Bethany Plays: RD Chapter 3-5: Eminent Domain

Right in the kneecaps.

So, you know how Caineghis and Giffca could take on the Black Knight? Skrimir isn't that strong.

The laguz weren't expecting that.

...So now we have to go back to Gallia and think of another plan. This is why we should've brought Giffca.

Ironically, we're not going to be doing much of that this mission.

The Begnion soldiers continue to be impressed with Zelgius's work.

Levail scolds these guys for not doing whatever their job is. Considering the war they're in was just declared over, quite a lot of complacency from them.

Levail has his biases. He probably joins in this conversation after we cut away.

I wonder what Levail's opinion on the laguz are. I don't think we ever get an opinion from him about it.

You know who we do get opinions about the laguz about from? The Senators. Apparently, they really didn't like how Zelgius came to a peaceful resolution.

This punchable fellow is our disposable boss for this mission. He's making himself hateable already. ...Well, I actually think this is one of my favourite disposables, but mostly because of how much of a villain he is.

So... what can the Senate do about Zelgius to voice their disapproval?

Absolutely nothing. And that's a greater insult to the Senate than the fact it happened to begin with.

These moments where you get a bit of an insight into the mind of a Begnion Senator are always so enlightening. Only people as brutally and insanely evil as them fully understand the way their mind ticks, but that doesn't mean we can't get a partial understanding. The fact they believe they're acting in Begnion's interest really helps sell them, as comically evil as they are.

~~Even if it does remind one of a certain kind of real rhetoric...~~

Lombroso volunteers to do what this guy wants done.

The Senator isn't saying "no", but he does notice that this is breaking Zelgius's word, and has enough respect to not do this. Although perhaps he's more worried about his reputation as a material benefit than out of honour.

Lombroso points out that Seliora outranks Zelgius.

Lombroso:
私にお任せください。
我がコーエン家は代々武門の家柄、
必ずや公爵方のお気に召すような
戦果を挙げてご覧に入れますよ。

Seliora:
ほう……しかし
帝国軍には、３日の
待機命令が出ていると聞いておるが？

Lombroso:
伯爵位のゼルギウスの命令など…
時期公爵たる私にとって、
何の抑止力も持ちはしません。

I have the sneaking suspicion Lombroso thinks his own house counts for something in this argument.

And Seliora jumps on the chance, then. So much for that tiniest shred of honour he had buried in there.

...Not that I can blame him too much, we're squatting in his castle.

So, while Ranulf is retreating, Tibarn is assessing his next plan of attack. Not sure what he plans to do, though.

Tibarn asked that Reyson go to Gallia.

Which, rather obviously, wasn't going to happen. It's Reyson.

Reyson hasn't changed much in three years. In fact, he was probably going to get more severely macho over the timeskip.

...Do you mean "as a GM", or just "follow us around for a while"?

Ike: "Because we're no longer technically hired by Ranulf, we can just vacation in a stolen Begnion castle". Somehow, I don't think this is politically accurate.

Ike:
あんたには今日付けで
俺の傭兵団に入ってもらおう。
別に正式に雇われたわけじゃなし…
俺の勝手でここに残る分には、
鷹王には文句を言わせん。

Reyson:
……アイク！　感謝するぞ。

Ike:
団員になったからには、
容赦なくこき使うぞ？
覚悟しとくんだな。

Reyson:
もちろん、望むところだ！

Ike might've just hired Reyson as a proper Greil Mercenary. This is hilarious to me, especially considering a conversation in 3-7...

Reyson is grateful all the same. He's now a party member, for all the good that does us.

Ooh, Nephenee MVP. I guess.

I ship these two, right? Might as well. It's Atk, Def and Accuracy.

Once again one Base conversation. Aren't these supposed to characterise people instead of Supports? I guess this party is all PoR veterans.

Ike looked in earlier, but moved on.

How polite of Ike.

...I know that feeling, Haar. Well, when I'm starting my sleep. When I'm actually dozing, though, you can't even make me stir.

Ike wonders what he's doing here. Back to his old "making sure everyone is consenting" self. Haar doesn't really care about loyalties or the like, this is as good a place to be as any.

