Bethany Plays: SS Chapter 20 Eirika: Forest of Misery

Finishing Chapter 19 has the biggest amount of mapwork in a single go. First, we spawn the Lagdou Ruins, the second optional dungeon (Tower of Valni being the first) and the place to go for ultimate endgame content. We will not be touching it.

Second, we spawn Melkaen Coast, and a route from it to Port Kiris. This is Eirika's originally intended route to Rausten, but the Ghost Ship and "Innes being in danger" sent her south to Jehanna instead. Skirmishes that happen to be on Melkaen Coast are far harder than those on the maps we've already played.

And finally, Darkling Woods, the final area of the game. Once you enter that place, you can never leave until you beat the game. Prepare wisely.

And of course I get stuck at Rausten Hall. There's a Melkaen spawn, and I considered showing it, but it's not really that worth it.

I start off by selling anything that's not seeing use. Vulneraries are long outclasssed by enemy risk and I'm amazed I never got rid of them sooner, but right now they're just filling the convoy up.

Now is also the time to sell your anti-armour and Swordslayers. Chapter 19 was the last hurrah of the human classes, and whether you play the postgame or not, the only thing you have left to fight are monsters and the two named character mages. No monsters have the Armour trait, so anti-armour weapons are pointless. Anti-cavalry is still good for Tarvos.

(You can find Thieves in Lagdou Ruins, but usually only, like, one per map.)

Eirika route gets its stat boosters! Syrene and Neimi are our frontliners worried about their HP- though why Vanessa missed out is a question left for another time. Honestly, I'm not worried enough about the HP/Def thing to lose out on it in the name of safety.

No question, these two needed the Strength.

No one really needs Skill, so these two can get it.

...Odd choice, to boost Neimi's Speed and not Syrene's. Myrrh also doesn't really need it that much, since we only have monsters left. Most alternatives were probably capped.

Syrene needed the Luck. I think 15 is in range of some crits, plus she's still not that much for Avoid.

Neimi, I get, but Tana is not getting hit. She's sure unkillable now.

Someone had to get it.

A general gist of what Rausten Hall has to offer. If you have any plans on playing postgame, don't splurge here: you can buy really good stuff from the Secret Shops postgame, and you should save any money not used on making sure you have enough weapons on that.

Eirika has rounded out to a powerhouse of a myrmidon Lord. Her Strength leaves a little to be desired, but that's on her class and not her performance. Also her HP, maybe she should've got a Robe...

Tana is Eirika on wings and with Lances. Her Strength is straining under that cap, but Tana is your ace in the hole of an All-Girls: Vanessa and Syrene can give her a guaranteed crit on the final bosses with the Triangle Attack.

Lute smash! Lute is more worried about her Speed, but this one is going fast.

Natasha is still a better Bishop than the enemy would have, but she's not doing great. Occupational hazard of promoting early, Slayer is hard-carrying her.

Axes. Amelia's high bulk, high Avoid, and high power. This is where the "put faith in your Trainees" suggestions come from: Among their class archetypes, they are the best people at the job. But they suck to raise (outside Ross), and their alternatives aren't that bad...

Look at that HP/Def balance. Vanessa is far more prone to being Strength-screwed than Tana, but never have I seen one that made up for it with a Defence score. The Avoid's also fallen behind, a bit.

Neimi's mostly here because Bows. She's no more or less amazing than anyone else.

Tethys is an Avoid-based lightning rod if she's ever in danger. Good to keep her near Marisa, but we shouldn't be worried about her.

...Although Marisa isn't vindicating that. Weak Strength and frail defences, Marisa lives and dies on Silencer and dodging. Also Lockpicks.

L'Arachel has capped her Avoid and brings high Mag/Res. If this was RD, I'd be pumping her full of BEXP for multiple reasons. Still, though, she is the jewel of our army, despite what went into raising her.

The point of Myrrh is that mine shouldn't be all that different to yours. This is a Myrrh, and she takes the Hoplon Guard despite not really being afraid of damage.

Syrene is better than Natasha, but not by much. She's here to support Tana, and didn't really have much chance to be a replacement for either her or Vanessa.

Now is not the time to "according to legend" information that important. Either we're doomed or this whole charade has been for naught.

