What Am I Doing To Myself? Let's Try and Play Fire Emblem: Thracia 776!

[Javan]

We only have two, Safy and Nanna, and they're pretty different.

Nanna's the one with the horse, who's sort of more of a support unit: a little damage from swords, a little healing from staves, she's got charisma which is rad, she supports Leaf and Fin from being Fin's daughter and Leaf's childhood friend as a result. She's blonde, about to promote, has a pitiful magic growth, and...you know. The horse.

Safy's the one without the horse, a few levels behind. More magically able and with a better staff rank, making her a superior healer. She has the survivability of damp tissue paper, but if your healer's getting hit, you lose. That staff rank is our bestest friend. She's friends with Leaf's pal, the Duchess of Tahra, and is the one who made us decide to go to Tahra, IE, our current goal. She has green hair.

Well then in that case I also toss in a vote for Nanna since her survivability is more than that of Safy, and since this map seems from the title to be nasty, survivability is probably rated highly. Also, lets see a promotion.

[Rising Phoenix]

I vote for Safy cause when my units are damaged I want them to recover as much health as possible from staves.

[Deme]

Chapter 11x: At a Distance

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Our crew. I'm letting Asvel rest this map; he's certainly earned it, and I've got enough 1-vote characters that I can try this out.


Tanya will get us started today, as soon as I remember to stop taking screenshots with the button I use for RF3 and Pokemon:SS, which for this emulator does nothing.


And I get to enjoy the fruits of my labors.

Because, really, between Robert and Marty I was playing that arena for hours.


We'll send Leaf to fail to finish off this guy...


And Shiva to *really* finish off this one.

Safy will be providing some light on the subject...

And a level, with all her healbot needs.


Here's this corner of the map. I admit, I forgot there were armors, but hopefully, that won't matter so much. As you can see, this hallway's some gauntlet.


But not a super-dangerous one, at the moment.


Oh dang, they're going after Olwen. That's not good.


Someone has long-range healing. I will find him, and I *will* take it from them.
It's the boss. This does not change any of what I said, but now, you know. - Future Deme

But, on brighter news...

Here he comes to save the day!

That means that Mighty Fred is on the way!


I assume this means they're screaming this across the pitch-black fort.
A small mercy: we can see where Olwen is.


Fred's got everything he needs: a weapon, a door key, and Olwen's precious, precious Daimthunder.


Aaand we immediately ram into enemy combatants. Greeaaat.


Tanya starts cleaning up the hallway...


And levels!
+1 Skl, +1 Spd

*sigh*


Marty crabwalks his way to victory!



Unimpressed by this, Shiva shows off his blurring abilities by critting his way through some goons.


And we get to see Robert in action for the first time since his awakening, too. Not bad!




Leaf clears a bit more hallway...


We heal Robert and advance the rest.

Most of the enemy attacks miss, and even without his horse, Carion still makes a pleasant 'ting' noise when struck.


Fred's first action is not quite enough for the kill. We'll have to press on without it, and leave this fellow to follow.

I swear. Prepromotes, amirite?



Leaf kills a guy!

And so does Fred, when he's not forced to attack via magic. (Not shown here well.)


Counterkilling, counterkilling... Through the Fortress...


Oh, by the way. The boss? Has bolting. Surprise!





This hallway stuff is solid boring. To Aleviate my boredom, I try to get Marty to get a Javelin for me, but...
No dice. I didn't even get a screenshot out of it (I blame buttons.)

Tanya crits this guy.

Fred kills some of his followers.

All in all, a successful enemy phase.


The hallway will be over soon.


Carion finally gets to do his job!




Hallways, killing, archers, so on.


I hope I won't regret this, but Safy is now cleared to move about the hallway.


While its true I didn't actually pack for armored units...But Lifis always carries a rapier, because it's a light specialty sword, so I figure it's a good fit. It's part of his standard pack (This tells you a little bit about how I think about inventory management).
And now, it comes in handy for Shiva.


And no regret was had that day.


These guys give so little exp it burns.


That physic staff just missed. *giggle*





I am *finally* done with this hallway. Thank *whoever* cares about hallways on a celestial level.



Fred kills the last of Olwen's captors.


Ow.

Oh, silly me, it's Meteor, not Bolting.
The difference is it's fire.
Wait, wait...Don't tell me...I catch on soon enough... - Future Deme



Carion ends this threat.


Safy heals Lifis from afar...

For a final level. It's...magic-related?


Lifis opens a door so Olwen and Leaf could talk later...

And Fred frees Olwen.


Oh. He has bolting *and* meteor.

Goshdarnit.
Told you I catch on. I am only a little stupid. - Future Deme
Reset Counter:
+1
Total: 26?

I'll meet you on the other side of the hallway.


We join this enemy phase, already in progress...

as Shiva criticals his way through everything.


I hate this boss.

Almost as much as I love physic staves (that belong to me).


Robert makes one less headache.


Lifis doors...

Just to use a movement star...


So we'll have him run, seemingly randomly, out of range of the boss's nukes.
In retrospect, this was dumb.


Here's the enemies we have left, courtesy of a torch.


And now there's one less.

Robert takes out an archer for this level:

+1 Luk
This super dissapointing level.


Now we're out of archers...

And into getting him bow ranks! Thank heaven!


The children begin fleeing, which is terrifying. I need to protect them somehow.


This is why Lifis fled this way, but I admit, I'm not sure it'll do them much good. Shiva will help, though.


Fred has a word with Olwen.
"Thank goodness you're alright... Let's escape."

"Are we the baddies?"

"Or helping them send the children to Barhara to be sacrificed?"
While you might say that "she didn't know" is a bad defense, I'm tired of holding everyone morally responsible for everything ever that they could have known about, but didn't; linking morality to perpetual paranoia about everything is a bit much.
Of course, that doesn't make this moment less necessary, for that defense to hold: she knows now.


"I thought that I would always be doing the right thing just as long as I was following my brother. But now...Now, I don't know any more! I can't believe in anything! What should I do...?"

Yeah, join with us!



NEW PARTY MEMBER!

And thiiis belongs to her.


Ow.

Fred'll take the kid and begin the freedom train with Shiva. Olwen'll head south.

Shiva deposits a kid out of nuking range.

Safy gets a level!

+1 Str
...A bizzare level. Just...Strange.
Oh, hey, this is the first time I notice she capped magic. Good girl!





I'm trying out Tanya and Robert taking out these guys...

And getting a level!
+1 Str, +1 Luk
Strength is good, at least.


...WHAT THE EVERLOVING JEEBUS.


The kids are captured. I run in panicked circles, which is hard to do while sitting in an old-fashioned, immobile desk chair.


Fred can't finish this guy. AAARG PANIC!


Oh, and this happens, I guess.


Fred gets a level fighting off reinforcements.
+1 HP, +1 Str, +1 Spd, +1 Def, +1 Bld
Well, daaang, man! That's some swell level-up right there!


Ow.


Let's try and recover this situation.

Child 1: Recovered!



Leaf clears Olwen's path.


BEHOLD! DAIMTHUNDER!
You notice it drops her attack speed to nothing, which is rather a pain...
But it's a brave weapon.

And makes short work of the guys.



Another one bites the dust.


+1 HP, +1 Luk, +1 Bld
Eh.



Fred finishes our last surprise, and I breathe easy.


...That's just unfair.

Reset Counter:
+2
Total:
27


This time, Olwen will be helping the kids.


+1 Skl
Safy's level this time is less strange than before.


+1 HP, +1 Spd, +1 Luk
I wish she had build.


...That's not good.


DANGER! High Voltage!




*phew*


*open, relieved sobbing*


We'll be OK, right? Our suffering is over, right?



That is oddly encouraging, Leaf.

Shiva goes about destroying the reinforcements:

+1 HP, +1 Str, +1 Spd (I think he's maxed it normally, though), +1 Luk
Niiice.



Every time an archer kills on the enemy phase, an angel gets its wings.


Daimthunder's my friend.