This is a good question. Doesn't Haar have... a life, really?

Ike starts with "how did he get here?"

Your talk with Marcia was not "chewing the fat". That was savaging the fat.

Ike asks about his sister-in-law.

Haar's not entirely certain, but he does think she's gone off to join the army or something. Honestly, I wonder how Haar escaped the prison camps. Probably because he's a Begnion.

Ike asks why Haar is chilling with us instead of actually... doing something about that with Jill?

Jill doesn't need babysitting. Especially not from Haar. I don't know their stats off-hand, I wonder if Jill outclasses Haar yet.

Ike picks exactly the wrong time to pick up on subtle romantic cues. This really makes the Mist/Jill ship hilarious from Ike's perspective. I can totally buy Ike being that dense in front of his sister.

Yeah. Jill/Haar as a romantic outcome is one of Radiant Dawn's pairings, but it's comparatively unpopular and... kinda creepy. The pair have a 17 year age gap and Haar is implied to have at least a moderately paternal bond with Jill (the artbook actually goes out of its way to state such, perhaps in response to the complaints). At the very least, the paired ending itself is actually very vague, and because of the nature of the Support system, it is very difficult to get the ending without actively trying for it.

Haar starts to wonder if Ike's habit of asking consent is an excuse to chase people away. Sometimes, it really does feel like it.

I'm told. I honestly find Haar kind of overrated as a unit myself- not a bad unit by any stretch of the imagination, but they way you hear some people tell it, Haar wipes the floor with the entire game.

Haar welcomes the opportunity to give the Senate hell.

Are we done here?

Haar has some serious naptime to catch up on.

Oh yeah, item.

Don't worry about that, Haar.

Eh, he's 37. Let him have it.

Corrosion was... kinda terrible in Path of Radiance, because it Corroded so little of the enemy's weapon that you weren't going to actually impact the battle in any way. This Corrosion can do a lot more damage- and honestly, that's just as much of a curse as a blessing. There are a lot more circumstances where we don't want to Corrode a weapon coming up (not just against people with droppable weapons), and equipping Corrosion is basically saying "never have this character fight these battles". I probably won't ever actually use this.

Additionally, this Skill (and Disarm, as well) can only be equipped by beorc. As funny as it would be to have Lethe use either Skill.

Today's Bargains. The Reaper Card was tempting, but Leanne is a ways off seeing it and we're in a bit of a penny-pinching mood right about now.

Mist picks up Blossom today. But she has three stats capped, you might ask, why would I want to halve her EXP gain for a slight advantage?

Well, I'll be entirely honest, I want her EXP halved most out of this arrangement. The issue with Mist right now is that if I don't give her Blossom (or worse, BEXP her to 20), she's liable to promote into Tier 3- despite being unable to use Master Crowns, she can do it through the level 21 method. I do not want Mist promoting before Chapter 3-7. 3-7 is particularly unkind to horses- like 3-4, there's a part of the map where horses cannot progress. I don't want Mist to promote before she's crossed that line.

Heather keeps her Adept skill warm.

Oh yeah, Ranulf had a whole inventory and stuff. The Satori Sign is the equivalent to a Master Crown for laguz, and grants them their Mastery Skill once they've hit level 30. 90% of players will complete the game without growing any character who can use one of these, let alone requiring more than six (there are six Satori Signs in the game). There are actually two laguz characters who come above level 30 and without their Mastery skills, but for certain... reasons, that's small comfort for the value of the Satori Sign.

...I'll be entirely honest, I don't even know if I'll wind up giving one of these to Lethe or Lyre, in the end. Perhaps I'll give one of them one just so Rend makes an appearance.

I get Mia a Wind Edge at last.

This is barely worth the paper it's printed on, but in an emergency...

So what's this map about?

A crapton of Begnions. There's an entire circular shot here.

Ike notices that the ceasefire has not yet elapsed. I wonder what his plan was once it did.

Well, they'd probably attack if we did anyway.

Possibly.

