The Duty of the Silver Knight

Defying his pride and honor, General Seth is obligated to follow the orders of his king: protect Princess Eirika and flee the falling castle, flee to Frelia where she will be safe and where her bracelet can be safeguarded from the enemy. Little does he know what kind of journey he has ahead of him- a journey in which he, and he alone, will have to give everything he has to protect his surviving lieges…

The Paladin Seth is often lauded as the best unit in Sacred Stones, to the point where it’s claimed the game can be beaten using only him. I personally think this is very possible, considering he has the advantage of being an objectively very good unit with great availability and high growths in a game that’s commonly criticised for being the easiest in the series.

For most characters, I wouldn’t care enough to test the saying. Besides, I’m sure it’s been done before. However, Seth is my favourite character in the Fire Emblem series and one half of my favourite pairing in the series, so I’m going to play through Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones using only Seth, Ephraim, and Eirika.

Conditions of the playthrough

• I will be using the twins because they’re mandatory for every chapter in which they are available. Had they not been, I would not use them, but The Rules of the universe forbid a proper Seth-only run.
• Supports: Seth/Eirika A, Ephraim/Eirika B. I know this technically means Seth isn’t soloing, but I’m a chump, Seth/Eirika is my OTP, and the Lords are there anyway.
• Difficulty level: Hard. Sacred Stones is criticized as being the easiest game in the series, and playing on any lower difficulty would defeat the point.
• Route: Eirika’s. This is purely a matter of personal preference, which will keep me motivated throughout the run. Someone else can do a Seth-only Ephraim Hard Mode run. (Consider yourselves challenged, perhaps?)
• I will not use the Tower of Valni, Lagdou Ruins, or random encounters on the world map.
• I will not revisit places on the world map that I have already cleared- the game will be played through as though it was set up like Blazing Sword and Binding Blade, as though it had no World Map.
• I will be playing this on an emulator, seeing as on my own cartridge I have all three files in use and I want to take screenshots. Before anyone gets on my case about this, I remind you that it is legal to emulate a game if you own a physical copy of it. I can provide proof to those who are anal about this.

And now for the pointless fangirling merged with the pre-game analysis:

Seth as a character:
Seth is the general of Renais’ elite cavalry, which is known fittingly as the Knights of Renais. He himself bears the title of Silver Knight, possibly because he starts out with a Silver Lance that is by fans often seen as his signature weapon. He is a man of the battlefield, bound by duty to protect not only Princess Eirika, but later also Prince Ephraim, from harm. His duty comes before everything, including his own feelings, and he is privy to several secrets of the state not even the twins are aware of. Playing through the game, one can quickly tell that Seth, who gets a lot of screentime as the twins’ advisor as well as their protector, is not easily fazed or intimidated.

Depending on his supports, Seth can either marry the Cleric Natasha or his princess, the Lord Eirika, after the end of the game. Other supports are those with his subordinate Franz, the Wyvern Rider Cormag, and the retired knight Garcia.

Seth as a unit:
Class: Paladin.
Availability: Prologue – Final Chapter. Forced in Prologue through Chapter 3. Unavailable in chapter 5x.
Starting level: ??/1.
Starting weapon ranks: Lances – A, Swords – A.
Starting inventory: Silver Lance, Steel Sword, Vulnerary.

Bases Growths and Caps

HP: 30 (90%) (Caps at 60)
STR: 14 (50%) (Caps at 25)
SKL: 13 (45%) (Caps at 26)
SPD: 12 (45%) (Caps at 24)
LUK: 13 (25%) (Caps at 30)
DEF: 11 (40%) (Caps at 25)
RES: 8 (30%) (Caps at 25)
CON: 11 (N/A) (Caps at 25)
AID: 14 (N/A)
MOV: 8 (N/A)
Affinity: Anima.

Seth is of the Oifey archetype: a pre-promoted unit that joins early in the game. They start out with impressive stats, and unlike their cousins of the Jeigan archetypes, their growths are acceptable enough that they will perform averagely or above-par by the endgame. In general, it is recommended to not use an Oifey from the beginning of the game because he will suck up valuable experience for other characters- however, since this is a Seth-only run, this won’t be an issue in my case.

Seth’s biggest strength is that he is a Paladin, and he only has one glaring weakness, being that is that he is a Paladin. His class gives him very balanced caps, meaning that he neither excels nor falls short in any area (except for the 25% LUK growth, but high growths in LUK are rare to begin with). Being mounted, he has great movement- except on terrain such as forests, mountains, and deserts. Additionally, his horse makes him vulnerable to weapons such as Horseslayers and Zanbatos, but I don’t recall them being overly abundant in Sacred Stones. Lastly, Seth lacks any skills such as the Assassin’s Lethality or the General’s Big Shield, meaning he’s going to rely on nothing but his stats, equipment, and support bonuses to carry himself and the twins through the game.

Credits
- Many thanks to Fire Emblem Wikia for almost all of the information under ‘Seth as a unit.’
- Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, Seth, Eirika, and Ephraim all belong to Nintendo and Intelligent Systems.
- All screenshots used in this thread were taken by me. I mean no copyright infringement by posting these screenshots.
- Other images linked in the thread are all from FEWiki.

Pre-battle thoughts:
Nothing particular. This is essentially the most basic tutorial level, I highly doubt anything stupid is going to happen. Guess this post will be more story-heavy than gameplay-heavy.

Opening scenes


The ominous black screen is right, as we almost immediately learn in the narrative that Grado, the largest and presumably most powerful of the nations founded with the Sacred Stones, has invaded Renais. The latter kingdom is caught completely off guard and can offer no resistance. To make matters worse, apparently the kingdom’s prince, Ephraim, is MIA.


Well that doesn’t sound good at all.

The scene changes from the world map to the castle of Renais, where we learn that the situation is every bit as grave as the narrator said it was, and Seth receives orders to take Princess Eirika to Frelia, where their long-time ally King Hayden will keep her safe. King Fado himself seems to intend on staying behind because he wants to know Grado’s motives for invading. Eirika protests, but Seth Rescues her and rides off, followed by an Allied Cavalier.

This Cavalier is Franz, and Seth sends him off to Frelia as a messenger. Good, that means he won’t be getting in our way this chapter. Just as Seth and Eirika want to take off after the kid though, THIS ugly mug shows up.

Why Seth chooses to use his sword against Valter’s lance in valiant defense of Princess Eirika, I to this day do not understand. But Seth is the best unit in Sacred Stones, right? So he should be fine!
SETH NOOOOO
Yeah, sorry guys. He’s level 1, not quite god tier just yet. Just be thankful Valter isn’t fast enough to double the man; it saves Seth’s life, and he manages to Rescue Eirika a second time and ride off with her. Valter, strangely enough, does not pursue despite his Wyvern having superior Movement and him clearly being able to kill Seth.

Let it be clear this guy is way up there amongst the creepiest villains in Fire Emblem. He won’t let you forget so easily. At least he’s got his priorities all screwed up, or the game would be even shorter than it is.

At least with the Moonstone not pursuing, Seth and Eirika outrun him and are only caught somewhat later by a bunch of weak axe users. And this is where we finally gain control of the two.

Battle start
First thing’s first: Let’s set that pesky text speed to autoscroll and the game speed to fast.

So, it looks like this is our map. Seth and Eirika are both units that get to be used in this run, so I won’t have to worry about putting either of them off to the side, which is a good thing because of all the mountains hindering our movement. Seth joins us at a little under half HP from the wound he took from Valter earlier, which I’ve personally always found a nice touch.

This chapter is easy, so I’m just going to have Seth kill the mook on the right and Eirika the one on the left. Not much strategy to be needed on this one, except that I’m saving Seth’s signature Silver Lance for later. This has nothing to do with the Weapon Triangle Disadvantage, it’s just that it only has 20 uses, it’s going to take a while until I can get a new one, and I would hardly call -17 HP in the prologue an emergency in need of my trump card. I’ll have plenty of time and opportunity to raise Seth’s Lance EXP if I decide I wish to do so.


As a side note: this had better not waste all my RNG karma, general.

Eirika has learned some swordplay from her missing brother, so I feel safe letting her take care of the other mook- he has a lower chance of hitting her, so I’m not too worried about his counter. He survives Eirika’s attack, but dies horribly on his own turn to her critical counter. This is boding either very well or very ill for future chapters.

Turn 2 rolls around, I move Seth onto the Forest above the enemy boss and let him Steel Sword his way to victory.

Prologue: CLEAR
Seth level: 1 (Swords – A, Lances - A)
Eirika level: 1 (Swords - E)
Game Over count: 0

Ending scenes
With the Fighters out of the way, Seth allows Eirika some time for a breather, but the two soon decide that they shouldn’t waste their head start and press on to the border. Eirika is, however, mortified at the blood on her and her general’s hands, and wonders out loud…

That’s a good question, Eirika… that’s a very good question.

Closing thoughts
I’m going to need perhaps a couple of chapters, but definitely some feedback on the screenshots-to-text ratio. Also I think it’s best to assume you guys know the basics of FE so this doesn’t become a guide- I can always clarify things in private or by editing the post.

Pre-battle thoughts:
This chapter gives me a way to level Seth’s Lance rank without wasting the Silver Lance, which is a very welcome change in the situation. Other than that I don’t have a lot of things to say about the chapter.

Opening scenes
No narrative this time, we’re thrust straight into the map of Border Mulan. Holed up inside a fortress we meet a young girl, apparently distraught at how quickly Grado has advanced and who exclaims that they’ve ‘had no time.’ We quickly find out who she is.

Meet Tana, a childhood friend of Eirika’s and the daughter of the man that King Fado hopes will protect her.

Sadly, it appears that ‘t is Tana who needs protection at the moment. The Grado forces outside, led by Breguet, aren’t in the least fazed by her protectors reinforcing their position in the fortress. They force their way in, where Tana demands that they see themselves out, but instead, she is taken hostage inside the fortress.



At around the same time, Seth and Eirika show up at the bottom right of the map. They have no knowledge of all these events, and Seth seems to want to skip Mulan altogether and head straight for the castle. Eirika convinces him to fight, however, as she has no desire to see the cruelties repeated that she witnessed in Renais. Looks like Tana caught a lucky break.

Battle start
Turn 1

Our objective this time is not to defeat the leader of the enemies, like last time. Instead, we have to Seize the space that is occupied by Breguet, the Knight in the upper left. Seizing has to be done by Eirika. This means I could technically rush him with Seth and crash his lance into him, but the difficulty is going to ramp up in later levels, so instead, I’d like to get all the experience I can get early on.

Technically, I could put Seth down further forward to lure more enemies into breaking themselves against him. However, I want to put him close to Eirika for reasons that will become clear later. The Fighter above him stands no chance against his sword, and our turn automatically ends.

Breguet isn’t as dumb as he looks, and immediately realizes the situation.


But wait…

It’s Franz! And he brought help from Frelia, as Seth had ordered!

Turn 2
Now, about Franz and Gilliam. I have no intention whatsoever of using either of them, and they’ll just get in the way and suck up valuable experience if I move them from where they stand. So, I’m going to have Seth take a little detour.

This is admittedly not the safest of set-ups, with Eirika within reach of the Soldier on the right of the gate in addition to the Fighter below her. However, the terrain around them makes it so that any enemies seeking to attack Franz or Gilliam will have to go through her and Seth, with the exception of the Soldier directly above Seth’s new position. So let’s get rid of him to fix that problem, shall we?

Now that that’s taken care of, I’ve checked- none of the enemies have throwing weapons. I could leave the two up there, but there’s something I want to use them for- another reason I moved Seth closer to them.


Would you look at that. Franz not only carries two additional Vulneraries, which will help keep the general alive in later chapters I don’t doubt, but also an Iron Sword and, more importantly, a lance that’s not Seth’s Silver Lance!

I’m one of those people who feel the lance suits Seth best, so I fully intend to give him an S-rank in Lances, not swords. Since we’re not using Franz anyway, let’s take that high-use Lance off of him and slap it on Seth instead!

After finishing the trade, Franz still has a tile of movement left so I put him below Gilliam just to be sure he’s really out of the way.

As expected, the enemy uses their turn to attack Eirika with the Soldier. The blow she takes is a little unnerving, leaving her at 7 HP. The enemy follows this up by letting the Fighter attack her, and I get my first Game Over of the project. In the first chapter. Great going there, BP.


PRINCESS EIRIKA FALLEN -- GAME OVER

Attempt 2, turn 2. This time, I’m placing Eirika where I should have put her in the first place:

Outside of her would-be captor’s reach. This means the Fighter is capable of attacking Franz and Gilliam where I put them last time, but there’s a way to get out of that. After killing the Soldier, I put Gilliam in the same place as last time, and again give Franz instructions to hand his lance off to Seth. However, I do this in such a manner that the Iron Lance is the first item in Seth’s inventory, which forces him to equip it, and I also trade Franz’ Iron Sword off to the Paladin.


This leaves Franz unarmed. I don’t know the AI well enough to predict whether this makes him a more interesting target than Eirika, but I do know that with no means of counterattacking, he won’t steal any experience meant for Seth. I now put Franz back on the tile directly below Gilliam- it’s only from this position that the enemy could attack our Knight, so this means he’s perfectly safe.

The Soldier that ended up being the flaw in my plan last time attacks Seth this time. He’s incapable of even denting the general’s armor, and Seth quickly makes him pay for his actions last attempt.

The Fighter decides to attack the unarmed Franz, meaning Eirika gets off scot-free this time.

Turn 3
Okay, I need to take care of that Fighter. Checking the ranges of the enemy tells me the Soldier has no way of reaching Eirika even if I let her attack the Fighter from below, or if I place her below or beside Seth if I let him do it. This is reassuring, but if I let her handle the Fighter she’ll be in danger because of his counter, her inability to finish him in this turn, and the Fighter to the left, whose range she will fall into once Seth leaves his current spot.
This seems to be the safest set-up: Eirika is out of the Soldier’s reach, the Fighter has no means of surviving Seth’s attack (Iron Sword, 100% hit rate and a total of 32 damage against the Soldier’s 22 HP), and the second Fighter, oh well. She’ll survive one axe user. Notice also that this set-up leaves the terrain conditions similar to last time- the enemies will have to cut through Seth and Eirika to damage Franz and Gilliam. This didn’t work out last time, but this time I’m more careful.

Once again making use of Franz’ Trade menu, I force Seth to re-equip his Iron Lance for the enemy’s turn. I leave Gilliam where he is. On the enemy’s turn, the Fighter attacks Eirika (not Seth, despite his current WTD) with a hit rate of 45% and misses. Eirika uses her counterattacks well, killing him.

Turn 4
This chapter is already taking way longer than I’m used to, but then again, normally I have Franz trotting about the field and aiding with the kills by this time. I no longer trust that Soldier, so I’m not putting Eirika within his reach. I AM moving her, though, for the sake of keeping her right next to Seth.

This puts Seth at the very edge of the Soldier’s range, so Eirika can’t be reached. I WOULD have put Eirika on the Forest tile and Seth in front of or above her, but she can’t reach it, so I’ll have to settle for a slower charge.

I’m actually going to move Franz and Gilliam as well, for reasons that will become clear shortly.

During the enemy turn, nothing important or shocking happens- Seth killing the Soldier was to be expected. However, at the end of the turn…

Welcome to Fire Emblem, where reinforcements can be your worst nightmare if you’re not careful. This is why I moved Franz and Gilliam- they would have become targets for these three mooks if I had left them be.

Turn 5
These are the only reinforcements this chapter and Franz and Gilliam are not yet within their reach. Let’s keep it that way, shall we?


Gilliam is now technically within Breguet’s reach, but it’s a Seize Gate chapter, so Breguet doesn’t move. I have no means of blocking the advance of these enemies like I did before, so I’m going to have to use a more aggressive approach to ensure Seth gets the EXP.

