SS Chapter 10 Eirika Battle: A House Divided Against Itself...

I send Amelia charging into the middle of an enemy formation and feel absolutely no concern for her physical safety! Amelia is ready to stand alongside the other units as an equal.

Amelia is, I believe, the only female Cavalier on GBA, which means this is the only chance to admire the female cavalier sprite. I have no idea why they gave her a ponytail (Forde and Amelia might legitimately look closer to their official designs if they switched sprites), but damn if it isn't cute. Why are all the female class designs cute?

Tana finishes this guy off. She has multiple reasons to get down to Innes as fast as possible, but she legitimately can't get any further than this. Plus, it encourages the mages to go hit other people rather than follow her.

Time to go listen in on what makes Pablo tick. He's a little bit more than a disposable chapter boss, although they don't really work on giving him a character to show for it.

...You know, it would certainly be a great present, but I don't think Grado really cares about Innes that much. They've already destroyed the Frelia Sacred Stone.

I feel like you should've sorted this out before this point.

Pablo wants Innes dead. Unlike Eirika, Innes has no value captured, and he's the kind of person it would be impossible to throw in a cell and expect it to hold.

Important note: Pablo doesn't know where Klimt is.

To embarass the above assertion, the game's interface suggests this conversation is occurring on the tile directly east of Pablo's. I thought Pablo was actively holding Klimt to enforce the Grado-friendly approach, but no, Klimt is legitimately hiding out in the building Pablo is occupying.

At least Klimt knows what Pablo is doing. I would be very concerned if neither party was aware of the other.

Assuming Frelia survives long enough to still be around after the fact. Yeah, Tana could be Queen, but that's putting a big ask on her- she hasn't really paid any mind to the "future queen" part of her job because she's at the back of a very competent line.

This is not a concern with any basis in reality, but considering Grado's actions and goals, I feel like the reality is worse than Klimt imagines.

Klimt is not only supportive of Frelia, but actively involved with trying to make sure Innes does what he needs to do. I think this is equally self-serving to Carcino's desires, just on Frelia's side, although since he's supposed to be the good guy, we'll be ignoring that.

Unfortunately, Klimt can't do anything to help without risking his position. With those ballistae in front of Pablo and the door preventing passage for our land troops, Pablo is uncontested if he turns his Divine on Klimt.

And that's the story of how this isn't going to impact the battle in any way.

The cavalier crit involves swinging the lance around like a baton before landing the actual hit, and it turns out there's a lot of frames where the lance looks like a scythe while it's going.

Some of these guys are moving up innes's way, but the group with Marisa in it is going to wait a little longer.

Here is Amelia taking zero damage.

Here's Innes shooting one of the mages. I thought they had plenty of room to attack Amelia without standing in Innes's way, but I guess I have more faith in the enemy AI than they deserve.

Incidentally, Tana is one of two characters who can turn Innes blue, so she can get that done on the way.

Vanessa takes out the mage.

...While Amelia can't quite get this one. Next time, maybe.

Amelia'll be power-levelling while she does.

...I guess Lute is more scared of physical weapons than Amelia is?

Amelia continuing to demonstrate that she is now a frontline soldier.

And these two have targets. At least Innes is closer to the action.

Right, stop wasting your Silver Bow and listen to a real tactician.

Innes is not yet aware Tana is the goddess's gift to man.

I love how matter-of-fact Tana gets in this one.

She's been with Eirika for five minutes and already she's telling Innes to sit down and watch his sister at work.

Innes, perhaps somewhat reasonably, doesn't believe Tana is actually good at fighting. Mainly because he hasn't seen any evidence of her practice yet.

Tana's going to be staying right where she is.

And considering what happened to you, Innes, I wouldn't talk.

Why do I always get the perfect blink frames? Yeah, that's exactly the expression one throws at Innes for that line.

I guess that's as good as you're going to get out of Innes.

Eirika: Prince Innes! Are you well?
Innes: Eirika… Is that you?
Eirika: We’ve come to aid you. You must be exhausted. Please fall back and rest. We’ll take care of these dogs.
Innes: I cannot allow that. I will not run and hide while a woman protects me… We will continue the fight. You can join us.
Eirika: If that’s how you want it. Let’s go then.
Innes: …Eirika, a moment.
Eirika: Prince?
Innes: I would give you my thanks. You, the princess of Renais, came to my aid… …I am in your debt.

