Bethany Plays: PoR Chapter 23: Just Cause

Ike has decided to park Zelgius in Daein and not help us overthrow Ashnard because of the whole "Begnion might steal our victory".

Ike's happy to have Zelgius making sure there's no surprise attacks.

That is the last we will see of General Zelgius in Path of Radiance. Well, unless Tanith dies, then Zelgius subs in for her in the ending scenes.

And we're onto the narration. Maybe that Zelgius conversation would be better off in Chapter 22, but then Zelgius would be only in one chapter and that would imply he's a minor character.

This is not new information.

This is, though. Ish.

Sure Ashnard had a hand in this, but responsible?

This line, right here, is why Radiant Dawn happens. Why Ike has that responsibility, no idea.

Sure, Zelgius gave them to the Apostle. I trust him wholeheartedly. That's why he's staying in Daein and not coming with us.

...OK, how many people did we bring anyway?

Ah... Riven. Whatever it's called, this map is famous.

The Great Bridge of being a gigantic pain in the ass. This bridge may be the main reason Crimea and Daein coexisted with a shared border for so long.

Ike and Elincia keep having these moments. Though I will comment that Elincia's character archetype has never actually married a Lord in the series history.

We're finally getting back to Crimea after checks watch twelve chapters!

Elincia really has only known a small part of Crimea, but now has seen so much of Gallia, Begnion and Daein while part of this group.

Ike, on the other hand, doesn't really have a national identity.

Ike has lived his entire life several dozen kilometres west of here.

...Meh.

I don't think we have an actual sense of scale for how big the Tellius map is in metric.

But we do have this, a comment that this war has taken the characters a year, even if for us it's only been checks watch... a month?

"Are we there yet?"

How far away are we?

Let's finish off the last few kilometres, then.

Please do not interrupt these two, they're not going to get together on their own, they have their own lives.

After all this time, Ike recognises Ranulf!

I'll take your word for it.

"Being Ranulf" is good enough for him most of the time.

And he finally got here!

It almost sounds like you'd be scolding him if he was.

Well that's ominous.

...And also potentially "we're getting ready to start".

Yay, Gallians! About time you paid attention.

Well, more or less. There's a few political intricacies.

For these reasons.

He's not actually Ike, he's Ike's older twin brother who happens to have the same name, appearance, and past.

Ike pulls rank. It probably doesn't sound very convincing.

It's just fresh on his mind from the last time Soren complained about it.

Nah, he's just like that.

Elincia is incredibly grateful to Caineghis for his efforts.

...Yes. That sounds doable.

Elincia is prepared to make a start on this long and tumultuous path.

Yeah, she did a lot of that middle path, didn't she? Every time I look at this report and notice maps where I get more BEXP than CEXP, I kinda feel like I got the lesser end of the deal.

Today, in Supports, Tanith has finally hunted down and caught Marcia.

This is the setup either to a romance or a murder.

"The Holy Guard routinely screams in your presence."

Bailing out a slob.

Marcia is awesome and continues to be such under a new commander. She may just have been one of the Holy Guard's best.

Yeah, that definitely wasn't in the cards. Although Marcia's certainly considered it.

"Missing, hoped dead."

Honestly, how doesn't Tanith know about this? Did she never chase these guys away?

One of the Holy Guard's finest soldiers, nearly hassled to death by common pirates that the Knights of Crimea felt were beneath them.

...This conversation legitimately does not change based on whether or not you recruited Makalov. As a general reminder, as far as this playthrough is concerned, Makalov is currently dead.

Lethe sneezes.

Thank goodness, she has a heart in there.

...A heart.

What even is the punishment going to be?

Oh hey, Calill has some more to say to Nephenee.

Surprise tests, you've gotta hate them, even if you didn't grow up with standardised testing.

She needs that thing to avoid massive head trauma. Where's your helmet, miss?

Also that. Honestly, you'd probably get the same amount of stares regardless.

...Not that that's how Calill hears it.

As are most Fire Emblem women.

Just jealous, though. Dorothea would be entranced, but that's not really Calill's style.

Why should you being a country girl define what you can't do? Oh, right, Tellius, no class overthrow, my bad.

Which is why you're telling Nephenee to change how she looks for the benefit of others, right?

When was the last time you judged a stranger's appearance?

...Well, I don't even know how these cities work, so...

So is she going to be cared about by city folk or not?

For what, honestly? I'd just say the +1 Atk.