Ike:
一応、停戦中だ。
こちらから仕掛けるのは、
まずいだろう。

Soren:
アイク、恐らくあの軍は…
フェニキス隊と遭遇しなかった
訳ではありませんね。
彼らが出て行ったのを見計らって、
ここに姿を現したんだと思います。
普通に進軍していて、鷹の民の目を
逃れられるとは到底考えられません。

Ike expresses concern that attacking would break the ceasefire, but Soren points out the whole "they actively avoided the hawks to come meet us" bit that convinces Ike these guys need to be battled.

It would be a foolhardy choice if it was.

The Greil Mercenaries are a name to remember. And are, like... legendary.

We have 6 people to defend Seliora. Lethe and Lyre are with the rest of the Gallians in the massive retreat. Which is a shame, because this map would probably help them with their whole "Strike/EXP" problems.

That number gets reinforced every turn. As it is, it's already 8:1. I trust you won't expect this map to be any challenge whatsoever?

Ooh, two stat caps, I'm so scared. It's impressive, how despite having the most powerful generic Axe, he doesn't feel like that much of a threat. Having almost entirely Tier 3 units does that to someone. Yes, I do need to steal that Energy Drop, don't I?

No Authority, despite his convincing means of getting Seliora to do what he wanted. I guess that was more for Seliora's part than his own.

This fellow has a Meteor tome. He also doesn't like to move.

There's also an Olivi Grass on this tile. Want that.

Titania will be taking the east wing on her own. Since she has Sol, she's good at that.

Mia and Nephenee will be handling the centre.

Mia, of course, is more than prepared.

More Skill and Avoid. Strength would be nice, but we can fix that later.

Nephenee doesn't need Skills to oneround Generals.

And outclasses Mia here by getting Res! Yay?

...I just said "Yay?" to a five stat level up.

Mist will be stationed on the west side, along with Ilyana.

I wanted Heather up there to raise Support with Ilyana, but ultimately, I decided (perhaps a little on the late side), that there's no real time for her to work there and she should head south to go steal the Energy Drop.

Sol putting in work. 3 HP is work!

Titania's levels could stand to be a little better. She's got one natural point of Defence. OK, 9 levels, but still.

...This Iron Blade is probably going to cause a lot of problems. I'm mostly just breaking it so Titania can cap Swords and focus on Axes.

Just imagine Mia once she's capped her Avoid!

I think the idea of using Disarm to facilitate a Heather steal is dead on Mia.

Ilyana is a little less solid of a unit. Flare means she can also heal every now and then, but she doesn't have the overwhelming Avoid or Power of Mia and Nephenee. She's still got Discipline on so she can shore up her tome ranks one last time- mostly because no one else needs it.

This cavalier shooting Mist and not moving away with any remaining movement he might have kinda causes some problems in terms of "the rest of the enemies are now much closer."

Nephenee gets her first Impale. She stabs the enemy three times and then launches a twirling uppercut, in the strangest definition of "Impale" I have ever seen.

I have no idea how or why I noticed this myself, but the male and female versions of Impale are actually slightly different- the males have an extra damage noise when they draw their spear backwards, making four damage noises before the uppercut. I imagine I must've had a run where I was using both Aran and Nephenee on the same map.

Oh, I guess I was wrong about reinforcements every turn- I don't believe anyone here is new. So 10 kills in one turn- how's that for outnumbered?

Mist is getting kills for multiple reasons, despite the whole "I'm holding Mist back" thing. Chief among those reasons is honestly the whole "only six fighting units" thing.

Ilyana also enjoys ledge advantage battles, although this guy wasn't fighting.

Ilyana getting a very Micaiah level.

Nephenee steps forward.

So Heather can occupy the tile behind her and tickle this fellow.

She's honestly here for the Olivi Grass more than the scratch damage, that guy would be one-rounded by Nephenee or Mia.

I can see this guy getting on my nerves.

There's the Strength!

Things are heating up with Titania, and she draws the Hand Axe to get rid of some choice targets.

This. This is why I like Lombroso the most of the disposable bosses. He really believes in this whole "strategy of numbers" that is part and parcel of Begnion's toolkit, and the fact I often do challenge runs that requires me to be using armies of about this size means that this line is always hilariously ironic. Honestly, I think even a casual playthrough is going to be laughing about the idea that this man's numeric advantage means anything.

