Bethany Plays: SS Chapter 15 Ephraim: Ambition in the Sands

When Ephraim prepares for Chapter 15, he's allowed to wander the map first. He also has two routes to explore, if one gets blocked by monsters.

Meet Knoll, Ephraim route's second exclusive character. At this point in the story, all that title gives him is two extra turns in the next map and the opportunity for him to visit the Tower of Valni before it. Knoll really is more of one of the game's post route-split characters. For what he is, however, he is a Shaman with somewhat shaky Skill and Speed stats brought down by his abysmal Luck stat. Luck is a stat you really don't care about on most units, until you see a man who has none of it- it affects your Accuracy slightly, your Avoid considerably, and is the sole source of your Dodge. Add that to Knoll's bad Defence, and he'd be instant bench fodder if he didn't have access to Nosferatu.

Knoll himself isn't a terrible unit when raised, however: Even if you don't want to work around his weaknesses, he has an ace up his sleeve that makes him a key part of any army that chooses to use him. I will be using him on the Ephraim mode file.

On Ephraim route, this means more, since now her backup is Innes and Saleh. Innes, of course, sent Gerik and Tethys to help us, because he thought they'd be more useful there or something. This is why no one likes you, Innes.

Only Caellach gets mentioned here. He is the one with the actual plan here, Valter's just tagging along for the opportunity to bag a cute girl. Really, it's not like we lose anything not getting him as a dedicated chapter boss.

Also burning because Caellach set the castle on fire. In case it wasn't already hot enough.

Cavalry to the rescue, this time they're good!

Same chapter as last time, same map, and even all the buried treasure is identical.

Ephraim spawns in the same place he did the fist time. Before the battle starts, of course, our main forces aren't going to be reinforcements to their own battle.

...If Ephraim thinks it's a ruin from this distance, it's going to take a lot of work to rebuild it later. Screw you too, Caellach.

Good plan.

Valter's here too. Honestly, as far as Ephraim route is concerned, this is more "oh hey, Valter is still a character in this story"- both generals were far more prominent in Eirika route.

Hey, if it's true for both of us, we need to help both of us out.

Basically the same tutorials.

...Is everything like the battle of Renvall for you?

Victory, as in Eirika route, only happens when we've routed Caellach and Valter's armies. Although I feel like he's talking about Chapter 8 Renvall here..

In Ephraim route, we check in on Lyon and Caellach's conversation before the battle.

Clearly, this is an Ephraim route conversation because this doesn't make much sense on Eirika route, where Caellach was dragging Lyon around like neither of them wanted anything to do with each other.

Sick burn. Although it's not as if his prowess is anything to scoff at.

Interesting question. In both routes, Lyon does, on some level, want Eirika alive, although this gigantic battle is doing a good job of not guaranteeing that whatsoever. Who let Lyon sign off on this plan?

Caellach didn't seriously want an answer to it, though.

Lyon does comment on the connection, at least.

Although he pivots the argument entirely to Caellach's past.

Caellach and Aias were no less strongly connected in their time as mercenaries, but when asked if he ever had friends, Caellach immediately thinks of Joshua. This is also the only real moment that points at Caellach and Joshua having history on Ephraim route- although we can assume Caellach still killed Ismaire, no one brings it up, not even somewhere Joshua doesn't hear.

Don't give me that, you clearly thought of him as a friend more actively than that.

Eh, fighting for Ephraim.

Lyon asks if Caellach would like to be a mercenary again.

Not in his interests. Caellach only wants to go in one direction: Up.

And if Grado will let him do that, he'll take that chance.

As far as Grado has in mind.

And then further.

Caellach is very disconcerted his boss is aware that he plans to mutiny at the first opportunity.

Lyon doesn't care. He doesn't really have plans to keep the Grado Empire structure around, and all Caellach is doing is helping him achieve his goals, not really assert conquest. And who knows? Lyon may not be entirely opposed to Caellach getting his wish without having to kill him first.

Also, Caellach is about to go onto a battlefield with the Renais twins.

Not that Caellach is particularly prepared for the possibility of defeat.

If it wasn't for Ephraim's army, this might be true. No offense to Eirika, Innes and Saleh, but their inventories are rather light and they probably don't have the weapon uses to win on their own.

I'm afraid to say it's the end of an era. With Knoll's addition to the team, the need to bring both thieves, and the future recruitment of both Eirika and Innes to team Ephraim, Garcia has been kicked out of the team due to lack of space. It had to happen sometime, and Ross will never quite be the same without his father's help, but the boy has outgrown the need for it, and we need everyone in our army to be competent rather than merely helping someone else be slightly more overkill.

One thing about starting in the corner rather than in the middle is that we have to get to the top-right corner pretty quickly and we don't have a ton of ways to do that. Tana and Cormag will be busy. And also our thieves are pretty far away from the treasure right now.