Two Info Conversations today, once of which we missed on account of not recruiting everybody.

The lack of voice acting here really makes this line slightly more ambiguous than necessary: the tone of this question communicates a lot about what's going on.

Now this is the start of a romantic scene.

Not helping your case.

No, Ike is not about to seduce Soren.

He's being chased by Aimee. Again.

Please stop flirting with Ike, ma'am.

Well, he certainly didn't come in here for lunch.

Imagine if this game had the Bargains from Radiant Dawn. Ike's life would be so... wait...

Soren rationalises a good excuse to contribute to this cause.

Take a hint.

How rude.

Aimee has a present for Ike.

Soren tries to figure out how to get it off her while still helping Ike.

Aimee tries to throw Soren off by telling him that she can't just hand over this staff.

Soren recognises the staff immediately.

This is a recurring staff in the franchise, at least in the games with meaningful durability. It is a C-Rank Staff that, as Soren mentions, restores durability of any item to maximum. One thing that Soren does not mention, although it might be obvious, is that you cannot restore items that have dropped to 0 durability and have broken completely. Hammerne has 3 uses: use them wisely.

This surprises Aimee. I mean, Soren is a magician.

Well, until Radiant Dawn, where there's a second one given so that game can have it too. Even outside that technicality, some games have given you the chance to get multiple Hammernes. I think you can't Hammerne a Hammerne in any of them.

This is what Aimee calls flirting.

Ike wouldn't appreciate a rare staff, though.

Soren knows the way to Ike's heart, though.

Well, as long as you don't kill us all.

We still get our Hammerne, at least.

To Soren's surprise.

Ike realises he didn't come out of this encounter as he had hoped.

At least we did.

---

Ike is going about his business as usual when-

Hi, Shinon! So did we not tell him? Probably a good idea, honestly.

...I wonder how much this alcohol reference affected the game's rating in 2005. I don't think the Tellius games have in-depth ratings on ESRB and PEGI.

I think, even if this was a relationship, Elincia is doing all the work.

Yeah, you're not changing Shinon on that.

Now Shinon's angle becomes clear.

This is the most drunken coup ever, counting the real life ones.

If Ike is giving up anything, it's the peerage.

That's a huge projection.

...Since when?

Ike, I don't think this man is competent to answer any questions.

What is this kid's experience with alcohol?

Well, if you're going to be too drunk to shoot...

Ike never considers doing this. "Ike Mercenaries" just doesn't have the same ring.

As much as Shinon resents it.

And Shinon barfs all over Daein.

...I don't fully understand this line.

---

And you get a level up, and you get a level up, and you get a level up...

Ilyana capped Skill/Res, Astrid capped Strength.

This work is... well, turning this bridge into a defensive position.

Define "work".

Sometimes, you need a simple plan.

Petrine is on her last chance. This has to work out for her.

For victory or death!

But they just politely go "please don't cross" rather than stab us... right?

Concurred.

What are we expecting?

Ranulf gave us Nasir, he has yet to be informed about... circumstances.

I love the bluntness of this.

Because it's followed up by this line.

"That's not why we arrested him. But now that you mention it..."

Ranulf changes the topic.

Doesn't work on Ike. Anymore.

Ranulf is amazed by this outcome, because the idea of Nasir serving multiple sides slipped his mind.

Also this. A laguz working for Daein? The racist nation?

Ike brings up that Nasir acted to protect Ena. Does that help?

That's when Nasir betrayed us. The whole "stealing the Medallion" thing was separate, I guess.

This does mean something to Ranulf.

What it does mean, though, Ranulf's not telling us.

And we're here.

We'll have to leave this until later. We can't very well put down this battle we fancy having!

Welcome to the Bridge. If you look by the Ballista to the left, you can see a wyvern knight in black approach Petrine in the west.

It's Haar!

Kinda funny that Haar travels to Petrine when this is how the cutscene opens.

Haar has nerves of steel. Or might just not be paying attention at all.

The jury is still out.

Sure he is.

Title card time, as we pan across the bridge to our side.

Why did the Crimeans cross the bridge? [Insert favourite chicken punchline here.]

"Who's a good boy?"

Ike looks at this and goes "bring it".

Ranulf decides to join us outright.

Ike is really flexing that he knows this political minutia.

Together we ride!

I think I outright have the space to bring him. And bring him I shall! I want a screenshot of something.

This is the map. Look at all that space on this screen that we can't travel over.

