Let's Play Monster Quest Part 14

I honestly have no idea why this chapter has this name. I'm half-wondering if it's a weird translation.

Incidentally, we went straight here from the previous mission, no map screen.



We have one new character to start with: Saleh. Interestingly, instead of being Anima/Light/Staff, he's Anima/Light/Dark. Suggestive of Arch Mogalls generally, and might explain why L'arachel is a Light Mogall instead of a Staff Mogall. If all Arch Mogall's are masters of combat magic, this is a huge change from the typical Fire Emblem route of all promoted magic units having Staves. In conjunction with Natasha and Moulder, it suggests that Mogalls are going to be choosing between magical combat supremacy vs Staff access while being a one-dimensional combatant. I like it!

Most every stat except Skill, (Unchanged) Constitution, (+2), and Move (Unchanged) has gone up 3-4 points -mostly 4. His Defense has nearly doubled, in particular!

Monster Quest seems to really want you to use your pre-promotes. Wow.

(Specific stat changes: +4 HP, +4 Magic, +4 Speed, +3 Luck, +7 Speed, +4 Resist, +2 Constitution)


In spite of my better judgment, I give Ross the Speedwing and Secret Book, in no small part because he's one of my only units that really cares about either of the boosts. This isn't a mission I want to be training Garcia up on, either.


The team I picked and my starting formation.

I consider this to be even easier than the previous mission, normally. I only restarted once this time, and only because I'd forgotten that there's a big batch of reinforcements triggered by traveling far enough north -in the base game you just don't have enough good flier units (You'll only have Tana and Vanessa here, normally, and they're both fragile) to really push aggressively through mountains, but here I felt entirely comfortable pushing north... which triggered a pile of reinforcements well before I'd stabilized my situation.

Whoops.

Even so, while this mission is a little more challenging in its line-up than the previous mission, you're a lot less likely to have an out-of-nowhere death, because it's not fog.


Opening with Lute supporting Artur murdering a Bael.


Tana takes a potshot at a Revenant, positioned so nothing can attack her. (There's a Mauthe Doog just to the north I'm trying to avoid)



Neimi softens up the closest Revenant so Marisa can get a kill. She gets a redundant crit and a mediocre level. Oh well.



Then I set up Ross to bait out a Mogall (Holding his Hatchet), and do general moving up, ending turn looking like this.


A Gargoyle is baited out of the mountains by Marisa, who gets a crit. 3 whole damage, wow.


Ross has an okay time fighting the Mogall.


My turn, and we start with Neimi crit-killing the Gargoyle.

... I'd actually intended to soften them up for Amelia, but this works too.


Tethys heals Marisa.


Tana chips the Revenant some more, and you can see the Mauthe Doog I mentioned earlier.


I end turn looking like this.


The other south-eastern Gargoyle goes for Colm, misses. That's good.



Lastly, the Revenant nearby is baited out by Marisa. She dodges and crits it for heavy damage. Nice!


First action of my turn is having Tethys heal up Ross.


Artur rips apart the Revenant with Lute's moral support, gets an okay level out of it. He's killing me with the lack of Speed level ups, though.



Lute goes to kill this Bael, and instead misses twice.

... that's annoying.



Neimi goes to take out the Gargoyle, and instantly crit-kills it and gets a great level out of the kill, too.

Neimi is my MVP of this entire save, really, it's crazy. Dedicated Bow users are normally an enormous pain to use, but Neimi just keeps getting the job done. I haven't even taken advantage of the Shortbow!


I set up Amelia to bait out one Mauthe Doog -it'll actually double her and potentially double crit her, but she's insanely tough for her level, so it can't kill her.




Tana and Vanessa spend turns not hitting things. Oh well.


I end turn looking like this.


First enemy action is the Bael missing Neimi.

In retrospect I should've had Marisa Trade-manipulate Neimi into holding her Shortbow. Whoops.



Mauthe Doog baited, and it gets one crit. It's all good.


Lastly, Ross' Mogall is baited out again, trading blows.


I have Ross finish off the Mogall. Apparently I didn't screenshot the kill? Not sure why.


A slip of the finger misses Tana's pre-battle report, but it's just her throwing a Javelin at this Revenant again.

... and missing.



Artur and Lute try to take out this Bael deep in the Peaks, but Lute misses one of her hits again. Annoying.


Vanessa goes to cripple the Bael that's gotten out of the Peaks, breaking out a Silver Lance to do so, and even dodges their retaliation. Awesome.


Then Amelia finishes off the Bael and Neimi finishes off the Mauthe Doog.


I have Tethys heal Ross.

... not sure why I took screenshots this way?


I end turn looking like this.


