Let's Play Monster Quest: Part 19

After way too long, we're back with the next update!

Ah, Melodrama River. A bit of a breather mission after fighting Orson and company. I frankly have no idea what its name is referring to. It's a nice chapter name, don't get me wrong, but I'm unclear what is supposed to regretted here. It's not like Eirika or Ephraim regret their friendship with Lyon or anything.

Oh well. Let's get to it.


This is the team I brought and the starting formation I went with. In retrospect I probably should've swapped Vanessa and Ephraim's positions, given what I actually did in the mission.



Oooookay then. This is way higher stats than Lyon has normally. His Magic is basically the only stat that isn't at least 10 more points than it should be, and in particular he has 25 more Luck than he should! This even includes his Constitution, which is normally 7, so he's not 13 Speed faster, he's 25 Speed faster, since normally his Tome's weight knocks his Speed to zero. That's 75 more Avoid than he has in the base game!

They even pointlessly raised his Staff rank to S instead of A.

It's also strange that he has Gleipnir, rather than his unique Naglfar. I wonder why they did that? There's not much difference between the two Tomes normally, admittedly -Naglfar is a little lighter, hits slightly harder, doesn't provide +5 Skill, and has unlimited uses, but Monster Quest consistently renders Sacred Twins unlimited-use so that takes away the biggest difference.

I frankly have no idea what to make of the Stone Shard. As far as I know, that's not a normal item of any kind, not even coded-but-unused, and the description is... vague. Interesting that we're going to loot it, though, as my first thought when I saw it was that it was there to make Lyon even more threatening. I've no idea what to make of it.


This Berserker has a Dragonshield to Steal. (Also note the civilians: we're supposed to be keeping them alive for later human sacrifice, which is the closest thing to a challenge this mission has)


And this Valkyrie has an Elixir to Steal.

There's some other items that will drop on death I didn't bother to screenshot ahead of time, as well.



Say hello to the last of the Pegasus Gargoyle Sisters, who is also our last (normal) recruit in the game, Syrene. As is typical of pre-promotes, she's gone from awful to serviceable: 7 more HP, 6 more Strength, 8 more Skill, 5 more Speed, 6 more Luck, 8 more Defense, 9 more Resist, and 6 more Constitution.

She's actually on par with or better than Tana and Vanessa, as it happens! That's impressive, and if the Triangle Attack is still a thing, she's no longer the weak link making it too impractical to consider.

So. First things first.


Ephraim is knocking down this Snag, so as to drag the landbound western enemies down this way rather than funneling toward the civilians. Also, I'm still curious as to when he'll stop leveling.


Tethys is teleporting Vanessa to the north to recruit Syrene.


And then a bunch of moving up happens. Note Ross and Colm are hanging with Ephraim, while the Mogalls are moving to engage the Heroes over in the southeast.



One Hero suicides on Lute, who gets a decent enough level... but Speed is really what she needs more of.



I manage to miss the initial targeting part, but a Paladin rushes Ross, and the RNG proceeds to spite me. At least the Paladin missed.



Fortunately, since I was more aggressive with Ross' placement than I'd originally intended, the other Paladin rushes him too, fails to hit him, aaaaand the RNG spites me again, though somewhat less badly. Seriously? No crit on two greater than 40% crit chances?


Whoops!

I'd meant to put Ross one tile south of where he is, and this lady is why. Fortunately, he's a tank, and would've survived my screwup even if the RNG had decided to hate on me utterly and had both Paladins hit too.


My turn, and now Ross is taking out this Paladin. And I have terrible screenshot timing -I was trying to catch a crit happening on the second hit, because RNG spite, and got this instead. Dangit.


Ephraim murders this Valkyrie with Reginleif, and I apparently didn't screenshot the actual fight? Odd.


And then, because I desperately want to promote Colm already, he comes along and finishes off the Paladin Ross almost killed, and gets... well, he only missed two stats, so it's not a bad level, but it's not distributed the way I'd be happiest with. Oh well. Only one level to go! You can do it, Colm!


Then I Warp Eirika to-


-uh. Missed a screenshot again? Well, in any event Eirika proceeds to utterly slaughter one of the Druids and clog the road so the others can't murder the civilians.

If it's not obvious, Sieglinde's ranged animation is Bolting's. It's pretty awesome!


Syrene is recruited by Vanessa, as planned.


L'arachel dishes out some damage to a Hero.


