all pretty good.
Oliver: St-stay back! A filthy beast like you… How dare you approach a sanctified personage such as myself!
Muarim: Who is it that decided that a laguz life is worth less than a human? Do you believe the goddess Ashera, whom you claim to worship, would want it to be so?
Oliver: Aaaaaaah! Monster! Hideous, vile monster! You will not defile the name of the goddess!
Muarim: Monster? Which of us is the true monster?
Muarim is king, of course.
Oliver: Oh, such a hideous creature! Noooo! Stay back, you filthy beast!
Mordecai: I am Mordecai. I am not filthy… It is your soul that is unclean.
Not that Mordecai is any slouch.
Devdan: Devdan likes pretty things, too.
Oliver: Wh-who are you?
Devdan: But things are only pretty where you find them. Locking them away is sad. It makes Devdan upset…
Oliver: Grrr… That peculiar face… I’ve seen it somewhere before. Um…err… It’s no use. Your ill-favored face clouds my memory.
Devdan: You have a bad memory, large man. Let Devdan give you a present that you will not forget…
Devdan does as Devdan does best- say cool things in a very moderately creepy way.
Oliver: You lowborn, vulgar, penurious vermin! Return my little bird to me! Objects of beauty must be admired! Only by my side can they fulfill the purpose for which they are created!
Ike: I am SO TIRED of listening to your nonsense, you massive gasbag! This ends here and now!
I think that's all we really needed to hear, though.
I can't believe this is the first recorded instance of a negative loss to beauty.
...Yay?
Next time, we bridge the gap between beorc and laguz!
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