And yet, we have to use it...

We're going right to the heart of the Demon King's reach.

Darkling Woods was where the Demon King was defeated, although it seems that has only strengthened his presence there today. Either he was already pretty strong in the area or, when he got sealed, some of his magic failed to get captured.

Although this is sounding a lot like Option B.

Well done, Grado.

I think the call is pretty heard. Although that looks like we're meeting our last major monster type on the map.

This is the preliminary "super big chapter" before we get to the real climax.

The Demon King prepares to enter the temple in which he was previously defeated.

Never say that.

That's the cue for people who can stop you to show up.

The Demon King doesn't look the same, but he's definitely the same guy.

And in return, the Demon King also recognises this guy.

...So wait, are the Magvel Heroes all men, or is this just describing a group of humans as "men"? I can believe both.

This fellow is Morva, the Great Dragon who assisted Grado and his friends to defeat the Demon King the first time. As distinguished from Myrrh, the Great Dragon who fights alongside us.

...I wonder who's supposed to be aware there's multiple Great Dragons running around. Dara and Saleh seemed fine to call Myrrh "Great Dragon" in the same tone as the Great Dragon who they worship for fighting the Demon King.

If Morva made the old ones, it doesn't sound like he is able to make new ones now. Either for lack of resources or lack of time, both sound reasonable.

Although Morva did have some sort of preparation time.

You're remarkably friendly to a man who helped imprison you for eight hundred years. For being a Demon King threatening ominous and vague disaster, Fomortiis really is a decent character on his own two feet.

He promises that he has surpassed the form that was defeated by Morva.

And Morva would sooner die trying to stop him than let him go free.

The Demon King is not impressed with his stubbornness.

And he decides to play the "shame if something were to happen" card. Not that he actually has any power over Myrrh.

Morva does not answer the question "is Myrrh your daughter?" Turns out the answer is "she's adopted", so both yes and no are truthful answers. Either way, the Demon King is actually hitting a nerve.

Morva seems intrigued by what Myrrh has done. As a man who was fighting fit 800 years ago, I wonder what his definition of "long ago" is in regards to how long it's been since Myrrh's been here in Darkling Woods. It's only been a year, maybe a year and a half, since Lyon smashed the first Stone.

...Morva's perception of this conversation is much different to mine.

And the Demon King is not going to bother with it anymore either.

It's time for a fight.

Again, I love listening to Fomortiis's stylings. He could shed the whole "Lyon" facade and still be interesting.

Now we're here. Lyon wasn't too far away, but we have to go around an entire mountain to reach him.

And it won't be a pleasant trip.

All right... we can repeat that, right?

From what little worldbuilding there is on the topic, most "monster-hunting" endeavours before Lyon started smashing are based around this forest.

It's not a pleasant place.

Although for us, that seems to be because of the Demon King, mostly.

Don't kid yourself, Myrrh. If that were true, we might as well have stayed home.

Not within sight of us, but close enough.

Morva has the most boring life. And yet he never wanted more. He seemed content to make sure humanity didn't have to deal with the Demon King again.

Myrrh has also been living this life, and whether she appreciated it is a little less certain. Most of her Support partners try to invite her out of it, and the way she's written about accepting their offers feel more like she's the one making concessions.

And we get a bit of exposition to introduce Morva a little bit.

Morva being Myrrh's adopted father here is given more emphasis in the Restoration Queen script, where she repeats in basically every new line of dialogue that Morva is her Guardian. Sometimes a scene has an easy fix. Sometimes you just get clunk for dialogue. (As far as I can tell, the idea behind the scene was to make Morva nonbinary, which resulted in a lot of pronouns and gendered titles that needed writing around.)

It doesn't help that this seems to be the only time Myrrh calls him by name. What Myrrh's parents were up to (and indeed, how many dragons there are) is brushed aside.

But it does paint a bit of a darker picture of what Myrrh's "childhood" was like.

No matter her opinion of staying in Darkling Woods, Myrrh does admire her father's work ethic.

...Never a good sign.

Although even Seth could tell us that much.

...Something's bothering Myrrh, though. Doesn't seem to be the monsters.

...Are you sure?

Lyon and Riev summon a dracozombie in front of the temple. That Morva used to guard.