Artur takes a potshot at a different Hero, using Flux because I've realized I don't have anybody on track to use Gleipnir and I'm not using Knoll and L'Arachel is close to S Light.

And did I get lazy with screenshotting?


Then Lute finishes off the Hero that L'Arachel softened up, and I loot their Brave Axe.


Enemy turn, and one Hero tries and fails to hurt Lute. He dies instead.


The other Hero can't reach Lute and instead takes a swipe -successfully- at L'Arachel, but comes away in pain himself.



Up north, one Wyvern Rider smacks Tana for some damage, aaaand Tana is wielding a Heavy Spear because I forgot to change her weapon. And she misses one of her hits, but that's not a big deal yet.


Wyvern Rider #2 comes and has a go at Tana, and it doesn't go well for him.



Then Wyvern Rider #3 comes along and Tana crits him!... but doesn't double him and wouldn't have killed him even if she had without another crit. Also, she's hurting at this point.


A Mage breaks the eastern Snag.

Incidentally, I... had to retry this mission rather more times than I'd like to admit, and as a result discovered that this Mage attacking this Snag is triggered by recruiting Syrene. I'd always thought the Mage did it on some specific turn number, but nope, it comes the turn after Syrene is blue.



Then one of the Druids suicides on Eirika. If I recall correctly, this particular incident was a critical hit. I'm not sure, though -Great Lord Eirika's magic sword crit animation is fast, just a brief moment of the sword flickering white. Between that and the fact that magic crits don't include the red impact effect, I have no pictorial evidence of the majority of Eirika's crits in this mission, even though she crit a fair amount over the course of the mission.


Then the other Druid suicides on Eirika.


Down in the southwest Ephraim baits out the other Valkyrie, and tanks a hit without striking back.


Then two Wyvern Riders arrive as reinforcements in the northwest and it's my turn.


I open with Lute murderlating the last Hero, and getting a level out of it. Still no Speed. It's cool that she's probably going to cap Magic and all, and I'm definitely glad to see so much HP on her, but the Speed is important come on.

Then I-


-fffff.

And Ross' inventory is full, so he can't take something of Colm's.

And Ephraim's inventory is full.

And the way turn mechanics work, I can't even arrange to throw an item away to free up space so I can Trade an item out of Colm's inventory and then Steal the Elixir.

...


Whatever, I don't really need another Elixir. Ephraim one-hits her with Reginleif too.


L'arachel getting healed.


Artur and Neimi having a talk. (In retrospect, this was probably a mistake, but oh well)


So hey let's take a look at Syrene and have her take out a Wyvern Rider.

I like her look. Yellow Deathgoyle with blue highlights is pretty cool. (I'll be honest: I have no recollection of what her normal color scheme is. I never use her in the base game)


Time for Vanessa to do some damage!

And take some.



Tana... misses on her first hit, takes a hit, and then lands a lethal blow.

Um.

This could be bad.


Eirika comes along... and does not crit the Wyvern Rider. Dangit.

She gets an absolutely amazing level in exchange, but. Uh. Tana is liable to die.


Suddenly it's the enemy's turn! Colm taking an axe to the shoulder and shrugging it off. (He proceeded to double the Fighter)



Wyvern Rider... oh. Misses and couldn't have killed Tana anyway. Whew. Wait, there's still that Wyvern Lord up there!



But, because the game has this weird preference for moving un-promoted units before promoted units, first we have a Wyvern Rider messing up on trying to hurt Eirika and ending up seriously injured but not dead in exchange.



Wait what?

Tana's not dead? And got a great level?

And wait that's a Wyvern Knight! I'm almost completely certain Valter is the only one of those in the base game and this guy is supposed to be a Wyvern Lord!

Huh.

Okay then.


Tethys flirting with the enemy.



Mage suiciding on Neimi and giving up his Guiding Ring.




Sage missing Neimi, getting hit and then critted, and dropping Fimbulvetr.


Wait what oh god why is Tana not dead.


Also, reinforcements: Cavaliers to the west, Druids from Lyon's castle.


First action of the turn is having Amelia break out her Shortbow on the long odds of maybe critting the Wyvern Knight out of existence. No such luck, but she gets a pretty amazing level instead. Her low Resist is kind of worrisome. She can't possibly cap it at this point.