This part, at least, is a true statement. Now, about the whole "enforcing it" bit, that's the hard part.

Some Generals lose their 1 HP, some get brought down anew.

And Ilyana gets stabbed again.

Honestly, even considering Masteries are Skill/2%, crits are honestly rarer for Nephenee. Although biorhythm can tamper with Skills in a way crits are static.

Hell to the yeah.

Mia continues to wonder why these people even bother.

Ooh, that could've been mildly scary if Titania was anywhere near here.

That's certainly a trade.

The Meteor man has noticed Mia. The ritualistic dodging of space rocks does not interest her.

Oh come on, the healer stands here?

And Mist gets to meet a melee unit, too.

...Literally how?

The reinforcements have begun.

Ilyana can heal Mist's owies, at least.

Now, perhaps I should've dealt with the priest and been done with him, but I was worried about that warrior to the north. I don't want the enemy advancing on the objective tile.

(Admittedly, Ike is standing on it and that might be affecting the enemy AI, but I'm not taking the chances.)

Mia switches to the Silver Sword, half for variety, half because Silver Swords are weaker than Steel Blades. Perhaps I should've saved them for some later recruits, but honestly, again, Steel Blades do more damage.

This General has run away from Titania and to the objective. Titania puts a stop to that, and worries about his friend following his lead.

At least she's got a decent level.

Nephenee decides to knock out this fellow, of all choices. This winds up attracting the Fire sage whose range is highlighted rather than letting him go for Ilyana and Mist.

Unfortunately, Heather can't one round as reliably as the other four Tier 3 units.

0 Hit? Biorhythm's in Mia's favour now! Can't touch her now!

Shame she didn't wind up getting a 5 stat level either time, but as long as it's not three stats, I'm content.

Here's the fire sage coming for Nephenee.

Here's Nephenee going back to the essentials.

Heather dodging a crossbow bolt like it's nothing. If there's one thing Heather can do, it's Avoid like Mia.

We call that overkill in most countries.

Mist doesn't get hit this time.

Good thing we stocked the spare!

This turn's reinforcements.

Mist is going to leave the north-west and head south for the healer and those thunder sages. She stops to pick up this Coin.

Ilyana gets her first Flare cleaning up after her.

Nephenee embarasses the crossbowman.

And Heather has ambitions down over in this direction.

Mia is sick of this guy.

Yeah, this guy tried going for the objective too.

Give me some of my HP. Despite doing 57 damage, she only gets 6 HP leeched because that's all this guy has.

And back down. Titania is more or less done with the north-east. Now we can head down to the south.

Heather making use of that Adept scroll while she has it.

She's picked up some Strength as well as Avoid.

Mia dodged a Meteor so hard she got all her cores.

More armours for Titania. They're going to stick around Titania rather than going north, thankfully.

And Titania is ready to start!

Mist will get to the priest eventually.

Ilyana can't climb down into range, but she's sticking to the north.

Nephenee stops over here to knock this guy off.

Mia deletes this particular paladin.

And Heather now has the Energy Drop.

Titania continues to not kill some Generals by 1HP.

Remember Mist's low crit rate from PoR? At least she doesn't have that anymore!

Lombroso continues to make his point about how much he believes this whole "numerical advantage" thing is working out for him. To be fair, this battle has not been about tactics and skill.

I love that we laugh at his foolhardiness.

Especially as Mia treats him as any other soldier.

Meteor sage notices Titania hanging out nearby.

This one Paladin has reached the priest, but not while the priest had an action left to heal him.

And some paladin reinforcements. These guys are supposed to flank Lombroso and his favourite minions, but Lombroso taking a potshot at Mia means they're on the move and now they're embarassing themselves.

Ooh, this side has gotten exciting.

Just look at this map.

Ilyana, noticing a lack of enemies in her area, picks up some more staff EXP.

Mist is getting to the priest, she swears!