Caellach and Valter's Hard Mode bonuses. Nothing remarkable, just overall "slightly harder to handle" stuff.

This looks a bit more scary now that the promoted units have actual stats, though.

This, on the other hand, doesn't really look all that scary at all. Why doesn't Caellach get a terrifying set of flunkies? I think Caellach moves in the JP version, or maybe I'm thinking of the prototype. In either case, when the INT team made him stationary, they added the fortress for him to heal with.

You've upgraded.

This guy is still this guy. He's changed his Flux tome for a Luna tome, as if that will help him be less pathetic.

Eirika, Innes and Saleh spawn on turn 1, but they're not in our army and we can't magically edit their inventories.

Once again, Eirika is not weak for getting into this situation, but the writers are way too happy to treat it as if Ephraim the big damn hero is saving the weak pretty girl.

Innes talks her out of it in a very Innes way.

And he has the very un-Innes plan of "hope Ephraim bails him out". Considering Eirika somehow had to bail him out of Chapter 10 alone, I wouldn't say this is unprecedented.

Unfortunately, he didn't get these reports before he went to right next to Ephraim. Honestly, it's amazing he didn't see Myrrh run off to say hi to Selena on the way to or back from dropping Ewan off.

You aren't protecting her any more than she already is.

Eirika can do that, at least.

Let's go, slightly-more-competent team!

...Remember what I said about the gear situation? Yeah, these three aren't holding very much they can use to fight off the enemy army here. Maybe I should've given Eirika some extra weapons before she left. Here we can see she has been levelled up to level 15, although I don't remember from what. Innes and Saleh have also been given free level ups: they started at level 1 on Eirika route.

Obviously, they spawn where the army did in Eirika route. Saleh can go to that Shop and buy things, but he's the only person in this group that can use anything in there, so it's of little help.

Right, let's start with you.

Gotta feed everything we can to Knoll. Poor guy has a lot of ground to cover to make a solid promotable level if he doesn't want to be battle-benched.

Can't afford you lot to hang around Knoll.

Colm had to play defence.

Have L'Arachel playing defence.

These guys have to come down to Ephraim's party, re-arm themselves, and then go back up. Those guys will still be there when they're done, and it's not like Jehanna Hall is a Defend point.

L'Arachel has had enough of you in both Mage Knight and Valkyrie.

Look, Colm is a big boy, but he's not a frontliner. Compare how Eirika route Colm would've died in this situation, though.

Something something WTA?

Weren't you supposed to be the scary Rangers?

At least they don't die on the return volley.

Tana: "I have fresh weapons!

And while moving around, I notice Eirika can Talk to Tana.

Eirika has not yet been informed Tana is a proud member of Team Ephraim.

And also a badass wyvern knight.

"And I'm going to keep you safe!"

Even on Ephraim route, these two get to be best friends. Imagine being the Lord's girlfriend and having more chemistry with his sister on his focus route.

Tana: B-brother.
Innes: Tana? Why are you here? I told you to remain at Castle Frelia.
Tana: Don’t talk to me like that. I’m a fully sworn knight of Frelia, you know? I came all the way here with Prince Ephraim.
Innes: What? With that man?
Tana: Brother! Ephraim’s a good person. We can talk about this later. I still see enemy troops about. I think we should join forces and fight together.
Innes: Working together is, of course, the best strategy. But don’t do anything foolish, Tana. Who knows what Father would think.
Tana: I understand. You try not to be overly heroic yourself, Brother.

Her conversation with Innes is basically the same as it is on Eirika route, too, down to Innes being way too concerned about her. Does kinda hint he didn't know Tana was on Team Ephraim, which sidelines the possibility that this is why he sent Gerik and Tethys Ephraim's way.

Pew pew!

Cormag is staying down here for some reason.

The things I do for Knoll.

Dear goddess, Hit rate only adds half Luck!

This came quickly this time.

Ephraim gets the Master Seal. He doesn't need to be all hands on deck.

Behold: Rennac can attack! Prepare to never see this happen again.

Chop chop hack.

And pew.

Ross covers for Rennac.

As if L'Arachel wasn't a lightning rod.

Eirika trying to get in some combat too, but these guys are bulkier over here.

Quick, compare which one is the cooler one!

Eclipse guy failing to impress.

Luna guy failing to- wait, hold on, Luna? Knoll might actually be scared of that!

Innes also baiting in some Javelin wyverns. Look at how suave he is.

Eirika doing some baiting too. Wow, she feels more frail here.

Gerik doesn't care about being hit, although the healer is on the other side...

Wheel of Killer, turn turn turn, tell us a lesson that we should learn.

Apparently, be more Berserker.

L'Arachel can still staff.

And Cormag considers helping out over with Eirika and Innes again.