...

Rest in peace, old timer. We hardly knew ye.

The Demon King loves the irony.

So much for him getting away at the end of last mission. He's not even this mission's boss, did he really need to survive last mission? It was a Defend and his death was optional, yeah, but...

That's all we're hearing from him.

Big showdown time, and this time we're deploying only our lasses.

Fliers to the west, everyone else filing north.

This map is huge and complex. I feel like the game wants you to be exploring it, but the way it's set up, there's no real convenient way for your ground army to progress except by going up and around the north. It may look like around the south is an option, but there's a mountain in the way- footsoldiers will be fine, but horses are stuck. The fliers can handle this front, we'll leave the infantry out of this.

North lies a Gorgon, Tarvoses, and Cyclopes. You're kinda incentivised to send your infantry swordies up this way anyway.

More Tarvoses in the trees.

And south is the home of gargoyles. Lots of lances. Ross and Gerik would probably like themselves here, but I don't think I think of that.

Myrrh joins Eirika, Ephraim, L'Arachel and Lyon in the "important characters with dead fathers" club (frankly, it's more impressive Innes is still excluded from it). Morva is... not actually a dracozombie. Dracozombies are the most powerful of all monsters, but Morva has retained his Manakete class. This is only a technical distinction, however, Morva may be treated as any dracozombie. How does one treat a dracozombie, then?

With caution. Wretched Air is the most dangerous weapon Sacred Stones has in its arsenal: That's 36 damage ignoring defences. Morva is a boss and he does more damage than "normal" dracozombies, but defence-ignoring, highly accurate attacks with two-digit Atk scores are never to be underestimated.

Riev shows up with barely a change other than not dropping his Aura (you don't get it if you didn't kill him last map). I'm told the Japanese version gave him capped or near-capped stats for this appearance, but we'll be steamrollering him. Well, even better.

We begin with an observation that we're going to be using a lot of expensive stuff. I always load up on it and always feel afraid of using it.

...21 HP? Wow, this Wight is terrible.

Bolting may honestly be overkill.

The pegasi are going to keep formation, so Syrene can continue to acquire Support points and minimise how long I have to grind the last two ranks.

And Myrrh will do her own thing.

Riev has one last boastful remark to throw our way.

It's not really any more substantive than his first one.

He and his proud new pet will handle things.

He believes. Poor guy.

This is the quality of his army, by the way.

Myrrh, meanwhile, is super-effective on monsters.

She'll be fine on her own.

Here come the horse-men of the apocalypse.

And also the ranged units, to make my life that much more annoying.

They certainly ain't doing anything else.

This map is filled with droppable items, half of which you are unlikely to care about. Hope you've got enough room in the Convoy for them all!

Chop chop, chop away at the wights!

Neimi is needed to deal with that Gorgon.

...Although a oneshot would be nice.

16% is fine to dodge.

And that number is even lower now!

L'Arachel runs up behind, and shows off how wide her Physic range is.

Now's a good time to Bolting things. One of our horse-men is now a pile of ash.

Right, you need to die.

Although, to keep formation, these two needed to Javelin. Maybe the pegasi should've killed this knot and Myrrh takes the archer.

This seemed like an inefficient way of taking this knot out.

Myrrh got some Luck out of it, though.

Oh yay. I'll use that.

The Tarvos aren't actually hitting anything now they're on us.

We'll just... get them dealt with.

Oh hey, the Javelin got used for its intended purpose! It's a miracle!

Especially with Myrrh standing right there.

Amelia gets us started. This guy would not be fun for Marisa to fight.

Thank you!

L'Arachel managed to pinch one.

And Eirika gets another with her still-functioning Rapier.

That was overkill, though.

...

Let's press on.

The fliers are now entering the area in which Riev's attack range is relevant. They can kill Riev just fine, especially if Tana baits, but I want the ground troops to handle him, so let's stay out of that range.

Something like that will work. The mountain tiles Myrrh is currently next to is why cavaliers can't come this way.

Cyclopes reinforcements! That is a lot of lard to cut through.

This won't be something I can just brute force.

On the plus side, neither can they.

No, it's not a Skill issue.

L'Arachel can delete button a cyclops, though.