Heather notices the Meteor sage doesn't have Elfire equipped due to the whole "having Meteor" thing, and in the interests of making sure Ilyana and Calill can maintain their inventory, yoinks it. Elwind might be nice (that ~14 use copy Ilyana has is the only one I have), but I don't need Wind for anything other than finishing up all the Sage weapon ranks.

Two of these reinforcements are archers. Mia takes one out.

Nephenee approaches the actual combat again.

Titania takes out this ranged unit and...

Oh. This is a tree, not a thicket. Titania is stuck here, I guess.

Their loss.

Done with this thing, let the axe supremacy reign!

And some more oomph!

No, Lombroso, Heather is just as foolish as Mia despite the lack of WTD.

It's always interesting, to see how a Tier 3 unit is going to win a fight. A surprise with every kill!

That was his last Meteor.

This guy has chosen to attack Titania from a position that is surrounded on three sides by impassable terrain.

And this guy has finally been healed.

He looks so prepared to do that zero damage.

This could've been better.

Also in the "list of people with perfect Avoid on a sword user", Nephenee. At least she has WTA, but still.

Mist has a more reasonable amount of ass-kicking.

Some targets for Ilyana!

Ilyana heals up because she had a Staff on.

She didn't need it or anything, but...

...Well drat. More Strength is a dump stat for Ilyana, she's already strong enough to hold the heaviest tome without penalty. I think she can still use Strength for staff counterattacks?

Mist attacks this guy first to avoid an unpleasant counterattack.

And then misses anyway.

Heather embarasses the thunder sage by standing next to him.

Don't worry, she had a spare.

Titania takes the other guy and makes sure to get out of thunder range.

This guy could go a lot of unpleasant places if Mia didn't stop to bonk him.

...Lombroso engages Titania in melee abort abort abort

...That was unpleasant, but could've gone worse. Well, for him. I'd like to continue being on this map, honestly.

Heather triggers her first Bane. Not necessary to secure the kill, but at least we got it.

Same "cut to black slash" of Lethality, but of course with one less point of damage.

Dramatic last point!

Ooh, Coin.

Finally, I'm done with this guy.

Six stat level up! Still avoiding Strength and Defence!

Luck cap! Unlike PoR, the Luck cap in this game is 30, 35 or 40 depending on class (also 25 and 50 for certain classes, of which we have only met 50 on the herons). Combined with the overall higher caps for the other stats, and Luck caps are not only attainable in Tier 3, but actually likely.

Always go for the people who can throw weapons.

Times like this you wish Disarm just made the enemy drop the weapon anyway.

Look, he's still EXP.

Lombroso learned his lesson and went back to ranged axes.

...Ooh, spicy.

This is the best target in my estimation.

Although I hope Ilyana can Flare again after the hits.

Nephenee continues making life fun for her enemies.

As does Mia.

...This part, less so.

That's convenient. Ilyana is also at S Rank Fire.

...Just give up, man.

Last turn, Ilyana sadly can't kill all these guys.

She at least gets this one.

Power up!

Everyone in general picks a guy and kills.

Even Mist.

That's right... bring out the goddess within...

Unfortunately, Lombroso ran too far away for Titania or Heather to get the kill.

Mia will do.

Wrong kind of numbers.

Lombroso: Hmph, pathetic. Your tiny band of outlaws doesn’t stand a chance before out might. We have more troops on the way. The onslaught will not stop until every last one of you lies dead!
Ike Are you really the best Begnion could send?
Lombroso: What?! How dare you take that tone with me!
Ike Or did they send you at all? Does General Zelgius know about this little excursion?
Lombroso: I don’t take orders from that sanctimonious has-been. Enough questions. Prepare to die!

Zelgius, a has-been? I don't think we have a number on his years of service, but I would put it at around eighteen. Clearly his respect is drying out among the Begnions.

Lombroso: Ah, a heron! You’ll make a nice gift for my lord!

Keeping up the heron slave labour, I see. I guess there's no other laguz characters around.

If you win by letting the ten turns elapse, Levail will appear to scold Lombroso. This stretch of Part 3 is not listed on Serenes's scripts, though, but I imagine you can get the gist just fine using your imaginations.

Ike's definition of "close" is much different from mine.