Right, you need to go.

No, don't expect Knoll to redeem this thing.

I call this a frontline?

Knoll's fishing for experience.

And Eirika's securing some kills.

...I just noticed the mercenaries encroaching from above.

Tana has to fight the pegasi.

Colm thanks you, sir, may he have another?

Thank you!

Now this is a novel frame of the Hero Crit animation. This is one of the more famous of the bunch: Gerik throws his shield in the air, leaps, slams his sword/axe down on the enemy, and then catches his shield. It's basically Ike's Aether, but somehow even cooler.

Ow, something connected. And unfortunately, that "something" was a promoted unit with a Silver weapon. It's amazing it only did half damage.

And that nothing else was really threatening enough to warrant further concern.

Oh, same to you, though.

Means I get a Mend out of this girl, too.

Pegasus knights!

Tana smash.

Innes continues to shoot down wyverns.

And Eirika continues to fight mercs she can only sorta take.

Joshua's heading up for his showdown with fate.

And Knoll will be taking this guy.

Magic, Skill, Speed, you need all three to stay on the job.

Yoink.

Yes, this is protecting Knoll.

Annoyingly, using her Mend staff does not actually reorganise her inventory, so I will not be getting the Berserk staff because she Mended instead of Berserking.

Cormag has again steered south to investigate these happenings. Also Genarog is weirdly cute in this pose.

Right, you are not allowed to attack me.

L'Arachel attacks this guy from melee for no discernable reason. Innes/L'Arachel is the pairing of this route, as much as [+0.5 Atk, +1 Def, +5 Hit, +2.5 Avo, +2.5 Crit, +2.5 Ddg] is a helpful Support bonus.

Seth: Princess Eirika, are you well?
Eirika: Seth! If you’re here…
Seth: Prince Ephraim is safe as well. Princess Eirika, we will stop the remaining enemy soldiers here. Would you please take caution and think of your own safety?
Eirika: Thank you, Seth. You’ve saved me so many times since the fall of Renais…
Seth: It is my duty. Let’s go, Princess Eirika.

Since Eirika's team has teamed up with the ground forces, here's Eirika's line with Seth- another annoyingly "please protect me big strong man" kind of conversation undermining the competent side of Eirika.

Ephraim's conversation is identical between routes.

Ross makes sure to nail this guy.

Rennac runs and hides.

Fortress healing.

Joshua is not bothered by these guys.

Eirika... sort of is.

Colm can weaken a few.

And Artur is thinking hard about how badly he wants to murder this man.

I'm surprised she's not oneshotting.

I'm surprised she's not in mortal peril from any one attack.

Yeah, miss me with that.

...I wish you didn't have more crit rate on me than I did on you.

I also wish I could two-shot you.

Nosferatu will let me manage it. Although it's not the weapon of choice right now.

Eirika seizes this fortress and hopes for the best.

PEW PEW! (I think he's switched to Silver to secure this oneshot.)

So long, this guy.

So much for going for the Support, though. I think L'Arachel is staying out of a wyvern's range, perhaps.

Never mind, Cormag is entering whatever danger zone I'm worried about.

You need to get out of the way before you heal Valter.

Ow.

Ow that's cutting it close.

Colm continuing to be just fine.

And this is a combat encounter that could've ended in all sorts of exciting ways. Cormag doesn't kill.

This guy continues to not notice he doesn't have a hit rate.

Tethys takes a hit too. She's fine.

That'll help.

Yay, Knoll can double-Flux this guy.

Knoll wants this.

Colm found a hidden item on the same turn he looted Caellach. That's hilarious to imagine.

And Joshua comes for his big showdown.

Time to meet his old friend.

I'm more impressed Joshua's still in touch with the guy. We probably visited the inn on the way over.

They fought together as long as ten years ago, who knows how old he was at the time?

Joshua's still in touch with more mutuals between him and Caellach? We know Aias, but Caellach killed the guy. Admittedly, he did so only on Eirika route.

There are a few corpses in the group, though.

Joshua and Caellach were horrible people to be around, but frightfully useful to hire.

Joshua doesn't feel so strongly about those times.

Ten years later, he's still got those ambitions. You can't say a man like that is entirely devoid of merit.

Sure, he's a sick bastard about it, but he has convictions. He won't kill you if he doesn't know what's in it for him.

Caellach asks if Joshua's still in it for that life. One thing that happens on Ephraim route is that the player never really realises Joshua is Prince Jehanna, and it seems poor Caellach is no better informed.

Joshua is leaving that phase of his life behind on both routes, though.

Joshua, a cold fish? What are you comparing to?

Shameless is... a word. It's apt, but it doesn't feel like the one I'd pick.

You two have been talking for a while for a pre-battle conversation.

Best response.

We'll see about that, axeman.

