Let's Play Monster Quest: Part 18

A fairly straightforward double-meaning to the name: Orson is ruled by his madness, and in turn rules the land with his madness.

... it sort of doesn't really work because Orson's 'rule' seems to amount to sitting in a room talking to 'Monica' but oh well.

Let's look at Myrrh!


Oh. Well, that's disappointing. I mean, it's cool she's got an unlimited-use Dragonstone I guess, and it's cool that it's range 1-2 at that, same as all the Sacred Twins, but I was hoping she'd be a Dracozombie with Wretched Air. Admittedly, monster weapons can be freely used by any monster... but so can the Dragonstone! If I really wanted, I could slap this onto Marisa or something. The animations would bug out, but it would work.

Laaaame.

Well, excuse me if being a giant fire-breathing engine of doom is insufficiently impressive on its own. Jerk.

She's even got her normal base stats. Admittedly, she barely cares about stats in the base game. The Dragonstone covers most of what matters. Still, sort of weird how little Monster Quest has done with her.


Over with Orson-

Monica...
oh god no

-he's still a Wight like when he was pretending to be loyal to Ephraim, but now he's got a Spear, Runesword, and Elixir. As is typical with Monster Quest, basically all his stats have gone up 3 or more points compared to the usual boss fight, with the exception of his HP, Move, and Constitution -he's down two points of Move compared to his Paladin self, not that it matters because he doesn't move from his position anyway, while his HP and Constitution are actually unmodified.

Interestingly, Orson's gear here is kind of a mixture of his canon gearsets. In normal play, he'll have a Spear and a Silver Sword for Eirika's route or a Runesword and Silver Lance in Ephraim's route... though he doesn't normally carry an Elixir. That's just Monster Quest being a jerk. Note in particular that his Speed is so high you must either have promoted Colm (Which I haven't) or bring along Rennac (Which I'm not) to be able to nick the Elixir.

Though honestly I'm just glad his weapons can break. Worst-case scenario, I have someone stall him out. Way less worrying than Carlyle, Valter, or Caellach.



These two Sages are jerks in normal play, but the Purge Sage is particularly a jerk since this is Monster Quest. This map makes me so glad Monster Quest didn't actually turn everyone into a monster; I can have him break Purge on Eirika's face and protect my monsters that way. It's a bit of a waste, as theoretically, I could arrange to kill him and loot his Purge, but the risk isn't really worth it in my opinion. If I really care, I can buy them from a Secret Shop later, and with unlimited Hammernes I can spam even one Purge unlimitedly.

Fortunately, these Sages don't move.

... I'm not looking forward to Ephraim's version of this mission.

Also, the Anima Sage has a Red Gem for Colm to Steal.


This is the team I take for this mission, and how I start their formation. In retrospect it might've made more sense to bring one of the Baels in place of Ross. The mission turned out to be easier than I expected, and I could've used the opportunity to get levels on a behind character.

I didn't bring Myrrh because she's gratuitous overkill and will level insanely whenever I do feel like bringing her, so it makes more sense to bring members I'm still trying to grind up, like Marisa, before we start hitting harder missions. I'll probably break her out for Rausten.

... also it only just occurred to me her in-battle sprite might've been changed. Whoops.



First I open with Amelia softening up this Mercenary. Vanessa then goes for a strike in hopes of leveling up... and misses, taking a hit in the process. Arrrgh.



To my immense annoyance, I end up having Tethys help Ross wipe out the other Mercenary instead. My hope is the surviving Mercenary will attack Vanessa and she'll level up that way.

Incidentally, both Tethys and Ross get pretty nice levels out of this. Tethys has actually capped Luck already!

I'm sort of amused they have the same HP.


I end turn looking like this.


The only thing of particular note is that the Mercenary obliges me... and Vanessa misses again.

She just needs to hit him once and she'll level! Come on!


I have Amelia soften the Mercenary up some more so she will gain her last un-promoted level, and she obliges. The level she gains is excellent, too. No Strength, but that's okay. I'm also impressed by her Luck score.