Clearing things out a bit.


...Ok, game.
Now you're just being *silly*.
Naturally, all the kids get captured.


There will be blood.
Staircase is blocked, so no. More. Surprises. OK? NONE.



Grrrr

+1 Mag, +1 Luk, +1 Def, +1 Bld
YOUR PLENTIFUL, IF DUBIOUS LEVELS WILL NOT APPEASE ME. RIP AND TEAR!


Let's go capture the boss. Carion, if you'll make a path for our pair of big, muscley arms on legs?


Very good.

+1 Str, +1 Skl
Also good, all things considered.


Aaand boss captured.
He's still got about 1 use of all his things left, goody!


Marty did pretty well this round, considering he's carrying an entire person under his arm like a ham.


Be free, small child! Be free!
Geeze, children are annoying.



Robert makes this easier on us...



Leaf frees a child...




And Tanya and Shiva tag-team for the last one.


I wanted Carion to bring us home, but neglected to check my numbers: he is on the bad side of the no-damage tink noise.


But he did at least do damage with a crit.


Yoink! Alright, let's let him go.

Yeah, you probably were. I mean, we're your enemies, and you get to live. Your boss wanted you to die in this stinking dungeon with us.



Last enemy of the map paaaartaaaay!

On his way back to the throne, Leaf can talk to Olwen.




Geeze, Olwen. He asked you first.

I'm not sure whether that's "end up in the dungeon," or "help us," but it could be both.



Bah, Leaf, you're the boss!
...And, really, when someone lets Lifis in the army, the standards for safety aren't super-high.

"Could you wait until the end of the battle?"
"Yes. I'm sorry for being a burden."



The kids all escape, hooray!

Aaand Safy's final level in her first tier!

+1 HP, +1 Skl, +1 Spd
Eh, I'll take it. She's doing very well for herself, actually, though since she's been healing all map, she's pretty worn out.


Let's blow this popsicle stand.

"Exactly. But the Empire is desperate, too. If they let Tahra go, other areas will begin to rebel as well. They have gathered legions from all over just to crush one city, to show the people what happens to rebels."

"Yes, they are a group of Mage Knights centering around elites of the Freege family. They are one of the strongest armies on the continent. Their leader is Queen Ishtar, feared by many as the Thunder Goddess."

"You know nothing of reality."

"And Julius is said to be an incarnation of the dark god, Lopto. They are all servants of Lopto... They are leading this world to destruction."
August breaks it down.



Like a puppy who followed him home.
"I see. Very well..."

I'm splitting talking about Fred and Olwen into separate spoilers, because Olwen comes with a dilemma... and a vote!

Fred's Growths

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HP: 75%
Str: 60%
Mag: 10%
Skill: 40%
Spd: 35%
Luk: 25%
Def: 35%
Bld: 25%
Mov: 1%
PCC: 1

So...Fred. Fred's a prepromote, who does prepromote things. Bases aren't good, not a lot of growing room, growths are alright, no special features. I really wouldn't recommend Fred, and that's all there is to it. There's just nothing to him. I mean, stop and compare him with any of our regular mounted units -- Fin's authority star, brave lance, and supports. Fergus's eventual weapon selection, movement, stats, and PCC. Carion's stats and PCC.
Fred, who's promoted above all of them, loses to every last one of them.

About Olwen

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HP: 50
Str: 40
Mag: 45
Skill: 55
Spd: 50
Luk: 70
Def: 15
Bld: 10
Mov: 1
PCC: 4

"What about Olwen?" you may be saying. Well... Olwen's special. I've got good news, bad news, great news, depressing news, and bizarre news. The good news: Olwen's growths are, save for her defenses and build, rather nice for a mixed attacker. The bad news: her bases aren't good, and her defenses and HP aren't good, meaning that she's going to run into durability troubles. The great news: In addition to her super-special friend Daim Thunder, she'll also be picking up an absolutely fantastic sword, exclusive to her. Get this: 17 Mt (best in the game for swords), +10 Magic, effective damage to horseback units, grants the prayer skill, and is a brave weapon on top of all of that. Heck yeah, I want it. The depressing news: Even in the best of worlds, these weapons tank her attack speed pretty heavily, which may cause her trouble, especially with her low durability. Bummer, dude. The brave powers on both of these negate that somewhat, though. What she really needs is an ambush manual, but where would we find one of those? ...Actually, next map. And, really, she'd be our best option for it. BUT.

This brings to our bizarre news: Olwen's mutually exclusive with a different mage knight much later in the game, down one side of a split path. If Olwen's in the army, he won't join up, which means that since we've recruited her, if we want him, *knife-drawing motions across the throat*.
So, here's how we play this: I'll show you his stats and talk about him now. We decide now if we even want to use Olwen/not even consider him, or if we want to auto-bench Olwen/consider him (These options are paired: deciding to use Olwen means immediately removing him from consideration). When the time comes to go down the path towards him, we'll make arrangements in alignment with what we've decided now.

Different Mage Knight

His growths are the same as Olwen's.

He joins at level 8: below are his stats then, with average Olwen's stats at the same level accompanying. He gets no special weapons, but does have some personal skills. He has no movement stars.
HP: 40 (27)
Str: 11 (7.4)
Mag: 9 (12.7)
Skill: 13 (11.3)
Spd: 14 (13)
Luk: 14 (9.2)
Def: 10 (4.9)
Bld: 6 (5.6)
Mov: 8 (8)
PCC: 0 (4)
Skills: Prayer, Sunlight Sword

My goodness, that PCC is *terrible.* Lifis only gets away with that because he's a non-combat. That said, this guy is much better at doing knight stuff than Olwen is, what with his ownership of a defense stat and superior strength, as well as Sol (or Sunlight Sword, or whatever you want to call it today -- If I'm cranky and inconsistent on the topic, it's because I'm fact-checking from about 5 different sources, including the patch, who use about 6 different names. There are days I have to think to look for Olwen under Olreun, and those are unhappy days.), which is a great skill. By averages, his bases are usually better than her equivalent, but she might be entrenched by then if given the chance. He's got good weapon ranks, and he's not relying on fancy toys that weigh him down to make him usable...*shrug* Whatever you guys go with, I support.

So, about Olwen: To Use or Not To Use?

[Sallera]

I don't know if I can conscience letting a non-thief with PCC 0 in the party. Sir Not-Appearing-For-Several-Chapters does have more appealing non-magic stats, for sure, but Thracia seems to be good about giving its special toys high durability, and Ambush + Daimthunder + PCC 4 sounds a lot like 'what durability concerns?' to me. (Long-range weaponry excepted, of course...) Let's just take Olwen and give her the Neir scroll when Karin's not using it.

[Javan]

All things Robert, and the funniest bits (in my opinion).

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Chapter 11x: At a Distance


Because, really, between Robert and Marty I was playing that arena for hours.


That physic staff just missed. *giggle*


Robert makes one less headache.

Robert takes out an archer for this level:

+1 Luk
This super dissapointing level.


Now we're out of archers...

And into getting him bow ranks! Thank heaven!

I'm trying out Tanya and Robert taking out these guys...

And getting a level!
+1 Str, +1 Luk
Strength is good, at least.


The kids are captured. I run in panicked circles, which is hard to do while sitting in an old-fashioned, immobile desk chair.



Robert makes this easier on us...

As for the vote, I am somewhat torn, but I would have to say stick with Olwen, because killing characters just hurts.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Absolutely spare Olwen. I like her, I like her design, I don't want to kill characters, I personally don't like that route that much, no pcc is bad, and dimebolt and that sword are just great. I freaking love dimebolt.

[Deme]

All things Robert, and the funniest bits (in my opinion).

Spoiler

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As for the vote, I am somewhat torn, but I would have to say stick with Olwen, because killing characters just hurts.

I see. Thank you for the Robertwatch.

[ShinyRocks]

Keep Olwen, for definite. 0PCC is unacceptable, and deliberate offing to get a replacement makes me feel icky.

