SS Chapter 10 Ephraim Preparations: Choose A Side

Ephraim is also headed off to a blue dot, although I love how much the path down there winds around that part of the map. There's also a castle labelled halfway down, and I'm not sure what that place is.

Sure, Artur could pick up a few more levels, but in this case, I want Artur's promoted power and I also want him to have a bit of Staff rank ready. I think the latter ambition was a bit foolish, but also I have lots of people to give EXP to and I didn't really want Artur stealing it.

Monks (and male Priests) may promote into either Bishops or Sages. The choice, then, is between the superior Anima magic of the Sage or the Slayer skill, granting x3 Effectiveness against all monster enemies.

There's no two ways about it. If you can go Bishop, go Bishop.

In FE6, all Bishops were promoted Priests, which is why the class wields a staff as a rule. The fact that Lucius and Artur promote into a class that has a staff on the sprite and only just get staves is funnier in hindsight. With that said, they do start with a higher Staff rank than Sages.

...Duessel went to Renais to teach Ephraim? I guess that explains why no one else in Grado seems to remember the boy, although Father MacGregor didn't extend the same courtesy. No wonder Ephraim never bothered paying attention.

...You know what, I'll give him that. Duessel is more sensible, but I can see where they're coming from here.

From what we saw of the enemy interludes, Ephraim is doomed to disappointment here.

So long as someone can answer the question...

Well clearly we're getting one new recruit.

Ephraim is stopped on this coastline to receive a message. To my knowledge, I don't actually think this coastline is used on any map, including the one we're about to play.

Another point in the "you're supposed to do Eirika route first" bucket: This message means nothing if you have no idea what the deal is with Carcino. There are fundamental facts here that an Ephraim-route-first player does not have.

For one thing, technically speaking, Ephraim shouldn't really be worried about Eirika here. Eirika got on a boat and sailed to Rausten, and the matters of the ghost ship and the extent of the rebellion haven't reached Ephraim yet.

Eirika's going on the overland route. It's necessary for Ephraim to be aware that she bailed on the "go to Rausten" plan, and I suppose this is the point where Ephraim is informed.

Ephraim jumping on the sexism train and thinking that this slight setback is worth bailing on his "important" mission to go fix because Eirika can't do it on her own. Granted, Ephraim-route Eirika doesn't have Tana, but still. She's your flesh and blood, Ephraim, she's every bit your equal.

Ephraim needs only a quick, wordless reminder to start thinking rationally again.

Although his plan is not so much phrased in terms of "we're best served solving the problem we're nearest to" as it is "we can bail out Eirika by defeating Grado".

Being Eirika must be hard work.

The pot calling the kettle black, as said in a world where I have never seen a black kettle.

The camera goes back to the field, since there is an earthquake going on.

It's an inconsequential bit of world-building, I'm sure.

It also won't be affecting the plot of the story right now, either.

It happens all the time here in Grado. As an Australian, I'm not entirely sure how it's localised to Grado (we don't have earthquakes here), but it's indeed a thing- and a relevant thing- that only Grado feels them.

The people have learned to live with them.

I guess Ephraim has to not spend a lot of time in Grado, if he managed to forget this part of daily life. I'm sure the citizens have their own ways of dealing with it.

Imagine just shrugging and moving on after an earthquake.

Shrugging and moving on...

Moving to Bethroen, and seeing a meeting between General Duessel (left) and General Selena (right). I think one of the wyverns is supposed to be Cormag.

Duessel is spending his time not under direct supervision to let out all his seditious thoughts in private. Ignoring the fact that, by land, there is no way Selena can get to where she's standing without passing by where Duessel is standing.

It is possible the two missed each other, but it's almost comical to imagine how.

Duessel is vague about what duties he is assigned to complete, and Selena matches him by being vague about hers. They can both pretend they're talking about the same thing when neither has any intention of doing it.

...And who'll be giving that order? I think the idea is they're just waiting for Ephraim to get close enough that they can jump out and not ruin the element of surprise.

So then, Duessel, the time has come at last.