I ultimately end up having Artur finish off the Mercenary, and then Tethys fixes his Divine because why not I have unlimited Hammerne uses anyway and I don't feel like having anybody move again and nobody needs a heal.

I've actually never used Hammerne before, so I wasn't sure how its targeting worked, hence why this screenshot doesn't involve me hovering the cursor over the actual target. I also did the first half of this mission on a day I wasn't doing so well, so it's... not my best work in general.


I then end turn looking like this.



Enemy turn, and whoops Colm only didn't die because I got lucky. Should've actually checked how the numbers worked out instead of assuming he can take two hits. I've gotten too used to my insanely tough monsters!


Also the third Fighter suicides on Eirika to no effect.


My turn again, and I have Colm finish off one of the Fighters -I'm hoping to have him ready for promotion before this mission is over. You can also tell I was fine with the possibility of restarting at this point -if Colm had missed his first attack, the Fighter could've killed him with a lucky retaliation, but I took the risk anyway, because this is early in the mission and I'd already realized my initial formation just wasn't that optimal anyway and whatever.


Then Artur and L'arachel take out the other Fighter.


Then Ross goes to kill this Mage, and to my pleasant surprise not only lands both blows but dodges the retaliation.


Tethys heals Colm, because he needs it after I was so reckless with him.


Marisa breaks out the Hellfang on this Mage to all but guarantee his death, and renders it a bit redundant with a first-strike critkill. Sure, why not.



So anyway remember how Amelia hit level 20 earlier? Yeah, she's promoted.

Contrary to my expectations, this wasn't a branching promotion. Just: use Knight's Crest, bam! She's a Wight. Those are some pretty nice promotion gains, and though I didn't screenshot it, she can wield Bows now if I want. Which I don't, because Neimi has that covered, but I can. I like her color scheme, too. It's basically just a darker version of her previous color scheme, but it looks good regardless.


I end turn looking like this -note Eirika's position. I'm hoping for her to absorb a Bolting, because I'm not yet 100% confident the Sages don't move. The series is just too inconsistent when it comes to this kind of thing for me to ever fully trust my memory of individual cases.


They don't, it turns out, so it's my next turn and now Eirika has moved up into ranged to be Boltinged without the lazy Sage needing to move at all.


Tethys heals Vanessa, and I end turn ready to absorb punishment, not only from the Sage but also from these two Knights.


... but nothing happens? Instead, we move to my next turn again, opening with Ross... failing to kill this Knight because no crits. Argh.


Amelia's faithful *Slim Lance gets a repair, because it's actually a pretty awesome tool, and I end turn looking like this. Getting kind of worried the Sages are set to start moving after I cross an invisible line. I hate it when the series does that.

Note the four tiles I'm not occupying. Those can be hit by the Purge Sage, so I'm being extra-cautious about those.


Ross again dodges the Knight and now finishes them off. So that's cool.


... and then it's my turn again? I could've sworn the enemies on this map were more aggressive. Maybe I'm thinking of Ephraim's version of this mission?

Anyway, L'arachel softens up the second Knight and Amelia takes the kill. I'm worried about that Swordmaster, is the thing. These two will act as walls that shouldn't die, and L'arachel should bait out and laugh at one Shaman.


Moving up happens, and I end turn looking like this. Still being careful.



Yeah, Amelia could be double-critted by this guy and she'd be fine.



... and then its my turn again, the Shaman un-baited. In general, the enemies continue to be bizarrely passive. Artur sets up the Swordmaster to be finished off by Marisa, and then she renders his aid unnecessary by immediately critting him. She gets a surprisingly good level out of it, given she has two capped stats.


With the Swordmaster out of the way, I get aggressive with L'arachel. She'll probably survive.

In retrospect I really wasn't taking this mission very seriously.


Vanessa's Silver Lance gets fixed up because why not, and I end turn looking like this.







Well, that was a waste of perfectly good experience. To be fair, I wasn't expecting them all to activate... and at least L'arachel got a perfect level out of it.


We briefly interrupt this process to watch Eirika get Purged and also see that there are a lot of dudes coming this way. Crossed an invisible line, apparently. I hate those.