[Deme]

Alrighty! A lot of votes to do! I've updated the list of active characters and the list of inactive characters, mostly by moving characters from one list to another. Benched characters are characters who'd really just take up space from the normal list, and haven't been used in a few maps; I'll bench characters more regularly from here on forth, but usually with some notice.

Chapter 12 Preamble

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"Hearing that the Empire was soon to launch a full-scale attack on the city."

Wow, we actually are relatively close. Things we are also close to: the middle of the game. We've got 24 numbered chapters in this game. It's a little premature to say we're halfway through the game, but...Yeah, we're getting there. By any metric, the end of this storyline will see us across the midpoint.

"When Leaf arrived at Dakia Forest, the area was darkening."
Oh, wait.
No.
Say it aint so.
Say it aint...


It's so.
Fog of war. Well, no map this time. We'll talk about our picks later, dialogue now!



We open on a pair of strangers.

"You would've been a goner if we hadn't passed by."


I'm pretty sure if real cults thought they could get away with almost killing you and leaving you to die for leaving them, they probably would do it. Punishing deserters harshly to discourage that sort of thing is how this works.

"But why did you decide to leave in the first place? Lopto priests are even more important than the Emperor himself nowadays."


Ooh, a dark mage who's become dissatisfied with the forces of evil. That sounds like prime recruiting material to me.
It's true, he's not as fashionably monocle'd as Canas, but then, who is?

"I like you, and want you to join us, if that's okay with you."
Wait! Other people can't have recruitment conversations without me!


Oh, well...He also sounds like primary recruiting material.
"Especially Colho and his boys. They're a problem."


Alrighty, this map's fighting terms are becoming clear, don't you think?


I'm just going to assume he was, in fact, not changing the subject, and he means "going to far" in terms of involving a child in a life of crime.
And we will all agree to do this, OK?


No, we don't have any methods of curing sleep, and won't be getting one this map. Why would you think something like that?

The camera doesn't pan, because there is nothing to pan over.

Oh, hey! Cyas! You remember Cyas, right? He's the bishop who freed Marita and stole her away to...Uh...

Here. She's looking much better.

"Yes, I must return to my own country. It hurts to leave you behind, but you seem to have recovered now..."


"I see you are lamenting over turning your blade to your mother, but you must get over it. You couldn't help it, the Blade of Darkness was controlling you."
That's not what she was saying, but good advice. You can't hold everything against yourself forever. Especially not with mind control involved, which does make the advice less applicable to people outside of fantasy universes.


"Did you not say you wanted to be a swordmaster like your mother? Then you must not hate the sword."

I wanted to point out this line because...How does he know that? I mean, it's a mind-control beserker sword. How do you make that so it's not evil? How do you make a non-evil sword do that?
" If you want to be a true swordfighter, then you must learn to love any blade that you come across."

But, well, it's not evil now, and that's what counts.

"Good. I have a feeling that you will eventually see your mother as long as you keep that blade with you."


Alright, so let's talk shop. This map's dark, and it's wooded. The map has a few things we want -- villages, for one. One of which, oddly, can only be visited by Olwen...And one of which will probably need to be visited by Karin.
The map has two bosses: Seram, who will be using Sleep at us. Sleep is, for the moment being, incurable and does not wear off. Anyone who's hit with it is out for the map. We want to capture him, of course.
The second guy's a warrior, and he's got an ambush manual. Olwen's staying alive entirely unanimously, you big softies (I, too, am a big softie), so we want to capture or steal it from him. Lifis could steal, but his build is 18, so only mounted units or Marty could capture -- At Least One of Those, Ideally more than one, because Seram will be putting people out of this map for the whole fight.

Don't worry too much about fatigue; next map is...special, and has few spots. Lots of units will be taking a breather, whether they want to or not.
That said, Safy can't come with this time. She's exactly 2 staff uses from fatigued, has a few small but essential tasks to perform next map. She's basically making next map possible, and she's the only person who can do it, but it's basically two actions. I'm not using a stamina potion, so she's staying at home.

We have 19 turns to beat the map.

Counting Leaf, Min's 8, Max is 12. Olwen and Karin are auto-coming, and you're required to select one of Fin, Fergus, Marty, Lifis, or Carion to ensure I have at least one person capable of getting the ambush manual. (I took the liberty of naming my best mounted meleers)
Vote for somewhere between 4 and 8 additional characters from the Active character list, which I've updated.

If Nanna comes, should she be promoted? We have 5 Knight's proofs right now. Competition is going to heat up quickly. She promotes to a Paladin, which going from a troubadour adds: +1 Str, +3 Mag, +3 Skl, + 1 Skl, +3 +1 Def, +1 Bld, +1 Mov In practical terms, the magic's good because she needs it, the defense helps. The skill's wasted, but that speed puts her near max. The ability to gain levels is, of course, not bad, and does silence a mountain of regrets. It's your call.

Fatigue:
Individual fatigue counts don't matter, except that Safy's too tired to come and still be good for next time. Drat.
Everyone else is fine, because next map is strange.

[Javan]

Auto:
Leaf
Olwen
Karin

Vote:
Fin
Fergus
Lifis
Nanna
Marty
Robert
Asvel

Total = 10

And I say yes, promote Nanna.

[CoffeeIncluded]

As Javan said, but swap out Asvel for Shiva. As much as I love sages, I love myrmidons and swordsmasters just as much, Asvel's several levels ahead of everyone else, and it's not like we're mage-less, thanks to Olwen.

And thanks for sparing her, everyone!

[Deme]

Chapter 12: Sasha

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So, while determining loadouts for our boys, I might have found something worthwhile out there.

See this? It's a greatbow we picked up from a boss somewhere, at somepoint. It's accuracy isn't great, but it's got a truly impressive might, with only a few melee weapons in the game -- most of them holy weapons -- its equal. But it's super-heavy, at a whopping 16 weight.
For record, our other archers have builds of 4 and 5 respectively. Their attack speeds die if they so much as look at this thing. Robert's got a 13 Build; not perfect, but that's still an attack speed of 17 when he's carrying his new weapon. He's now got a very strong weapon that might be pretty much exclusive to him, in terms of effectiveness.
What am I saying?

He is heavy weapons guy. And this is his weapon.


But enough of that. Let's get to it.


The problem with indoor maps before outdoor maps: everyone has to get back on their horses.


Oh, hey. Brigands!
By the way, some of the brigands can attack villages -- there are 3 here -- and some cannot. You can tell which are which by the facing of their axes, which I'd be stunned if anyone ever paid attention to before it screwed them.


And now it's time...

For Nanna-promotion!

I like this shot, where she's switching horses/sprites. It looks like her horse has two heads.


Paladin lady Nanna!

+1 Str, +3 Mag, +3 Skl, + 1 Skl, +3 +1 Def, +1 Bld, +1 Mov
That magic is pretty nice, no lie.


"Pahn? Bah, who gives a damn."
This is presumably Colho, who we've established is kind of evil, by the opinion of a guy whose resume includes former member of the cult that literally hunts children.

Yeah, pretty evil. I mean, making me edit. That's just wrong! (When it's not Othin.)
(You may wonder why, when given the choice between risking mod wrath, censoring with black bars, and putting in silly swears as real Fire Emblem translations would do, why I do the latter...The answer is that I happen to find it more amusing to do it this way, and that occaisonally it makes me chuckle.)



Man, inter-bandit game conflict happens a lot in this game. This is the second time.

"No, I'm a swordfighter. I'm the daughter of Eyvel! I won't lose to a bunch of brigands!"

And with that, Marita takes the stage.


She's not much to look at at first glance... But Marita's one of the prime candidates for our Elite Manual, or, failing that, an excellent second user of the elite sword: her growths are amazing, and the game loves giving her stuff. If you like myrmidons? Well, here. Have one of the game's best myrmidons.
She comes with Luna or Lunar Sword, a skill which pierces enemy defence sometimes, and Marita's sword, which is a brave weapon with 11 might and grants Awareness, which negates enemy skills. Scary girl, Marita.
Oh, and she's got a PCC of 5, just so we're clear. Scary girl.