The only enemy action of real interest is the Bael (failing at) trying to hit Artur and dying as a result.

Most of the enemies on this map are passive. The Baels are the main exception, plus the reinforcements later -as well as a handful of enemies that are defensive instead. Since the reinforcements are triggered by player action and not turns passed, you can, if you're really cautious, simply wait for all the Baels to reach you, and then complete essentially the entire map at your leisure.

I'm not doing it, but it's worth commentary that you can.


First action of my turn is having Tana finally finish off the Revenant she's been pelting for five turns.


Taking it slow.


The only thing of interest to happen on the enemy turn is the Mauthe Doog being baited out by Amelia. Also it critting her, but whatever.


Lute and Artur take out this nearest Bael.


Amelia and Marisa team up to take out the Mauthe Doog Amelia baited out.


Tethys heals and I end turn looking like this.


Artur baits out a Gargoyle, mauls it, takes a hit.


Ross baits out another Gargoyle, dodges their strike.


My turn, and I open by having Ross finish off Artur's Gargoyle.


Marisa finishes off Ross' Gargoyle and gets a fantastic level out of it.


Then Tethys heals Artur and I set up to bait out more enemies and end turn.


Lute baits out the last Gargoyle of this group, takes a hit in the process. Eh.


The Revenant is baited out by Amelia successfully.


My turn, and I open up by having Artur cripple the closer Bael.


Marisa goes for the Revenant. No crit, but she gets an unlikely dodge. I'll take it.



Saleh Rescues Artur to clear the way for Lute to finish off the closer Bael, netting her a nice level.

I'm engaging in these shenanigans to stay out of reach of the Mauthe Doog.


Ross takes out the Gargoyle and gets an excellent level out of it. I'm especially pleased that he's hit 10 Luck.


Amelia takes a Sword to the Revenant's face and gets a great level out of killing it.



Tethys heals Lute, and I end turn like this.

Vanessa and Tana are intended to attack the reinforcements that will arrive here, reduce the extent to which they get to gang up on my guys.


Next turn, with Lute softening up the Bael so Ross can kill it.


Tethys gives Amelia another move so she can get into position to intercept the Mauthe Doog, as Amelia is really my toughest unit here.


Mauthe Doog baited out successfully.

Oh no. A 3 damage crit.


My turn again, and I start by having Ross slice this Bael in twain. He even dodges the retaliation, which is nice.


Amelia tries to hit this Mauthe Doog, but misses. I'm okay with that -I'm really trying to train up her Sword rank so she can use the Shadowkiller, and she gets weapon experience per swing, not per hit.



Lute and Marisa work together to take out the Mauthe Doog, and I end turn looking like this.

... having apparently missed the screenshot of Tethys refreshing Marisa so she could go bait out the Revenant.



Revenant successfully baited out, and reinforcements triggered.

... I'd misremembered which side had the larger number of Gargoyles. Uh. Oops.



Regardless, Vanessa and Tana promptly murder an enemy Gargoyle apiece.



Amelia chips the Revenant, opening the way for Marisa to finish it and get a decent enough level. I'd really like for her to get more Defense and Resist, but this is a fine level.


Ross vaporizes the last Bael of the map and even dodges the retaliation, which is good, because I'd completely forgotten to account for Poison Claws slaying mounted units!

... fortunately it wouldn't have killed Ross if it had hit, but yikes.


Tethys heals Amelia and gains another amazing level, though no +2s.


Final moving up, and I end turn looking like this.



Vanessa dodges her first Gargoyle attacker, and misses one of her own hits. That's fine. She wouldn't have killed them anyway. Heck, saving a Silver Lance use is arguably a net positive.



Ross successfully baits out his first Mauthe Doog. It hits him with a crit, but he one-shots it so it's all good.


Vanessa dodges the other Gargoyle too.

Risky thing here, worked out.

Mostly worried about the pair of Gargoyles moving to reinforce.


Tana opens up by murdering one of the Gargoyles, getting a nice level up in the process.


Then Vanessa Trade-manipulates so they're both holding Javelins.


Some more movement happens, and I end turn looking like this.



First one of the southeastern Gargoyles goes for Ross, and suffers for its mistake.



The Gargoyle in the southwest goes for Vanessa and misses her. She gets one of her retaliations, but not the other. I'm perfectly happy with that.


Lastly, the final Gargoyle takes a futile potshot at Ross.



My turn, and Tana botches both of her hits -I only screencapped one, because I was so appalled. I take arguably a stupid risk and have Vanessa follow up with a Silver Lance. Thankfully, she dodges the retaliation and lands both of her hits, so they're both safe now. (I felt the possibility of the enemy Gargoyle  breaking out its stronger melee Lance and killing Tana was worse)







A whole bunch of combat occurs in this cluster, killing off all three Gargoyles and one of the Mauthe Doog. Ross gets a level I'm very happy with, too.