This should do the trick. Seth is equipped with his Iron Lance for Weapon EXP purposes, even though he falls within the reach of the Fighters. Eirika is safe where she is- not only is she outside of the reach of the mooks, she’s standing on a Fortress giving her a small boost in her defences and in her odds of avoiding incoming attacks.


I am honestly not sure if I like this. Seth keeps making needless low-chance criticals, and you’ll see, when I NEED a critical at a decent crit rate, a dodge against a low hit rate, or something similar later on, the RNG will screw me over. At any rate, at least the two Fighters are now gone.

Turn 6

Killing the Soldier is a matter of putting Eirika here and moving Seth one space to the right, attacking with his Iron Lance. Nothing else happens this turn. At all.

Turn 7

As you’ve seen in the last battle screen, Seth’s actually been taking a bit of a beating this chapter. We’re going up against a Knight, slow but tough, so I’m going to play it safe and use a vulnerary to bump that HP from 19 back up to 29.

Turn 8
I want to check something, so instead of letting Seth attack Breguet, I’m placing him and Eirika in position like so.


Turn 9
Now, for what I wanted to check. Eirika is mandatory for the entire run, and I don’t want her dying and giving me more needless Game Overs like the one above here. Without the Tower of Valni, that means I need to adapt my strategy. Let’s take a look at her weapon, the Rapier.

By ‘infantry,’ the game means ‘units with the Heavy Armor trait,’ such as Knights. (Incidentally, this is misleading information: the Rapier is equally effective against cavalry like Franz and Seth.) By ‘effective against,’ the game means that if the Rapier is used against Knights, it triples the weapon’s strength. This, along with the crit rating of 10, make Rapiers useful against these kinds of units. However, in Sacred Stones, Eirika is the only character that can use them, meaning Seth can’t benefit from it.

For these reasons, I want to see what the odds become if Eirika attacks Breguet with this ‘Class Buster.’

I dunno about you guys, but I like those numbers—just, not on the player phase. I’m not going to attack Breguet, but I am leaving Eirika within his range and hoping for a critical on her part. There’s no way Breguet is going to kill her this turn. Seth is good where he’s standing, so I’m going to end my turn here.


Sadly, Eirika both takes Breguet’s hit and fails to land a critical of her own. Still, she leaves him at a single HP remaining.

Turn 10
Normally I’d use a Vulnerary and repeat last turn’s process, but that would put Eirika at 12 HP, meaning Breguet would kill her on his turn. One Game Over in this chapter is enough- we’re moving Eirika down and letting Seth take the kill.

There we go. Killing Breguet doesn’t end the chapter, though.

HOWEVER, it does give Seth enough Experience that he levels up!

Not the best of levelups there, but Seth is getting some valuable stat increases out of it. He’s going to need to stay on top of his speed if he wants to continue double-attacking enemy Cavaliers and Myrmidons later on, so I welcome that with open arms. Also, Seth has a less than perfect Resistance growth, but the final boss of the game relies heavily on magical attacks. Any Resistance he gets is resistance I will take.

Turn 11
I hate pointless turns like these but I guess I’ll grow used to it.


Chapter 1: CLEAR
Seth level: 2
Eirika level: 1
Game Over count: 1
Game Overs in this chapter: 1

Ending scenes
After Seizing the gates of the fortress, Gilliam ensures Tana is alright until Eirika barges in on them, catching Tana completely by surprise.

Er… princesses in this game ask good questions, apparently. Despite worrying about Ephraim, Tana does think clearly enough to set it aside and offers to take Eirika’s company to Castle Frelia.

At the castle, Tana gets a stern talking-to from King Hayden, but manages to deflect most of it by producing Eirika. Eirika herself expresses concern about her father, to which Hayden reveals that he has news.

Welp. Not that it wasn’t to be expected- he was the father of an FE protagonist, after all. And I guess the situation at the castle was quite severe.

Seth quickly moves on, asking if Hayden knows anything about Ephraim’s disappearance. Apparently the prince’s been busy hounding the men of the Grado Empire. We learn where the most recent reports place him: A place called Renvall. We don’t know if he’s unharmed, though.

Eirika immediately springs to action, defying Hayden’s instructions to stay and rest and wanting to leave for Renvall so that she can aid Ephraim with reinforcements. A short argument between the two ensues, in which we learn Tana’s not exactly an only child:

So the princesses ask good questions and the princes make life hard on the enemy. Despite Frelia having very few troops to spare, Eirika remains determined to go. Hayden provides us with Gilliam and two new, usually valuable earlygame units: the Pegasus Knight Vanessa and the Priest Moulder. We also get a supply convoy, which is a very useful in-game feature, and 5000 gold to buy supplies with.

In another part of the castle, a conversation between Tana and Eirika reveals some things about Grado.

We have no answers, but we will get them. We ride, first thing in the morning!

Closing thoughts
Well, give me a horse and call me a Cavalier. That took way longer than was necessary. 2400 words and ELEVEN turns to finish chapter ONE? I NEED to find a way to condense these posts. Oh, and not getting any more Game Overs early in the game would be nice too, BP. At least I now know to assume the AI will prioritize Eirika.

Pre-battle preparations:
Before I actually start chapter 2, I’m going to be left on the Word Map. This is something Sacred Stones does because of the entire extended preparing by grinding and going back to visit shops and things, and I probably won’t mention the map anymore in future posts. For now, I’m just going to manage Seth and Eirika’s equipment.


This is the setup I’m going to be using for a while (read: until weapons start breaking or I get better ones). Eirika basically IS your supply convoy in that by trading through her, everything stored in it can be accessed, so stacking more vulneraries or spare weapons onto her serves no purpose. I want Seth to keep the Silver Lance on hand though, if there’s one thing I’ve learnt in all my years of playing FE it’s that you never know what the Random Number Goddess is going to throw at you.

I haven’t really done anything with anyone else’s equipment other than throwing it all into the supply convoy so Seth and Eirika will always have access to spare Vulneraries. Convoy space is not an issue yet, so I can always sell the stuff off at a later time.

Now onwards to the opening scenes.

Opening scenes
The narrator briefly recaps our endeavours of the last chapter before we set out to Ide. On the outskirts, Eirika briefly talks strategy with her companions- specifically on how to make their way to Grado without attracting unneeded attention from Grado soldiers. Vanessa offers to scout ahead- a role Pegasus Knights often get in these games. She quickly happens across not Grado soldiers, but bandits.

In the village of Ide, two new characters have picked up on their presence as well.


Ross and his father manage to escape the village even as it is destroyed by one of the bandits, but Ross doesn’t get off scot-free as he takes an injury.

Vanessa reports all this back to Eirika’s party, to which the princess immediately orders the boy must be aided.

Battle Start

Task at hand: kill all the enemies. Possibly the least characteristic goal for any FE lord ever. For the first time, we have a map that’s bigger than our screen- it expands downwards, where there’s a village right under those peaks. Brigands, like the one on the destroyed village, are the only enemy units capable of raiding villages and thus rendering whatever is inside unreachable to us. Solo run or not, we don’t want that, considering some villages have more than a little valuable rewards.

Now, I’m not going to USE Ross nor Garcia, his father. But I’m a huge chump and I refuse to let anyone die if I have a say in it, so I’m just going to have Vanessa save the kid. I’m also going to shove everyone but Eirika and Seth into the upper left corner, where they’re safe and don’t get in our way.

First order of business: visit the villages at the top of the map so they’re safe. Seth is slowed down MASSIVELY by the forest around his starting position, so Eirika is the only one who can reach them. In the left village, we find an interesting woman who almost immediately pegs us for who we are.

Eirika almost slips up, but introduces herself as Erina, a mercenary. (This actually has some precedent in Easy Mode, where Seth and Eirika have an additional exchange on her identity needing to stay hidden. It’s because of this that she adopts this persona. I’m not sure why they took it out of the higher difficulties.)

The woman doesn’t buy it, but doesn’t pry either. And thank god for that.

That could have ended badly. At any rate, she goes on to hire ‘Erina’ to save the village from the bandits, as she has orders to return to Grado and can’t do it herself. Our payment is a Red Gem, which we can sell for 2500 gold. Not terribly interesting a reward for this run, but normally a welcome source of income.

Maybe the village on the right offers less in the way of heart attacks.

My my. Doesn’t that sound interesting? Maybe we’ll run into him sometime. The girl hands us the Elixir her knight in shining armor gave her, since we have more use for it. I’m going to place it into the convoy as soon as my next turn rolls around; knowing me, I’ll do something stupid to waste the full HP recovery early on.

Seth takes Ross from Vanessa so she can go back and take Garcia out of the enemy reach. Ross is recruited by Eirika and he recruits Garcia- I send the two of them, along with Vanessa, to the upper left. Now then, now that I know those two won’t go off and get themselves killed, let’s get some blood flowing.

Keeping Seth and Eirika close together is still important to me, but I’m going to let go of it for now for the sake of reaching the village at the bottom of the map before the bandits do- Seth’s good movement should make it more than possible to reach it in time. On his way, the general loots an additional vulnerary off the corpse of one of the brigands, while Eirika moves to a relatively safe spot to distract last turn’s reinforcements from the unarmed units.


It’s not foolproof, but the +20 to her avoid stat and the WTA should make her safe enough from the brigand on the right. Meanwhile, Seth continues his trek south, where the enemy boss, Bone, attacks him.


Just your doom and demise in a pretty package, Bone. Nothing particular.

I take back what I said about Seth ruining my RNG karma: with two hits from his lance, Bone goes down despite the low, low hit rate of 44%.


Putting Eirika on the forest was a good decision: the enemy only has a 19% hit rate on her, so I’m going to leave her there. She lacks the strength to kill the brigands quickly, sadly enough, but she only has to deal with two of them, so I’m fine with her slowly chipping away at them.

Especially because of the levelup this involves.

I take back what I said about taking back what I said about RNG karma.

Seth, meanwhile, reaches the village, getting his hands on something that could very well save his life later on:

As I said before, any Resistance he can get is Resistance I will take, even if it’s temporary. Now that all the villages are safe, I think it’s high time we finish the chapter. The two enemies at the top of the map should focus on Eirika, who can dodgetank them- the three enemies near the village have been hunting Seth and continue to do so.

Their loss- the redhead laughs at their WTA, slaughtering them. They manage to eat away at his HP, but he lives, while Eirika levels up a second time by killing the final enemy on the map.


Not a fast learner, are you, Your Highness. At least she’s getting some much-needed Strength, but I would have preferred some, you know… durability.

Chapter 2: CLEAR
Seth level: 2.
Eirika level: 3.
Game Over count: 1.
Game Overs in this chapter: 0.

Ending scenes
Garcia thanks us for saving his son, and Seth reveals some background information on the man.

(As a side note, I think this is the first screenshot I’ve used in which Seth speaks. In fangirl circles we call this ‘great restraint.’)
He attempts to recruit Garcia into our cause, but the Fighter refuses- he’s retired and only wishes to protect his son.

Said son is not happy with his father’s decision to say the least.

Ross gives Garcia a good chewing-out for thinking he can’t take care of himself, and finally, both of them join our cause.

A villager later comes up and remarks at one of Eirika’s accessories.

This may seem trivial, but what I neglected to mention in the prologue is that King Fado ensured Eirika was wearing said bracelet BEFORE sending Seth off with her. The man warns Eirika of thieves and bandits who would relieve her of her clearly very valuable trinket. He especially warns her for Bazba’s Bandits, and adds that Renais is pretty much finished, along with even more concerning news.

Dammit! Just what we didn’t want to hear. Eirika, as is to be expected, is shocked beyond words. Much later in the evening, we’re treated to a flashback and our first personal meeting with the man.



Eirika had best get out of that daydreaming habit though, as while she’s distracted, a scruffy-looking guy bumps into her. He immediately rushes off, and when Seth checks in on her, the two quickly realize the very bracelet that was mentioned not three paragraphs ago has poofed from Eirika’s wrist.

Eirika finds it no cause for detour, arguing that its sentimental value is inferior to Ephraim’s life, but Seth comes as close to flipping his shit as we’ve ever seen him.

Well… Seth probably knows what he’s talking about. I guess we’re giving chase.

Closing thoughts
Probably a bit more screenshot-heavy than it needed to be, this chapter. Still, I think this format of commentating/reporting is less jarring and time-consuming; it’s certainly a lot less annoying to write.

On a more game-technical note: Eirika had better start getting less crummy levelups. I don't really want to have to slap stat boosters on her to keep her alive.

Pre-battle thoughts
This is probably the easiest level to solo because there’s at least three valuable choking points to abuse. I think I can get a level, maybe two, out of this chapter for Seth, but then again Eirika NEEDS to level up some more… We’ll see.

Opening scenes
In our pursuit of the thief who made off with Eirika’s bracelet, it turns out we run straight into the territory of Bazba’s bandits. From this, Seth draws the conclusion that the thief must be with the bandits.

In response to Eirika still being a little stunned over the activity of bandits in her kingdom, Seth explains that they’ve always been there, just kept at bay by the knights. However, right now the army of Renais is in ruins, and Grado isn’t particularly interested in maintaining order.


Much like the villager from before said.

Eirika’s grief is broken by a young girl showing up on the scene. Her name is Neimi, and she’s from a village that has now been destroyed. She managed to escape with her friend Colm, who seems to be suicidal.

Or just really devoted to Neimi. Either or. At any rate, Eirika agrees to save Colm, in part since they were going to the bandits’ lair anyway. Neimi not only leads us there, but reveals that she is an Archer, and therefore capable of fighting.


Aren’t these people friendly? Fortunately we have a very friendly companion of our own.

Battle start
This is without a doubt the chapter that’s easiest to solo, and for this reason:

The doors, once opened, can be occupied by any character to slowly but surely pick off anything that comes at them. The same goes for certain portions of the walls once broken down. The map effectively has a lot of choking points, making it safer than most. With no villages to worry about, we can take our time.

Hmmm… there is one thing I do need to worry about though.

That wall is breakable. And if I know my Fire Emblem, the brigand on the other side of the wall will break it, tear into my unarmed units and rip them apart. Let’s see to it THAT doesn’t happen.

For reasons that will become clear very soon, I’m actually going to move Neimi forward, not back. As usual, everyone else is going as far out of the way as I can get them. I’m going to put Eirika next to the wall to intercept the brigand once he breaks it down, and Seth is going forward with Neimi to catch anything that would open and come through the door.


What? Where’d this guy come from? Turns out this fellow snuck into the fortress. He’s a Thief, and comes equipped with a Lockpick, so he’s capable of opening not only the door, but also any chest that is and isn’t tied to the ground.

Checking his character profile shows that this is Colm, the guy Neimi asked us to save. Well, she can do the saving herself.

Colm joins our side, so the AI will no longer send him off into his own death. Of course this means the treasure chests are now inaccessible to me, but I’m not in any danger of running out of usable weapons or gold anytime soon.

Colm and Neimi join the others, and I continue doing what I was doing- putting Seth and Eirika into positions where they can pick off the enemies without endangering the rest of the company. There’s only one enemy that can reach Seth from the door opened by Colm, so I move him to the hallway leading down to the room where Eirika’s enemy is located. Surrounded, the brigand continues to try and wail on the more vulnerable princess, but eventually falls to her blade.

Painfully.

Seth, in the meanwhile, has started work on tearing down the wall on the other side of the room. The enemy Thief has no lockpicks, and while the brigand drops a Door Key, I want to use that elsewhere.


Here we are introduced to throwing weapons. The brigand on the other side of the wall is equipped with a Hand Axe, a weapon that can attack both up close and afar, and uses it to protest Seth’s remodelling the fortress. Time for a change of strategy.

The observant among you may have noticed that last chapter, I equipped Seth with a weapon called a Javelin.

The Javelin is the Hand Axe of the Lance weapon type. It attacks both near and far, and I think that with enemies having ranged attacks they could turn on Eirika once I break the wall, this is a good time to bust it out.


That takes care of one pesky bugger. Still, there’s an archer and one brigand with a Hand Axe left, and the archer can reach Seth quite easily.