Then we bounce back to L'arachel continuing to shrug off the dark arts flung her way.

So yeah, she could totally have died here. It was long odds, but just a couple of the right hits would've killed her.



Enemy reinforcements arrive, way later than I was expecting them to arrive, including a Thief in the upper left. He's not going to be a problem.




First thing in the turn is promoting L'arachel. I really like her color scheme as a Gorgon, even if the "arms" look off, but I still stick with turning her into an Arch Mogall. The magical versatility and the ability to fly without being vulnerable to Bows is just too useful. I also largely haven't missed Staff users since Tethys stepped into the role.


Second thing in the turn is Ephraim going for the Druid. To my shock and delight, he actually gets the first-hit-critkill I wanted! Huzzah!

This is very good, given the Druid has Luna and 27 Magic. This could've been problematic otherwise.


Marisa kills the Shaman hanging out on the other Pillar.



Tethys helps Artur get in position to take out the last Shaman, netting him his twentieth level, which itself was perfect when you take into account stat caps. Awesome.


Then I end turn looking like this.


A Knight reaches Ross, misses him. Ross then doubles them for a good chunk of their health.


One of the Warriors comes along and does land his hit for a good chunk of damage, but takes a lot in exchange.




Then it's my turn again, and Artur promotes. Again, I really like the Gorgon color scheme -and Artur doesn't even have any unfortunate "arm" anomalies!- but I continue to stick to Arch Mogall. Having a pack of Mogalls has been so useful so often.



Colm finishes off the Fighter that went for Ross, even dodging the retaliation -I was prepared to heal him, but this works too. He gets a perfect level, too, which is great. He really needs more stats. I hadn't really appreciated how much weaker than my other units he was until this mission.


Ross finishes off the Knight that impaled itself onto his axe during the enemy's turn.


Then Tethys fixes him up while Tana helps him plug the gap


Back over to the west, Lute uses the *Thunder Tome to quadruple this Knight, killing them in one turn. She gets a fantastic level out of it, her first as an Arch Mogall.


Some final moving.


While I was hoping it might not go this way, I am unsurprised the Knight went for Tana -I'm not even bothered by this wasting Axereaver uses, since I have unlimited use Hammerne now. If I really care, I can get everything maxed at the end of most every mission at no cost except my actual time.


One Warrior goes for the only option available to him -Ross. It doesn't go so well for Ross. Oh well. It could definitely have gone worse.



I take advantage of my unlimited-use Warp Staff to pop Colm over to the Chest and loot the Tomahawk inside. Tethys gets an excellent level out of it.

Like I said, that Thief isn't a problem.


I have Ross take his Hand Axe to finish off the Knight, because he's about to level and I don't want him wasting experience by being attacked after already hitting level 20, and also to free room for someone else to block. He hits level 20, and gets an excellent level given two stats are capped. Only missed Resistance.



Tana takes her Axereaver to this Warrior's face, and to my unpleasant surprise takes a nasty hit against the odds... but also gets a crit on the second hit, finishing them off against my expectations. She gets a good level out of it, too.


I end up having Eirika pull a Vulnerary out of storage to heal her while she plugs the gap Tana's movement opens.


I end turn looking like this. Note Ephraim's position -he's going to intercept some of the incoming cavalry.



This time Tana dodges like she should've on the first attack, and no improbable crits get involved either. She doesn't double this Warrior, though. Alas.



The second Warrior flails ineffectually in Eirika's direction and gets doubled in exchange. Nice.



First Cavalier reaches Ephraim, dies ineffectually. I'm vaguely annoyed by how he's one hit point off from the one-hit kill, but whatever. Unlimited-use Hammerne yadda yadda. He gets an underwhelming level, but I console myself with the fact that he's got two stats capped when he was four levels away from level 20. It's kind of inevitable that he'll have some meh levels.


Oh, look at that, Ephraim could've died this turn.

I was really sloppy throughout this mission.


Since it never came up before, I've either forgotten or not noticed that one of the Warriors does have a ranged attack. It's not an issue, because Tana dodges this too, but it's another case where bad luck could've killed someone because I was careless.