The final formation is intended to prevent the Mauthe Doog from getting to anybody really fragile. I'd like to better protect Artur, but not much I can do.

Also note Amelia being immune to one Mauthe Doog's attack. It's amazing how tough she is.



What ends up happening is the Mauthe Doog both suicide on Artur. The first one gives him quite the nice level, too.



Moving up over the course of a few turns, healing characters and also getting Amelia and Neimi started on a Support.


Finally, Ross baits out and mauls a Mogall.


Ross finishes them, placed to bait out another one, and Vanessa has caught up enough to get a heal.

Incidentally, that Bonewalker is actually wielding a Killing Edge. I'm fine with dropping Ross in its reach, however, because for whatever bizarre reason, it has defensive AI: it will not leave that spot. No idea why Intelligent Systems did this. Weird thing.



Enemy turn, and Amelia baits out a Mauthe Doog.

She critkills it, having dodged its initial attack.

Ooookay.


This opens the way for the other Mauthe Doog to run up and get hit by her. It gets a crit, fat lot of good that does it.



Ross baits out his Mogall successfully, dodges its attack, and doubles it, barely leaving it alive.

Also, I only just noticed that this house in the mountains has generated the "combat in town" background. That's... really weird.


My turn, and I have Marisa kill the Mogall for the experience.


Lute and Artur are in reach to attack this Tarvos without it getting to attack them, and Lute mauls it.


Now Tana gets a heal, while Ross visits a house for a Barrier Staff. Eh. Never gotten much use out of this, and Tethys can grind for experience by Dancing if I really care.


Neimi takes out the Mauthe Doog. Experience!


I end turn looking like this.



A Tarvos is baited out by Amelia. It lands its hit, very much against the odds, but she doubles it and kills it easily.


Meanwhile this Mogall has been baited out by Marisa, which wasn't intentional, but it's not a problem.


My turn, and we bounce over to Lute finishing off her Tarvos, maneuvering to bait out a Gargoyle that's off-screen.


Neimi takes out the Mogall.



Because I still want experience on Ross, I have him take out the Killing Edge Bonewalker with Tethys' assistance. Weapon triangle? Meh.



Then Colm recruits Ewan.

He's got a weird, weird Tome on him. No base Might, no listed special effect, named the same as the Steel-equivalent Anima tome. Very very odd.

His stats are very much a disappointment. Except for his Defense being 4 instead of 0, most of his stats are actually the same or only slightly higher (1-2 points) than Pupil Ewan's, and he's actually down a point of Speed, while lacking access to the 9 extra levels+extra promotion being a Trainee gives Pupil Ewan. Comparing his base stats to Pupil Ewan's average level 10 Pupil stats, he's behind on everything except Defense, which admittedly he's noticeably ahead on thanks to Pupil Ewan's combination of awful base Defense and a miserable Defense growth.

Unless Ewan is pulling a Tethys and has insane growth rates, he's utter garbage in Monster Quest. Disappointing. Ewan is one of my staple units normally, being one of the best units in the game quite consistently.

(Specific stat modifications: +2 HP, +1 Skill, -1 Speed, +3 Defense, +2 Resist, +1 Constitution... but he'd have more Constitution after a promotion than that in the base game)


Eirika takes the Energy Ring off of him and promptly bolsters her Strength. (Again) She needs it, and not many of my units would get much benefit out of it.


Then moving up happens and I end turn looking like this -Amelia is going to do more baiting out.



Lute successfully baits out and mauls a Gargoyle, taking a moderately unlikely hit in the process. Eh.



Tana baits out a Mogall successfully, taking a hit and missing a shot herself, but she doubles them and gets a hit in anyway.


More enemy reinforcements arrive. They're boring.

Yes, these are also triggered by moving far enough north, just further north than the other reinforcements.


I open my turn by having Tana horrifically overkill the Mogall she failed to kill when it attacked her.


Then I pop over to Lute taking out the Gargoyle she baited out.

Note that Amelia didn't bait out that Bonewalker. It's got a defensive AI, to my surprise.


Tethys heals Ross and a lot of moving around happens.



Amelia successfully baits out the western Bonewalker, dodging its attack and promptly crit-killing it one a 1%. I even manage to grab the red burst effect, though the Bonewalker Lance crit animation is still way too fast for me.

Kind of annoyed. I'd intended to give Marisa the kill. Oh well.