There's two guys over by Ilyana!

With Janaff and Ulki, the question is "what's the gossip in Sienne"?

The hawks went to Gaddos.

Aside from the guys we fought, things are mostly fine. Yeah, I can believe that. I say slightly sarcastically.

Well, that's not all Tibarn spotted while he was there.

いいや、そうじゃない。
軍の編成や規模、城の構造なんかも
どうせなら把握しとこうと思ってな。
だが、城の周囲を探ってたところで
意外な奴に出くわした。

Tibarn ran into her while trying to assess the structure of Gaddos. He's planning on taking the place, isn't he?

General Sigrun.

I mean, Sanaki and Lekain are rivals, why would Sigrun want to go to Gaddos?

Reyson:
…ということは、
神使がガドゥスへ？

Tibarn:
それも否だ。
供も連れず、単騎だった。
城に降りるのをためらってるようでな。
そんなのを見たら、
男としちゃ黙っておけねえだろう。

Reyson assumes Sanaki would be accompanying Sigrun to Gaddos, which Tibarn denies (she only brought a single horse). This is the meaning behind "she was alone".

Tibarn asked Sigrun a few questions. A fairly valid choice.

...There are a number of warning bells going off in my mind, and every single one is a different sound.

I don't think there's a lot of room for debate here.

So Sigrun has come in to say hi to Zelgius.

Apparently even Zelgius notices Sigrun's not looking her best.

...Honestly, I'm not sure what it is about the artstyle shift, RD Sigrun does have a sadder resting face than PoR. Depending on if these are the neutral expressions for both.

...Sigrun carries an order from the senate. I'd say this is warning sign number 1, but honestly, it's more like warning sign number 5.

Well then... that's just blatant power-grabbing.

This is not coming from Sanaki and Sephiran, for one thing.

...Oh no...

Crap.

I wonder if Sephiran was actually doing anything adjacent to these crimes. I'm not sure how he'd benefit from them.

Zelgius is particularly fond of Sephiran. This strikes below the belt for him.

So you're telling me that Sanaki got sick and shut off all contact with her mothers? Especially with Sephiran locked up?

Yeah, uh... yeah. Sometimes, the characters in-universe actually use capital D Diplomacy. ~~No, I'm not directly calling any part of the fanbase out, what gives you that impression?~~

You mean you don't even know where she is?

Exactly what you need, blackmailing your own general into fighting for you. ~~By kidnapping your bosses.~~

They're really pulling out all the most despicable tricks in the deck, aren't they?

...Oh, we're going to say hi to Daein now, are we?

It's been ages since we saw Micaiah!

Micaiah's just this goddess to everyone, including Pelleas. Not healthy, man.

So how's Micaiah been passing the time between Part 1 and now?

Doing the things she was doing before Part 1, but with a fancy robe now.

"Aren't you past that?", as if it was active mongering on her part. Almedha, if Pelleas was a good King, this would be of no concern whatsoever.

...And wait, isn't Izuka supposed to be handling this skepticism?

The Black Knight, I understand. Why is Izuka scurrying off after working so hard to appoint Pelleas King? What's his angle?

...The Black Knight, kidnapped? Tunnel vision to the extreme there, lady. Izuka, on the other hand... well, it's possible. Who'd want to spend time in Izuka's company, though?

I'll be honest, as bad as Pelleas is, I think the absence of Izuka would make Daein more stable.

Pelleas:
母上、やめてください。
ミカヤは僕にとって、
ただの臣下ではないのです。
私の即位の日に…
突如姿を消したイズカの分まで、
私の支えになってくれている。

Almedha:
この宮殿には、王となったペレアスを
こころよく思わぬ者がいる。
ねぇ、【暁の巫女】よ。

Micaiah:
………

Almedha:
イズカも、
我が息子に仇なす者たちによって
連れ去られたに決まっているわ。
だけど…ペレアスにはこの母がいます。
頼るのであれば、こんな赤の他人ではなく
わたくしになさい。
いいですね、ペレアス。

Only Izuka is brought up in this script. I assume the Black Knight's disappearance is just to confirm the Black Knight has wandered off being mysterious.