Trying to catch this guy, you know, for the heck of it, goes...Less well than intended.


But Fergus gets a second chance to try again. Yaaay!





Olwen and Shiva get a-killing, while Marty takes the axe-wielder off of Fergus.


Leaf even clears some space!

+1 HP, +1 Str, +1 Spd, +1 Def
And gets a well-balanced level with basically all the essentials. Good boy!



Everybody was crit-fu fighting...



Lifis is actually able to take this guy out, to my surprise.

+1 HP, +1 Str, +1 Skl, +1 Spd, +1 Def
And gets another excellent level! Keep 'em coming, boys, keep 'em coming!


And Robert cleans up this guy. I find that he's usually the last guy to move, because he's the person whose position most depends on what enemies are left alive.


And now we're in sleep staff range.
Let's talk sleep. Basically, if you have less magic than Seram's 8? 84% chance to be put to sleep (Staff accuracy is 60 [For all but Torch] + [4 x Skill]), no arguing, goodnight, all stats but build and luck are 0, you can't fight being captured. Hope you enjoyed living.
This'd be OK if you could heal, or it wore off. You can't yet. It doesn't.

This time, it misses, for what it's worth. No true hit means that 84% really is 84%.
No, misses don't use up his staff uses. 3 of our guys will go to sleep, and there's nothing we can do about it but hope we can reach him before it happens.
What a cretinous mound of infinite cheapness is that.






Several people throw themselves onto the swords and spears of our favorite murdercouple.


Also, ow. I'm glad Marita has healing items, because she'll need them. She does, however, give as good as she gets.




Enemies think they can hit Shiva. Mostly, they're wrong.


Marita uses her movement star, so she can heal and fight. Hooray! Hopefully.

Hooray! She used Luna this time, which looked like silver sparklies, like Sol's gold sparklies.


Murderin'.
Most of these guys can't stand up to our team very well, though our heavy scroll use probably hasn't helped them. But this is, I think, a bit of a breather in terms of enemy strength -- status effects getting thrown around, and we're on a time limit, in the dark.




"Thank you so much for saving him! Here, take this as a symbol of my gratitude."

The silence staff would be super-handy here, since it can eliminate someone's ability to use staves or things...But Nanna can't use B-rank staves, so. There you go. We can't use it to stop Seram.










Misses again, I think. Hooray!



Look at those hit chances and rejoice.


Marita's journey continues well-- the woods are protecting her well enough, and her PCC helps her get in essential crits.


Meanwhile, Olwen is so tempting that I think she just saved a village with her weak, frail body.


Daimthunder party!

Man I love that thing.

+1 HP, +1 Mag, +1 Skl, +1 Spd, +1 Luk
Ooh, speed! She's going to need as much of that as she can get.


B Staves, guys! I think this means we can silence Seram! We can save a sleep staff use, if not a whole two or three! Heyo!



Karin finishes this guy off. The view's clear of foes from here.


Of course, people keep getting in my view...

+1 Str, +1 Skl, +1 Spd, +1 Luk
But whatever levels Marita!



Of course, Nanna's not in range to use the silence staff, or her stats aren't good enough; hard to say which. Well...Let me ponder how to fix this....
Hm.


Marty was hit by sleep. Bummer. This leaves our main crew to work out how to save the day.



Let's try getting Nanna closer, if I can.



Probably, probably. Your granddaughter have a name?
"*Something autoscrolling about Kindness* Ah, please take this. It's an old family treasure. I'm sure you can find a use for it."


Heim scroll!
Heim was the light mage of the Crusaders, and the family line of the heads of the Empire -- specifically, the Empress's father was of Heim's bloodline (The emperor married in, due to carefully planned machinations), and that magic was the essential key for defeating the dark god, Lopto; it's a significant challenge to defeat the final boss of FE4 without using Julia, Heim's heir and descendant, and the holy tome Narga. The Heim scroll, as one might expected from bearing the name of a light magic user, grants +30 magic growth, and +10 Luk, for -10 Bld. Great for mages, who have no need for build, bad for everyone else, basically. I'll probably give it to whatever magic-user we have, unless you tell me not to, maybe excepting Olwen, because she wields swords sometimes.
Food for thought.

It must be about turn 5, because it's time for a conversation.



First law of Fire Emblem: If two characters have a strong hair color shared between them, they are siblings.
This does not apply for pegasus knights. Or, for some reason, the entire population of Silesia, which seems to pass around that green like it aint no thing.

"Don't worry, you will see her again. I will help you look for her once my wounds are healed."
Oh, don't worry, guys. We'll be helping with this reunion real soon.

Just a cute little scene reminding us not to kill him, and telling us who to bring next time. I mean, we're bringing her anyway, but... *shrug*


[b]"Damnit, you guys are soldiers?!"[b]
Darnit, you move?!


*sigh*


Reset counter +1
Total: 28

Re-appearing after getting the Heim scroll, but having not picked up Nanna, since I'm trying a new strategy...

I'm sending Karin to capture Seram by air. This takes a couple of turns, which were dull enough I neglected to screenshot them. Woops. Moving through woods and junk.



And she crits with aplomb, saving us not one but two uses of sleep! Go Karin!

+1 HP
They can't all be winners.
But can't I have my triumphs?


Let's talk Colho.


*shudder*
He's pretty tough, no lie, and we want his stuff, making it hard to go at him full-force.
That big ball of HP that is his entire being is especially rough, since there's not a lot of way around it.
I'll be sending Fergus and Fin at him, and Lifis his way as well.



Fergus can't land both hits, so his efforts aren't quite enough to make a good dent in the guy.


Fin can't deal a lot of damage, either.


Yoink!
Worst comes to worst, we have that... But now there's no way out without a death, unless we end him *now.*

As for my ultimate solution, no messing around?
Well...


Some people think they can outsmart Robert, with their dialogue and character traits.
Maybe. Maybe.


He has yet to meet one that can outsmart arrow.


+1 Hp, +1 Str, +1 Skl

We're not quite done here.


Marita has a journey to complete, and we've got one last village to visit.

+1 Str, +1 Luk
By Marita standards, it's a little sad, but eh. Strength.


Karin begins her service as an Olwen taxi, having handed Seram off to Fergus.


Taking out a final dude.

And bringing down a bridge.


Nanna gets a healing level!
+1 HP, +1 Luk
I was surprised, and may have missed bits of it, but I think it was probably just HP and Luck.


For some reason, only Olwen can visit this house; I guess it's to keep Marita from visiting it again.
...Though, why it's not Leaf, I don't know, but. Whatever. You have to save the kids to get any of the rewards, so it's mostly fine.

"I couldn't thank you enough for your kindness!"
Re-using dialogue, though, is not.

Magic rings are!

By the way, no one has anything to say to Marita -- this'll be handled after the map.


Speaking of which...
We're done here.



Eh, they're mostly fine.

By the way, we get different dialogue if we finished in over 20 turns. As it stands, we're going to a gaiden map~!


You know, that is a good question. Why here, Cyas?

Aw, man...It's not your fault. She chose to go into that situation, after all. She knew the...Well, actually. She probably couldn't have predicted the stone thing.

That's right! We're big darn heroes!

One day...By that time, Marita will have very likely become destroyer of worlds.

"We'll save Eyvel together, Marita."
"Yes, Lord Leaf."


Next time...
I won't listen to any of your input!
Mwahahaha!

Well, except about stuff you vote on here. I just meant I'm picking who we're taking next map.
Probably.