Talking to Eirika reveals he may just have a level of the sexist kind of chauvinism as well as the normal kind. Sorry, Innes, your sister is a badass. You're just going to have to learn to live with that.

Once Innes has been recruited, he can talk to both mercenaries to recruit them, while the mercs can also talk to the other one.

They're safe! Now they don't need to pitch their manliness into their deaths!

Innes, as part of the "he actually does care about other people in his own way" initiative, gives thanks where thanks are due. Really, he's only painted as an asshole because two of the three people he hates are our focal characters.

These two are hard to kill, but they can be killed. Well, OK, no, Innes is on the permadeath-proof crew.

Tethys: Say, Chief. I’ve got good news, and I’ve got better news.
Gerik: Eh? What’s the good news?
Tethys: Within our band of mercenaries… There are two women enamored of you.
Gerik: Huh? What’re you talking about? You a fortune-teller now? And what’s the better news?
Tethys: Help has arrived. Looks like we may survive after all.

(Yes, those two women who have a crush on Gerik are Tethys and Marisa, what made you get that impression?)

Speaking of Gerik and Tethys.

One thing you learn about Tethys is that she grew up poor and took on dancing for pennies. She's pretty optimistic about the human race, all things considered.

Gerik is completely unaware of the romantic angle with both girls. This dynamic has the ingredients to go horribly, but I actually kind of like it for one major reason- Marisa is completely unaware of the situation too.

Innes: Reinforcements have arrived, Tethys.
Tethys: Really? Perhaps faith is a good thing. I’ve never had much before, but perhaps good things do happen to good people.
Innes: Faith had nothing to do with this. Let’s go. We must join them.
Tethys: What a strange nobleman.

This strikes me as a conversation that belongs in the very religiously-charged world of Fodlan politics, but here in Magvel, where we don't even learn what gods they worship, it fits somewhat less well.

Tethys, with a turn free and no one to recruit, can get Tana to block up this hole she left recruiting Innes.

Vanessa and Neimi haul Eirika over the forests to play Support for Tana. I may have forgotten this is a Seize map, but I wasn't planning on ending this map in a hurry anyway.

Natasha gets better slowly and surely, but she will never be Lute.

Then again, I don't think many things can be Lute.

Yoink.

What did I tell you about all the scythe frames?

...She needed the Strength.

Apparently the time has come for Marisa to march.

Remember how Joshua was paid less than Grado and was treated as disposable by his superior? Apparently Pablo's a lot more of a skint, because Marisa is getting paid more than the rank and file despite the fact that her employment is a mess.

Did I forget to mention Marisa was Byleth before it was cool?

Unstifled by the limitation of "being unable to talk", Marisa takes all the humour of the Ashen Demon and milks it. Fortunately, this does extend to her Supports, although she doesn't really say anything this cool ever again.

You do that.

The things I do to feed Amelia. She's a frontline unit, but she's not shredding things yet. Then again, these are myrmidons...

On the other hand, here Neimi is oneshotting one.

Lute makes sure that soldier doesn't get any funny ideas about hitting Natasha or Colm.

Eirika's on Fighter duty.

...Apparently Tana had other ideas.

She's welcome to them.

It also helps that Tethys is giving Tana a boost down.

If her animations are on, Tethys has a pretty long dancing animation. I'd recommend turning these off.

Goodbye, archer man.

Gerik is going to move up. He's the one that can recruit Marisa.

Natasha smelled people in more need of healing down here.

Amelia is done taking damage for the day.

...Not that Tana is in any more of a mind.

Right, pictured range belongs to the archer.

And this is Marisa's range. We want to stay out of this range at all costs- Marisa will die if she tries to take a swing at Eirika or Tana. I think we're past the point we're scared of her, though.

He didn't move last turn, but I'm not letting him change his mind later.

I don't think I've noticed how terrible Vanessa's HP is yet, because this level up flies in the face of that.

...Also, man, Vanessa's actually ahead of Tana in the good stats too.