One minute they're shooting the breeze, next minute five Joshuas are murdering the man.

I'd say next time treat the crown prince better, but it's not like you didn't do that.

Now that's a Caellach level.

Now back to your regularly scheduled Knollville.

Now with more power.

Don't need this, but I want it.

Innes shoots the Berserker for the last of his HP.

And L'Arachel gets angry at this guy.

Again?

Gerik's preparing for Valter.

And Ephraim scores a weaken.

For Cormag.

Ross doesn't need it.

There's still pegasi up here?

Yoink. Eirika needed to find that.

More power to her.

...After that, all it did is break?

Not actually super-effective in this game.

So much for that hatchet I wanted to throw. Although that is an uncomfortably high crit chance.

This is around the point I realised Rennac couldn't steal from Valter due to being too slow. All along, the thieves should've gone opposite directions.

Might as well nab this.

Ewan: Ah! Teacher.
Saleh: Ewan? What are you doing here?
Ewan: I came with Prince Ephraim and his friends. I’ve done a lot of good work, Teacher.
Saleh: Is that so… Well, if you all hadn’t shown up, I’m sure we’d be dead now. You’ve saved us, Ewan. Thank you. I am in your debt.
Ewan: Do you mean that? As a reward, will you teach me some more powerful magic?
Saleh: …I suppose I should at that. But all in good time, Ewan.
Ewan: Yahoo!

On the subject of teaching our shamen new dark spells, here's Ewan. There's a lot more conversations on Ephraim route, since Innes and Saleh are more closely connected to our party members than Duessel and Knoll.

At least L'Arachel stuffs his crit rate.

Although that's the scariest thing that's been thrown at me all mission.

There's only one man who deserves the kill.

Let 'em loose, boar.

Although Valter's putting up a lot of a verbal fight.

Cormag, not strong enough? He may be a pretty mediocre unit in this army, but if you say you're weak because you're not Tana or L'Arachel, you describe the entire continent.

I'm sure Glen didn't want to die realising his oath was broken a long time ago.

Valter is a cousin of Valtome where it comes to being strangely perverse about how much respect they feel they are owed and how their targets ought to express it.

Cormag really doesn't get much to work with if he doesn't know Valter killed his brother.

Dragonspear. Your move, bastard.

I thought so.

Tana picks this up, since Colm's a ways off.

And there's the backup squad.

The magic users up here have turned into anima mages. Knoll feels so lucky. If only he could beat them.

Let's start with that.

Knoll will take the east ones, and we'll just kill these ones to make our lives easier.

Yoink!

Ew, that's a crit rate.

And the damage isn't great either. Where's that Hoplon Guard?

Yoink! Now just to find out who's getting these.

Wow, that's a sturdy mage.

These guys are easy pickings for L'Arachel. One day she will heal that injury. Imagine if Resolve was in this game.

Gerik makes good backup.

Whee!

Extra shot for Innes, then.

L'Arachel is a queen among queens.

Knoll's found some of the weaker mages to be slightly concerned about.

L'Arachel's crit animation involves her holding her sigil over her head before spreading her arms out like an airplane to fire the spell (as opposed to a "throwing" animation that reminds me of a frisbee). I don't know what the second part is for, but it's hilarious.

Magic!

Eirika found the Berserker. Remember this guy?

Apparently, L'Arachel has an elemental weakness to Paladins. It's Seth's lucky day.

Res will help in this situation, and honestly, Mag and Speed won't- but they'll be important later.

Innes shoots more mages.

And Cormag finds a bow for him to play with.

This was a choice in attack. Tana's crit stuffing is surprising.

Tana wound up with the kill. I imagine I was trying to feed him- damn Pierce.

Where did this guy come from?

And Knoll finishes us off. Shame about the Luck, but it's a pretty poor growth.

Funny it's the other way around.

This was a pretty squee moment in Eirika route, but Ephraim offers her more praise here. Good, because Eirika worked harder for it, but weird, because Eirika wasn't the murderball.

And, of course, the Sacred Twins of Jehanna are now Ephraim's. Joshua and L'Arachel will be able to use these.

Also, Ismaire gave the Twins directly to Joshua, something that only happens on Eirika route: All other Twins get put in the Lord's inventory.

Sadly, that was not to be averted.

She will be missed. Although I don't imagine anyone tells Joshua, on account of not knowing he needs to be told. He'll find out eventually.

Time for our meeting.

It's still Ephraim who introduces himself, despite the fact that L'Arachel is familiar with him this time. Who's he introducing himself to, Saleh?

On Ephraim route, whether or not L'Arachel still has a crush on Eirika, she does not try and conceal her identity in front of her.

Ephraim is still the one expositing. You can tell these are different images because I caught different blink frames. Sadly, there's going to be a bit of this.