I think this screenshot has everything to worry about. Blizzard, Feral Ones, Ballistae, Haar...

This map represents all four Ballistae, so let's address the differences. Ballistae are 3-10 range bows with high Mt and no input from the archer's Strength, with 5 uses as a rule. A normal Ballista, like this one, has 18 Mt and 100 Hit. All Ballistae have 20 Weight, but I don't think they can double in this game, so it doesn't do anything- in the GBA games, Ballistae were "equippable", and not only could you double, but you also had to worry about Avoid while equipping one.

Iron Ballistae, or "Long Ballistae" in some games (and Serenes, for some reason), have 22 Mt, 90 Hit, and 3-15 range. Thanks to the range display, we can see how far it can go and don't care that much, but it'll be harder to get to this guy from out of range nonetheless.

Killer Ballistae, of which we have to worry about two, have 20 Mt, 95 Hit and... 10 Crit. The other kinds of Killers usually have 30. It'll be fun to get rid of these with cunning assassinations- especially since those three archers can change which ballistae they're using.

Stone Ballistae, or "Onagers", have 20 Might and always connect. They are not effective against fliers, though, but do hit the four adjacent tiles to whatever they hit. From experience, this splash damage is weaker than the target damage, but I do not know what the calculation for this is. Half damage? Half Might? Whatever it is, if you're not Reyson, Mist or on single digit HP, you're not going to die.

Here's General Petrine and her Flame Lance. 26 Might versus Resistance, she isn't quite as scary as she perhaps ought, but do keep this in mind when choosing your boss killer. Daunt reduces the Hit and Crit of any enemy unit within 3 spaces by 5 each. Important: Petrine doesn't have to be in the battle for Daunt to take effect.

The battle hasn't even started yet and Haar has already got bored and left.

Astrid starts us off embarassing this Warrior.

Lethe continues to be used to push my units up to get in position.

I think this might have been a Sonic Sword crit. The animation isn't different enough to be clear.

...7 Crit. What is this guy's Luck if that was a crit?

The indicated square is the edge of the Blizzard mage's range. Marcia parks outside of it.

Tanith calls for reinforcements. We have need for disposable ballista bait.

Ike, careful to stay out of ballista range, orders them to stand in this position to bait both Killers.

Jill stands on this exact square.

Calill eats a ballista bolt.

Mist does not.

All right, so this range is where the Iron Ballista can reach. Tanith would quite like to not be in it, but she would also like to be standing on that square in front of the mage.

Mia kills this Warrior in a cunning ploy of mine.

To Siege Tome this guy from his square. I miscounted.

Titania goes to move ahead, and finds herself victim of That One Gimmick: scattered across this bridge (in fixed, always the same across every playthrough positions) are pitfalls that Stun you and End your turn. The Stun wears off at the end of the Player Phase, but if you hit one of these, you need Restore and Reyson to recover. Also, holes are completely impassable, though I don't recall if fliers get stuck obeying this rule.

Fliers could hover over these and allow ground units to pass over, but Tanith couldn't reach.

And Lethe couldn't give her a push because the Holy Guard are in the way.

Lethe pushes Ilyana instead.

There, now there's no Iron Ballistician.

Ilyana has the best reaction times.

Marcia gets this guy with a Javelin. Fun fact, the square Marcia is on is a pitfall.

I was about to type "Yay?", but there is a good use for this.

Here is Mist Sonic Swording a Feral One. Because why the hell not?

Astrid assassinates the normal Ballistician.

He gives us a Longbow, or cash.

Now Tanith can freely stand here, but to be honest, I don't think there's benefit to it anymore.

She moves on into Marcia's Support range.

Here is Titania getting cured of her Stun.

This guy notices Marcia over the sandbags and takes a shot.

Vantage Crit. He had a Physic staff in reserve (not one he drops), and it's a good thing we put a stop to that.

The Holy Guard being competent when cavaliers come to bother them.

There are three sets of rear reinforcements: three myrmidons and three sword cavaliers are the first two. When they arrive depends on how far across the bridge you've made it. I appear to have triggered two of them in one go.

Jill kills this one first before going back to her square. Annoyingly, it's out of range of the far myrmidon.

Ilyana finds a pitfall.

Nephenee pulls her out and Astrid drops her, moving to this location to start baiting some enemies.

Marcia goes to handle the north side.

The things Tanith can't do that Marcia can... I know it's still a kill, but ugh.

Tanith stands on this exact square.

Full Guard makes Marcia's life so much easier.