Eirika, meanwhile, takes the Door key from before and leaves Seth’s side for a second. There’s a brigand in the room below them, blocked off by a door, that I want her to kill for some experience while Seth is occupied fighting people on the other side of the wall and levelling up.

Strength and Defense this time around. These are some of the first stats most people think about in these kinds of games, and they certainly help- just because the enemies have crappy attack and defensive power NOW, doesn’t mean that will keep up later in the game, so we want these stats to keep hurting and to stay alive. Best that we get them in early.

Just as I’d hoped, killing her own enemy gives Eirika a new level as well.

NOW we’re talking, princess. While Strength and Skill are offensive stats that will become important to her levelling up later, Luck is a weird one. As far as I’m aware, it affects her dodge stat, lowers the enemy critical hit rate, and I seem to recall it also affects her own critical hit rate, but don’t quote me on that. Maybe because it affects so many things, LUK growths are generally extremely low, so every point we can get in it counts.

The brigand drops a chest key, which allows any unit to open a single chest. And whaddya know: there’s a chest right down there in the room that brigand was guarding. Must contain something good!

Spare throwing weapons never hurt to have. Now then, to break down the last bit of that wall and conquer the east end of the fortress. I’m going to take it slow from here on out, taking care to put Seth and Eirika closely together again. Trust me, there’s a good reason why I’m doing this and I’ve already wasted too many turns by separating them in the last chapter and up until now.

The boss, Bazba, carries a Hand Axe like some of his minions, in addition to his Steel Axe. Eirika can survive one hit from both weapons though, so I can keep the two together while Seth attacks him.

As you can see, his Lance level is coming along nicely, and I’m tired of stalling the chapter, so I’m just going to use his sword for this one.


If I got a euro for every time a bad guy said that, I’d be out of the financial crisis by now. Of course nothing is going to save this guy.


Ta-da. Now all that remains is for Eirika to Seize the throne.

Chapter 3: CLEAR
Seth level: 3
Eirika level: 4
Game Over count: 1
Game Overs in this chapter: 0

Ending scenes
Colm and Neimi share a teary reunion (mostly teary on Neimi’s part), which is soon interrupted by Seth.

This is why you never leave the castle without Seth. While we were busy fighting people and stealing their throwing lances, he managed to find time to get a good look at Colm and realize he was the one who made off with Eirika’s bracelet. Well, that saves us a lot of time searching the fortress.

Colm flies into a rage and appears to try and intimidate Seth, who is not in the least fazed by the kid swinging a dagger at him and simply plucks the trinket from him. He proceeds to show that he does have a heart, though, asking Colm if this is the path he’s chosen for himself and advising him to get off of it if he cares about Neimi. He then starts to leave, warning Colm that he won’t be rescued a second time, to which Colm offers his shady services to the ‘mercenaries’.


Interesting to note is that Seth foregoes using Eirika’s title here, while he did use it earlier. It’s rather uncharacteristic of him, and I think it’s probably something that was overlooked in the script.

Seth goes back to return Eirika’s bracelet to her, not mentioning exactly where in the fortress he found it. Eirika uses this moment to give us a little more information on the trinket.

Seth warns her to never lose it again, for reasons known only to him. He feels it’s too early to tell her these reasons, but Eirika decides to trust him.

We’re not done yet.

Welcome to Grado Keep, home to Emperor Vigarde, Prince Lyon, and the Imperial Three; three highly skilled generals in the service of Grado. Think of them as reclassed Seth times three. They are, from left to right, the Great Knight Duessel (Also known as Obsidian), the Wyvern Lord Glen (Sunstone), and the Mage Knight Selena (Fluorspar), whom we’ve met in chapter 2.

Selena shows concern for the situation in Renais, as do Duessel and Glen upon hearing her report, contradicting Seth’s words from before. Duessel even considers disobeying orders for the sake of mending the situation. Glen doesn’t correct him, instead wondering out loud what’s going on with the Emperor.


The Imperial Three are summoned by the Emperor, who has… interesting news to say the least. There are three NEW generals, not to replace the current ones but to aid them.

They are the Bishop Riev, seemingly assigned to work with Duessel…


The Hero Caellach, who seems eager to work with Selena…


And… General Nightmare Fuel himself?! Don’t scare me like that, game!

I will call you whatever I damn well- Oh, dear. Looks like Glen is about as fond of this guy as we are.

The Emperor sends Selena and Caellach to conquer Frelia, leaves Duessel and Riev in charge of Grado’s defences, and Valter and Glen of all people are instructed to find Eirika and Ephraim and bring them to the emperor.

This is going south very quickly.

Closing thoughts
Oh crud I’d completely forgotten about the Grado Keep bit in this chapter. Talk about padding the post fffffff- Also, I’ll be happy to have Seth at Lance level S. I’m tired of missing hit rate because I’m fighting at a WTD.

On a less serious note, do you figure my Nidorino will evolve if I throw him at Valter? …yes, I do deserve to die for that one.

Pre-battle thoughts
Unless I’m mistaken this is the chapter where we first get the preparation screen. Good, that means I can really get the soloing started… also isn’t this where L’Arachel shows up for the first time?

Opening scenes
We travel through Za’Ha Woods towards Serafew, on the border with Grado. We run into no Grado soldiers at all… instead, we get something a lot more frightening.

Well, they’re definitely not human, that much is for sure. …at least not anymore.

The camera pans over to the village in the southwest of the map, where two new characters are discussing the figures. We get the answer to Eirika’s question.

The white-clad Artur soon leaves the village in order to lend a hand to the protection of Eirika’s company. He is thrust into a scripted battle with one of the eyeball-shaped demons, defeating it but gaining no EXP from the battle. He says that he has to cleanse the fiends as ordered by the church, but Seth makes a wise observation:


Preparation Screen

This is the first chapter in which the Preparation Screen is available to us! Basically, this is what I’ve been waiting for since chapter 2, since it will allow me to simply leave behind anyone I don’t want to use, which makes the solo run a LOT easier.

Sadly, Artur is marked as green and therefore mandatory for this chapter, so I have to hold off my happiness for a little bit longer. For this run, I’m going to recruit as many characters as I can, but I’m only going out of my way by bringing unused characters if the character to be recruited is plot-significant. For this chapter I’m bringing Seth, Eirika and Artur, but before I enter the battle I’m taking everything but a couple of Vulneraries off of Artur.


Here’s the formation I want to use. Battle start!

Battle Start
While I’m a little disappointed that I HAVE to bring Artur, it’s a lot easier to keep one character safe than to protect five leftover guys. For now, he’s fine where he is, but I’ll have to keep him kinda close to the other two.

The village entrance is a safe place, so I’ll put him there for now. Artur gets an Iron Axe in that village- useless to me this run because Sacred Stones Paladins, unlike their brethren from FE7, are incapable of using Axes.

A lot more interesting is what happens when I move Seth into position next to his charge.

This is easily one of my favourite aspects of the Fire Emblem series: The Support System. By meeting requirements that vary throughout the series (in Sacred Stones, it’s making characters end their turn next to each other), the Support command becomes available and the two characters can hold a conversation, which is honestly where the vast majority of character development comes from. There’s three conversations per character combination, barring specific exceptions that are not in this game, and they rank from C to B and finally to A. If the A-support level is obtained between two characters by the end of the game, certain pairings will have their endings changed to reflect on their close bond, usually in the context of marriage.

That’s not all there is to Supports though. The characters that are involved in the support give each other bonuses to their stats if they are within three tiles of each other, with the exact bonuses determined by the characters’ affinity, and the size of the bonuses by the support level. Seth and Eirika have just reached their C-support level, with Seth being of the Anima Affinity and Eirika of the Light Affinity, so activating the support will result in a small bonus to Eirika’s Avoid (both normal and critical), as well as in a small bonus to Seth’s Hit rate and Critical rate, and finally to both their attack and defense.

I’m gonna roll with that. For those interested, screencaps containing the entire support can be found in the spoiler tag. For those not interested, the LP itself will continue right away.

Seth/Eirika C (open) Seth/Eirika C (close)

This is something that is extensively used in the fanfiction scene. A good portion of the fics in which Seth features heavily use the wound Valter gave him in some shape, way or form, and for me personally, it’s an integral part of his character. In the game though, it’s rarely if ever mentioned after the prologue in which he gets it and outside this support with Eirika.

Additionally, Eirika’s mentioning that she sees a flicker of pain when Seth raises his lance, not his sword, is probably more than anything what has prompted me to almost always have lances as his signature weapon.

Now, there are a lot of enemies on this map- fifteen of them at the start. For convenience’s sake, I like to split this map into two halves- above the river, where we have started, and below the river, where amongst others the boss is located. There’s only one tile connecting the two halves to each other, and it’s the bridge that’s easily exploited by planting Seth in the middle. For the sake of crowd control, that’s exactly what I’m doing.

Something to keep in mind, though.

Mogalls have flying movement. Their range isn’t much better than a foot unit, but they’re not bothered by terrain. They use magic, which is capable of attacking both near and far, too, so I’m equipping Seth with his Javelin before putting him down.

And as if that weren’t bad enough, we have a couple of Bonewalkers with lances that arrive on the map just as we’re moving in that direction. Let’s have Eirika take care of that Mogall near Seth’s starting position and see where we can put Artur so that he’s safe.


I remember what happened last time I left Eirika within range of more than one enemy, don’t worry. However, the avoid and defense bonuses from the Forest tile and from her support with Seth stack, and monsters are generally a lot less dangerous than human foes, so I’m going to have faith in this decision. Besides, the remaining Mogall might direct its attention to the unarmed Artur within its range instead. If everyone survives this turn, I think the rest of the chapter will be a cakewalk.


This is why you should never let me predict the AI’s actions ever.

But more importantly, what’s this?

It appears our little struggle has caught the attention of a trio of would-be benefactors. Despite their leader’s order, they take a detour to avoid falling to their deaths and they won’t arrive until after the end of the chapter, so don’t worry about them being in any danger.

A couple of the beasts have attempted to get by Seth last turn, but he’s held them off without too much effort at all. I’m definitely not going to cross that bridge until I’ve picked off every last enemy above it, and Seth’s Javelin will make that a lot swifter and less dangerous. While moving Artur around a bit to keep him out of the reach of the actually dangerous enemies, I can keep Seth and Eirika where they are- I’d like to start building up their B-support, but the higher forest is honestly a better place for Eirika to be than the one next to Seth right now.

Case in point:

We’re starting to go places here. Keep working on that Luck and Speed, princess- if you can’t take any hits, then you’d better at least make sure nothing hits you.

Meanwhile, guarding the bridge:

Acceptable levelup. In Seth’s case it’s less a matter of ‘catching up’ than it is a matter of ‘keeping the head start’ anyway, and these gains do help with that.


These two zombies are just NOT moving because we’re out of their attack range, and I feel safe leaving the bridge unattended for a bit because nothing’s tried to attack us for a little while. I’m going to have Seth abandon his post in favour of killing the two of them before I move down.


Oh dear gods this is exactly what I wanted to see. This little notification tells me that Seth has reached Lance Level S, which means that the Silver Knight can now wield every Lance-type weapon in the game, bar NONE. The downside to this is that any character can only get an S-rank in a single weapon type, so Seth will not be able to wield every sword in the game. It’s not too terribly important, but a good deal later in the game we’ll be getting access to some very powerful weapons that are limited to S-ranks and I honestly prefer to give Seth the lance-type weapon.

On a more immediate note, this means I can now use Seth according to the Weapon Triangle, which is going to add SO MUCH to his effectiveness.


Back to the bridge, and I see that Mogall there. There’s a little bit of a problem with Seth’s Javelin though. It’s been reduced to a single use, which means that even if Seth has the speed required to counterattack twice, he’ll only attack once. Still, placing him below Eirika puts him within range of ONLY the Mogall.

Mogalls have terrible physical defense, so a single Javelin toss is more than enough to take it out. The eyeballs are always a little unnerving to me because of their range and the fact that almost nothing can stop their advance, so from here on out, the chapter is basically a cakewalk…


MORE ZOMBIES! Not that they’re really any danger for now. Revenants are slow, and by separating Seth and Eirika to more quickly clear the enemies below the bridge I can create a safe area for Artur to hide from them.


…you know what, now that I’m down here anyway I’m going to visit that other village. It’s not terribly important for this particular run, but remember Artur’s friend from the opening scenes?


…really, she said everything I would have needed to. Pretty much everything is taken care of so she’s in no danger, this wasn’t really going TOO far out of my way, and she comes with another Vulnerary. Really, win-win as far as I’m concerned.

And Seth returns precisely in time to spank some more zombie butt at the bridge.


The four newcomers are no match for the Silver Knight, so that leaves the boss. Now, bear with me for a second. This is what I mean when I say the monsters are a lot less dangerous than the human enemies.


This is the BOSS of this chapter, guys. Those stats are absolutely PATHETIC. Let’s put that thing out of its misery as quickly as possible.

At least it provides a round, 100 EXP, even for Seth.

More skill and speed for dodging, doubling, and hitting! No HP though, despite the 90% growth rate. Huh.

Chapter 4: CLEAR
Seth level: 5
Eirika level: 5
Game over count: 1
Game overs in this chapter: 0

Ending scenes
After burning the bones as a safety measure against the defeated monsters rising again, Eirika expresses her understandable disbelief at them having had to fight them.

I CALL BULLSHIT, GENERAL. This was the easiest chapter yet.


Okay, okay. Lute, you can stop now. We get the point. There’s more where this came from.

Concerned for his liege’s safety, Seth suggests to regroup in Frelia. Eirika proves to be as stubborn as she’s been useful this chapter though, arguing that her brother is in the exact same position as they are. The two agree to press on, Seth bowing to Eirika’s wishes on the matter.

And then… oh, hey, it’s these guys!

This lady is either not the most observant of people, or just REALLY eager to smash some skeleton skulls. …which is interesting considering her map sprite is that of a healer. Yes, this is L’Arachel, with whose name I think IS went for a French feel and as far as I’m concerned they failed horribly- I would have gone with l’Arachelle myself and I often do so in casual conversation. But who IS L’Arachel?


One with a penchant for the dramatic, if you hadn’t guessed by now…


Wait what. L’Arachel agrees with her bearded companion that she must romantically ride off in anonymity, but not before promising that our paths will cross again.

Eirika summarizes everyone’s thoughts.


Closing thoughts
Wow. Lots of technical stuff this chapter. I knew the preparation screen was going to come and I was kinda expecting the support, but I hadn’t thought Seth would max out his lance level this early. Shame about Seth’s Javelin breaking, too, but I guess we have a spare.

Also L’Arachel. I to this day can’t figure out if that girl is just really energetic or ‘special.’

Pre-battle thoughts
Two things can possibly happen here: Either I tank through this chapter with ease, or I get TONS of Game Overs. Well, let’s see which it is, shall we?

Opening scenes
We head For Serafew, a town smack on the border of Grado and Renais. The first thing we see is a red-haired, black-clad young man running into a Cleric.

He startles her, but she leaves almost immediately.

More importantly, remember Glen? It looks like he went straight to work after receiving his orders.

The Sunstone sure doesn’t mess around. At least we don’t have to fight him personally. He leaves Saar, his subordinate, with additional orders: a traitor has escaped the castle and reports place her in Serafew. Saar is to find and secure not only Eirika, but also this traitor. In fact, he has permission to execute the latter.

As Saar leaves to prepare his men, Glen exchanges a few words with his subordinate.

Finally, the camera pans onto Seth and Eirika. Eirika spends some time reminiscing on the past, mentioning how Serafew has always been peaceful and a testament to the alliance between the two kingdoms.

Just as Seth starts to think of ways to stay under the radar, they are interrupted.

We haven’t, so the man continues on his merry way. That’s when we hear a lot of shouting that they’ve found ‘her.’ Entirely against their best interests, the two decide to see what the commotion is all about.