Meanwhile, Artur baits out the last of the northeastern Gargoyles and murders it, dodging its strike. Nice.


More Tethys healing and general moving around.

Note that the Entombed hasn't moved yet. Saleh has been standing in its strike zone for a while now, but it hasn't made the attempt, and earlier it actually could've attacked Lute, but didn't. It's another weird defensive AI. It's a nice experience pinata in the base game, makes it easy to train up Ewan to level 10 before you finish the mission.

Things are going to be getting weird with it in a minute.


But first we pass another turn, giving the Gargoyles time to get closer. Also Tethys heals Marisa I guess.


First attack of the turn is Neimi vaporizing a Gargoyle and getting another amazing level.


Ross vaporizes a second Gargoyle and even dodges its retaliation.


Artur vaporizes another Gargoyle, and from there I maneuver to prevent the Gargoyles from being able to attack my more vulnerable members.


One Gargoyle goes for Marisa and misses.



The other one goes for Artur, and is crit-killed after landing its hit.

Mogalls are neat/creepy when they get a crit.


Aaaand here's where things get weird. The Entombed lunges out to Steal Ewan's Vulnerary, breaking from its defensive AI. Huh?


Well, that's okay. With Tethys' help Colm can Steal it back.


Ewan and Lute trade Fire Tome and *Thunder Tome.

I was originally going to have Ewan attack the Entombed, but its (awful) Resist is still too high for Ewan's base Magic to penetrate. He needs the Might of a Fire Tome.


Anyway, Neimi vaporizes the last Gargoyle and dodges its retaliation, because she's a dodging machine.


I end turn looking like this.

My expectation is that the Entombed will sit around and do nothing now that there's no "MUST STEAL" to override its rule about holding sti-


-AAAAAAH!!

Well. That could've ended badly.

Forgot to account for it being able to attack Colm without, you know, moving.


Artur getting a heal.



For fear that the Entombed is now willing to be aggressive, I go nuclear on it with Neimi and Lute, netting Lute a great level when she lands the kill.


Anyway, we're down to the last two enemies, neither of whom will move. This boils down to an Ewan training festival. Here's what he looks like in battle. It's okay I guess.



Healing people so they're ready for the boss. Tethys gets a poor level for Tethys, missing out on Magic.


It abruptly occurs to me to wonder if the Shop is of interest.

It isn't.


Ewan levels twice while picking on this poor Bonewalker. Both levels are merely okay. He's certainly not full of 100+% growths -he could have such for HP, Luck, and Resist, but I doubt it, and none of those would turn him into a good unit.

So yeah, I'm pretty sure Ewan is just plain awful in Monster Quest.




Then it's tearing apart the boss, with Neimi getting a crit to finish it early. Nice. She gets a fantastic level out of it, too, and the boss drops its Short Bow.


Presenting things a bit out of order, here we have an oddity -the Caer Pelyn shop on the world map has a different list of purchaseables than what was in the mission. Huh?

Now we return you to your regularly scheduled And Talking Ensues.

Hello. Welcome to Caer Pelyn. We religiously worship the Great Dragon here.
Okay. Why are you talking to me?
It's dangerous to go alone, take this.
... take what?
How quickly monsteranity forgets its debt to beings that insist on hiding themselves from all but a select few for no reason! It's as if they're not omniscient or something, the ingrates.
Seriously, get out of my way.
Oh, that's Grandmother!
... your grand-
No no, this is a Japanese game, remember? We were probably calling her Baba in the original script, something like that. She's just an old lady.
Four score and seven years ago...
... an old lady with, um, special needs.
Oh, she's senile.
Master Saleh says she was like this when he was my age.
... oh dear.
Is that you, Tortus?
So this is a completely irrelevant piece of our journey to Jehanna that no one would care if it went entirely unmentioned.
Oh no no no, she's an old crone of Plot Exposition, Eirika dear! She's here to dump all kinds of information on us that's completely useless while pretending to be highly relevant.
It's a secret from everyone.
You know what, I'm burning Caer Pelyn to the ground.
I'm helping!
Did somebody call for hellfire?
Eirika, Caer Pelyn is an ancient culture entirely distinct from all the others across the continent. To destroy it would be to forever erase a piece of history, the loss of culture-
Innes, nobody even knows Caer Pelyn exists. There won't be any diplomatic repercussions for torching it, salting the land so nothing can ever grow, and killing everyone who lives here.
-which is exactly why I support you 100%, Eirika. Please notice me and return my love.
Just tell her you idiot.
I'm glad we're all in agreement then, seeing as how Lute has already reduced Caer Pelyn to a smoking crater.
I see survivors fleeing.
They won't be survivors for long.

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See you next mission.