This Holy Guard was not so lucky.

...Oh, this might theoretically be a problem!

It wasn't. Something something Effective weapons please avoid.

Jill, despite WTD, deals with all these guys easily.

Astrid and Marcia have progressed far enough on the bridge that Haar takes an interest!

There's a reason I wanted them to spawn in this exact position. Unfortunately, though, that myrmidon ruined my advantage. I can fix this, though.

First step, talk to Haar.

Nice to see him again. Jill had no real reason to expect him to not be in Shiharam's corpse pile.

He had a job to do. So hey, why isn't he doing that?

...Actually, wait, Shiharam told you to go to Begnion? I thought he was talking about the Talregans...

Haar's here for revenge.

...Wait, that means us, doesn't it?

Nope. Haar's more reasonable than that. He knows exactly why Shiharam had to die and is going to attack the people who put him in that position rather than us.

Well... so much for that plan.

Also that. Although it sucks that we're basically doing Daein's dirty execution work for them.

Jill suggests that we team up for the common cause of getting rid of Daein!

Haar's not that fond of the idea. He's just... Begnion was a mess and Daein was a mess and damn it all he's tired.

But he'll set that aside for his favourite "niece".

Welcome to the team, Haar!

The little troll.

So anyway, fixing that mistake: Jill brings out Mistilethe and throws it at this guy. Ideally, Jill could do this whole thing in melee, standing in the middle of the formation is supposed to get the wyvern in the back (with a Javelin) before he starts being a nuisance.

Jill gets this level out of the kill, and...

Flies to this exact square.

Haar now has a safe place to stand where he doesn't have to get attacked by the enemy.

Ilyana zaps another ballistician. Bolting is awesome.

Nephenee finds another pitfall. There's a line of three of the buggers here, and I thought it started where I sent the Holy Guard to Target.

Tanith does that much damage to a tiger? What am I paying you for? ~~Am I paying her?~~

Tanith takes over this square. I need someone flying over it.

Calill finishes the tiger off with Meteor. This way I only use one Meteor.

Astrid bravely charges into the rear lines.

Ike finds the pitfall I had Tanith stand on earlier. The game's pathfinding ignores the pitfalls, so you have to be careful.

Marcia lunges in to the other side. There's a pitfall in the middle, so most of the enemy is stuck on this side.

Ranulf moves up and... can't Shove this Holy Guard. I think I took this picture as a "hahaha poor Ranulf" thing, but looking again, I think it's because that square in front of her is a pitfall. The game doesn't let you Shove onto pitfalls.

Some of these enemies have ranged weapons and survive.

Another ballista bolt eaten by a Holy Guard. Annoyingly, the one on the pitfall.

The Stone Ballista is firing!

Here's the splash damage it did to Tanith. It was aimed at the Holy Guard.

Rein...forcements?

They've noticed us, whoever they are.

And they appear to be allies to Elincia!

Geoffrey! Remember that name from Chapter 10? These guys are Crimeans ready to lend their support to our cause!

Lucia will stay here to tell us that they're here.

Although she's not going to be charging in recklessly. And all the better. We want Lucia alive more than usual.

Bastian is totally prepared to walk back on his own.

He's as smart as he sounds. Although I'm not really sure iambic pentameter and Shakespearean words are "sounding smart". Regardless, Bastian is supposed to be smart.

The Crimeans appear on the map the turn after this cutscene as same-turn reinforcements. These wyverns appear based on your progress over the bridge. Usually the Crimeans get first dibs on these kills, but lately I've been moving fast enough that I get a turn without them running around.

I really want this archer dead, despite the two Meteor uses.

At least it gives a rank in Fire.

Ilyana Boltings a Paladin for exact health. Go Ilyana.

Nephenee finds the pitfall. Why did I even send her this direction?

Mist doesn't quite make it to Sonic Sword the tiger. Always frustrating.

Marcia stands in front of Petrine and kills this Paladin. That's a pretty respectable crit chance for Daunt.

And more bulk on the level up. Good time to pick up some Res.

Ranulf finds a pitfall. I think at this point I was just bored and punting people into pitfalls, Ranulf is not even supposed to contribute.

Tanith stands here, so Ike can cross the pitfall in front of her next turn. That tiger cannot hit the square he's on, that's just assuming Tanith isn't standing there (and that there's also not a pitfall there).

Jill bumps into a sandbag preventing her from moving her full movement. Not that she'll reach this side of the bridge in time to contribute.