Hold up, isn’t she the Cleric from before? She’s the traitor? Come on, you can’t execute a holy woman! That’s craven!

An unreasonable amount of soldiers pours out, and Natasha flees into the arms of Eirika and Seth.

WHO CARES ABOUT PLOT AM I RIGHT

Battle start
Note that Natasha is mandatory for this chapter.
Upon starting the chapter, we see a familiar face emerging from the town’s Arena. Apparently, he’s lost money.

Hmmm… So we have a slightly unwilling mercenary on the enemy’s side…

It looks like Natasha has something to say to us, too.

Hmmm. We might just know one…

What say you guys we get some actual strategising going? First thing to note is that we have four villages in this map. There’s no Brigands right now, but I’m still gonna want to make haste in saving the villages. And then there’s the redhead to worry about- he’s equipped with a Killing Edge, so RNG Karma be damned he’s gonna crit the shit out of my people.

First off, I’m sending Natasha to the village in the southeast corner of the map, as visible on my screens. Meanwhile, I’m moving Seth and Eirika to the Forest above said village to start clearing out enemy troops.

And good thing, too because on turn two these two show their mugs.

NOW we’ve got Brigands to worry about. Eirika has her movement severely limited so she can’t reach the bastards, but I can get Seth to kill the lower one.

Meanwhile Natasha reaches the village, coming back out with the first of many Stat Boosters available throughout the game:

Stat Boosters are pretty valuable items. They’re one-use and when used, they increase a single stat by 2 points. The stat increased depends on the item: the Dragonshield Natasha just got increases Defense.

Being attacked by a Soldier results in a levelup for Eirika:


Hmmm… looks like it’s time for a bit of damage control in that Forest there.


More levels for Eirika while we deal with the constant surge of enemies.



UUUURGH. Come on guys, I’m not done with crowd controlling this part of the map yet! Time to leave Eirika and Natasha safely in the woods and send Seth around to kill those brigands and save some villages.


I predict that this thing is going to be invaluable to us later on. As said before, Seth can’t use Rapiers, so he has nothing to neutralize the monstrous defense that Knights are going to have later in the game. The Armorslayer, however, neutralizes that defense for him. I’m sending it to the supply convoy for now, as we’re not going to be facing the boss anytime soon.

That other village is gonna be tricky to save…
Screw it, I’m gonna take a risk!

Placing Natasha within reach of two enemies is a HUGE risk. However, the Forest might give her enough Avoid to dodge their attacks. Meanwhile, Seth can take out the Brigand whose range she doesn’t fall into.


Success! Except this means Seth has attacked the redhead, by the name of Joshua, which was not what I wanted. For Joshua’s own safety, I’m going to have Seth make a strategic retreat, killing the last Brigand on his way out.


ARGH! When did this happen?! I genuinely hadn’t seen those two up there. Oh, well… there’s no way we’re gonna reach that last village in time, but I’m not going to reset over it. Let’s just make sure Joshua doesn’t get killed fighting for a cause he doesn’t believe in.


Joshua, not a man to go back on his word, joins our side. Let’s get him and the no longer gameplay-relevant Natasha back to safety.

For those interested, this is was a destroyed village is like:



Along with the Dragonshield, this is the most important item to get from this chapter and the reason I didn’t go around to save the other village instead. The Secret Book is a Stat Booster like the Dragonshield, increasing Skill by 2 points. For those who care, the other village would have resulted in a Torch, which is much less valuable. If you have to lose one village in this chapter, make it that one. By saving all four villages I would have been rewarded with a Guiding Ring, an item allowing magic users like Artur, Lute or Natasha to promote into a higher class. Normally I would miss that, but such are the joys of a single-character run.

With Joshua and Natasha safe, I can finally take a look at the victory condition. It’s a ‘kill boss’ chapter. I’m deciding right now that I want Eirika to take the boss kill, but until then it can’t hurt to have Seth take out the other Grado Soldiers for some much-needed EXP. He’s falling dreafully far behind his princess in levels. I’m going to send the two of them around the wall in the back to clear out the runts.


Hmmm… you know what, I’m good on Vulneraries, but it probably can’t hurt to see what the armory in this chapter is offering. I won’t be using the shops on the world map, and it’s not like there’s any urgency left in this chapter, so I have NOTHING to lose by visiting the armory.


That was a good decision. Not shown in this image: the Steel Lance and a couple of Axes and Bows that are irrelevant to this run. I’m going to get two Steel Swords and two Steel Lances for Seth, as well as an Iron Sword for Eirika and an Iron Lance just in case. Sadly, the armory doesn’t sell Javelins, so I need to conserve the one I looted from chapter 3.

At any rate, this should last me at least until the next armory. If it doesn’t, I’m pretty much screwed.

For now, let’s just make our way over to the boss. Saar doesn’t move, so I have plenty of time to move Eirika onto the forest that’s conveniently on his left—

Oh my. That was fast.

Seth/Eirika B (open) Seth/Eirika B (close)

While not a bad support as it shows the two of them growing closer and spending more time together, as well as foreshadowing more of that last, this is my least favorite of Seth and Eirika’s supports with each other. It’s not that I dislike it, it’s just that I tend to… forget the majority of its content compared to the other two.

Also, silly Eirika thinking she could ever reach Seth's level. And silly Seth, thinking he gets paid to think.

The eagle-eyed amongst you have noticed that Eirika skips a level here. I can’t recall when, but somewhere early in the chapter I have missed her reaching level 8. I guess I’m a little out of shape after not LPing for a week or so. Her stat gains were as follows: +1 HP, +1 STR, +1 SKL, and +1 LUK.

Chapter 5: CLEAR
Seth level: 5.
Eirika level: 9.
Game Over count: 1.
Game Overs in this chapter: 0.

Ending scenes
With the battle over, Seth and Eirika meet up with Natasha to finally hear her out. Or to interrogate her.

As it turns out, Natasha is a second-generation traitor. Her mentor, too, was captured and executed for false accusations of treachery. Natasha seems to believe Emperor Vigarde had her mentor killed to silence him. However, Natasha knows the dirty secret Vigarde was trying to keep.


We have no idea why, but I have a pretty good idea of his methods. So that’s what this war was all about. As it turns out, Emperor Vigarde changed completely from one day to the next, and Natasha attempted to slip across the border in order to warn the keepers of the remaining Sacred Stones- Renais, Frelia, Jehanna, and Rausten. Eirika appears to believe that despite the fall fo Renais castle, their stone should still be safe, and Seth does not correct her.


(I’m honestly not sure if this is bad writing or if Eirika has a different reason to believe the stone to be safe. I know about Seth though, don’t worry about that.)

Seth seems very averse to the idea of trusting someone from Grado without solid proof, but he acknowledges that if Natasha speaks the truth, they’ve got a problem on their hands. Eirika prays that Natasha is lying, as her story gives the princess the chills.

Time will tell…

Closing thoughts:
WHERE DID I MISS EIRIKA’S LEVEL 8? I rewinded the emulator as far as it would go and I didn’t find it! Oh, well. At least we cleared chapter 5, which I personally used to experience as the first difficult chapter in the game. Joshua’s a pain to recruit if you don’t know he refuses to attack Natasha even on Hard Mode, which I didn’t know until researching the chapter for the LP. Next in the series is a very special chapter…

Pre-battle thoughts
Right, chapter 5x. No Seth, no Eirika, so nothing to really worry about stat-wise… I just hope I can carry all the stuff that I’m going to get here because dayum.

Opening scenes
In Renvall, Valter is shown to be meeting with his subordinate, Tirado.

Well, that’s great news! For us, that is. It appears Tirado has sent a slew of mercenaries to take out Eirika’s brother, but despite being massively outnumbered he’s either smarter, stronger, or both.


Oh dear god. Valter now wants Ephraim brought to him ASAP. And Tirado has a plan…


Isn’t that just dandy…

The screen fades out, let’s go see how far Eirika has progressed.

You’re not Eirika…

No, this is Ephraim, Eirika’s twin brother and the man we’ve been trying to catch up to. (Also the character with the BEST DLC redraw in all of Awakening.) With him are the blond Forde and the green-haired Kyle, who fill the Abel/Cain archetype for this game. Things aren’t looking good for their little band, as Forde has bad news- they’re running low on food and their weapons are in a bad shape. He starts to suggest they stock up in a nearby village, but Ephraim refuses- he doesn’t want to see innocents dragged into this.

To make matters worse, Kyle decides to drop morale by informing Ephraim that he hears the capital of Renais has fallen and the invasion is progressing rapidly. Miraculously, Ephraim seems a lot less troubled than you’d expect.


He reminds the two of them that they’re where they are in order to serve as a distraction, to buy Eirika and Fado time to escape.

Around this time, their fourth and final companion, Orson, waltzes in.

Holy mackerel, Ephraim, you’re in trouble there. Maybe you’d like to fall back right about now. There’s four of you and a bazillion of them—


Wait… what?!

Apparently none of the cavaliers has the gall to protest, because next thing we know, they’re at the gates of the fortress! Forde questions the prince’s sanity, but Ephraim seems to find the lack of word from home to be enough cause to do a little harmless besieging. And people complain about women logic? Still, he claims to not have lost his head entirely.

As it turns out, Renvall is pivotal in Grado’s defense, and if they can capture it, Grado’s gonna waste soldiers in trying to get it back. Still, Ephraim, there’s four of you and a bazillion of them!

Which is exactly why we don’t want to do it!


…have I mentioned this guy is pretty renown for being a master strategist? Forde seems to agree, especially with how low they are on supplies, so we pretty much don’t have a choice. Ephraim urges us to move quickly.


Grow used to Ephraim saying that. And grow used to it being true.

Battle start
As you probably guessed by now, this is a different chapter from what we’ve had thus far. Instead of Eirika, Seth, and everyone we’ve recruited and not let die, we’re presented with a whole new team of, as I’ve said, four warriors: Ephraim, our new Lord, Forde and Kyle the Cavaliers, and Orson the Paladin. Also pretty cool music.

However, let’s do something I haven’t done yet this run… let’s take a look at the status screen.

We’re outnumbered 31 against 4. That’s almost eight to one. Now, ridiculous odds are normal in the Fire Emblem series, but this is as extreme as it gets in this game.

If this were a proper single-character run, I would play through this level as I would normally, using everyone and going through the motions since I don’t have Seth anyway so I couldn’t give him experience. This time is different, however, as Ephraim is the final mandatory character and is therefore the only present character that I will have to use. For this reason, here is my modus operandi for the first few turns.


I’mma send Ephraim up to have fun with aaaaaaaaall those units surrounding the loot. Bee are bee.


YAY FREE JAVELIN!

Now, I should mention, Ephraim is pretty beastly from time to time. I haven’t even BEGUN the chapter and he’s levelled up.

Give him a break, guys. He needs his bloodshed to get started in the mornings.

Now, the observant amongst you have noticed a couple of Knights in this chapter. With Ephraim’s modest 8 STR, what am I going to do against those? Well, remember that Eirika had a personal weapon? Her brother has one, too.


Reginleif is basically a Rapier for Lance-wielding Lords. There’s only one in the entire game as far as I know, whereas the Rapier can be replaced in a later chapter, so I have to be even more careful about using it sparingly than I would be with Eirika. Still, what lies beyond this door is SO worth a usage or two.


Told you! Give him bloodshed and he gets started! The Knight guarding the door drops a Door Key (the games always do this when you couldn’t have brought a Thief), so let’s go in and mess up the guys guarding the chests. They had someone guarding the DOOR, and they have people INSIDE the room guarding the loot. This must be some good stuff.


Going strong as expected. However, some of you may notice that under the lower right corner of the stat screen, Ephraim’s HP is set on six. He’s in trouble- a Fighter caught up to the group and Ephraim can only wield Lances, giving him a Weapon Triangle disadvantage. He’s feeling that, and I’ve already used up his Elixir because of it. The two treasure guards have both dropped chest keys, but whether or not Ephraim gets to use them depends on this next turn…

Reginleif gives Ephraim a decent boost in stats, so I’m going for it. No time to go get that Vulnerary from Forde.


BANZAI!


SUCCESS! I don’t think any of the other enemy units are on the move, so if it’s the same to you, I’m going to use this moment to loot the chests.


The Elixir is not as good as it WOULD have been since I wasted the one Ephraim started with, but it’s still a good find. The Killer Lance is even better, increasing Ephraim’s odds of doing 3x normal damage. Bring on the hurt. …as soon as you’ve nabbed the Vulneraries of your friends.


I’ve taken the liberty of distributing Orson’s stuff over Forde and Kyle so that I only need to keep them out of harm’s way. Now, the general idea is to go up, around the swimming pool, and back down through that narrow hallway.


Ephraim is going to be SO hopelessly overlevelled when we’re done here… if not dead. He NEEDS that Speed…


Oh, come on.


Hmmm… there’s actually two ways to go here… I think I’m gonna put Ephraim here to exhaust the enemies in the left hallway first, and then do something similar on the right before I go down to charge for the throne.


….I’m taking bets for the level Ephraim is gonna be when I’m done, seriously. My bet is on ~level 15. Fun fact: this is usually a very short and quick chapter, but I’ve never done it with only Ephraim before. I only now realized that 31 enemies with one man means that one man is going to get a truckload of experience.


Okay, we’ve cleared out some people on the left side. Time to slowly begin our advance towards the throne from the right side now.


Now we’re talking again.

Also, that archer in the lower right? Turns out throwing that Javelin at his head was well worth it.

Except princey doesn’t have a convoy, so the item I select to discard is lost forever. Elixirs are superior to Vulneraries, so I’m just going to throw the one I have out. It only has one use left anyway.


Careful of that Mage, Archer and Fighter down there, Ephraim. No way I’m going to be taking that Javelin out of here…


Guys, I’m starting to think my estimate of taking a level 15 Ephraim out of this chapter is not that far off! This is ridiculous!


Ah well, at least he’s getting great levels on average. I probably shouldn’t have said that, but whatever. I ought to do a Lords-only run one of these days.

You know what? My Javelin only has two uses left. I might as well break it and ensure Ephraim doesn’t have to take a hit right off the bat!


That’s exactly kind of what we’re doing as we speak, big guy. You will fear the name of Prince Ephraim of Renais!

Except that Ephraim misses his first throw. Da fuq, Ephraim.


BETTER. Now we should be able to finish him off next turn with the Steel Lance, so we won’t have to waste the Reginleif or the Killer Lance.


…Ephraim just took a fortress with four men. No, actually, he did it ALONE. Because screw Grado. I lost the bet though.

Chapter 5x: CLEAR
Seth level: 5.
Eirika level: 9.
Ephraim level: ridiculous.
Game Over count: 1.
Game Overs in this chapter: 0.

Ending scenes

I’m with Kyle there, especially when you pull it out of the game context and consider what consequences this has story-wise. Ephraim’s reputation is well-earned.


I’m down. I know better than to argue with Ephraim after that.

Sadly, this wouldn’t be Fire Emblem if things could just go that smoothly. Forde rides in, with the message that we’re surrounded. Ephraim wonders at how incredibly quickly the reinforcements showed up, and immediately orders an escape.


Well holy mackerel. Maybe taking Renvall wasn’t so good an idea after all. Guess who found us!


I love those balls of double-plated steel you have there, Ephraim.

Valter notes that despite the state of affairs in Renais, Ephraim is still going strong, and proclaims that he’ll put an end to the prince’s resistance here and now. Ephraim, having better things to do than worry because of General Nightmare Fuel’s words, demands to know how Grado knew he would attack Renvall. Valter does not answer, instead telling him and his men to drop their weapons.

Kyle of all people jumps in to suggest that they attack, but Ephraim seems hesitant. Valter, thinking he can play with the head of our master strategist, tells him that he, too, knows his own situation and that there’s no way the prince can beat him, and that he should just surrender.

Double. Plated. Steel. Ephraim pretty much tells Valter he doesn’t have time to play with him, announces that he’s going to knock Valter and his men around a little bit and then make a beeline for anywhere that’s not Renvall.


