RD Chapter 3-8 Preparations: Little people pancakes

The arrows are animated while the narrator is talking. Sometimes I get a little confused about when the correct time to screenshot is, but for this instance, I needed two to show off all the arrows.

We got through Daein, but we still haven't solved the problem.

So now it's time to figure out an escape from those guys too.

Well, I wouldn't say incandescent...

Now that Janaff and Ulki are in our army, we can use them for spying for a few chapters. RD actually doesn't forget about them like in PoR, but their capacity for observation is relatively limited.

Whew. We're carrying wounded, but still... we're laguz. They're armours.

They've apparently been getting faster.

Ulki:

……帝国軍は神官部隊を有効に利用し、
休息の時間を最低限に
抑えているようだ………

Ike:

こちらが休む間にも
進軍を続けているというわけか。
どうする？
このままじゃ、じき追いつかれる。

I think this is more detail about how they caught up. Something about priesthood troops and moving while Zelgius is absent.

All right, we've gotta start making plans for either when they catch up or how to give them the slip permanently.

Soren suggests the obvious: the Secret Passage is out of the question, we can't let Begnion know about it.

But what options does that leave us?

Ike wants to not fight for political reasons rather than practical. Will wonders never cease? This is a valid point, though, and well made. But still, that takes away both fight and flight.

Soren spots some caves, and well, we're out of many other options.

...Ranulf, see above about other options.

Volcanic activity? OK, yeah, I can see why it's not an appealing option.

...A small chance is still a chance, right?

We don't have time for argument. We have to make a choice, and we have to make it now.

Soren considers the merits of fighting the Central Army and an underground volcano system, and decrees the latter to be less dangerous. Nerves of steel on this one. At the very least, perhaps we can wait until Begnion goes away in there, if nothing else.

Soren:

この森で戦ったところで、
ラグズ連合軍の全滅は見えています。
僅かなりと生き延びる可能性があるのは…
カウク洞窟のほうです。

Ranulf:

……嫌かも知れんが、
オレの背に乗ってくれ、軍師殿。

The entire second half of this conversation is pretty different, with Ranulf suggesting calling a meeting with Skrimir and Tibarn to ask what they should do between "fight in Serenes" (which Reyson will never let them hear the end of) and go into Kauku. This happens shortly after, and has Soren pulling a Micaiah and getting a vision- presumably not the literal kind Micaiah gets- of the Laguz Alliance dying if they take Serenes. Ranulf's response is an offer to ride his back, calling him by a title that Skrimir likes calling him- something along the lines of "Little Warrior". The localisation ignored this title for Soren entirely- Skrimir says it in lines like "ah, tiny strategist, sit next to me" or "we crossed the river in triumph thanks to the tiny strategist".

...I just wanted an excuse to talk about "Little Warrior" some, since now Ranulf's using it too. 

Ike trusts Soren so much he's willing to go into a volcanic deathtrap because Soren said it was the smart thing to do. And people say Ike's got no interest in him.

Zelgius doesn't even believe the reports that the laguz have chosen Kauku.

Levail is completely befuddled.

Zelgius declares the idea of following them to be as equally suicidal as the laguz entering in the first place. I mean, why bother? They're just going to die of lava.

Zelgius declares the war over, in the absence of an enemy to fight.

Oh. The one commander worse than Zelgius for us.

The Begnion. Senate.

I'm going to imagine this guy's laugh is so high pitched that it would hurt my ears if I was in his presence, because he honestly just radiates that aura.

Time and place, dude. This is a war campaign.

So what brings Valtome out to the literal sticks?

...Well then. That makes Zelgius quite redundant. I wonder what use Sanaki and Sephiran are to Lekain alive if he can just... do this.

...And I just made myself sad.

Zelgius, model of professionalism, immediately falls in line. Perhaps he had the same thoughts.

Sadistic bastard was probably hoping for a rise.

So, to business, before you succeed.

Just what do you think you can do to speed it up? Zelgius was doing just fine.

Also, the enemy was surrendered!

Put a pin in this one, it's setting up next chapter.