Marita's Growths

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HP: 65%
Str: 60%
Mag: 15%
Skl: 75%
Spd: 80%
Lck: 60%
Def: 20%
Bld: 10%
[b]
PCC: 5

Marita~! I just got a girl named Marita~
Yeah, you read that right. She's a swordfighter/myrmidon with a 60% strength growth. Marita is legitimately horrifying. I mean that in a good way. While it's true that her defenses aren't great, and that's a serious concern, it does not change the fact that Marita is an offensive monster. For one, her excellent offensive stats. For two, piercing your defenses like it aint no thing. Third? Oooohh, the third. In Chapter 15, Marita will be able to learn, at no cost and forever, a skill this patch calls Meteor, Serenes Forest called Shooting Star Sword...And the modern English Translation calls Astra. I'll talk more about what this does when we actually get it, but the short version is, when it activates, the character attacks 5 times. The character's PCC is applied to all 5 hits if it starts on the second hit, and the last 4 if it starts on the 1st. Marita can very easily become Marita 5-crits Eyvelsdaughter. Overkill? Maybe. But some things deserve it.

So, on the subject of voting!

For one, Marita is our first really good candidate for the Elite Manual, though we could burn a use of the Repair Staff and let her Elite Sword it -- but she can burn through weapon uses kind of quickly at times. If she wins, we'll probably be waiting until Chapter 14, when we can get her a +30 defense scroll to let her really go to town... But outside of that, we'll have no real obstacles. I was going to compile a list of people we might want to have use it...But I'm going to be really honest, a number of the recommendations I could find -- and I could find very few -- didn't seem to have a lot of appeal to me. There's basically one alternative I really liked, and two I was sort of iffy on; I'll put them all in, and y'all can judge. If any of you guys have any experience in the game, or have been looking at my or other sources and have other ideas on recommendations, I'd like to hear it.

The Candidates...Such As They Are...

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Candidate #2 (Marita's #1)
AKA, the Actual Alternative.

Joins In: 16B
Class: Mage (Promotes to Mage Knight, Ala Olwen)
Level: 5

Hp: 19 60%
Str: 0 / 5%
Mag: 7 / 70%
Skl: 2 / 55%
Spd: 8 / 70%
Lck: 7 / 35%
Def: 1 / 15%
Bld: 3 / 5%
Mov: 6 / 2%
Pcc: 1
Skills: Wrath

Without the elite book, she's pretty much unusable. You may notice that B next to the number -- she only joins on one route of a split path. If we decide she gets the elite book, that's our canon path by default, you won't get to vote on it.
Anyway, our lady here is, like Olwen, a mage/swordwielder, but probably emphasis on magic -- her build'll never be great even with scrolls, though scrolls will fix many things. Like her defensive stats, one hopes. Levelling her may still be a bit frustrating, but we'll survive.


Candidate #3
AKA, the It Might Be Neat, If Karin's Not Good Enough For You one.

Joins In: 14
Level: 5
Class: Dragon Rider

Hp: 22 / 65%
Str: 7 / 40%
Mag: 3 / 20%
Skl: 6 / 35%
Spd: 9 / 60%
Lck: 12 / 30%
Def: 9 / 20%
Bld: 5 / 5%
Mov: 8 / 3%
PCC: 1

Her growths don't really merit. And her skills don't. And she doesn't get special weapons. And Dragon knights and riders have horrible dismounting penalties. The idea is to pile her with scrolls, give her fast leveling, and get a ... I am super dubious of this idea, because I feel like we could, like, given Karin some stat-ups and that'd do the trick just fine. Heck, our Karin's not a half-bad fighter as she is -- I feel like it'd be a waste, but I'd feel bad not giving you guys some alternatives.

Candidate #4
AKA, Uhhh...Look, a guide half-mentioned it. I might have hallucinated it.

Joins in: 14x
Class: Sister (A Unique Class, Uses staves and all magic but dark)
Level: 3

HP: 16 /50%
Str: 0 / 3 %
Mag: 7 / 45 %
Skl: 4 / 60 %
Spd: 9 / 55 %
Lck: 8 / 55 %
Def: 0 / 10 %
Bld: 3 / 5 %
Mov: 5 / 2 %
PCC: 5


Someone recommended her for it, in a sort of off-handed way -- she's an unusual character, and is one of the game's better light users, since she starts with a very high rank in light magic, though staff-users rarely hurt for exp. She has a late promotion, but it's not one that involves a knight's proof, so score! One less thing for us to worry over: the scarcity is *very* real, and is something that will be slowly looming over us, getting nearer and nearer with every level. It is terrifying to me. She's got a good staff rank, too, so I can see why getting her her levels quickly might have some appeal.

Second: We're about midway through the game, like I've been saying, so if anyone wants to prevent hoarding of stat-ups or skill manuals or the like...Well. We've got the list in the post with all the other lists. If you have a nomination, now's not a bad time to bring it forward. Or we can stash it until later/endgame, or until you have a proposal.

[Sallera]

Hmmm... I like Marita, but Candidate #4 is also intriguing. I'll vote for repairing the Elite Sword for Marita and keeping the Elite Manual for the Sister.

Stat-items-wise, I'm still in favour of using the Shield Ring on Karin, and I also agree with the suggestion from last time of using the Leg Ring on her as well.

[Shishnarfne]

Hmmm... I like Marita, but Candidate #4 is also intriguing. I'll vote for repairing the Elite Sword for Marita and keeping the Elite Manual for the Sister.

Stat-items-wise, I'm still in favour of using the Shield Ring on Karin, and I also agree with the suggestion from last time of using the Leg Ring on her as well.

This sounds like a good idea...

Marita's got better growths than Chrom in Skill/Speed (and matches him in Strength). Given how much growths seem to inflate as games go on... I'll say that it seems like Marita should be pulling (almost) full time duty. I think that the Elite Manual will make for a thing of beauty. (Oh, ok, candidate 2 can get the manual, and Marita can play with the Elite Sword).

[Javan]

Robertwatch: Episode 2, Heavy Weapons and Cretins

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Chapter 12: Sasha

So, while determining loadouts for our boys, I might have found something worthwhile out there.

See this? It's a greatbow we picked up from a boss somewhere, at somepoint. It's accuracy isn't great, but it's got a truly impressive might, with only a few melee weapons in the game -- most of them holy weapons -- its equal. But it's super-heavy, at a whopping 16 weight.
For record, our other archers have builds of 4 and 5 respectively. Their attack speeds die if they so much as look at this thing. Robert's got a 13 Build; not perfect, but that's still an attack speed of 17 when he's carrying his new weapon. He's now got a very strong weapon that might be pretty much exclusive to him, in terms of effectiveness.
What am I saying?

He is heavy weapons guy. And this is his weapon.


And Robert cleans up this guy. I find that he's usually the last guy to move, because he's the person whose position most depends on what enemies are left alive.


No, misses don't use up his staff uses. 3 of our guys will go to sleep, and there's nothing we can do about it but hope we can reach him before it happens.
What a cretinous mound of infinite cheapness is that.






First law of Fire Emblem: If two characters have a strong hair color shared between them, they are siblings.
This does not apply for pegasus knights. Or, for some reason, the entire population of Silesia, which seems to pass around that green like it aint no thing.


Worst comes to worst, we have that... But now there's no way out without a death, unless we end him *now.*

As for my ultimate solution, no messing around?
Well...


Some people think they can outsmart Robert, with their dialogue and character traits.
Maybe. Maybe.


He has yet to meet one that can outsmart arrow.


+1 Hp, +1 Str, +1 Skl

I say take this opportunity to repair the elite sword, agreeing with Sallera on that, but I am curious as to what else we have that is worthwhile to repair, DaimThunder (?) would be worth it, along with some other unique weapons, but is it feasible to utilize both the Elite Manual and the Elite Sword?

It was Olwen who needed speed right? Lets toss the Speed Ring at her.
Why not toss some magic Safy or Nanna's way? Maybe towards Nanna to make her a more capable healer, not sure.
And why not cast around some Life Rings as well, my first thought was to give it to Saft, but then considered your statement, something something healer getting hit your losing. So give it to your favorite two front liners who have questionable defense for their position.

As for the Shield, Luck, and Skill those are a good question...