Kyle and Forde are ready, willing, and prepared but not expecting to die to help the prince escape, and Valter accepts Ephraim’s challenge.




GAAAAAAAME!

Closing thoughts
RIP three vulneraries and an elixir and a half. Holy shit, WTD has never been such a problem for me. There’s really not much to this chapter, it’s usually even faster because I can work two choking points at once with Ephraim and the Cavaliers. I can also not get over Ephraim’s ridiculous level. Also, photobucket is being weird with the order in which it uploads the screenshots so figuring out which went where was a nightmare.

Pre-battle thoughts
Unless I’m mistaken this is the chapter in which the favourite enemy of every arachnophobe ever makes its debut. Also plot stuff. Looots of ploooot stuuuff. Considering how anal I usually am about saving the NPCs, this chapter is also a very good candidate for a game over or two.

Opening scenes
In the last Eirika chapter, we passed through Serafew and are now in Grado territory. We’re travelling through a low-population area of the empire, but according to the narrator, we’re already being tracked…


Waugh! Yeah, I’d believe that thing can somehow track our whereabouts. The other man, Novala, informs Riev that he’s set up an ambush for the approaching princess.


Urgh. Don’t remind me. Based on reports that Eirika’s Paladin withstood Valter’s lance and that she herself is quite a handful, Riev asks Novala if he’s sure he can handle the situation. Novala, however, is certain- he’s brought something from Renais that he claims can put an end to all resistance they would put up.

Riev doesn’t stay around to see the battle unfold. He says that unlike two other layabouts he knows, he doesn’t have time to waste, as his master has a mountain of tasks laying there waiting for Riev. He proceeds to say that these matters are best left in the hands of servants like Novala.
Novala waits until Riev has warped out and then shows his distaste.

Oh, don’t you worry, Novala. I’m sure you won’t.

Eirika and Seth ride onto the plains, where Novala warps in and cuts them off. He definitely doesn’t beat around the bush, either.

When Eirika asks why Novala wants the bracelet, he reveals that he doesn’t know, just that His Majesty desires it. Seth wastes no time reminding Eirika that she can’t hand it over, to which Eirika agrees, but Novala attempts to break her spirits…


Oshi- I suppose we never did find out how Ephraim’s suicide attack on Valter’s forces went, did we…

Still, Eirika refuses to give up the bracelet, so Novala pulls out his secret weapon…

OH YOU A- Yes, Novala has a bloody HOSTAGE under the apparent age of ten. With this weapon, Eirika feels she has no choice but to hand over the bracelet. Seth attempts to dissuade her, but the life of a child is worth more to her than the trinket. Normally I’d be with her, but Seth seems to be VERY rabid about… ah, well. We can always nab it back like we did before.


Son of a…

Now’s where Seth takes control of the conversation and outright refuses to commit suicide by surrendering his weapons. Novala decides that his hostage is no longer any use…

Okay, fuck you. I’m not even gonna censor myself anymore. When the spiders get involved, the gloves come off. You will NOT feed that little girl to my worst nightmare!


Holy effing shit. I guess I’m not the only one. Eirika says that despite Grado invading Renais and killing her father, she has tried to never hate its people, fearing that the bond between the two nations would be lost forever.

However, this display of heartlessness has changed her mind. Novala is unimpressed by her speech, and claims that she and her countrymen will both die. He then proceeds to warp the little girl and her mother over to where her father is, in an area closed off by forests and mountains so that Seth can DEFINITELY not reach it. Has anyone ever told you you’re a dick, Novala?



Preparations
It’s been a while since I played as Seth and Eirika, so let’s have a look at our convoy and inventories.

We’re probably good, but I do want a sword for Seth… let’s see what we have in the convoy.


I’ve put away that one-use Iron Lance, I’m sure we can dispose of it later. Now then…

Seth has a Constitution stat of 11. This means that he can wield any weapon with a Weight stat of 11 or below without trouble. However, for every point of weight a weapon has more than 11, he will lose one point of speed. Let’s see what our options are.


For future reference: Steel Swords are fine, but Steel Lances cost him two points of Speed. I can’t look at the map for reasons that will become clear later, so I can’t check the enemies’ speed stats… We still have Joshua’s Killing Edge, but I kind of want to save that until a later date when we need it more. After deliberation, this is the inventory I’m taking with me.


For those of you wondering, Eirika’s Constitution is 5, so she’s fine with those Iron Swords. I’ve also gone ahead and sold off every weapon that’s not a lance or a sword, because I have no idea when the next armory or grocery store is going to come along. I’ve also put the Dragonshield on Eirika, raising her Defense from 4 to 6, and the Secret book on Seth, raising his Skill from 14 to 16.

Now then, for our starting formation…

Here’s why I can’t check the enemies’ speed. Welcome to Fog of War, where you can only see three squares ahead of you unless you have a Torch or you’re a Thief. In Serafew, if you recall, we could have picked up such a Torch, but I personally find it not worth the effort to really use one. Once it’s used, your unit’s turn ends, and knowing my luck that would mean Eirika would be caught in the middle of a horde of enemies.

This formation is good, so I’m not going to touch it. Save data, and attempt one is GO!

Battle start
Okay… we have three goals in this chapter.

There’s the village over here…


The hostages over here…


And Novala should be around here somewhere.

The enemy units focus on us, not on the hostages, so we should have some time to reach them and save them. As you can see though, we -will- need that time, as there’s Hills in the way that Seth can’t cross and Forests to further slow down any non-flier that approaches. Normally I’d use Vanessa for this, but this time I really have no choice- I need to get Eirika over there.

However, I know a bunch of enemies to be in the way, so I’m going to take a detour. For this, first of all I have to go by the village.


YOU ARE NOT HELPING

Anyway, the kid gives us one of his antitoxins and I put Eirika’s full Vulnerary into the convoy so we can carry it.

OH CRUD I HEARD HOOVES WE’VE GOT REINFORCEMENTS


Ahem. With the village safe, let’s rush over to the hostages, shall we? They should be up and to the right of our current position. I’ve done that boosting of Seth’s skill, so I feel kind of safe-ish doing something otherwise kind of risky to cut down on the time needed to get him and Eirika over there in half the time.


Rescuing. Seth has done this twice in the prologue opening scenes, but I haven’t done it yet in-game. There’s a very good reason for this. Whereas Pairing Up in Awakening gives units a nice boost to their stats, before Awakening, Rescuing units CUT THE RESCUING UNIT’S SKILL AND SPEED IN HALF.


LOOK AT THAT

Still, it keeps Eirika perfectly safe from all harm, and I have faith in Seth’s capabilities to survive until we can put her down. Now, let’s dodge all the enemy units and get over to where those hostages are being held!


Bam! This is exactly what I want to see right now!


THAT’S NOT WHAT I WANT TO SEE RIGHT NOW!

Here’s the big problem with Seth. The lance wielded by the Knight here is a Horseslayer, which acts like the Rapier and the Reginleif in that it triples its strength when used against a cavalry unit. Guess who’s cavalry. Oi…


Urgh… Seth is down to ten HP, so I really want to use a Vulnerary and get him safe… but if I drop Eirika on those hills, his Speed and Skill will increase and he might be able to dodge better… Not to mention the support bonus… you know what? Let’s do that. Let’s drop Eirika on the hills.


I hate this chapter.


Oh, yeah. We’re good.

Player phase? LET’S GET TO WORK! There is ONE good thing about that spider, and it’s this. For as long as it’s on the mountain, it only has one tile of movement. This should give me plenty of time for Eirika to Rescue the kid…



While Seth goes around to- wait a second…


Our eyes are not deceiving us. Yes, Seth is actually capable of crossing the hills- it just takes him forever and a day. The reason for this is that terrain, such as hills and forests, don’t outright forbid cavalry passing them, they just reduce cavalry movement by so much it’s not funny anymore. Still, the hills give Seth a much-needed Avoid boost, so I think they’re a good place to make our stand.

Let’s use a Vulnerary while we’re at it, too. More HP is better.


Those two cavaliers have ONE point of movement less than Seth does, so there’s no way they’re gonna be going over the hills. Let’s make sure the spider doesn’t eat the hostages before we worry about the human enemies.


I WILL NOT SUFFER THROUGH THIS ALONE. Meet baels, one of the many types of monsters we’re gonna be encountering. This is the only one on this map though, so as soon as Seth does away with it we can get back to business.


…great. Seth missed his second attack there, and the purple haze over him means the spider’s own attack HIT and poisoned him. Anyone who’s played Pokémon knows what poison does.

Before we worry about it though (look at those 30 HP, no way a single turn of poison is going to kill him), we need to actually get rid of the spider before it moves around to attack the NPCs.

Now… Eirika has an Antitoxin, let’s put that on Seth for now so he can use it right away next turn.


Foot folk is catching up to us, is it? In that case, it’s even better that I’m not too worried about Seth’s poisoning right now. If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to spend a few turns defensively killing enemy units here and curing the Poison.

As a side note, Poison naturally wears off over time. So if you don’t have time to fix it and your poisoned unit has high HP, don’t worry about it too much.

Hmmm… it looks like we’ve exhausted the supply of soldiers that’s going to come and eat our babies here. I feel safe leaving the hostages where they are. Let’s go find a new choking point where we can abuse the terrain to make fighting these guys easier.

Before I can reach the forest I want to reach, Eirika is attacked by a Knight. Fortunately, I’ve forgotten to take her Rapier off of her, so he goes down easily.

Urgh… well, at least Speed helps with dodging…


SANCTUARY

Normally I’m against killing helpless healers, but can you say no to a free Elixir? After the close call we had with Seth at 10 HP, I can’t. I’m going to spend a turn or two in here while I try to figure out how to move up to where Novala is.


Much better. Now you’re starting to take after your big brother, Eirika.

Moving from forest to forest, breaking Seth’s javelin in the process, I reach this location.


You can’t see it, but that’s Novala. We found the bastard. Now, Novala doesn’t move, so Eirika is safe there.


This here Halberd is the Horseslayer of the Axes, by the way. Fortunately he missed Seth, because that could have been bad.

Let’s get rid of the bastard, shall we?


We took a while, Novala, and we’ve had some close calls, but here we are!


SERVES YOU RIGHT! VICTORY! LEVEL UP!

No, really. Seth gets a final level in before we leave the chapter.


Chapter 6: CLEAR
Seth level: 7.
Eirika level: 11.
Ephraim level: 14.
Game Over count: 1.
Game Overs in this chapter: 0.

Ending scenes

Yes, Eirika, they are. The family thanks Eirika for her swift rescue, and gives us an Orion’s Bolt. You only get this if you managed to keep all three NPCs from getting killed. It’s the promotional item for Archers like Neimi, so I don’t need it, but as I recall it sells for five digits.

Seth decides it’s high time to give Eirika a talk. I love this scene, so I’m going to do something I normally only do for supports. I’m going to shut up. General, take it away.

The Truth (open) The Truth (close)

We don’t know how it happened, but Vigarde somehow learnt the secret of the bracelets, and that means Ephraim and his bracelet are in as much danger as we are.


Yes, let’s haul ass to Renvall, shall we?!

Closing thoughts
That went a lot better than I’d thought. I really don’t need the Orion’s Bolt, but I’m a gigantic chump. Besides, more money to buy javelins with at a later date. Also, I promise I will never go high on sugar again. I have no clue where I got the all-caps sugar rush from.

Pre-battle thoughts
If this chapter is what I think it is, it should be simple enough with just Seth and Eirika. It doesn’t even give me any trouble normally, so with two high-level units? Easy enough, right?

Opening scenes
First off, the narrator gives us some information on Renvall. They say it’s a natural fortress, surrounded by lakes and nearly unassailable. Nevermind that Ephraim did it. We only have one entrance to use, and it’s well-guarded.


We have no choice but to go headfirst into battle with overwhelming Grado numbers. If this were a normal run, I’d be showing you the little personalized lines every recruited unit has to say for this chapter, but it’s not, so I’m going to skip them.



Preparations

Seth and Eirika have some useless items taking up their inventory space, so let’s fix that, first. I’m selling the Iron Axe and the Orion’s Bolt, but while I’m gonna put the Iron Blade into storage, I’m not gonna get rid of it yet. It’s heavy, but later in the game Seth should have a use for it.

I’m also giving Seth the single-use-remaining Iron Lance I took off of him last chapter, so that he can deplete it and it doesn’t take up space in our convoy anymore. Other than that, I’m satisfied with my inventory.


This will be my starting formation. Let’s save, and get started.

Battle start
While the chapter goal is to seize the gate here…


Before we can worry about that, we have a gauntlet of enemies to take care of here.

The way I’m going to be playing this chapter is straightforward- move forward slowly, let the enemy come to me, and use counters to take them out.

As Seth and Eirika cross the bridge right from their starting position, they’re spotted by Murray.



Dammit. That’s what I get for wanting to dispose of a low-use lance. At least none of the other enemies have any way of reaching Eirika, since she’s safely behind Seth.


Despite the WTD, Eirika actually has a pretty favourable matchup here. The reason I’m attacking with her, is for the sake of keeping the two moving forward. We won’t make any progress if Seth stays where he is.


The mage further down the road gives Eirika a level. By now, it’s clear to me that Eirika is going to have to rely on her dodging abilities to stay alive in later chapters. Fortunately, that’s exactly what her support with Seth gives her, so as long as she keeps gaining Skill, Speed, and Luck, that should work out.


Hmmm… well… this doesn’t look too great. There’s no way to get Eirika into the forest, so I’ll put her next to the forest tile below and to the right of Seth here, so she can heal her wounds while Seth takes out the Archer. Meanwhile, I’d like to point out this.


I purposefully left these guys alone because the forest above them, where they started, would slow Seth down so much we’d waste a lot of turns if I were to go after them. However, now that they’re out of the woods they’ll catch up to us quite quickly, so moving Seth and Eirika into the forest currently guarded by the archer quickly is of the essence to pick them off.


There, that’s much better. With both Seth and Eirika covered by the forest and each other, I’m going to leave them here for a little while, waiting for the enemies to break themselves against their blades.


Eirika, dear, you’re eating a lot of experience that I kind of want to give to the general. Please don’t make me make him Rescue you again.


Wait- what just happened?!


As it turns out, Grado has a ballista. Ballistae are pretty fun to have on your side, but a pain in the neck when enemies have them. And sadly, 80% of the time in the GBA games, Ballistae will be in the hands of enemies. They’re bows with ten tiles of range, which can MOVE as long as they have Plain or Road terrain.

Don’t believe me?

You’d better believe me. Fortunately, Eirika has pretty decent dodge and Seth can take a bolt or two. The best or worst part about ballistae is that they only have five shots each, so if we can deplete it while in the forest, it will no longer bother us once we’re vulnerable.

Back to picking off enemies, except this time I want to use Seth.


Well, well, well. For those of you who read the supports: Be prepared for my favourite support conversation in the game, and maybe in the entire series. WARNING: This support is almost three times as long as the C- and B-supports. Open at your own discretion!

Seth/Eirika A (open) Seth/Eirika A (close)

I cannot express how much I love this pairing. This conversation in particular really shows how Seth puts his duties before his own feelings towards Eirika, and even convinces her to do the same, at least for a few lines. To a lesser extent, it also shows that the wound Seth took from Valter is there to stay, and ironically, it’s this wound that brought them closer together. I personally choose to believe Eirika simply took it as an excuse to get and stay close to him, but that’s up to interpretation.

Now that Seth and Eirika have reached their highest possible support level with each other, I can finally start pulling them apart a little further- as long as they’re within three spaces of each other, they receive their bonuses. This should allow me to use Seth more effectively without putting Eirika into danger.

In fact, let’s demonstrate right now, by taking out the Archer and Fighter near the ballista!


Now to head towards the bridge, take out the Soldiers and Archers guarding it, and prepare to fight Murray.