Petrine's ready to throw some shrimp on the barbie.

Marcia is not.

Mist stabs the tiger herself. I... don't remember if anyone already damaged it or if Mist did that on her own. It's weird that I can believe both.

Marcia leaves a wyvern alive.

Astrid doesn't.

Working on that Luck and Defence again. My Astrids usually cap this stuff, just at level 6 instead of 16.

Please do not die for Elincia.

"Now our deaths will have meaning!"

Two Bow Paladins, three Lance Paladins.

They cover for this wyvern.

But not this one.

Annoyingly, they stand in all the good places to actually attack it from.

Marcia gets the kill, mostly because she's the only good one who can.

If you want to kill Petrine easily, use your Thunder mage. Magic weapons obey the Magic triangle (Thunder>Fire, Fire>Wind, Wind>Thunder) instead of the Sword>Axe>Lance>Sword one, and Petrine is otherwise as weak to magic as most boss Paladins wind up being.

I have another idea.

Ilyana's just getting staff EXP here. So who do we know that might want the Petrine kill?

I'm not sure Mist knows about Petrine's role in her dad's death, or the way she treated him in Chapter 7 (she wasn't there when that went down), but this is the closest she'll get to catharsis for that.

In death, Petrine is reduced to the same thing everyone else is: begging for one last chance. She really wanted to prove herself to Ashnard.

Petrine has the standard suite of boss dialogue (her line with Ike brings up the thing with Greil I alluded to), and also has special dialogue with two characters.

Petrine: Just as I expected. I thought to give you a chance to clear the stain from your name… Yet you and Shiharam are treachery in the flesh. Useless migrants!

Haar: To think we endured this for eighteen long years. It seems General Shiharam and I were not to be blessed with any masters worthy of serving. All we found were paltry pretenders…

Petrine: You insult His Majesty? You know not your place, you louse-ridden oaf! Your failings are yours, and yours alone! It’s time for you to burn! Don’t worry, I’ll let the dogs snack on what’s left!

Nice for Haar to get a moment with the woman he wanted revenge on, but Haar is famous for much more impressive boss conversation zingers.

Petrine: You… That mark on your brow… That’s not a charm of the dead, is it? You’re no Spirit Charmer! Hmph! You may be able to fool others with that, but not me. It’s because we’re the same, see?

Soren: …The same? Don’t be ridiculous. I’m nothing like you. You kill for sport, and hide your fear behind a wall of bravado. Now let me show you true fear!

...Oh ho? If you haven't already checked out today's Supports, you'll want to have a look at Ike/Soren A. But this is a character trait that no other scene mentions that gives Petrine some hidden depths.

Oh yeah, Mist got a level from her. This level should not feel as satisfying as it is.

Mist, unfortunately, cannot Seize. Even if she could, this is extra movement, she couldn't do it anyway.

Ranulf finds another pitfall to pass the time.

On their turn, with no enemies still on the map, the Crimeans form a perfect cross shape... on this tile, for whatever reason.

OK, now I'm just being cruel and unusual.

Elincia is reunited at last with Lucia, her milk sister.

To an overwhelming sense of relief.

More than anything, Elincia's wanted to be back to Lucia. Yes, this is more than a little bit sapphic.

For some reason, Fire Emblem's writers seem incapable of writing female/female relationships like this without making them sapphic as hell. I mean... I'm not complaining, but it does kind of make it difficult to judge whether Lyn, Eirika, Ike or Edelgard is supposed to be the first LGBT Lord.

Geoffrey is alive, too. Though that is no surprise, really.

How else to describe the man than with a word that could only have come from his mouth?

These names mean literally nothing to me. I'm not even sure whether there are three or four people on this list. The least Radiant Dawn could've done, when mentioning random Crimean characters in group scenes, was borrow one of these ones for a sense of cohesion.

How many soldiers do we have?

Oh, there's more, just all of them are in hiding.

That should be more of a problem, really.

Our reputation precedes us!

The rumour mill has brought hope to the Crimeans while the Daeins have roamed free.

Oh yeah, they tend to do that.

HAH!

Well, that's that sorted.

Elincia is gladdened.

Thanks for the boost, Ranulf. I don't think you needed to do it, though, sounds like something they'd have found on their own. The grapevine is not to be underestimated.

Neither Ike nor Ranulf can truly believe Nasir is a traitor. He's been, and continues to be, exceptionally helpful when it comes to everything else.