...Too many forests, Amelia can't chew her way close enough.

Shoot this one, then.

That'll give Amelia a boost.

And yeah, Bolting isn't going to be taking one of these out.

Let's go the nuclear option. Wow, yeah, let's not deal with this guy.

What a magical lady.

Myrrh's doing what Morva promised he'd do.

Defence cap, inicdentally. Myrrh having a 100+ growth in it ensures she rams that.

The fliers rush in to make sure there's plenty of targets to spread the problems, especially with a Gorgon around.

Syrene's still getting good levels to help out.

I love L'Arachel just being a powerhouse on this map.

This Cyclops shows off a smear on Amelia.

Unfortunately, Amelia doesn't turn him into a smear on the ground.

Myrrh is now overkill on things.

Wish there were axes over here to use that on.

...What do you mean, Tana just stuffed a Killing Edge? OK, Wind+Anima gets the full Ddg bonus...

That's a sword we get to use more effectively. By which I mean "not at all".

You are never going to get this Vanessa again.

Syrene, meanwhile, just mocking users of high-quality weapons. She's an equal to the rest of the pegasi.

Don't you just love 0/0/0s?

Just a Demon Surge, that's nothing to worry about at all.

This knot has gotten only somewhat less worrying.

I'd like to point out that, as much as I disparage Natasha, Slayer is really pulling its weight here. There's a reason Sacred Stones turns into "how many Bishops can you promote"?

I say this as if my other magic users aren't doing it themselves.

Why do I need two? What poison weapons am I even worried about?

There we go.

And Amelia finishes the last guy.

This is now our chokepoint.

And I really don't want to see Stone flying around.

The pegasi, in a fit of "not aggroing Riev", are going to stay out of trouble over here.

They at least get to keep the Spear.

So long, Gorgon.

And thanks for the power.

Oh no, Neimi is being outranged!

More deathgoyles for the falcos!

That was fast.

Amelia plunges into Tarvos turf.

The rest of the soldiers have a knot to undo.

Yoink!

Pew pew

PEW! I may be overpowered.

Even Eirika is oneshotting an enemy she has no business dealing with.

I imagine Lute hasn't reached B Staves yet if she's doing a heal like this.

This was the only way that guy was dying this turn, too. Lucky this forest was traversible.

Ohoho...

(That's mine, too. It is technically worth something other than money...)

Battle of the Halberds! One of us seems to be using the better starship, though.

And one of us is going to keep getting better.

Found the siege magic mogall hiding in the corner.

It's debatable if he's found us, though.

Tarvos can also use bows, not that it helps this one in any way other than "he's just still alive."

L'Arachel kills him for an Elixir and getting closer to the front.

And the horses make tracks to cover all this forest tile.

Gotcha.

Neimi really isn't a good gargoyle counter-attacker, not sure why she's going that way.

Right, you need to stop being annoying.

And the pegasi fly back this direction.

Thanks for that.

...Not sure why you thought that L'Arachel had armour.

Marisa'll take anything at this point.

Oh hey, this one was right up her alley!

Tomahawk vs Hatchet, a legendary battle.

...At least give me the Tomahawk.

We are just about in Riev's range...

That should do it. Now to make sure nobody else steps in too close.

Lute's still covering level up wounds.

It's free Magic, I guess.

Twinkle twinkle little star.

Deathgoyles are going to continue to spawn here, so the falcoknights come back to defeat them.

Oh hey, a straggler. Bye bye, tiny person.

Now this is why I wanted the ground army to face Riev. Chapter 20 Riev, and only Chapter 20 Riev, has boss dialogue with L'Arachel, the daughter of his most accursed rival.

And oh yes, would Mansel be even more broken if L'Arachel came back dead.

What a piece of work.

L'Arachel doesn't even bat an eye. I actually think L'Arachel is being truthful on this one: Criticisms on her character flow off her like water off a duck's back, what makes you think the generic evil threats of a generic evil villain are going to be any more bone-chilling?

L'Arachel even feels pity for the man who chose revenge over self-betterment. Between that and calling him no more than the monsters she made it her mission to slay, L'Arachel doesn't even see Riev as a rival the way Joshua and Cormag do their respective Imperial Generals.