He's also the guy with the Door Key.

...I'm not sure what Lute is doing here. She's at least in Vanessa's Support range.

Almost... almost...

Neimi draws her sword, too.

...And Colm runs away from this really strange formation.

Eirika ventures this close, hoping to finish off most of the surroundings.

15 Atk...

Tethys gets Natasha closer to the problem, just in case.

I guess it had to happen eventually.

Everyone else is attacking Amelia as expected.

To profit. Although Strength won't go amiss.

I swear this girl is a dodge tank, not a face tank.

She's approaching her level cap, so I probably won't wind up giving her a new one. Lots of people need Iron Swords now.

Oh, that's what Lute's doing here. Ballista bait.

Why did you even get out of bed this morning?

Good news, we can get right in here.

Tana'll catch up to Vanessa in no time.

Seems a shame Marisa can't feed this kill, but you know...

(Say, why didn't I give her the archer?)

Marisa, switch teams.

Gerik is disturbed by the fact Marisa has joined the opposite army, but only moderately gobsmacked.

Marisa has joined Carcino instead of Frelia because the mercenary guild handing out jobs stuffed up badly. Marisa somehow got paid more money than the rest of Carcino's soldiers.

This gets even funnier on Ephraim route somehow. I'd ask for a new guild.

Now how does one untangle such a complicated knot of bureaucratics?

Gerik points out that, as a proper mercenary, she should stick to the people who hired her, despite the fact the hiring was under false pretences.

Gerik doesn't exactly want to fight, but if Marisa stops fighting, she becomes the mercenary who quit a job she was paid to do.

Gerik, personally, would like to see Marisa rejoin him, because she's his woman and for all his talk of mercenary honour, he prefers to care about how well his friends are off.

Marisa, meanwhile, cares even less about such trifles as reputation and paper trails.

She knows what she wants to do, and she's going to do it.

Restoration Queen changed this iconic ending line, and I'll be quite honest, I think that was a mistake. I can see where they're coming from- technically speaking, this is Marisa thinking with her crush on Gerik and not with her sense of honour and reason. But this is Marisa, socially awkward dork, and the idea that she flips her employers the bird for their screwups is too perfect.

Marisa goes to Eirika and loads up on swords. Told you I needed all the spares I could find.

Tethys sends her back down to kill this guy. If we want to protect Marisa's reputation (insomuch as it needs it), best to leave no witnesses. As far as anyone walking away from this skirmish is concerned, Marisa was always working for Innes.

...Now if only Marisa could one-round a defenceless priest.

Never mind, 2% crit.

Lute must be on the exact edge of ballista range, if I'm all right with Vanessa hanging around one square over.

There's something kind of amusing about a bow-unit on the map meleeing people. Nomad Troopers kinda had the same thing going on for them.

Where has this frame of the Ranger sword attack been all my life? It doesn't fully make up for the loss of the Nomad Trooper crit, but it comes close.

Amelia'll keep it up with the bandits.

Really wishing Natasha was up here again...

Amelia please now is not the time.

Huh, Lute must've been on 99 EXP.

Pegasus knights!

And cavaliers with a Ranger over there.

...They still look kinda scary, but those stats are pretty meh.

Tana ferries Marisa over to somewhere with axe units.

Before making sure Innes and Gerik are safe from pegasus knights.

Fortunately, pegasus knights can't fly over the walls of that fortress- if they could, Tana could've recruited everyone sooner than she did.

Amelia's gone for a Vulnerary.

And Neimi's going to Support her. And also to make sure it's Marisa that takes some heat.

I think this is out of ballista range.

Lute's time to promote!

Lute may promote into either a Sage, which will give her Light magic and a higher Magic score, or a Mage Knight, which will give her a horse and a higher Con for more Speed.

I have multiple reasons for going for Sage. One being I like seeing Lute oneshot things. Two being Lute is fast enough for most purposes. Three being Sage Lute is more mobile on the desert map waiting for us later, which outweigh the movement bonus of the horse on other maps. And fourth being I think the Sage sprite is cute.

With that said, it does feel more like it's designed for Brunnya, Sonia and Limstella than it does Lilina, Nino and Lute.