Are you prepared to do your duty to Grado and turn your back on your protege?

Duessel has chosen his path. He wishes for an end to the conflict favourable to Ephraim. And whether he knows it or not, his bosses have already prepared his parting party.

Selena, too, has a decision to make here, whether she knows it or not.

In following the orders given to her by Vigarde, she must side against Duessel. To do anything else would be to bring disgrace to the Empire.

And she stays by the Grado Empire.

This isn't Valter or Riev's trickery, this is exactly what Vigarde ordered. Now, Vigarde is not exactly clear of deceit, but he is still the authority of Grado, and if you can't trust him, what's left?

While it's not necessarily true that Selena has committed to the Grado side of the conflict, it's going to be hard for her to overcome the moral barriers needed to switch sides.

Duessel turns green, and he and his men run into a corner.

Selena, a mage knight of no small skill, could probably crush them from here, and she tells Cormag to make sure they can't back any further out of their hole.

...Except the fortress she tells Cormag to go to is in the other direction to where Duessel is. This is a spectacularly bad ambush plan. The real way to keep Duessel in dire straits is to have somebody positioned north of here.

Cormag, unlike Selena, has not thrown in his entire lot with Vigarde yet, and is still questioning which side he wants to commit to.

It doesn't help that Selena is still showing just enough hesitation for Cormag to seize upon.

But Selena believes wholeheartedly in Vigarde's way.

And Cormag, if he wants to remain a soldier fo Grado, needs to do the same.

Here we come! Duessel and Selena seem to have forgotten us in the whole morality debate they've been entangled in.

Ephraim has noticed the problem, too. Probably from the fact there hasn't been a loud shout as an army charges in his face.

Fortunately, Ephraim can spot what's going on here from here.

No time for moral debates on the subject, we've got to get to Duessel before he gets outmatched! Sure, Duessel is more experienced than Selena, but Selena has the advantage over Duessel when it comes to class, statline and backup.

We have a fairly standard core to push into this situation and have to do it fast. This is a timed mission!

We start in the top-right, Duessel is in the bottom-left, and we win if Duessel is still alive after 10 turns.

Here's the army right in front of us, and- wait, what's the deal with that boat?

The boats are ballista turrets, and are exclusively good at that. They won't do much to anyone, but they do impose threatening no-fly zones on our untrained Tana. She can survive just fine, but we'll have to tip-toe all the same.

The boats can move one tile at a time. Reminds me of Advance Wars battleships: Good in their element, but that's never going to come up. This is legitimately one of the few naval-only units in the series, if not the only one- the devs were thinking about this as early as FE3, with some unused aquatic dragon units, but naval warfare was always a bit of a bad idea in Advance Wars and it can only get worse in Fire Emblem.

Speaking of units that can walk on water, these pirates will make their way over to Duessel as fast as they can, which is not as fast as you'd expect. We should be worried about them, but if we move at a brisk pace, we'll probably get there in time.

General Duessel is to Great Knights what Seth is to Paladins- really good, but if you're going to use him, don't expect him to level up more than once every two chapters. He is Innes's counterpart in that we're not going to find him in Eirika's route.

Here are his soldiers, spawning with slightly different stats, but you may treat them as functionally interchangeable. If the mission ends with all three of them alive, we get a prize. Duessel himself is probably going to be fine even without our help, but these guys, not so much.

Over here, we have the boss, her favourite flunkies, and Cormag resting his laurels on an island.

Cormag may be killed for an Elysian Whip, but I suspect that presenting a persuasive argument may allow us to convert him instead. There's a few characters scattered around the series that will drop treasures if you don't recruit them, that's just an option the player can take.

Here is General Selena, and wow those are decent stats. For a level 8 Mage Knight, pretty passe, but Artur would look at those stats and nod approvingly if he had them. That Bolting tome of hers is the real reason Selena is a name to be feared, though.

3-10 range. Now, obviously, the full range is not reflected here- Selena isn't going to move, so she can only zap 10 spaces away from her starting position (which I believe ends at the highlighted square), but the range shown here can give you... ideas.

So then, saving Duessel...