You might be surprised to learn I decided to turn Ross into a Cyclops instead of a Maelduin. It's been a long, long time since I've used his Canto ability for... anything... and he's usually actually faster than he needs to be. I'd rather not have to worry about horse-slaying weaponry, and I'd rather have crit chance boost than access to Bows. With unlimited-use Hammerne, I can just rely on Swordslayer indefinitely for my anti-Sword needs, and the Constitution boost is fantastic.

Also he looks cooler as a Cyclops.


Ephraim gets a heal.


And then wipes out another Cavalier... taking a hit in the process again. Annoying. Right now he's out of the Purge zone, though.



Vanessa comes along to take on the other one, and gets... a fairly bad level. Ouch. At least she dodged the retaliation.


It finally occurs to me to actually show off Eirika using Audhulma -if I recall correctly, this is the same animation (and sounds) as Fimbulvetr, the A-rank Anima Tome.

Oh, and she completely murders the Warrior.


Then Tana takes out the other weakened Warrior, leaving only one to actually attack anything.


I end turn looking like this. That's Amelia moving up to block off the Warrior. I forget why I did that.


Back with Ephraim and Vanessa, the Cavalier suicides on Ephraim without even landing a hit. You can also see all the Great Knights making their way closer.


That one Hand Axe Warrior decides to lob his Axe at Tana. He misses. Mildly irritating that he's not engaging where I can retaliate, but whatever.


The last point of note on the enemy turn is this other Thief appearing. This one is much more of a problem than the first one -or it would be if I didn't have an unlimited-use Warp Stave. As-is it's just irritating and inconvenient.



Amelia is popped over and moves to deal with the Thief. I was hoping she'd crit-kill him, but she's at least slowing him down, and she only needs one more hit to kill him regardless.


Over in the west, the original Thief has caught up -they opened the door where Colm is standing themselves, but for some reason I didn't think to take a screenshot at the time- and Colm steals their Lockpick just before Lute *Thunders them out of existence.


I then end turn looking like this -there wasn't actually that much to do in this turn.



To my surprise, the remaining Thief elects to suicide on Amelia. That's very lucky! Oh and she mocks me with a crit now, but whatever.



Further south, one of the Great Knights reaches Ephraim, actually lands a blow, and is critted... on the second hit. And Ephraim gets a mediocre level. Eh. He's still going to be very powerful.


The Hand Axe Warrior remains committed to trying and failing to hurt Tana. Not sure why. I was expecting him to target Tethys, honestly.


Further west, a Druid you might've noticed back when I showed the first Thief arriving takes offense at the Thief's death and tries, and fails, to do something to the zombie that stole that poor man's lockpicks.


Lastly, the enemy turn ends with a reinforcement -a single Druid following in the footsteps of that second Thief. This is mildly alarming, as I hadn't planned around the idea of my Thief-murderer being able to stand up against magic. I would've sent L'arachel if I'd remembered this jerk.


Turns out it's fine though because Amelia can just hang out on a pillar and chip them down with her *Slim Lance. Only about a 5% in 5% chance (So roughly a 1 in 400 chance) of her actually being hit twice by this guy and thus dying, thanks to True Hit.


Tethys heals Tana in preparation for the oncoming storm of Great Knights.



Eirika goes and weakens the Hand Axe Warrior, netting her a very nice level. Would've liked Speed, but oh well.


Tana finishes the job, netting her a decent enough level. She's ready for promotion, too!




Over in the west, Marisa gets the first-strike crit-kill she needs!... which is kind of annoying 'cause I wanted the kill for Colm, but hey, she's ready for promotion with three stats capped for unpromoted. That's pretty cool!

Also the guy drops a Chest Key and I send the looted Tomahawk along (I had to pass it off to her earlier so Colm could steal the Lockpicks) so that I might end up giving it to Ross. Maybe.


I end turn looking like this.

... yes, I have Tethys positioned to take a hit. This is a rough situation. Too much happening too close together. Which is actually kind of cool -if this was more typical of Fire Emblem design, the games would be fun, interesting, difficult, instead of a series of luck-based missions of aggravation.