Yeah, about that. You may want to fire the Archer that was—oh, I’m sorry, you can’t. He’s dead.


On that note, so are you.



Oh, my.

Murray dropped a Knight’s Crest- the promotional item for Cavaliers such as Franz, Forde, and Kyle, or Knights such as Gilliam. I have no use for it, but it almost feels wrong to throw it out when my main unit is a Knight Crest user…

Chapter 7: CLEAR
Seth level: 8.
Eirika level: 13.
Ephraim level: 14.
Game Over Count: 1.
Game Overs in this chapter: 0.

Ending scenes
With the gates to Renvall in our hands, we waste no time in entering the fortress, but Seth almost immediately shoots forward defensively…

An enemy soldier?! Let him come!


Orson! He escaped! Seth and Eirika both point out that Orson should be with Ephraim, which confirms Novala’s words- Ephraim is indeed a prisoner. Orson proceeds to tell us more…


Eirika worries for Orson, who seems pale, but Orson interrupts her by saying he doesn’t know whether Ephraim remains safe. Eirika is not happy to hear this.


Thanks for the intel, Orson. Let’s get going, before Grado realizes we’re here and sends people to force us out… or kills Ephraim.


…what’s the matter, Seth?

Closing thoughts
Eirika’s catching up to Ephraim’s level, there. Seth is still lagging behind a little, but that’s a problem that should fix itself once the lords hit level 20, especially now that Seth doesn’t have to be glued to Eirika anymore and he can ride around a bit more freely to mess things up.

Also, this was GOING to be a low screenshot count chapter, somewhere between 40 and 45 screenshots, but then Seth/Eirika A came in and pumped up the count by 57.

Pre-battle thoughts
Ahh, winding up the first of three parts of the game. This map should be pretty safe, although I’m gonna need some self-restraint because of TREASURE.

Opening scenes
Orson leads us deeper into Renvall, in our search for Ephraim. Eirika trusts him, but Seth seems ill at ease. Orson tells us they were all taken prisoner some two weeks ago, losing their battle with Valter. Since he hasn’t gotten any news since then, Seth informs him that King Fado has fallen along with Renais itself. Eirika provides him with more information.


Orson not only understands, but can tell us that Ephraim still wears his bracelet. Apparently, the goons don’t know it’s the bracelet Grado wants, rather than the prince. Orson suggests that, in order to keep the bracelets safe, Eirika entrust them to someone she trusts- such as himself or Seth.

…wait. Didn’t Seth tell us that he was the only one King Fado had entrusted with this information?

Yeah, he did. He suddenly steps to action, positioning himself between Eirika and Orson and demanding that Orson hand over his weapons. Eirika questions his action, Orson his sanity- but it appears Seth has a good reason to suspect his subordinate, as he explains by means of several very good questions.

Those are all good questions, and Orson has no answer ready.


Dayum! On one hand, general, good eye. On the other hand, WHY did you not inform us of this right away?!


Well, let’s not pretend to be surprised. The title of the chapter kind of gave this away. Orson has betrayed Renais, and when asked for his reason he mentions his wife, but before Eirika can ask further questions, Tirado arrives on the scene and dismisses Orson.

Eirika wastes no time asking where Ephraim is.

I dunno whether to be VERY impressed that Ephraim pulled that off with a traitor in his ranks, or VERY angry that we walked straight into a trap. Eirika is dumbfounded by this knowledge, but Tirado isn’t about to let her turn around and leave. Faaaar from it. He has his men destroy the bridge we used to enter the fortress, and orders an all-out offensive to kill the princess and take her bracelet.

Preparations
Well! Since this is -spoilers- the last chapter of the first part of the game, I want to make 100% sure I have everything I want on the general and the princess.

Eirika’s equipment is perfect to start with, and besides, worst-case scenario she can take something out of the convoy. Seth’s is more important. I don’t have any throwing weapons for him, so I’m only switching out his Steel Sword for the Armorslayer we picked up in chapter 5, because there’s a couple of Knights in this chapter and I want both Seth and Eirika to be able to tear through them- not to mention that the boss, Tirado, is a General. I’m also taking the Pure Water from his inventory, since the mages on the map don’t have a magic stat exceeding his Resistance.


I would put them further ahead, but Eirika is confined to her starting position. This will have to do.

Battle start
There are no chest keys to be taken in this chapter, so the three chests are unavailable to me. On one hand, this means I’m missing out on an Angelic Robe (Stat Booster, +7 Max HP) and a Silver Sword. I WOULD bring Colm, but I’ve removed temptation by selling off all my lockpicks. On the other hand, this means I won’t have to WORRY about getting them, thus being able to focus solely on the battle.


Stuff is going to go down in this corner of the map soon, so I want to move Seth and Eirika there as soon as possible.


Told you! Ephraim rides in with Kyle and Forde, instructs them that their goals are to meet up with Eirika and get rid of the enemies in the fortress, and receives conflicting advice- while Kyle feels it prudent to meet up with Eirika first, Forde seems to think it’s better to crush Grado between them.

Since I’m not going to use the cavaliers, I’m with Kyle- the sooner we create a safe space for the two to hide from enemy blows, the better it will be. Especially since they have some goodies I want to put in the convoy.

On her way to her brother, Eirika finally catches up to his level.

His stats are far more stellar, though. Oh, well. Eirika’s the only character getting support bonuses from TWO sides this run, so all in all she should be okay.


As you recall, I took all of Orson’s items from him in chapter 5x. I did that with a reason- I knew he would leave us, and if I hadn’t taken his equipment off of him, it would have been lost to me. Now, I have one Silver Sword to compensate for the one I miss out on because I don’t have any keys or lockpicks.


More importantly for now though, I have a few spare Steel Lances to replace the one Ephraim almost wrecked.


I’ll put Ephraim here. Anything that wants to approach Kyle and Force will have to go through him, and he’s tough enough that he can survive holding the line, especially with Seth taking out that Knight there.

Everybody is apparently afraid of the prince of Renais, since the Soldier, Fighter, and Archer all attack Seth or Eirika instead of him. Well, I’ll take it. While they make their way southwest, I use the corridor that Soldier came from to have Ephraim bottleneck any more approaching enemies.

On the next turn, Forde and Kyle reach Eirika and empty their inventories in the Convoy. Now, after that, I won’t be needing them anymore.

For their own safety, I’m going to leave them there. I’ll move Eirika to join forces with Ephraim in a bit, but before I do, I want Seth to take a little detour.


This bastard never pursued us and I hate letting precious experience go to waste. Seth is going to take his Armorslayer and take the guy out.

Meanwhile, Eirika reaches her brother.

I’m having Ephraim put the remaining use of his Elixir into the Supply for a rainy day, and instead take out a Vulnerary, since he really doesn’t need more than that right now.


Reinforcements show up, just as that mage comes within range. Well, Eirika and Ephraim should have the advantage, what with Reginleif and the Rapier. I can move Kyle and Forde a bit further out of the way of the Mage while Ephraim sets up a roadblock in the same place as before, with Eirika next to him for support grinding.


They who paid attention to the screenshot with the knight before, know there’s a door above Seth. And what lies behind that door?


Glorious canned food and free experience.

While Seth prepares a can opener, Ephraim levels up from telling the Cavaliers where to stick it.

Just… daaaaaayum. Dat terrible, terrible RES. Good thing Eirika’s there to take out the Mage.


Well THAT was easy. That chest contains an Angelic Robe, but like I said, I don’t have the means to get to it. Now, I’m not going to waste any time moving Seth back to where Ephraim and Eirika are. Instead, I’m going to move him further towards Tirado to eat Experience. It’s not like the twins need it, anyway.

Meanwhile, I’m sending the twins up through this corridor here towards a breakable wall that will give them access to Tirado’s area.



ERMAGERD A THIEF

Maybe this means I can get my hands on one of the treasures after all! The Thief can pick whatever chest he likes, and if I kill him after that, he drops the goods, for me to add to MY hoard! And Seth is still near the Angelic Robe chest, while Ephraim and Eirika are approaching the other. This could end very well.

Meanwhile, Seth gains a level from his killing spree near the throne room.

It’s probably a good thing his bases are so high, because his growths aren’t really doing it for me this run, apparently. That’s what I get for calling him god-tier.


Not that Eirika is faring that much better.

Sooo. The thief decides to attack Seth instead of going after treasure. Just my luck, I guess.

Sadly, I failed to realize how few uses 10 uses on a lance is. Seth breaks his Iron Lance and now has to use his Armorslayer as his main weapon because I am STILL not willing to wreck the Silver Lance. He’s also out of his Vulnerary, so I’m gonna have to play it more carefully, with the mages near the throne room.


Meanwhile, Ephraim and Eirika start breaking down the wall.

Once they break it, Seth wastes NO time getting over to Eirika and updating his inventory.

I’m going to use the last use of that Elixir to heal his wounds. He’s taken a bit of a beating from those Knights and Mages, without Eirika there to bolster his defences.

Ephraim also spots him.

I would make a testosterone joke but I’m actually with them on this one.

Seth and Eirika take care of the last two Mages, and the RNG proves that it can be nice.


Now, then, let’s go in for the kill!

Uhhh, that should be enough uses to get rid of Tirado… we have the support bonus and everything.


We have our own special brand of power, ourselves, Tirado. He’s got red hair, a horse, and a wrecked shoulder, and he’s still gonna kick your ass.


UNLESS HE MISSES! GOSH!


Well, Seth’s survived him once, with eight levels less on him, and Ephraim has managed to escape him. I think we’ll be okay, and it’s no longer any of your concern anyway.



Chapter 8: CLEAR
Seth level: 10.
Eirika level: 16.
Ephraim level: 16.
Game Over count: 1.
Game Overs in this chapter: 0.

Ending scenes

Well, yeah, Ephraim, you kinda did. You’re like what, twenty years old and barging into enemy territory? Of course we were worried. Hell, those Grado bastards killed your SISTER while she was guarded by SETH!


:I I’m not sure I like you anymore, Seth.

Ephraim tells us that he learnt of Orson’s betrayal after they’d been trapped at Renvall, which means that he, Kyle and Forde had to fight their way out with the three of them. He feels responsible for Orson’s betrayal, but—hold on a sec.


A girl with indigo hair… is she the one that man in chapter 5 was looking for? She warns us that something is approaching, dark, big, and great in number. Ephraim states that we have to get out of here, and skips introducing the girl, but does give us other, disturbing information.


Otherworldly powers… a dark something approaching… I think Grado and the monsters may be working together, little sense though that makes.

Closing thoughts
That battle with Tirado was PAINFUL. Seth missed THREE TIMES, I needed three phases to kill him when it COULD have been done in one. Also, I MISSED ANOTHER BLOODY LEVELUP. Ephraim’s gains from 15 to 16 were +1 HP, +1 SKL, and +1 DEF.

Next time?
Since we’ve finished the first ‘third’ of the game, I’m doing something slightly different for my next post. I will probably post it this weekend. It will contain the cutscene-fest ‘A New Journey,’ which is the interlude between chapter 8 and chapter 9, as well as my evaluation of the first part of the LP.

First off, just wanted to say I finally caught up on reading this. It's quite good. I'm enjoying it so far, so keep it up!

The answer is obviously adrenaline. Those spiders are enough to make anyone go crazy.

A New Journey

Story scenes
We don't even get an intro screen, instead being sent straight onto the world map and to Serafew, where Eirika stops and gets lost in thought about Lyon.



We're treated to a flashback in which we see Prince Lyon of Grado for the first time. It appears Eirika was late to catch up with him and Ephraim, having taken a while to prepare for their trip to the temple flame. It also turns out she'd been up late thinking about her prayer to it, causing her to have overslept. Ephraim seemed to have the same knowledge of this as we do -none- but fortunately Lyon jumped to the educational rescue.


Turns out Ephraim had one thing in common with many of us, being that he didn't like studying. In fact, Eirika warned him that 'Father McGregor' would scold him for neglecting his studies, to which Ephraim groaned that she shouldn't joke about those things. He proceeded to ask what Eirika will be praying for, but she didn't want to tell him.

Lyon turned the tables on him.

Somehow nobody was surprised. So what did the second male in our company want?


Judging from Ephraim and Eirika's words, this was entirely in-character for Lyon. Eirika reveals that the decision to travel to the temple was a spur-of-the-moment decision on Father McGregor's part, angry as he was over Ephraim not having studied his history.


(I don't blame you, Ephraim. I can't remember dates, names, or events for the life of me either, as this week's History exam proved.)

However not everyone seemed to be full of disdain for him- Lyon mentioned that General Duessel had nothing but praise for the Prince of Renais, saying he had the makings of a great king.


As the conversation turned to Lyon, we get some more insight in the nature of Grado's royal family. All Lyon wanted to do was become like his father, who tended to the needs of his people day and night with barely any sleep. Lyon's biggest ambition at the time? To help him.


Brotherly love at its finest.

We return to the present, where Eirika wonders what Lyon is doing now and how he feels about the invasion.

Me too, truth be told. Lyon didn't strike me as a bad guy there.

Cut to the castle of Frelia!

Innes keeps his sister's word, returning within moments of the twins' arrival. And he proceeds to... not make himself widely popular.


Fortunately, when Tana reminds him that Eirika and Ephraim are now orphans, Innes has the dignity to offer his condolences and get to business, leaving the scene presumably to meet with his father.

Tana proceeds to apologize for his behaviour, but Ephraim brushes her off:

Er... he doesn't strike me as someone we want against us. Fortunately King Hayden summons everyone for a war council. As Ephraim accepts, he claims that he has 'much to explain.'

Summary of the state of affairs:


Why did Vigarde start this war, King Hayden asks?


But why does Grado have it in for the Sacred Stones? Ephraim cuts in.


Well, Myrrh doesn't want to because she's shy, so Ephraim does it for her instead. Myrrh is a Manakete, living in Darkling Woods in the east up until recently. Her tribe felt an ominous energy from Grado's direction, so she and someone named Saleh went out to investigate. Sadly, they got separated, so Saleh is likely the man who was looking for her earlier. Myrrh was captured and robbed of her dragonstone, enchained until Ephraim came to her rescue.

She claims that the energy she felt is still flowing, and that it's responsible for the waking of the 'evil ones.'

The war council, however, is interrupted:

SHIT

According to the soldier, Tiger Eye Caellach and Selena Fluorspar decimated the men guarding the tower and shattered the Sacred Stone.



Hayden poses a mission to whomever will take it: Warn the remaining nations, Jehanna and Rausten, of the danger. Innes volunteers for the journey to Jehanna, while Eirika volunteers for Rausten despite protest of Ephraim. He's got something he should be more rightly worried about than his sister though.

Well, yeah, but...

Welp, Hayden allows all three of them to go. Ephraim reinstates that none of them can afford to fail, to which both Innes and Eirika assure him they will not.

With Eirika and Ephraim's ways parting, we're given a choice for whose cause to join here. For reasons I've already stated in the opening post, my choice is obvious:


We are given Kyle and Forde to accompany us, since Ephraim's a big oaf who thinks his sister can't handle herself and basically told the two he doesn't need them loafing around him. Eirika protests initially, finding Ephraim's mission the more dangerous one, but the two assure her that really, Ephraim's a tenacious fellow and death will have a hard time catching him.


Evaluation
Units
Seth:
Level 10
HP 37 (Caps at 60) (Gained 7 HP since beginning)
STR 18 (Caps at 25) (Gained 4 STR since beginning)
SKL 18 (Caps at 26) (Gained 5 SKL since beginning)
SPD 17 (Caps at 24) (Gained 5 SPD since beginning)
LUK 14 (Caps at 30) (Gained 1 LUK since beginning)
DEF 14 (Caps at 25) (Gained 3 DEF since beginning)
RES 10 (Caps at 25) (Gained 2 RES since beginning)
If I'm going to be honest, those are awful stat gains for nine levels considering his supposedly good growths. Seth can still cap Strength, Skill and Speed naturally, all with a decent growth of 45 or 50, but I'm still going to have to hunt for Stat Boosters and spam them onto him.