I presume he's talking about Levail's loosely organised rabble who led to this mess in the first place and-

Wait, did he just send them into Kauku? For a "or something" reason?

Valtome:

北方軍は
このまま残していきましょう。

Zelgius:

！？

Valtome:

奴らを追って行かせなさい。
そう…顔に傷のある大鷹と、
赤獅子の死体を持ち帰るまでは、
国への帰還は認めないと伝えるのです。

Zelgius:

しかし、敵の死体は
溶岩によって溶けてしまった
可能性もありますが……

Valtome:

それでも、見つけるのです。
手ぶらで帰らせるなんて
そんなことはできないでしょう？
私が無能だと思われてしまう。

Valtome specifically wants the Northern troops to go find Tibarn and Skrimir's corpses- although of course, he doesn't mention them by name, just by vague description. Yes, even if they've been melted by lava, he wants the corpses to prove it.

Zelgius finally rose to Valtome's bait.

Well. This is all sorts of Very Bad.

"Come along now" like some kind of dog.

I'm sure Zelgius isn't particuarly interested in the extinction of the laguz, either. I do wonder what his true thoughts on the matter are...

...Mist MVP? Wow, she kicked ass. She's due her promotion, let's get that done first.

But first, there's a glitch in Mist's promotion I intend to show off. It's not just her promotion, but hers is the only one I can do in this file.

And she's back in a yellow dress. Funny, that. Still, though, she is back on her horse.

Her promotion gains, and... wait what? -1 Luck? A selection of classes have a higher Luck cap in tier 2 than in tier 3, and Cleric -> Valkyrie is one of them. If you have passed the new cap, you will get one of the few cases of a stat deduction in FE history.

I savescum the Ashera Icon, and this is our real promotion gain. +5 Str/Def on a physical unit, pros of being technically a magic unit. Although we could use some shoring up on these numbers.

Promoting from an infantry unit to a cavalry unit has switched her skill from the 5 Capacity Shove to the 10 Capacity Canto, and with her current skillset, that bumps her above her third tier Capacity of 60. If this happens, the game asks you to remove Skills until your skillset is now valid (and does refund your dropped skills as Skill Scrolls). I remove Corrosion, since its purpose has now been met.

Two Base conversations today, with a bit of a laguz flavour.

Ranulf and Skrimir will be talking about the Wounded.

The situation is bad.

Which, of course, will slow us down. Mechanically, this also means a lot of turns performing complex Rescue movements instead of chewing Olivi Grass, although I'm sure this isn't a feature of actual narrative laguz marching.

Skrimir volunteers for this duty in the caves.

Ranulf points out that he's technically one of the wounded and should treat himself appropriately.

Well, yeah, not on your sprite.

I wonder how this does look in-universe. I'm going to assume he's not literally dripping blood on the carpet, although I wouldn't put it past him.

Skrimir confesses that yes, he would like to sit down.

Tibarn and Ike can probably see through his bravado, but the Gallians do not.

Skrimir is using his fortitude in walking off being beaten up by Zelgius to inspire the troops to carry on through their own wounds.

...Let's see if that kills him.

Our siblings today are Lethe and Lyre. If you saw Ranulf/Lethe B, you'd know this from PoR, but RD hasn't actually taken the time to point this out.

I think this is about 3-6?

Lyre is very immature, and really shouldn't even be on a battlefield. How old she is relative to maturity in the beast tribes is a bit of a question, though. Lyre's artbook age is 18, although as a laguz, she is very definitely much older than that.

Lethe is a proper soldier with actual experience, and treats Lyre as well as she can to operate within that framework.

The question really is why Lyre entered that framework to begin with.

Lyre has been stonewalling Lethe like mad. Definitely a teenager.

I wonder how attractive Ranulf is to other laguz. What even makes an attractive laguz to begin with?

Wow, that got her to open up.

The two of them love each other, deep down. Although Lyre really needs help expressing herself.

Lethe is happy to see her working at it.

Lyre has an item for us!

...Although it might be a little bit of a gag gift.

Probably not the right time, Lyre.