Over with Amelia, the Druid opens proceedings by killing himself on Amelia without touching her.


Tethys dodges this Great Knight, and look at that he only has 1 Hit and would only do 8 damage if he did hit. Monster Quest Tethys is ridiculous!


Nothing else manages to happen except a second jerk Druid arriving.



I have Amelia target him as my first action of the turn. I missed the shot -the animation is fast- but she got a crit on her first attack, killing him instantly. It netted her... a pretty mediocre level. Oh well. She's already godly, so an underwhelming level here or there isn't really that bad. I do wish she'd patch up her Resistance, though.



Marisa promotes! Having already seen Amelia not get a choice, I'm pretty unsurprised by Marisa getting no choice here, too. These are also quite nice stat gains, with a focus on bolstering her lacking defenses. Excellent.


Tethys heals Ephraim and gets out of the way of the fighting to clear space for someone else.




To my surprise, Tana actually does get a branched promotion. What is it with Monster Quest and letting my fliers potentially promote into not being fliers, and not the reverse? Regardless, while the Wight has the better promotion gains (Only has less Speed) and throws in Swords and Bows, I'd rather keep her a flier and get that extra crit chance.

... even though Tana-the-Wight looks awesome while Tana-the-Deathgoyle is... not so much...

... and then I fail to take useful screenshots to clearly explain what's about to happen.


Yep, I decided to maneuver south. Vanessa takes a nasty hit from one Great Knight.


Ephraim dodges his own attacker, which is good because he promptly murders them, opening up-



-another attacker. Whom Ephraim also murders, without dodging the attack this time. He gets an okay level out of it.


Then the last Great Knight with a move left goes and suicides on Ephraim because why not. This could've gone badly if I'd been fairly unlucky -if all three had hit Ephraim, he'd be dead.


Lastly, another Druid shows up. Wonderful.


Amelia does her thing, and I again miss the screenshot -I tried catching the red starburst- but she first-strike crit-killed this guy too.

It's a good thing the RNG was favoring me here with long-odds crits instead of having these guys land long-odds hits!


I have Eirika murder this Cavalier because she's the safest to have leave the wall of death I have set up, and I'm not comfortable taking more risks like what I just did with Ephraim.

She crit-kills him, but the animation is fast. The sword flashes white very briefly, and that's it. I actually didn't realize I was seeing a crit animation until the poor soldier exploded.


Then L'arachel practices her Dark magic a little by pasting one of the Great Knights.


Tethys heals Ephraim, and gets a level out of doing so. Could be better, could be worse. I'm particularly pleased to see her gaining Defense.


Ephraim tears apart the last Great Knight, and hits level 20. Huzzah! He's ready for promotion! He even got a nearly-perfect level out of it.


... wait what.

Look at his experience. It's 2, when it should be -- --. He can gain more experience?

... was Eirika able to gain experience past 20 and I just didn't notice?

Unfortunately, double-checking my past screenshots... I have no idea. I'd like to think I would've noticed if she could've gone past level 20, but I have no photographic evidence. This is going to bother me.

I decide to level Ephraim further rather than promoting him. I'm curious exactly what his level cap is.


Anyway, I set up to bait out Purges and Boltings.


L'arachel dodges a Bolting.


Eirika takes a Purge straight to the face for the second time.


My turn, and apparently the Druids are done with their conga line of reinforcements. Tethys heals Vanessa again.


L'arachel dodges another Bolting. Have I mentioned I like Bolting's lightning bolt graphic and wish it wasn't so hard to get a good look at through the flash and how little time it's on screen?


Purge misses Eirika.


Tethys heals Ross, 'cause why not.


L'arachel takes a Bolting straight to the face -you can see how her health is dropping and her HP number is enlarged. That's okay. She can take a second before she needs healing.


Eirika takes another Purge to the face, demanding immediate medical attention.


I get lazy in my screenshots and L'arachel dodges another Bolting.



Northwest, Artur lets out his dark side to murder this Priest and take their Physic Staff.