If we look at how Seth's been performing throughout the run thus far, however, we see that stats alone aren't everything. His support with Eirika gives him additional defences that his stats don't, so I suppose I can live with the low gains there. Besides, with his high skill and speed, and decent luck, Seth should be able to dodge much of what comes his way. Additionally, all in all he looks to be having a decent Crit rate as well, especially taking the support bonus into consideration. As long as he can kill everything that would attack him, he should be fine.

The Random Number Goddess still has to give him some more love though.


Eirika:
Level 16
HP 30 (Caps at 60) (Gained 14 HP since beginning)
STR 10 (Caps at 24) (Gained 6 STR since beginning)
SKL 15 (Caps at 29) (Gained 7 SKL since beginning)
SPD 18 (Caps at 30) (Gained 9 SPD since beginning)
LUK 13 (Caps at 30) (Gained 8 LUK since beginning)
DEF 6 (Caps at 22) (Gained 3 DEF since beginning)
RES 5 (Caps at 25) (Gained 4 RES since beginning)
It's not an entirely honest comparison, as Eirika has gained 6 more levels than Seth has, but she's doing a good deal better than he is growth-wise. Of course, this is natural- most Lords start out shaky but become beastly when raised. Unlike Seth, Eirika still has her promotion ahead of her, which gives her some fixed gains in certain stats- most notably in Defense and Resistance. It also means she still has 23 levels to go as opposed to Seth's 10, so she has a lot of room for growth, and I think she'll turn out fine.

A minor concern is her terrible Defense and Resistance. However, much like Seth, their mutual A-support gives her a decent Defense and Attack boost, and in Eirika's case her Avoid and Critical Avoid is increased as well. Combined with her GREAT Speed (Capped at 30, which is the highest cap in the GBA games) and skill, as well as the LUK that she's been gaining more quickly than expected, this means she should be a dodgetank as opposed to a traditional tank.

Not to mention her bonuses from her support with Ephraim, but that's for later...


Ephraim:
Level 16
HP 33 (Caps at 60) (Gained 10 HP since beginning)
STR 15 (Caps at 27) (Gained 7 STR since beginning)
SKL 18 (Caps at 26) (Gained 9 SKL since beginning)
SPD 17 (Caps at 24) (Gained 6 SPD since beginning)
LUK 12 (Caps at 30) (Gained 4 LUK since beginning)
DEF 13 (Caps at 23) (Gained 6 DEF since beginning)
RES 2 (Caps at 23) (Gained 0 RES since beginning)
Much like Eirika, Ephraim has yet to promote, and thus has 23 levels to go in which to grow. This means he could potentially naturally cap everything but HP, especially with the fixed gains from his promotion. Much like his sister, Ephraim is of the lord type that becomes monstrous once it starts growing, so I have nothing but faith in his ability to hold his own in late chapters, even though we're not going to have him for a few chapters.

My only concern with Ephraim is his ABYSMAL Resistance. Eirika's defences are good compared to that. However, like Seth, he could just carry a Pure Water on him in chapters with a lot of Mages or magic-using bosses. Or, you know... avoid them altogether.


Deaths
Seth: 0
Eirika: 1. Died in Chapter 1 due to a tactical error on my part.
Ephraim: 0.

Despite Seth not doing the greatest in terms of his growths, we're not doing too badly death-wise. In fact, if I hadn't taken the risk with Eirika's low stats and WTD in chapter 1, we would have had a perfect run thus far- that's not his fault.

Overall
Overall I don't think I'm in a lot of trouble... yet. Seth and Eirika have been tanking and steamrollering almost everything they've encountered thus far, and Ephraim is a high enough level that I feel comfortable leaving him to his devices. Seth urgently needs to get more love from the RNG, as I said, though, since there are few Stat Boosters to get if you're playing without Thieves. At the moment, his high bases are carrying him through the game. This needs to change.

Next time: We start chapter 9!

UPDATE: With the image-per-post limit now drastically increased, I'm proud to announce this LP project is continuing! Be sure to look at the previous post, containing the interlude 'A New Journey,' and tune in this weekend for chapter 9: Distant Blade!

Real quick update: It appears that after I moved my files to my new laptop and did some organising and re-naming of my files, I lost half my progress and was set back to chapter 5. I've played back up to chapter 9, and managed to keep the levels almost identical to what they were, with one exception: Eirika is now level 15, not 16.

This is the current playing field:
Seth:
Level: 10
HP: 37
STR: 19
SKL: 18
SPD: 17
LUK: 13
DEF: 13
RES: 11
Upon the replay, Seth has gained the EXACT same number of stat points, just distributed differently. So he hasn't SUFFERED, per se. I will GLADLY trade a point of LUK for a point of STR.

Eirika:
Level: 15
HP: 28
STR: 10
SKL: 13
SPD: 17
LUK: 13
DEF: 8
RES: 4
Eirika mostly suffers from this forced restart, although she DID gain two more points of Defense. Her HP, SKL, SPD and RES are all lower than what they were- although she's also got one level less on her, so the RES and SPD MAY still break even.

Ephraim
Level: 16
HP: 28
STR: 15
SKL: 15
SPD: 17
LUK: 15
DEF: 12
RES: 6
Other than drastically lower SKL and SPD, Ephraim actually didn't suffer that much from the replay and even got a boost to his RES out of it.

Seth and Eirika still have their A-support, and I've chosen Eirika's route again. I'll get chapter 9 up ASAP.

Pre-battle thoughts
Ooookay here we go. I’m not too happy about the forced partial reset in my stats, but nothing to be done about that. Let’s see just how rusty I am…

Opening scenes
Eirika travels to Renais’ neighbour Carcino, in search of a ship that will take her to Rausten. It’s not a Sacred Stone nation, but an ally of Frelia, so we believe ourselves safe. Safe enough, in fact, that on his way to Jehanna, Innes has passed through here as well.

The narrator claims that we are WRONG. First, however, we go to Grado Keep…

In order to fix this problem, Emperor Vigarde sends Glen and Valter to find the twins and strip them of their bracelets. Fortunately for Eirika’s good night’s rest, she will be pursued by Glen while General Nightmare Fuel is sent on a hunt for Ephraim.


I cannot get over how creepy this guy is. As Valter and Glen fly off, Caellach and Riev are called forward.


These men, too, accept their given task, and take off, leaving Selena and Duessel. Duessel is instructed to go to Frelia, to ‘take the Frelian army and punish Ephraim.’ Selena, however, is to remain in Grado, as he will soon have further instructions for her.

We are then taken back to Carcino, where a familiar face catches up to Eirika’s group.

The best part is that she apparently left without telling King Hayden as he would just forbid her to go. This is delicious irony because, although she takes some time to get started, Tana has the most potential out of any flier in the game.

Eirika, concerned for her friend’s safety, begins to ask Tana to reconsider, but Tana interrupts her, saying that everyone –her friends, her brother, and her father- are fighting for one common cause and that she will not be left out. Eirika accepts the Pegasus Knight’s help.

Cut to Port Kiris, where the group starts to look for a ship that will take them to Rausten. Just as Seth and Eirika are about to take off for the docks, however…


Yes. Yes, it is.


It turns out that L’Arachel, much like Eirika (who has again adopted the persona of Erina the mercenary), is on her way to Rausten, but…


That… is troublesome. Still, we -need- to get to Rausten, so L’Arachel suggests we simply take the overland route. It’s a roundabout path to travel, but if one thing’s for sure, it’s that it will be faster than sitting around on our bums waiting for ships to sail. L’Arachel takes off ahead of us, with her companions –now named as Dozla and Rennac- in tow.


Poor Rennac.

Eirika stays to discuss the next course of action with Seth. Seth reinstates what I said just now- better to travel over land and take a while than stay here and make no progress. Before a conclusion can be reached, however, Port Kiris proves to not be safe...


He summons a bunch of underlings to help him, and that’s all there is to this chapter’s context; we are thrust into the preparations screen.

Preparations screen
Okay, so as I said in the last post, I was set back five chapters and had to get back up to chapter 9. In doing so, there have been changes not only to the characters’ stats but also to the inventory- certain weapons have not broken, for example. For this reason, I emptied Seth and Eirika’s inventories, and I’ll grab a moment to re-do them properly. Notice that there is an additional mandatory character this chapter: Tana. I’m not sure why, but I AM sure that she comes with valuable equipment for Seth.


As a Pegasus Knight, I can just put her on some distant tile in the corner and not worry about her. Again, she’s a really good unit, so in case you’re doing a normal run, definitely consider using her. I’d advise giving her an Iron or even Slim Lance though- that Heavy Spear’s gonna weigh her down.

Since there are no Armours or overwhelming numbers of Mages on the map, these are the inventories that I want to use:

Since I find it unlikely that I’ll be reaching the village with the extra Rapier in time, I want to start conserving Eirika’s, which is why I won’t be bringing it for this chapter. Instead, she’ll be taking a normal sword and Joshua’s Killing Edge for those moments where she would need a critical hit in order to win. I’ve also given her Orson’s Silver Sword- she can’t use it yet, but she’s pretty close to reaching Swords level A. Normally I would have given it to Seth, but he has access to the Silver Lance whereas she doesn’t. For now, Seth should be fine with Steel and Iron though. Tana’s inventory is empty as I won’t be using her.


Neither Tana’s nor Eirika’s starting positions can be changed.

Battle start
Note that Tana is mandatory for this chapter.
We have a ‘rout enemy’ chapter. This means I’ll be taking a slow and steady approach towards where the Boss is and let them come to me as I do so. Seth and Eirika are hilariously overlevelled so this should be doable. However, there are some points of interest on this map.


There’s a couple of shops, to begin with. They’re straight across from where we start, and while I off-hand don’t know what the armoury’s inventory is, I’d like to go take a look. You never know if they sell my favourite things- Javelins... I shouldn’t have to visit the General Store, though. I’ve got more Vulneraries than I know what to do with, and I don’t think they sell Elixirs this early in the game.


There’s also two villages. I will do my utmost best to save the one on the left, but I know I won’t be reaching the one on the right- I have trouble with that one on normal runs when I’m using fliers that can cross the sea easily. That village would give a second Rapier, which is extremely valuable, so if you CAN get your hands on that, DO IT.

My first course of action is to put Tana as far away as possible, and then send Seth and Eirika forward to the forests right next to our starting position. They give an avoid bonus that I want to use while letting the enemy come to me.

All enemies start moving towards us, except for a particular kind:

Pirates. Like Brigands, Pirates can destroy villages, and they usually prioritize this over attacking my units. I forgot just how close these were to that one village, so I’ll have to shelve the forests idea and start crashing forward.


I really don’t like those numbers so close to Eirika, but apparently moving around Seth is too difficult for the Mercenaries, as they all without exception attack him and are killed. Even the archer and sniper ignore Eirika in favour of the Paladin. That’s... wonky AI, but I guess it DOES block me from getting to the Pirates easily.

I let Eirika take out the Archer for her much-needed Sword EXP and to give Seth passage, so he can take out one of the two Pirates.


That other one is almost near the village, but can’t QUITE reach it on the next Enemy Phase. I’m hoping either he’ll shift priorities and attack Seth, or that Seth’s superior Movement will let me intercept him on the next turn. I’ve checked; Eirika is only within range of the Sniper, and not of the Mercenary and the Mage that showed up as reinforcements on this turn.

The Myrmidon attacks Seth during the enemy phase, leaving the general unfazed and dropping his Killing Edge upon defeat:

Seth doesn’t really need it per se and I don’t know if I can buy these things later, so I’ll put it into the Supply Convoy for now.


HOT DAYUM THAT HURTS. Might have to bust out an Elixir in place of Eirika’s Vulneraries if I want her to survive Seth’s absence.

Actually visiting the Village can wait. Killing the Pirate at its doorstep, however, cannot.

That Sniper only had 53% Hit, so maybe putting her on the Forest will keep her safe until she can reach Seth. ...Maybe. I hope so.

It doesn’t save her from the lance of the Soldier that shows up as reinforcements, but on her counter, something does happen:

Next is the Mercenary, who ALSO hits Eirika for a further 4 Damage and also survives her counter. She should be able to survive the 15 Damage from the Sniper, but the Mage is still there as well...

The game teases me by cutting to the other portion of the map, where killing a Mercenary results in a level for Seth.



STONES BE DAMNED SHE LIVED


Lost the Rapier village though. Oh well, that was honestly to be expected.

A LOT of reinforcements drop in as the scene changes to the player phase, including a young girl...

Everyone believes you, Amelia. As you might suspect, Amelia is recruitable; she can either be talked to by Franz or by Eirika. I’m not using Franz though, and while I would normally TRY to recruit her, Eirika has more pressing matters on her mind.

With no Forests or Fortresses directly available for Seth and Eirika to hide in, I have only one possible course of action: Have Seth Rescue her once more, and then take them both as far out of reach as I can get them.

Which is nowhere near as far as I would have liked, but far enough to only fall within reach of a Mercenary that will NEVER be able to kill Seth in one turn.

Seth’s been taking way too much of a beating. What I want to do now is equip his Javelin so he can kill most enemies on the counter- particularly the ones Eirika left with their HP in the Single Digits- and start moving him back up to where the shops are slowly. Otherwise, that bunch at the top of the map will keep hounding me and I will get caught in a pincer movement, which is not what we want.


Right about here should be good. Seth manages to take out the near-dead enemies as well as the Mage – who was the reason I equipped the Javelin. As he’s out of reach of the Sniper, who oddly doesn’t seem to want to move, I’ll switch to a higher-durability weapon, heal up once more, and wait until the other enemies you see surrounding him are gone. I have to say, Seth is taking the SPD and SKL penalty well.


Except in doing so I completely forget about the Village I wanted to save in the first place. OI. Too bad. It would have given a Dragonshield, too.


This looks like a pretty desperate situation. With Eirika Rescued, I can’t access the Supply Convoy, and Seth himself has no healing items left. So I’m basically screwed, right?

Actually... I’m not. Seth can TRADE with his charge. And guess what Eirika has left on her...

Seth is now back up to full HP and, using his Steel Sword, has a WTA over everything that can attack him with a Weapon Triangle weapon.

Since the Pirates seem to be prioritizing attacking Seth over taking the Village, I’ll give him his Javelin to take care of those Archers and Mages.


Okay, WTA be damned I need a sodding MIRACLE to come out of this alive. I can’t even drop Eirika to get my support bonus.

...miracle not granted.


This is probably a good moment to note that technically speaking, Seth is not dead. Because he is an extremely story-relevant character who appears in a lot of scenes, when Seth dies he is only removed from the roster as a unit, and story-wise he withdraws instead of dying. He’s one of several characters who do this, since it’s easier to change a death quote than to write several versions of the script to account for the death of these characters.

Still, for the purposes of the LP I’m still counting this as a Game Over, because how am I going to do a Seth-only run without Seth?

I’m fond of this run, though, having had a lot of moments where it could have ended much earlier, and Grado’s victory was hard-fought, so I’m keeping it for the thread. Due to the image limit, as well as to limit wall-of-textness, I’m going to split this chapter into two posts. In the next post, I will restart the chapter and commentate from the beginning, this time using a different, more aggressive, strategy. I’ll have it up by this time tomorrow at the latest, but for now, I have other things to do...

GENERAL SETH WITHDRAWN-- GAME OVER

Preparations Screen
Let’s try that again, but now without the oops. I’m more focused now and I’ve done some more research on the chapter. Let’s see if that helps any.

The inventories are largely unchanged, save for the fact that both Seth and Eirika now carry an Elixir instead of –or in addition to- their Vulnerary from last time.


Formation is largely the same, too, except that I’ve put Seth just a little bit further forward so he can charge into the enemy better.

Battle Start
Note that Tana is mandatory for this chapter.
Again, the first course of action is to put Tana out of range, and this time I’m putting Seth and Eirika forward across the full length of their movement range, Seth taking out the first soldier he encounters on the way.