Yeah, Lyre's just a mess in the army. We really should consider her alternatives.

Daunt is an awesome RD Skill. Daunt is a 10 Capacity skill that reduces the Hit and Crit rate of all enemies within 3 squares of the user regardless of whether the user is involved in combat or not. Give this to whoever has 10 Capacity free and is likely to be on the frontline and shore up your frontline to a great degree even if they never personally get to contribute. It's the perfect choice in Skill to be passed around this army as filler. It has a short animation that plays before every combat in which it is a factor, simultaneous with Support pop-ups, and if that annoys you, you may want to pass on this one, though.

Speaking of Support pop-ups, Ilyana and Heather go up to B, for +5 Hit compared to C.

No, I haven't bought anything in Bargains yet. This is legit all they got. Maybe I should've bought it to see what happens, but I had three new bags from Zihark, I felt all right with my current supply. Honestly, there's so much Olivi Grass in the Bargains from here on out that I don't feel like I'm missing out from not buying now.

Ironically, considering the Info conversation in which we obtained it, Lyre will bear Daunt today. All those slight crit rates last map really got to me, I guess. Besides, she could use the extra Avoid.

I do raise Lethe's EXP to 99 before her next Blossom level. Both also have Wildheart, since it's 10 Capacity and I have the two. Unless you used Volug in 3-6, this is your first real chance to use Wildheart in its natural state, and it will be nice to see the cats use these in action.

I also give them a Support with each other- it was this or Ilyana for Lyre. Heaven/Lightning isn't the greatest match ([+0.5 Def, +9 Hit, +2.5 Avo]), but honestly, that's more because Heaven is terrible than anything. +1 Def and +3 Avoid is good enough for Lyre, though, and certainly not the worst thing in the world for Lethe. I'd like Lyre to have a partner with an Avoid affinity, but this party is kind of at a premium for such in the first place- I think Nephenee is the only other woman in this party who has an Avoid affinity.

Welcome to the Kauku Caves. Mechanically, both Fire Emblem and Advance Wars regularly include maps in volcanic areas that use the environment as a gimmick. Kauku is Tellius's contribution to the tradition.

Oh dear, General Septimus is on clean-up duty. I guess abandoning Flaguerre cost him in the long run.

Sure. Currying favour with Zelgius. That would have saved you.

……なぜだ…なんだって、
私ばかりがこんな目に合うのだ。
北方軍の将を残すのであれば、
私などではなくルベール殿だろうに。
こんなことなら、私ももっと
ゼルギウス殿に取り入っておくのだった。
そうすれば…こんな溶岩窟になど、
足を踏み入れずに
済んだのかもしれんのに………

The commander of the Northern Force who should be here is Levail, and Zelgius took him along with Valtome, leaving Septimus as who might presumably be the best option. This is a good reason for Septimus to consider his lack of currying favour with Zelgius to be his problem.

Well, we have a visual. ...OK, a Janaff visual is relatively meaningless.

Although Ike's occluded vision suggests that perhaps visual range is less than usual in here. No fog, thankfully.

This is presumably the B Team for the Central Army- everyone here doesn't want to be here, and is probably being included in this force as a punishment.

Obviously, this means that Zelgius is not among them.

Ulki:

………………
…どうやら、中央軍は
別の経路を使って……
ガリアに攻め込むつもり…らしい。

Ranulf:

まさか『抜け道』が
見つかったんじゃないだろうな！？

Ulki:

……そこまで詳しい話はしていない。

Ulki uses his super-hearing to pick up on the fact that Begnion is planning on approaching Gallia by different means to Kauku. Ranulf asks if they know about "the loophole" (the secret passage we got to Begnion with and decided not to expose to Begnion by using on the way back), and Ulki says he isn't clear. Ike interrupts this thought before he can figure out the real plan.

This suggests that the objective will be Survive, but it's not, it's Rout. Fine by me, we don't have the Black Knight this time.

"Deal with these clowns" out of Ike. True, but unexpected.

...Well, OK, next time, this was a bit of a close one, but I ultimately decided on a second part.