Ephraim strikes at and slays one of the reinforcement Cavaliers. Siegmund proves itself to be Elfire's attack animation, which looks rather silly in action: Ephraim plays his Javelin-throwing animation, the spear vanishes, and then the Elfire animation plays. I think it would've looked better if it had one of the animations that is less impressive but more visually compatible, but oh well. Monster Quest impresses me all the same.



Ross butchers the northern Fighter, getting a completely useless crit on the second hit. Not that it mattered, as it happens, since he did dodge the retaliation and Fiendcleaver has unlimited uses anyway. Actually, now that I think about it, him doubling the target rather than critting on the first hit means he has more weapon experience. So that's cool. I am trying to build him up to being able to wield Garm, after all.


Lute takes apart this Mage and even dodges their attempt to fight back.

And I only just noticed how this was an Elfire Tome that Lute would've shrugged off the damage of. Nice.



Tana takes out the weakest of the Wyvern Riders, even with a miss. Gave me a bit of a heart attack, though.


Tethys teleporting Neimi to the fight in the north now that the mages are all dead.



Which in turn allows Neimi to take out another Wyvern Rider.


Vanessa takes out another one. Almost there!


Eirika finishes off the Wyvern Knight.

(I think this was another completely gratuitous crit)

I end my turn after this.


Down south, the first thing that happens is that this Fighter misses Colm.

I actually could've had Colm retreat out of their range entirely, and didn't because... well. Honestly, probably because I was rather sick when I did the first half or so of this mission.


A bit to the north a Wyvern Rider suicides on Ephraim. Pretty sure it landed a hit here, unfortunately.



Then the other one misses Ephraim, and Ephraim fails to double this one and fails to level. On the plus side, this means that Cavalier can't reach Ephraim this turn.


Lastly, more Wyvern Rider reinforcements in the northwest

.

I open my turn by having Ephraim get to protective terrain and vaporize the Cavalier. He dodges its retaliation and gets a nearly-perfect level, given that three stats are capped for his current level of promotion. Honestly, I'd go ahead and promote him if I wasn't so curious about where he'll stop. At this point the main benefit he'd get out of waiting to promote is more opportunities to raise his Resist -all his other stats are extremely likely to cap out by level 20 promoted as-is.



Then Ross handily slaughters the Wyvern Rider with another 'wasted' crit. He also gets an amazing level! Kind of surprised his Strength is lower than his Speed.


Healing Tana after all her myriad close calls.



Eirika once again slaughtering a Druid and plugging the gap. She gets an excellent level... but still no Speed? This is very weird for Eirika.


I have Vanessa heal herself, in retrospect probably a bit wastefully.



Also, I positioned Artur to provoke a Druid without mentioning it! He dodges, doubles them. Nice.


The other Druid opts for the path of suicide.


I decide to stop being relentlessly reckless in the west after interrupting the session to get some sleep, and so have Ephraim back off and use a Vulnerary. Really, I should've had one or two more units over here in the first place. Amelia hasn't really done anything in the east.


Anyway, continuing my cunning plan to make sure Ephraim doesn't die, Ross murders a Cavalier and is positioned so that the other one can't get to Ephraim. (Because most mounted units can't cross mountains at all)



I decide to have L'arachel go try to kill off this Druid -in part because I'm still trying to build up her Light weapon experience- and she succeeds and gets quite the nice level.


Lute getting healed, with Tethys positioned to troll a Druid.


I do some more moving up and end turn like this, more or less.



As I was hoping to have happen, Vanessa baits out one of the western Wyvern riders. Less thrilled by her missing one of her hits and now being in danger of instantly dying to the Wyvern if I don't heal her or anything, not to mention doing garbage damage, but Ephraim is safer and Vanessa is so close to getting to level 20.



The other Wyvern Rider suicides on Ephraim to no effect, and you can see why it was important that I reduce how many things can get at him.



The Cavalier misses Ross and gets smacked twice in turn.

Have I mentioned I love the Ogre dodge animation? They just just sort of casually shift a little bit, totally unimpressed by whatever idiot is attacking them. You'll almost never see it in normal play, though. I've really been enjoying getting to see the full range of animations Monsters have.


Tethys flirting/trolling with a Druid. I did it so I could do more Mogall training, for reference, instead of all the Druids suiciding on Eirika.



Druid suiciding on Eirika. I think this was a crit on the second hit?



With the last Druid suicide, I finally catch the crit mid-animation.