Also, I vote for Safy for the next map. Thought you could outsmart us Deme, but nooooooo if we vote before you give us options when you auto-include people we can claim it was our vote that put them there.

[Deme]

Let's see...For weapons worth repair usage...Well, a lot of it will depend on what's useful when we run low. The Elite Sword, for example, sounds like it'll still be useful even though it's running low. Daimthunder will probably also be useful, but maybe it won't be -- maybe we won't have time and space to use Olwen, so we won't get it to run low. Who can say?
But in addition to unique stuff, there's weapons we haven't seen, and useful staves like the Warp staff. If I hadn't preserved some Sleep staff usage, we'd be using one up on that next chapter, too. Staves are your pal!

Also, I am enjoying Robertwatch. I cannot tell if it is charming or unsettling, but I am entertained regardless, and hope it will be a regular feature. Maybe I will start inventing things, so it will have better content.

And... Look, I'm not entirely sure what you're getting at, but you'd need to try a different character. I've been telling you Safy's coming next map for the last two updates, before you said that. You have to do these things pre-emptively. (PS, She's maxed magic, so throwing magic rings her way would do nothing but give her mad bling, yo.) That, and there is no voting for next map.

[Javan]

*Sighhhhhhh*
Fine.
I vote that predict that Lifis is coming then.

Robertwatch is, of course, incredibly charming, and as long as Robert has screen time he will have his own spin-off show.
What would be really impressive is if you could chain the comments to work together in context, but when chopped out into Robertwatch make their own story.

[ZeltArruin]

Needs more Othin. I demand wrath-ing and Pugi-ing.

I am tempted to throw my elite manual vote for Marita, because she's damn good, plus some end game spoilers, so I'll do that, damn the consensus.

[CoffeeIncluded]

I'm just going to say that I devolve into evil cackling laughter whenever I see Marita and just leave it at that.

[Deme]

Should evil cackling be counted as a vote? Either way, I'll be joining you: mwahahahahahahahahahaha!

Also, I missed Javan's question about the Elite Sword and Manual: they can both be used, but not on the same person. They both grant, one temporarily and one permanently, the Elite Skill. You can't have two copies of the same skill.


Current Votes about the Elite Manual:
1 Vote for Candidate #2
1 Vote for Candidate #4
1 Vote for Marita.
All non-Marita votes agree to give her the Elite Sword.

[ShinyRocks]

Manual for Marita. I like my terrifying death machines to be truly terrifying, so let's go all out. Dat strength growth on a Myrmidon. It shouldn't be allowed. By which I mean, it should be allowed, and is amazing.

Robertwatch is great. I'm enjoying the idea of him just turning up, getting the job of murdering the hell out of everyone done, and then going back to his bunk, and people being like 'I swear there was an archer around here'.

Give Nanna some Magic.

Give Marita a Defense boost. Terrifying death machines need love too.

ETA: Do we get a Body Ring? I'm kind of tempted to earmark it for Robert for more Great Bow shenanigans.

[CoffeeIncluded]

I will be very happy if Robert is your Marty. This is gonna be great.

Though honestly, if marita can get the elite sword and candidate 4 can't, maybe 4 should get the manual.

Marita still makes me fall into deranged laughter whenever I see her growths and class.

[ShinyRocks]

Actually, no, I take it back. Give Marita the (repaired) Sword and give the Book to option 4. I'm not sure we should go the Candidate 1 path, and Karin is aces, so I'm not interested in buffing up some Joanie-come-lately Not-Karin

The Sword has 40 uses, right? That's quite a lot. And if you really wanted, I guess you could micromanage and swap weapons, only using the Elite Sword to kill dudes, saving the XP buff for when it's really going to make a difference.

For clarity, I change my vote to Marita gets Sword, Candidate 4 gets Book.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Yeah, to make things clear, Marita gets the sword, Character #4 gets the book. We've also got to put a defense scroll on Marita at some point.

[Javan]

Should evil cackling be counted as a vote? Either way, I'll be joining you: mwahahahahahahahahahaha!

Also, I missed Javan's question about the Elite Sword and Manual: they can both be used, but not on the same person. They both grant, one temporarily and one permanently, the Elite Skill. You can't have two copies of the same skill.


Current Votes about the Elite Manual:
1 Vote for Candidate #2
1 Vote for Candidate #4
1 Vote for Marita.
All non-Marita votes agree to give her the Elite Sword.

That wasn't my question, but I forget what I was trying to determine.

I will throw my support behind giving the Elite Sword to Marita, and the Manual to Candidate 4

[Deme]

Chapter 12x: Screw the Rules, I have Staves

Spoiler

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It's a little after 3 on a Sunday. We're having a crawfish boil later, and I'm in a sour mood. Oh, no real reason, just one of those days where I hate everything I do.
For some reason, this makes me feel like it'd be the perfect time to play some Thracia 776.


Our skeleton crew for this mission. Olwen's coming in order to use her ambush manual, and that's about it. She doesn't actually need to be here.
Safy and Lara are essentials, and Marty's a solid idea. Lifis would be reccomended, but he's fatigued. He's not actually required. I'll show off his dialogue -- he has some for this mission, surprisingly -- next time.




Surprise!

He's fine! He just belongs to us now. Forever!


As will you all.

Is 5 people really an army?
(Also, hey, that alliterates! yay family-friendliness!)


Oh dear.



"Please let me go...Please..."
"I said no."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Please, forgive me!"
... I'm honestly not sure what to say here. Let's just move on, ok?


Geeze, there's no need to be mean.
If this sort of feels wildly inconsistent from his previous characterization (besides deeply uncomfortable)...Well, we're moving on, OK? Coming back to it later...


Actually, he will not talk with Pahn, but he could.

Nope! You belong to us forever!
I mean, of course. Everyone has a choice.
Right.


Well, dang! This is the first time since she's been introduced that she's mattered, even a little!

Are you sure?



Man, what a depressing world this game takes place in. That's 2 references to child slavery (Lara's 15 according to Serenes, so she stopped working at a dancer at 14) in just a single chapter.
But sure, we'll let her do the recruiting.



Marty sheds some light on the subject. Let's talk this map.
As you can see, with only a handful of exceptions, all the enemies on this map are thieves, or a new class, dancers.

Dancers are a class that can, uh, dance, allowing a unit to attack again. In this game, they wield swords. They're pretty frail, but can double a single unit's effectiveness. It's uncommon for a Fire Emblem game to give dancers (or bards, in the GBA games, where male dancers would be bards), or heron Laguz, in Fire Emblem 9 and 10, to the player, and the player is rarely allowed more than one of them.
Here, the enemy army has tons.

There's treasure littered all about the map, and the thieves and dancers will take it and just swan off. They're unlikely to be able to hurt you, but you'll just have to sit there and watch as your odds of getting good stuff dwindle and dwindle as you move in a spiral pattern towards Pahn and his pals.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!


First off, there's Trude. You either need to capture him or have Pahn talk to him to recruit him, because otherwise, he'll kill you or you'll kill him. That second method's a rather logistical nightmare, isn't it? He's got a nice sword, too, and Awareness.



Second, the man himself. The King Sword grants Charisma, which is a +10% boost to accuracy and avoid to allies in a 3-tile radius. That's great, and when we get it, that thing is going on Leaf forever.
(It's not like Leaf'll use it up).

Pahn's a promoted thief, a Rogue, with Ambush and Solar/Sol, which are pretty excellent. He also has 5 movement stars, which means he will be stealing across the map at the speed of sound.


And then there's Tina. Like her sister, Tina comes with some spectacular unique staves, ...That are a nightmare to have used on us.
The Unlock staff, rather benignly, unlocks things. The Thief staff steals something from the target, assuming the target has a lower magic score. It doesn't matter the distance, only the magic.
Tina also has 5 movement stars. She'll be burning through her staves like mad, given the chance.

Basically, this map is designed to slowly sap your will to live, as everyone runs away with your hard-earned goodies and uses up your staves, leaving you empty and bereft and weeping.
Personally, I don't know about you...
But screw that. I mean, seriously. What sort of evil BS level design is that. "Break our game or feel wave after wave of slow, rotting disappointment"?
No.
No.