It's not exactly like he's doing anything to back up his threats.

So long, Riev. You died the way you lived: No better than the monsters you summoned to fight us in your stead.

And coping real hard to pretend that your death wasn't meaningless.

Let us only hope the Demon King is so easy to slay...

Even without Riev around, this forest is still swarming with monsters, and we've got a lot of work to put in to get Eirika to the Seize point and survive to see Tana/Syrene A completed.

...Not hard work, but work nonetheless.

L'Arachel shows off and gets her off stats.

Amelia got this one with a Tethys boost.

And Natasha's going to stay back for these deathgoyles.

She can handle herself. With a forest.

And some extra Avoid.

There's that guy.

Amelia stands next to Morva and finishes the next Mogall.

Neimi switches her to the Dragon Axe and runs out of Morva's range.

And thanks to Tethys, can shoot down the Mogall while she's at it.

Morva is using a blackened version of Myrrh's sprite instead of the usual dracozombie sprite, and I believe his Wretched Air is even a unique animation. It's also worth noting that even with Amelia/Neimi having the best Avoid Support setup and Amelia's base Avoid being so high, he's still on the happy side of True Hit. He may not be the final boss of FE7 (whose accuracy was so sky-high that similarly optimal circumstances are likely to lead to 100% hit odds), but he should be treated as functionally similar.

He's got a lot less health and defence than the Fire Dragon, though, and FE7 didn't have a dedicated anti-dragon axe. This combination of facts makes him fodder for Amelia.

And now Amelia is even better on Defence.

...Well, OK, first I need Supports.

There's one.

There's some reinforcements that thought they might make a difference other than inflating my stats.

And there's the other. Everyone has all the A Ranks they need.

The final door is upon us.

We're going right in to the final map next time. We're not done yet, though.

Myrrh recognised who that boss was. At no point was our army ever informed- although I wonder if they're curious what happened to him after Myrrh bragged he was going to be helpful.

Eirika comes over to check on her. This is a scene that was really written for Ephraim route- this is kind of Eirika's first real one-on-one girl time with Myrrh.

Myrrh decides she's going to not mention what just happened.

This seems like a reasonable thing for her to have done.

Again, a reasonable lie, but the excuse will be pretty thin. And probably wear under scrutiny.

This is a half-decent way to avoid scrutiny. Myrrh will probably luck out when it comes to making sure Eirika doesn't realise she's lying.

Although she is disappointed they didn't get a chance to talk things through.

Now this is more of a lie. Morva did no such thing, at least as far as we can perceive. The game does hint that Myrrh can converse with Morva in some ethereal capacity, but whether or not this has actually happened is a secret Myrrh is keeping with her.

Myrrh is, at least, correct about this. Myrrh's actions from this point forth will be to make her father proud.

As she is proud of him.

...Has Myrrh called Eirika Mistress before, or am I thinking of Amelia. Either way, it's weird. Especially considering Ephraim tried to get her to call her Sister.

I'm happy for you, Myrrh.

Eirika asks the question that could pose a degree of scrutiny to Myrrh's lie.

But Myrrh found her way out of that.

Myrrh does not actually admit to her lie or the real cause of her distress to Eirika. I'll be interested in how Ephraim does.

With that said, Eirika is really good at reading between the lines with L'Arachel's miserable past and talking to her the way she wants to be talked to. I would not be surprised to learn Eirika guessed what happened and chooses to tactfully ignore it in this "I want you to know I know, but you can pretend I don't if you want" way.

...Hope the sickening aura isn't going to hurt any worse.

Lyon, meanwhile, is standing inside the circle of his own personal hell.

The Demon King is preparing to say his goodbyes.

And leave him with a parting gift he shan't soon forget.

No matter what side of him this is, Lyon is definitely in no hurry to expose Eirika to it. The real question is what's his motive.

On Eirika route, the Demon King has been presented as a monster who took over an unsuspecting, good man.

This is the first real indication that Lyon had some actual agency in this setup. Although it might be easy to mistake this thought for "Lyon trying to escape after the fact".

Lyon's arrogance has cost him everything.

So are you going to devour him or is his soul going to be chained to this earth in eternal torment? Because the former would honestly be the happy part of tonight if all goes according to plan.