Both Sages and Mage Knights can use Staves- I don't think there's a promoted mage class that can't. If Natasha didn't find it hard enough to get EXP, now Lute needs to heal stuff to grind up enough rank for good staves later.

I don't think Lute will ever use this other than for laughs. Despite the fact no one else in the party can currently use Light yet.

Marisa is doing just fine, although I question her damage output.

This situation could be going better.

Fortunately, they can't get to Innes no matter how badly I move my units. Gerik's still a bit of a sitting duck, though.

Natasha's also got to get out of dodge.

Marisa's worried about those cavaliers. Those are definitely not her scene.

Because that fortress is a no-fly zone, Eirika can stand here and Gerik is completely safe from being attacked. Which is good, because now I am completely immune to-

...Right, Falcoknights have an extra point of Move.

Clearly you need to die.

This is just a fancier attack frame. I'm not sure if the fact Tana is completely outclassing her is a symbol of Tana's strength as a unit or this falcoknight suffering from the promotion glitch.

Amelia prepares to start attracting bandit attention.

And I don't think we can pretend otherwise, she's going to need this. The healing animations play for promoted staff users, but these we can probably swallow for the cool attacking animations.

Marisa is raring to become a good unit. It is incredibly difficult to recommend raising Marisa in an environment where Eirika, Joshua and Gerik are competing with her. No two ways about it, she's probably not making it to their heights. Marisa tends to be one of the units I can't count on in the end, but that's not to say this means she's bad, just handily outclassed.

Case in point: Here is Amelia doing her job better.

Tana's just fine with her friends.

Wish she had a better level, though.

They're still going for Lute, although I'm sure they're doing more damage to Amelia.

Gerik's going back to the fortress to hide out. I think there's no more reinforcements threatening it.

Tethys goes back to give Tana another turn.

...Amelia's not doing great on this front...

Tana'll be fine.

Checks health she'll be fine.

This guy needs to go.

Right, this should be fine.

Poor Natasha.

Marisa can take the bandits. If they don't get to Neimi.

Well, Natasha needed to heal Tana.

Told you she was just fine.

Vanessa's got friends too. Well, not for long.

Most inconsequential ballista level up.

Sure, this is the perfect time to open the door.

...Should've checked that out.

Thanks for the help, Eirika?

It worked.

Right, Colm is fine.

Thanks for not killing that guy.

Now both ballista bolts are firing. Not that one of them has many more bolts.

He's also about to get hit by Amelia.

Ballista users don't have combat animations when you're bashing him.

So long Red Gem!

Welcome Strength! Her Luck is also getting completely ridiculous.

That's Vanessa and Lute's A Support acquired.

Tethys wants to Support Marisa, but her job is also to make Marisa walk somewhere else after she dances.

...Not helped by the fact I want Tethys to not get hit by bandits. Not because she's scared, but because I want Marisa to be taking this attack.

Marisa can protect Tethys completely from this square.

These hourses also have lore, while we're sneaking past.

This guy is talking about Innes.

I'm sure the actually decent soldiers are helping too.

I'm pretty sure Frelia's success is not entirely down to Innes's spy network. Especially since I don't think he's been spending much time on the job. At least he is doing it whenever he can.

This, at least, is true.

There's that Strength I've been hoping for.

Tethys gets a perfect level, from her perspective. She has no use for Strength or Skill, and every point in everything else is good for her defensive. She usually gets Speed and Luck, Def and Res are comparitively rarer.

No more of this guy.

Ooh, Longbow! In this game, Neimi (and anyone who can use bows, although only Snipers, Rangers and Warriors fit that description) may use Longbows- in Tellius, only Snipers could do so.

Demonstration: Neimi can't get in the Ballista.

And he cheaped out on the paychecks, which is why none of these people are actually stopping us. It was a cunning gambit, but it was the wrong one.

...OK, good point, he's not making any progress taking out Grado or Frelia, but he is beating the army-less Carcino. This is bad news in the short term, but ultimately, if Carcino can't win against Grado and Frelia now, they're not going to win with Carcino not in civil war, and the situation is still going to end badly for Carcino no matter which of us wipes the floor with him.