L'arachel continues to dodge lightning bolts. That is a thing you can do when you're a magic floating eyemonster. Obviously.

It's actually because I'm a princess.


Oh hey we've finally burned through the Purges and other stuff is happening. I've got Ephraim baiting out this Knight. In retrospect maybe I should've had Colm be the one to do it. Or Vanessa. I got too caught up my curiosity about Ephraim's leveling. Oh well.


Oh, and with the Bolting Tome broken, Amelia has finally stopped sitting around doing nothing and is helping bait out and attack another Knight. This is... kind of risky, but not hugely so. Even if they crit her twice, she'll still be alive, so there's room to rescue her if things go catastrophically wrong.


Jerkface the other Priest Physics the Knight in question. Jerk.


I have Eirika finish off the Knight, basically because she's my only unit able to reach it and contribute anything at all.



I botched the initial screenshot, but Ephraim successfully baits out a Hero.

... and misses them and gets doubled by them because I've got him wielding a Steel Lance and forgot that weighs too much for him when comparing their Speed. Oops.


And then this Knight chucks a Spear at him.

So again Ephraim could've died if I'd been less lucky.


Ross goes to soften up the Knight, and instead promptly crit-kills them. Yeah okay sure.


Tethys fixes up my mistake.


Ephraim breaks out the Killer Lance, so now he won't be doubled. He dodges the retaliation, too.


Lute softens up the Hero further using the *Thunder Tome.



Vanessa goes for the killshot... and instead misses and fail to dodge. So now she could die.

Goodie.


Amelia softens them up! Tana finishes!



Then it's the enemy's turn and the middle Hero comes out to attack Tana. She dodges and doubles him. Nice.



Artur softens up the Hero and then Vanessa finishes them off. I was hoping for a level, but oh well. Dude drops a Hero Crest too.



Enemy turn, and Ephraim baits out a Hero wait crap that's an Axe.

It works out anyway.


My turn, and Colm loots a Knight Crest from a chest.


Eirika softens up the Hero further, gaining a pretty decent level in the process. I'm particularly glad to see Speed.



Artur softens up the Hero, and Vanessa finishes him off... netting her another kind of underwhelming level. Inconvenient.


Colm loots another chest on a later turn -it's a Talisman, and it gets sent to Storage. We're in the end stretch of this map.


I go over all my (currently present) units and decide Ephraim is the one who most needs some more Resistance.


Also somewhere in all this -I've long since stopped taking screenshots of Tethys doing things- Tethys reaches her final level.

Yes, it's her final level. She doesn't have any Ephraim-esque thing going on. She stops here. I was disappointed, but not overly surprised, given her utterly insane growths.


Colm loots 5,000 Gold from the last chest of the map.



I have Ephraim go to take on the last Sage, because I really want to see what happens when he reaches 100 experience. To my pleasant surprise, he crit-kills them on the first strike and gets a perfect level.

I was half-expecting a Radiant Dawn-style "promote at level 21" effect, but this works.

I just wish I knew why Monster Quest did this.

The Sage drops his Divine Tome, too, so that's cool.


Colm Steals a Vulnerary from the last Priest.


Vanessa then takes out the Priest.


Then Colm Steals this Red Gem.

You always have to wonder what the last few enemy troops are thinking, where there's like three soldiers left against your army of twelve guys that have already slaughtered more than twice their number. Fire Emblem enemies don't get to surrender except in the plot, after all...

I wouldn't accept their surrender anyway. Fomortiis demands blood, and I am a loyal servant.
"Surrender"?
It's where, instead of killing people in honorable open combat, they volunteer to allow you to execute them after weeks of beatings and/or starvation.
... but honorable and open combat is where all the fun is.
Can we get back to butchering these idiots in the name of the Demon King?
On it.




I botched the screenshot on the final hit (It's a blank white one), but Marisa did in fact finish off the Sage.


Ross exchanges misses with-

Monica...

 -Orson. Not really surprising.

Oddly, Orson's graphic is different from the last time we saw him. He was blue and gold when he was on our side, not red and brown. I don't think he changes colors in the base game, so this is just strange.