On the enemy turn, everything within range jumps on Seth, either simply not wounding him or outright dying on his lance. Now that Seth is within range of the Archer and the blasted Sniper that caused me so much concern in the last run, I’ll equip him with his Javelin so he can counter them.

Eirika, in the meanwhile, can attack the Archer within her range for both Experience and Weapon Experience, and serve as a distraction for the mercenary so that the pressure on Seth and his Javelin lessens.


Alas, my master plan fails pretty hard.

Now that I’ve not held back on Seth’s movement though, he’s right next to the village and can warn/save it on my next turn. The warning should be enough, but I’m going to take out this Pirate for good measure.

Oh, hello Rennac.

On one hand, good luck bribing Seth, but on the other hand, dat Dragonshield. I’ll slap that onto him right away since he lost some DEF in the rerun, and send him right back to Eirika, who’s retreating to the nearby woods, luring reinforcements towards her. I lose the Rapier Village again on this same turn, and Amelia makes her appearance again.

On his way there, Seth levels up.


As Eirika resists attack from the enemies that she so graciously distracted from him, she gains her Sword level A.


Seth reaches Eirika, finally taking out that pesky Sniper. Because fuck promoted non-boss units at this point in the game.

With the support bonus active, Eirika takes out the Pirate that gave her her Weapon Level, as well as his colleague, who causes her to level up.


Seeing them actually fight side-by-side really shows just how much an A-rank support bonus changes the game. Enemies that I feared taking them out are now largely if not completely harmless. Although of course, this time they’re not SWARMING the general like they were at first.

Okay, so the modus operandi from here on out is as follows:

Those should be the last two Pirates on this part of the map. As soon as they’re both gone, I’m going to take Seth and Eirika to the Armoury and the General Store on the other side of the strait, and we’ll see from there on out. Honestly, if I can get them past this gauntlet, the rest of the chapter should be doable.

On the turn that I take out the Pirates and prepare to get moving, Amelia’s unit retreats.


A turn later, all enemies on this part of the map have been cleaned out and I’m going to cut down on the time required to get to the shopping district.

Rescue’s really not so bad a command if you can get over the SKL and SPD penalty. Pair Up in Awakening is better though.

As I thought, the General Store doesn’t offer anything of interest. The Armoury, on the other hand...

Javelins up the wazoo. I took the liberty of selling off everything that’s not a sword, lance, or self-healing item, so I have plenty of money to buy a couple of Javelins and some spare Iron and Steel Weapons.

Below the stores, we have a clear shot down to where the remaining enemies are, and I’ll meet you once I get there and have Seth drop Eirika.


Eirika’s a little beaten up, but she’s out of the range of the enemies and can heal up on her next turn before I bottleneck the remaining troops.

As I move them into position and kill the Soldiers in the way, Eirika gets another good levelup. She’s really getting up there in the dodgetanky stats.



Normally, I would put them one square further ahead, where my cursor is. However, there’s a Shaman there and a bunch of Archers. This setup ensures that no more than one Archer or mage can attack either of them without being countered, thus lessening the overall pressure on them. Of course, this is all provided that these units move, which is hard to predict.

On the next turn, only the Shaman moves into position to attack, so I assume these are ‘don’t move until you get into range’ enemies. That should make it simple enough for Seth to take them all out. I can let up a little on training Eirika- she won’t be able to promote for a while yet, so it’s more important that Seth gets his 9 levels in than that she gets the last 3 levels she can gain for the coming seven or so chapters.

Making this all a lot easier is the fact that support bonuses take effect over a range of three squares, so I can lure the enemies to Seth without putting Eirika at risk. It feels SO good to have the A-rank in so early in the game.


Okay, it looks like those last two Archers don’t want to move. The boss, Binks, is currently equipped with his axe, so I’ll throw Seth at him with a Steel Sword for WTA and hopefully finish him this round.




Urk. And Eirika is technically within his range, too... fortunately, on his turn, Binks takes a swipe at Seth, misses horribly, and is felled by the Paladin.

Hmmm... who do you suppose this Pablo character is..?

NO MATTER I HAVE A LEVEL 12 PALADIN


Now all that remains is to take out the Archers that flanked him.


That is just beautiful timing.

Chapter 9: CLEAR
Seth level: 12
Eirika level: 17
Ephraim level: 16
Game Over count: 2
Game Overs in this chapter: 1

Ending scenes
As per custom, Seth’s first course of action after the battle is to inspect Eirika, who claims to be fine.


Well, Binks DID say something about a price having been put on Eirika’s head. 5,000 Gold, to be exact. Kinda makes me wonder how much Seth is worth. Considering the trouble he’s caused Grado thus far I’d have put a dead or alive bounty on him.

As it turns out, Seth has a prisoner, whom he immediately questions.

Classy as ever. The sellsword changes his mind, and it turns out that Carcino was behind Eirika’s bounty. Specifically Pablo, a member of the council that runs the small country. Eirika immediately questions why Carcino, an ally of Frelia, would target her.


Some supposedly opposed Pablo, but the sellsword says that they’ve likely been silenced. He then claims that’s all he knows, which Seth believes, and he is allowed to walk.

Once they’re alone, Seth tells Eirika that really, they should have seen this coming- with Grado becoming stronger every single day, it makes sense that the power-hungry merchants that rule Carcino would side with them.

Eirika’s immediate concern is Innes, who travels through Carcino as well and thus pretty much marched into enemy territory. The words have barely left her mouth when a Pegasus flies in.


This is where Eirika interrupts the messenger, telling her to take her message to Frelia and promising that she’ll ride to Innes’ aid.

And that is exactly what we will do in chapter 10.

Closing thoughts
That’s how rusty I am, apparently- I needed a Game Over on this chapter. Admittedly playing to save the Villages has always given me some degree of trouble with Distant Blade, but still. At least that second run went really well, and I managed to stock up on Javelins. I didn’t go OVERBOARD with it in case I can get Silver stuff later on (SILVER WEAPONS ARE SO GOOD IN THE GBA GAMES), but I should feel a little less apprehensive about letting Seth use his throwing lances now.

Pre-battle thoughts
Right, so, Revolt at Carcino. I WANT to recruit Innes because of story, but I guess worst-case scenario I can let Gerik and Tethys go… although doesn’t Tethys come with an elixir or so..?

Opening scenes
Rather than being shown Eirika’s or Innes’s Group, we’re thrown into Grado Keep again, where Glen is given orders to capture Eirika, the leader of the rebel army in Carcino.


Dude, we did NOT. All we massacred were thugs YOU sent after us.

Nonetheless, Glen accepts his orders and leaves the throne room, joining the subordinate we’d seen earlier in Serafew. This subordinate, as said before, is his younger brother Cormag, and Glen confides in him with the doubts he has regarding these orders…


Guess who arrives to spoil the moment…


GO. AWAY.

Glen once again expresses his great distaste for Valter, calling him a treacherous swine. Valter seems largely unfazed, reminding the Sunstone that they are of the same rank.


Valter claims that he, Riev, and Caellach were brought in to ‘plug the holes that Selena, Glen, and Duessel left behind’ with their unreliability. Cormag attempts to shut him up, but Valter brushes him off and Glen calls for peace, saying that they will follow the Emperor’s commands.



Now, we are shown Innes’ group, which is surrounded by Carcino mercenaries.



Prince Innes expresses surprise at the mercenaries, Gerik and Tethys, having stuck around, to which Gerik points out that he runs the mercenary guild and that he has a reputation to keep. He then asks Innes about the plan.


He laments that no help can be expected from his father’s troops, not knowing that his messenger made a stop when she saw Eirika. Gerik asks what the course of action is- hold their position or surrender.


Innes will CRAWL to Jehanna if he has to. Except Tethys… has bad news, and then she’s got worse news.


…yeah that’s bad.


Yeah that’s worse. Innes better make like Ephraim and pull a miracle out of his arse here.

Instead he makes an… interesting decision in order to save the mercenaries. A decision that backfires hilariously when the two decide they’re having none of it.

Gerik tells him to buckle up and get to thinking, citing Innes’s reputation as a reliable tactician, and expresses his faith in the prince. Innes is about to bust out his thinking cap, when Tethys makes another observation…




GUESS WHO

Preparations screen
A cursory look at the map shows that there’s no armours or cavaliers to worry about, so much like last chapter, I can make do with normal weapons and Javelins.



I’ll just use the default starting formation, since Innes is quite a ways south and I want to save him. There’s not really anything special to this map per se, other than that it has a record of FOUR recruitable units and that if you want all of the you have to be fast. Fortunately for me, I only really NEED one of those and I would like the equipment of two others, so I’m in no EXTREME rush.

There are no villages or shops on this map.

Battle start
Right. As I said, my top priority right now is to move south…

Circle around the structure that Innes is occupying…

And recruit the three of them as quickly as possible. This means I basically have to go around the left of the fortress, since those forests on the right are a real pain when it comes to horses. First of all, I’ll have to go as far south as my movement ranges allow, and then pause to kill them.

It appears that the council of Carcino is divided, however. While Pablo, mentioned in the last chapter, is our boss today, there is another counselor hiding out off-map…

Sadly, they cannot, for their path would take them right by Pablo who would murder them. We’re on our own.


This is going to take too long. I’m going to hold off on killing the remaining Mage and the Myrmidon and fighter that came up to us in favour of moving towards Innes, who moved along with Gerik to face the incoming enemies. Pincer movement be damned, Seth can tank that.


Okay, that’s going well thus far. Neither Innes nor Gerik has taken any hits thus far and Tethys is in no danger of being hit.


INNES WOULD YOU STAND THE FUCK STILL

This is the biggest problem with this chapter. Innes and Gerik don’t stay put, so if you want to recruit them you have to be REALLY fast about it.


Okay good. He’s grabbed the Ballista. At least now he’ll stay where he is so Eirika can talk to him and recruit him so the AI won’t send him off to his death.


Okay, that’s the story-wise most important recruitment out of the way. Innes can speak to Gerik to recruit him, giving me access to his inventory of a Steel Blade, a Vulnerary, and a Hero’s Crest (Promotion item for Mercenaries and Myrmidons and a good money-maker for this run).

Much more interesting is the inventory of the Dancer Tethys, who can be recruited either with Gerik or with Innes…


The Goddess Icon is the stat boosting item for LUK. As soon as we’re clear of the approaching enemies, I’ll see who I want to give that to. For now though, I’m going to put Innes’ bow and healing items into the supply convoy so he, at least, won’t eat any experience meant for Seth and Eirika. I’ll also give Gerik’s Steel Blade to Tethys, who has no use for it herself, so he doesn’t either.


This does not look good… I’m not worried about Seth and Eirika, but I do kind of want to keep Innes and the mercs alive… Fortunately, the southern Group of enemies can’t reach us yet.


Nononono I don’t think so gentlemen.


And bam! Home safe! Now to let the enemies come to Seth and Eirika, who have their support bonuses active, and take them out.

Real quick note:

An enemy with an unusual sprite and a death quote? This is Marisa, the fourth and last recruitable unit this chapter. She can be recruited with Gerik, and in normal runs I bend over backwards to keep him alive and recruit her in time, but for this run that’s just way too much trouble. All she has in her inventory is a Shamshir (which is a Myrmidon-only Sword that I would have had no use for anyway) and a Vulnerary.


WHAT
NO
GO TO HELL

This is the introduction of Status Staves. Sleep, and later Silence and Berserk, don’t heal your allies but hinder enemies. Both fortunately and unfortunately however, they are NOTORIOUSLY inaccurate. This 20% hit rate is not an exception. If they do hit, however, the results are disastrous, especially in the case of a Berserk Staff… This Sleep staff would have rendered Eirika unable to move or attack for a good number of turns.

Right, then… I think I’ve got most of the pressure dealt with.

The Brigands are on the move, but will never get by the barrier that is Seth and Eirika. I think it’s time to put Gerik and Tethys’s inventories in the Supply Convoy and decide who I want to give the Goddess Icon.

Eirika has 15 LUK and 22 levels left to grow, whereas Seth has 13 LUK and 8 levels left to grow. I think it’s safe to say Seth is the better candidate.




And… that was the last one! Okay, from here on out I’ll just move up and right towards where Pablo is. That Soldier on the right is the only enemy on the right and below, and he’ll move as soon as we get into his range.

As we start on the squad of enemies up and right, Seth reaches level 13.


Hmmm….

A door, and we have neither a key nor a Thief with a Lockpick… this could be a problem…


Oh, nevermind. Problem solved itself.

One of the enemies drops an interesting weapon.

This is a Lancereaver, one of a few weapons which reverse the Weapon Triangle. Since Seth can’t use axes, having a Lancereaver ready can add greatly to his versatility. (I picked up an Axereaver in the last chapter, but that’s less relevant because he can just grab a sword.)

As we move up to where Pablo is, Eirika reaches level 18.


Now then, the eagle-eyed among you may have noticed that Pablo is a Sage. That means magic. Seth’s not good against magic. But I still have Pure Water in my supply convoy, and this seems like a good moment to bust one out.


(Actually his RES by default is better than Eirika’s. Still, better not to take any risks.)



Pablo decides it’s a good idea to attack the RES-buffed paladin with the Javelin. Seth’s double counter convinces him otherwise.


Upon retreating, Pablo drops a Guiding Ring.

Chapter 10: CLEAR
Seth level: 13.
Eirika level: 18.
Ephraim level: 16.
Game Over count: 2.
Game Overs in this chapter: 0.

Ending scenes and closing thoughts in the next post, since I went over the image limit.

Be sure to check out the post before this, for the opening scenes and the battle.
Ending scenes
OH GOD WHY GAME WHY

One of his subordinates comes up to him, asking if they should attack, but Valter decides to ‘pass on dessert’ for now and retreats to terrorise us another day.

Inside the hall that Pablo guarded, Eirika checks on Innes. They are soon interrupted however, as Klimt shows up.


He explains that Carcino is, indeed, divided. Only a portion of the council has decided to betray Frelia. In fact, Pablo was the minority until he started to have the moderate factions assassinated. Sounds like a swell guy to work with. I’ll take Innes any day.

Innes and Eirika choose to believe Klimt, who promises to leave for Frelia to explain all this to King Hayden. He advises that we do the same.

As we prepare to leave again, Innes renews Gerik and Tethys’s contract, with double pay as his means of showing his gratitude.


And outside the hall, Tethys has a reunion of her own.

This is Ewan, Tethys’s little brother and a unit on whom the masses are divided. Tethys had told him to wait in the inn and ‘behave himself.’ As it turns out, someone’s taught Ewan some magic, and Tethys promises to take him along if Gerik and Eirika agree.

Cut back to Seth and Eirika, now in the company of Innes.

...I gave Seth a second noble to worry about didn’t I. Yeah, I did.

Innes agrees that there’s a lot of danger involved, but insists that he has to get to Jehanna, and quickly. Carcino is the only possible route. Eirika agrees with him, reminding Seth that in order to get to Rausten she has to go through both Carcino AND Jehanna. She does worry that more mercenaries will attack them as they travel, though.

It’s at this point that Ewan steps in, despite his sister’s attempts to restrain him, and claims he has a solution.


He claims that his teacher, a man by the name of Saleh, will surely let them through if they just ask.



Closing thoughts
Wow. This is the first chapter that I’ve gone over the image limit without a Game Over. I’m afraid we’ll see a lot more chapters like this in the future, sadly, especially if I keep up this image-heavy style of reporting and letting the characters speak for themselves.

Dat Innes tho. Now that we actually have him and he’ll show up in story scenes, I wonder how people will like him. I’m personally fond of him and his blunt, sometimes aggravating nature, but I know there are people who hate him.

Chapter 11 is split up into two posts again.

This is a filler post so Chapter 11-post 1 starts on page 2, so that the chapter isn't split up between pages. (Sorry for clutter, Guy.)