Screw that.
We're having a practical lesson in Thracia 776 today, and that lesson is: "Trivialize Everything You Can, Because the Alternative Is Suffering."


Our game-breaker of choice today is the warp staff.
Want someone to be somewhere?
Don't want to take the time to get them there?
Warp Staff!
For all your warping needs.





Just showing off the effects.
Lara is moved to Pahn, and thus the chapter's made infinitely easier already.

You've noticed I didn't promote Safy for this, well, a couple of reasons.
#1, we didn't vote her in, and that feels unfair.
#2, The need for knight's proofs is real. There will be very few until basically the end of the game, and so competition will be getting fierce. We can't use them willy-nilly.
#3, Nanna's staff rank has been going up, you're boosting her magic by vote, and you just all voted to give the elite manual to a staff-user who could well do full-time healing... So it's a legitimate question whether we need to promote Safy just now. I'm not denying her the chance, though. Just erring on the side of caution.

Anyway, back to the manner of trivializing the map.

Let's recruit Pahn.

"Oh, Lara. What are you doing here."
This is a really nonchalant response for someone you haven't seen in a year teleporting in front of you.

"Whoa, whoa, what's with the serious look? I was joking."

Lara, stop coming on to a guy who's 10 years older than you.
"Yeah, I didn't know you were still a kid back then. Yup, you're right, I liked your dancing. It's, you know...energizing. It cheers you up."

Energizing dancing, you say? You mean you could have had a use THE WHOLE TIME, Lara?


THE WHOLE TIME, YOU COULD HAVE BEEN PRODUCTIVE?!


Oh, well. Better late than never.
Man, though. Imagine playing this and not bringing Lara here or having her talk to Pahn. Imagine.
You're stuck with Lara as she has been.

Even she admits it.

"Hmm... Ah, I get it..."


This conversation recruits us Pahn, of course, but also...




Class change for Lara!

-1 Skl, -5 Spd
...Underwhelming, I know. It actually is a class change, not a promotion; she can still promote to Rogue as a dancer. If she had promoted to rogue, somehow, she could get Dancer here, gain 20 levels, and promote back to rogue. Lara can get more levels than anyone...
But I'm not sure you'd really want to do that. Lara as a dancer can still steal and use lockpicks. Lara as a rogue cannot dance. So... Dancer. 4. Life.

Anyway, now the map is basically over.
"How?" You may be asking.

Recruiting Pahn will clear all the thieves and dancers from the map. They won't take any treasure. They'll just run away in a few turns. This does create a problem with Trude, though, since he'll run away, too.
Let's move on to fixing that, AKA part 2 of breaking this map.

And here's our weapon of choice for that.


And now he can't escape.

The map is now 2/3rds broken, we just have one bit of clean-up left to do, and it'll be all pretty much over.



Pahn steals Tina's staves.
THERE.

EVERYTHING'S ALL BETTER NOW!



Olwen uses her Ambush manual. And there was much rejoicing!


The map begins to empty out.

...It's here I realize that, actually, Lara and Pahn are locked in the room, and there's no way for Safy to reach her sister. Lara needed her lockpicks.
I need to reset to fix this.
I AM STUPID.

Reset +1
OF SHAME.
Total: 29
I am the worst. I'd cleaned out all the meaningful threats, but I still failed on a map handed to me on a silver platter.
Be back later.

I have had a tray of crawfish and a lemon-blueberry cupcake. Things are much better. Life is good. The shame has lifted.
I would like to add that I could have pretended this was my first attempt and just re-taken my screenshots to suit this. It wouldn't have been hard...
But it would have been more work than I like. What I'm saying is that this is proof I am too lazy to be dishonest!

I bring Carion, but not Olwen. I needed someone free to capture Trude, and Olwen could use a break. Carion's fresh from a break, and he'd need to get on his horse anyway.

Alright, so what will we be doing for the rest of this map?
Well, Safy will be going to her sister.

Leaf will be going around with our chest key getting treasure. Marty will be getting Trude. Carion will be getting a surprise.

The other chests contain [b]A Shield Ring, a Fortify Staff (3 Uses, Heals all allies), a Charge Manual (Teaches the Charge Skill), and a Knight's Proof.


Pahn and Lara will be running around, with Lara holding the Elite Sword and dancing all night long.
When Lara catches up to Leaf, she'll be dancing for him instead.



Aaand Trude is caught!


The two sisters ram into each-other in the dark. I'm now slightly worried Tina might run away.


Luckily, we can engineer our reunion peacefully.


These are pretty good questions.


Why exactly was she travelling with magical staves, specific to her, that can be used to rob people, anyway?



Ok, here we are. I said we'd be getting back to it, and so we are...


This line scrolls on screen so slowly.

...In poor taste, much, Intelligent Systems?
That said, I do find the joke, as it's presented in this bit of dialogue alone, pretty funny. But the earlier scene is kind of a little much, and I won't lie, there's an unpleasant taste in my mouth.


I'm with Safy; that's not the sort of treatment that renders you someone's slave.
That's the sort of treatment that renders you someone's little sister.



You know, it hit me while writing this how lucky Tina is. This is a setting where kids your age (I assume) are regularly rounded up and sacrificed or used in gladitorial recruitment games for cults of evil dragon-gods, or sold into child slavery and made to become dancing girls.
We've seen how ludicriously unfriendly this setting is to all forms of life.

And the worst thing that's happened to her is bugs on her face.

Basically, I'm completely willing to believe that the nicest thing Pahn could have done is hold on to Tina when he found her, because any other person coming across her would have had a worse result for her.
Besides, it makes the narrative of these two chapters way more consistant about his character, and Dandelion as a group. Also, he's useful.

"Yes, I'm sorry... Oh, Safy, don't you think Lord Leaf is so handsome?"
Sudden subject change!

Safy has real things to care about.
"Okay, big sister!"

With that done, Leaf finishes his treasure collecting, and you'd think we're about done.
However, you're wrong.

On turn 25, if you've hurt none of the dancers...

This little number spawns.
"What's so special about her?" you might be asking.

Knight's proof.
What the heck.
WHAT THE HECK.

She's going to do what everyone else does -- run from where she spawns to an escape stair, so you've got a few turns to spot and catch her, tops. If you don't already know when, where, and how to expect her, you're not getting another precious, precious promotion item.

Dang, Intelligent Systems. You're mean.

Pahn relieves the lady of her belonging, of course.

Oh, but we're still not done here!
5 turns after she spawns, with the same conditions (so you cannot attack the knight's proof dancer)

She spawns.

This is why we brought Carion, to do the only fighting of the map.


With that done, what follows is having Lara dance until I can't stand to watch someone dance anymore. So let's talk about the last (first, actually) of our new units, shall we?

Seram's really not fast enough to use super-heavy dark magic (the lightest is a weight of 12 -- and I remind you, build does not mitigate magic weight. Seram is incapable of having an attack speed above an 8, in the best of worlds), which isn't yet the magic of interesting gimmicks. He does, however, have a good staff rank (C, though we have better in Safy's A and Nanna's B). His stats on the whole aren't bad, though there's nothing that makes me go "Wow!"
He also has access to every other type of magic except for Light, but at a really low level.


At the end of my patience, and almost three times as exhausted as she has to be to sit out a map, Lara's now fast enough to hopefully reliably dodge, steal items from anyone not maxed in speed, able to survive a stiff breeze and maybe occaisonally deal small amounts of damage...But she still can't lift a sword. Lara, Lara, Lara.
Well, it's still a wonderfully different world for her. Go forth, young dancer, as a champion!


Let's get out of this place.

Except for Lara.

Onward to glory we go!


Oh, sure. Sorry for the confusion earlier.

And all's well that ends well!