Lute gets in on the action too, since she's safe enough. She does better than Ross, too.

But of course. I am the superior being.



Orson's turn comes, and he exchanges misses with Lute. Eh.



Then I get lazy in my screenshotting, because I'm expecting this to be a long slog of little interest. Eirika and Ephraim advance to C in their Support, incidentally.


Once I get Orson down to low health, he uses one of his five Elixir uses. Which I can't Steal off of him because Colm is slower than him. Aaaargh.


I botched the screenshot twice over, but Ross immediately one-shots Orson with a crit, netting him an excellent level. Given he wouldn't have had that crit chance at all if he'd been made into a Maelduin, I'm happy with my promotion choice.

Who's the 'superior being' now?
Me.
Aaaargh.

Time for plot promotions!


Turns out, yes, I can re-promote Eirika via the plot promotion.

I feel... strange.

The stat gains are minimal, but it's free stats and resetting her level. I might've made more of an effort to get her experience if I'd thought of this possibility sooner.



Here's what Ephraim would gain if I took the plot promotion. I don't feel like accepting it, because I'd rather get him more levels and then use his Solar Brace.

... though now I have two Solar Braces on me, and I can't sell or throw away the thing. This is inconvenient. Might've made more sense to promote him with the Solar Brace and then let the plot promote him, like I did with Eirika. Oh well.

I thought this was a one-of-a-kind sacred artifact?
They're braces. They're designed to be worn in pairs. Of course there's two pairs.
But where'd the other pair come from?
Obviously we looted them from inside the room.
But if they're designed to be worn in pairs?...
I don't see the problem.


Sacred Twins!


Sieglende replaces Audhulma on Eirika, and note that it's straight-up an improvement other than having a different special bonus. It's actually one Might less than the base game's version, but it's got +15 to crit and can be used unlimitedly at range 1-2 so whatever.

I am become Death, destroyer of humanity.


Siegmund goes straight to Ephraim -since it's "Prf" rather than S, it doesn't matter that I haven't promoted him. Well, it does, because he doesn't have enough Constitution for it, but he can wield it regardless. This is 2 less Might than the regular Siegmund, but it's 10 more Hit, 15 more Crit, and of course unlimited-use range 1-2, so it's still overall much better.

I feel an urge to cackle maniacally. I think I'm spending too much time around Eirika.


Additionally, I actually remember to pass out the Hoplon Guard and Fili Shield. I really should've already done this, but it wasn't a big deal. None of the enemies even had Bows on this mission.

Astoundingly, I never restarted this mission -the RNG just carried me all the way to victory on my very first try. It was bizarre. I'm used to having god-awful luck. Admittedly, the levels trended toward being a bit poor? But I don't think that's really going to hurt me in the long haul, not in practice.

I missed the screenshot, but for some reason 'Monica' is a Bow Bonewalker instead of a civilian.

I don't like dresses, okay? I'm a tomboy skeleton if you must know. Wait what are you doing-
Well, now that we've re-killed Orson and his reanimated lover-
I feel like a hypocrite.
Oh come off it, Seth. His necromantic actions are completely different from our own!
How?
Royal approval.
Yes, he should've asked dear Eirika whether he could have his wife's soul bound to an undying skeletal form through ritualistic human sacrifice. There's procedures.
Hear hear.
I 100% agree and it's not just because Eirika said it.
Yes, it's just not right to be doing things without the explicit approval of your royal overlords.
But you-
Yes, I never do anything without acquiring permission from my royal parents!
...
Yes, it is always for the best to do as your personal master desires.
... I'm being mocked, aren't I?
Whatever gave you that idea, Seth?
Just... never mind. What are we doing now? He asked with mounting dread.
To glorious Rausten!
May I ask why?
You may.
...
La de da...
sigh
Why?
Because it's the only way to the heart of the Darkling Woods of course! But first we must pass through the heart of the Darkling Woods.
Wha-
Hurry up Seth, we'll have to walk the River of Regrets, and you know how it gets this time of year.

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See you next mission.