He might've had a better play if he hired better soldiers, but somehow I get the feeling no money could've bought Pablo a winning move.

This man instead talks about the system of government Carcino finds itself with.

Hell yeah, power to the people! Magvel is on the cusp of discovering democracy, and with careful attention, this could lead to universal education and the birth of a new era. So long as people with power are paying attention to the needs of the society.

...Please don't imply this is a bad thing, Sacred Stones.

Restoration Queen was released before Three Houses and it was still based enough to ditch this line.

Strength!

The last building in this village is a miniature Arena- the last Arena in the main story, I believe. I'll be spending some turns training up Amelia and Marisa here.

Amelia is doing just fine.

Marisa still has bandits to swing at.

Implying joining now is different from being subjugated.

At least he's taken his fate in his own hands!

This is a metaphor for his entire ambition.

He is unable to land a hit on Tana, either. Couldn't get a crit rate on either, although Eirika/Tana has a Support that gives Crit Evade.

This is for trying to kill Tana's brother.

This is true: Pablo is not yet dead as far as the plot is concerned. He'll show up later for revenge, although he couldn't accomplish the job of seizing power.

Pablo: Yahh…!? You! You’re… Prince Innes!
Innes: …You’re one of Carcino’s councilmen. Trying to trap me is a mistake. Failing, an expensive one. I think it’s time for you to learn how expensive.

While Frelia's rulers are fighting him, Innes has a boss conversation. There's a few of these in this game- nowhere near as much as Tellius, though.

Strength, Defence, Luck!

And also a Guiding Ring to add to our stash. We'll need plenty of these in particular.

Amelia continues to get even more powerful.

...Hahahahahaha... ha... ha...

Let's fight something else.

Marisa please.

Marisa is just having a rough time of it in general.

Vanessa picks up an awesome, non-HP containing level.

At least Marisa gets some good ones.

Strength!

Amelia is doing just fine.

Speed and Defence, sure.

Marisa killed a cavalier!

Strength and Defence!

Strength and... Skill!

Amelia and Neimi get a stage in Support rank.

Got finished up with Arena grinding, so here's some Tethys levels as I finish up Support grinding.

Marisa and Tethys have achieved C Rank. A Fire/Ice pair is [+0.5 Atk, +0.5 Def, +5 Hit, +5 Avo, +2.5 Crit, +2.5 Ddg]- Marisa appreciates the Avoid, although the Hit is pretty useless.

With the Seize, Valter shows up on the mountain to be creepy about Eirika. That seems to be his only job.

...Of course you do. I can't believe he managed to make this line sound horribly sexist, but at least that's intentional on the game's part.

...I hope.

The odds of Valter having just let Ephraim wander off of his own accord are getting startling high. Still not letting 5x off the hook, but at least it's in-characater shenanigans.

When he just says that part aloud...

Anyway, in we head to see Klimt.

Also Innes. This is technically when Innes and Eirika first meet in this continuity. If Eirika recruited Innes, this is still the first time to talk without danger afoot.

Eirika is a badass now, and she's got even more badasses at hand, including your sister and your girlfriend (who I am really annoyed I have to explicitly mention are different people).

Hey, Klimt! Eirika is close to Frelia and Grado enough to be best friends with the Princess of the former and the Prince of the latter, but her ability to identify the leaders of the three remaining countries is woefully inadequate.

Interestingly, Klimt does not introduce himself as the leader of the Elders. At this point, he probably isn't.

Innes, like Seth, jumps immediately on the "the Carcino person is evil" train, for reasons I'd rather not think about. Since we're supposed to think of those two as intelligent, I'm concerned we're supposed to consider their suspicions as founded.

Thanks for spoiling the well, Pablo.

Translation: Pablo tried to kill him, but couldn't find him.

The problem in Carcino is that the two schools of thought are being pitted against one another, and both sides have enough power to make it stick.

Klimt leads some council members to support Frelia, Pablo leads some to support Grado.

I'm so glad it's Eirika who figured this out. Less glad it's happening now.

Allying with Frelia is far more likely to lead to a world where Carcino can ocntinue to prosper, and thus it is very advantageous for Carcino to choose their side.