And now, some alternate dialogue! Presented in easy script format, because…Well, it’s easy.
First…
Seram recruiting Pahn

Seram: "Pahn! Withdraw your sword."
Pahn:"Seram!? What are you doing on the enemy side? ...Are you going to betray us?"
Seram: "No. These people aren't enemies. They are Prince Leaf's Liberation Army."
Pahn: "Liberation Army? What's that?"
Seram: "They have the same ideals as we do. I will explain it later. For now, just withdraw your blade!"
Pahn: "So you want us to stop fighting? ...I suppose you've thought it through well enough to make a decision like this. All right, I'll trust you. Let's go."

(If Trude’s still on the battlefield)

Seram: "Trude is still fighting. He'll only listen to you... Go talk to him."
Pahn: "All right. He's a valuable friend... I can't let him die."

Pahn recruiting Trude

Pahn: "Trude, it's all right. We don't have to fight any more."
Trude: "What do you mean?"
Pahn: "I'm joining the Liberation Army. So come with me."
Trude: "I see... So that's the Liberation Army... I knew their morale was too high to be the Imperial Army. All right. I'll go with you."
Pahn: "Good. We've been friends for a long time, so I didn't want to have to fight you. Thanks, Trude."
Trude: "Of course. Let's go."

Pretty ho-hum. But these next few I’ve saved for last, because they are just gems. I’m so sorry they didn’t happen in the map. So sorry.

At the Start, if you bring Lifis

Leaf: "What's the matter, Lifis? You don't look well."
Lifis: "Hey, prince... Could you switch me with someone else? I really don't want to..."
August: "You said you were living around here when you were a child. Do you know some of the thieves?"
Lifis: "Well... There's this one guy I really don't want to meet, and..."
August: "Don't be ridiculous. Now go to your post!"
Lifis: "Come on, please! Just this once!"
August: "No. It's the prince's orders!"

I love how whiny Lifis is here, and how the player’s basically being told “Go make this jerk you have suffer.”
Which leads to…

Lifis recruiting Pahn

Lifis: "****..."
Pahn: "Hm? ...Are you Lifis? Hey, long time no see!"
Lifis: "Y-Yeah... Hi...Pahn..."
Pahn: "You haven't changed at all since you were a kid, have you? Have you at least learned not to wet your bed?"
Lifis: "C-Come on, Pahn... That was a long time ago."
Pahn: "Really? You were biggest crybaby in the village, and you were always being bullied by the other guys... It seems like it was yesterday."
Lifis: "...You were the one who always picked on me first..."
Pahn: "Hm? Did you say something?"
Lifis: "No, nothing..."

Pahn: "Oh, okay. Hey, you're working for the Liberation Army now, right? Sounds like fun. Yeah, I think I'll join. Where's your leader?"
Lifis: "Wh-What!?"
Pahn:"What! You got a problem?"
Lifis:"...No..."
Pahn:"Let's have fun again, like the old days! What do you say?"
Lifis:"...I'm gonna be stuck with this censored again...?"

Pahn:"Hey, you all right? You look a little pale."
Lifis:"Huh? D-D-Do I? M-Maybe I caught a cold or something! Ah, ahahaha..."
Pahn:"?"

The secret origin of Lifis: village punching bag. Also, I think this proves my point about Pahn basically being someone (everyone’s) big brother.

And finally…
Added to the ending if you brought Lifis…

Leaf: "All right. Pahn's a caring person, isn't he?"
Lifis: "Prince, you don't know what this guy is really like... Oh, man..."

This has just made me so happy.

Oh Boy, Growths!

Spoiler

Show

Seram

HP: 60%
Str: 5%
Mag: 30%
Skl: 45%
Spd: 40%
Luk: 10%
Def: 15%
Bld: 15%
Mov: 2%
PCC: 1

So, like I was saying, Seram has troubles. Speed troubles caused by the massively heavy, usually rare dark magic, which isn't quite neat enough to compensate. Luna (the tome) isn't a thing yet. He also doesn't promote to a sage, which results in something not nearly as cool and broken as, say, Asvel. What he has going for him most are C-rank staves, because staves, as we've seen, are nothing to sneeze at, and some offensive capabilities just to help out.

Pahn

HP: 65%
Str: 40%
Mag: 10%
Skl: 45%
Spd: 65%
Luk: 70%
Def: 25%
Bld: 10%
Mov: 2%
PCC: 5

...Look at that PCC. Look at it! This man can fight. While he's less for raw statistics than Lifis, and so might not be Lifis's match when it comes to thievery, his ability to actually throw down, survive, and his movement stars make moving him around on solo missions for chests, doors, and items much easier: he has less to fear from enemies, because they'll be dead, or he'll heal himself with Solar -- assuming he's still in the area to be hit, because he might be able to movement star himself out of danger. Marvelous. A lot of that's going to come down to what we need from a thief at the time, and preference.

Tina

HP: 40%
Str: 3%
Mag: 50%
Skl: 25%
Spd: 65%
Luk: 90%
Def: 5%
Bld: 5%
Mov: 5%
PCC: 1

While Tina's growths are pretty solid, what's really important is her staves: Thief is just amazing, for the few uses it gets, and a suitably tended-to Tina will be able to perform a few key miracles -- and her magic growth is good enough she'd probably be able to manage that. A very handy pinch-hitter.
Also, look. I was right. Tina's very lucky.

Trude

HP: 90%
Str: 35%
Mag: 5%
Skl: 45%
Spd: 35%
Luk: 60%
Def: 30%
Bld: 20%
Mov: 1%
PCC: 1

Ha, I forgot Trude's existence when making this post at first. This tells you many things. I mean, Trude is all right, I suppose. But each one of his competitors have things to offer he does not -- Makua's unusual promotion (I mean, we won't see it, but it's there), Shiva's skills and solid all-round Shiva-ness, Marita's stupid-good strength growth and abilities as a rampaging death machine... He doesn't even have a good PCC. What's a myrmidon who isn't crit-happy? He's at least durable, and has decent bases...But I think it's safe to recommend passing Trude by.

Oh, small confusion; I was mistaken. Sister is not a unique class. It is shared between two characters, actually -- I remembered the second character existed, but thought she had a different class for a couple of reasons.

ETA: Do we get a Body Ring? I'm kind of tempted to earmark it for Robert for more Great Bow shenanigans.

We will, but I reccomend against this. For one, Robert doesn't absolutely need more build to function. Second, promoting him will get him one more build, which puts him within 2 build of the Greatbow: a -2 penalty isn't so severe as to be crippling, especially not on a maxed speed character, and he'll handle any other bow without penalty. Whereas there are characters who would want a body ring just to function.

[Illven]

I vote for the death of Lara for hiding vital abilities from the rest of us. All in favor?

[Javan]

Robertwatch: Episode3, Robert Barely Sneaks In

Spoiler

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We will, but I recommend against this. For one, Robert doesn't absolutely need more build to function. Second, promoting him will get him one more build, which puts him within 2 build of the Greatbow: a -2 penalty isn't so severe as to be crippling, especially not on a maxed speed character, and he'll handle any other bow without penalty. Whereas there are characters who would want a body ring just to function.

I vote for the death of Lara for hiding vital abilities from the rest of us. All in favor?

Aye!

[Sallera]

I never liked Dancers much; always preferred one more slightly-less-powerful unit rather than an extra move for my best unit and a squishy unit tied to their tail. But a Dancer that can cover the thief role? That's worth using.

...Pahn might be competing with Colm for the combat-competent-thief title, too. Thracia's less mean to its thieves than it seemed.

[ShinyRocks]

We will, but I reccomend against this. For one, Robert doesn't absolutely need more build to function. Second, promoting him will get him one more build, which puts him within 2 build of the Greatbow: a -2 penalty isn't so severe as to be crippling, especially not on a maxed speed character, and he'll handle any other bow without penalty. Whereas there are characters who would want a body ring just to function.

Good points, well made. I withdraw my request. Get a personality, Robert. Then you might be allowed nice things.

Yay, Pahn! Yay, Tina! Other people are also here!