However, with Grado on their doorstep, the easiest plan for short term survival is to appear as not an enemy, and Pablo took it.

...Now that he says this, I wonder how many people are on Carcino's Council. In Leicester, the head table has five seats, but I think there need to be a few more chairs to support the number of plurals in this thought.

This is also referring to Innes- Pablo being so focused on finding and killing Innes means he's not looking for Klimt. Take that away, and... good luck avoiding someone in the same building as you.

Probably didn't really make sense for them to be looking for Innes, although if he got their attention...

The game is taking its time trying to establish the relatively simple premise of "there are people in power who sided with Frelia, and there are people in power who sided with Grado, and the latter have the bigger army".

Hopefully it worked.

Eirika tries. Part of me wonders if the game fumbling Eirika so bad is just the writers being bad at writing diplomacy, which hurts Eirika because she's supposed to be the one good at diplomacy.

With an escape route secured, Klimt prepares to find asylum in Frelia while people with sword arms chase Pablo out.

We get it, game, please stop trying to send Eirika home.

Apparently Eirika didn't even dignify that with a response.

Gerik and Tethys, despite being fired earlier, will be re-enlisting in the player's army. Although, strictly speaking, I don't think Innes has formally joined our cause yet.

Innes gives them a full contract and everything. Rest assured the gold doesn't come out of our pockets.

Apparently Innes is still enough of a stick in the mud that this is uncharacteristic of Innes as Tethys sees him.

Although from the sounds of it, I think he actually bowed when he offered his gratitude. That might be new.

Again, I don't think Innes and Eirika have officially teamed up yet.

I like this plan.

Now we get introduced to Ewan, Tethys's little brother. He's going to run around making himself useful for a bit, but he'll later join the party as the third trainee.

Similar to Ross and Amelia, he's hanging around armies because he's desperate to prove himself, but unlike them, he's less interested in the "killing people" part of the job.

Ewan just wants to go help people on adventures.

Tethys is trying to let him have a childhood while she does some bloody wetwork as a mercenary.

Ewan isn't that interested.

I'm not sure how old he's supposed to be. Nor Tethys, come to think of it.

Ewan is a mage, learning magic from a named character we'll meet later, and while magic has non-violent uses, Ewan is plenty proficient in the violent kind.

...I'm not entirely sure what Tethys is worried about here. I'm going to go with "Ewan is probably going to start a fire if he's allowed to cast unchallenged."

Ewan is, strictly speaking, more able to fight enemies than Tethys is, but he will die to a stiff breeze and Tethys has no need of protection once she gets some decent Avoid and bulk.

Ewan is going to ask until Tethys relents anyway, might as well relent early and spare the trouble.

Ewan is not going to wander off and get kidnapped.

...Well, yet.

Of course you do, Seth.

We set out with an important objective above dealing with the Grado army, a minor scuffle like this Carcino uprising isn't going to stop us.

If Grado goes unchecked, what happens in Carcino isn't going to matter.

Without a sea route, Eirika has no real option other than to tail Innes and then head to Rausten after Innes gets to Jehanna.

All right, we're not scared of them, but they're still unpleasant.

And that's the story of how Ewan's going to be plot relevant now.

Eirika realises it's probably not a good idea to trust a random tyke.

Fortunately, this resolves the situation more easily than anything Ewan could say. Knowing him, he'd probably say something that'd get him in more trouble.

Eirika does think enlisting Ewan's help is a good idea.

Ewan regularly uses this mountain path because this is where he goes to magic school, and thus it makes sense we're counting on his guidance. I'm less sure whether Tethys has experience taking him there.

And even Ewan's like "I trust teacher more."

We haven't heard of Saleh yet, but we have bumped into him back in Chapter 5.

Innes recognises the name, which helps add authenticity to Ewan's story.

This would be reinforced if we actually saw him do it in Chapter 6, but it makes sense in implication.

He also knows about Caer Pelyn, but only in the sense of "it exists".

Innes decides that yeah, Ewan's story matches his own. Always double-check your facts, especially when travelling to meet new allies. We learned that one the hard way.

So let's take it.

The hard part will be keeping up with a hyperactive kiddo.

Next time: Well, we avoided the mercenaries...