Also, Eirika gets a fantastic level!


Lastly, more Wyvern Rider reinforcements. I was expecting more Cavaliers as well, but no? Okay.


Lute murders the Wyvern Rider Vanessa lured out, as I'm desperately trying to get Lute up to the point of being able to use the Anima Sacred Twin.


Ross finishes off the Cavalier. I deliberately did not sit down on a Fortress -I don't want him blocking reinforcements, and he's tough enough that this is probably basically safe.


Healing Vanessa.


I have L'arachel go to soften up the Druid, intending for Artur to finish it, and instead she promptly crit-kills it.

She looks terrifying like this, honestly.

Isn't it great?


I finally notice that Ephraim is still at Lance C. So he's capped like he's a recruit... but can go over level 20... I suppose this does fit with how he was capped at level 10 way back when, but something weird is going on with him.

Anyway, some stuff I don't bother screenshotting happens, and then it's the enemy's turn.

Since they have nothing in reach of anything of mine...


... reinforcement screenshots it is! Just more Druids and Cavaliers.

Also note that Colm is moving to join up with the main of my force. Also note the Deathgoyle in the south -that's Syrene, covering the civilians in the south just in case I'm forgetting something. I don't think this is necessary, but I'm not sure it's not, and anyway I'm more interested in training up several of my other characters so if she accomplishes nothing it's not a big deal.



Ross does some chopping on one Cavalier.


Tethys doesn't have anyone to heal and I don't have any reason for her to Dance anyone, so I have her Hammerne Lute's *Thunder Tome.

My turn ends with little else happening.



One Wyvern Rider slams himself into Ross' axe. Twice.



The other, bowing to peer pressure, joins in on the fun.


Then one Cavalier dogpiles in.

The other Cavalier makes a sad face because he can't get involved in the Bad Idea Brigade.


Again, a Druid gets to watch Tethys cock her hips.

It's really quite hilarious how hard it is to kill Tethys in Monster Quest.



Druid suiciding on Eirika... I think this was another crit I missed the screenshot of. Either that or I was trying to give some variety to my screenshots. There's more to Bolting than the one big lightning strike after all.



One last fried Druid, coming up.


And more Wyvern Rider reinforcements.



Getting a little annoyed at how Ross refuses to crit at a 20~% crit rate while doubling his foes. Oh well.

I also have him set up on a Fort to get some healing, because the Cavaliers aren't really worth that much experience so I don't care that much if he blocks some reinforcements at this point. I'm also just getting tired of the mission.


Healing Colm.


Having Artur go for some more Dark experience. Pleasantly surprised by the dodge.


Makes it easier for L'arachel to follow up and finish them off.


Lastly, moving up happens, with Amelia set up to bait out this Swordmaster -they're wielding a Killing Edge, so I needed someone with extremely high Luck and/or high Defense. (Or I could've passed off the Hoplon Guard to someone with merely good Defense and Speed, but I didn't think of that at the time)



As you can see, Amelia is plenty tanky enough to ignore the Swordmaster's offense. I was sort of hoping she'd crit -otherwise I'd have had her use her *Slim Lance- but this just means the Mogalls can have a crack at the Swordmaster.



Meanwhile, over in the west Ross finally gets a crit (That's completely useless) and finally reaches S in Axes! Now he's equipped to kill anything.

I am become death, destroyer of everything!... so I'm cool now, right?
No.
...


Slaughtering another Wyvern...


... and mauling the surviving Cavalier.


So, naturally, now that I've moved Ross onto the Fort, it's time for Paladins to show up. That's annoying. They're worth real experience!

Oh, and Warriors in the southeast. I always expect them to be Heroes, like the initial batch standing around in the area, so I'm usually bad about leaving some 'defenders' over to the west, just across the river, who proceed to contribute nothing to the entire mission. I guess I unconsciously remembered that it wouldn't be necessary, at last? Because Syrene's placement was my only acknowledgment of such a possibility.


Anyway, I have Neimi soften up-


-uh, completely slaughter the Swordmaster. She gets a pretty good level out of it.

The idea is to get her to S Bows, admittedly, since this is the mission you finally get Nidhogg.


Ross... breaks out the Swordslayer for this Paladin since they're actually wielding a Silver Sword, and he'd have like a 50% hit rate on them with Garm. Darn. Gets a fantastic level out of mauling them, though.


Since why not, I have Tethys Hammerne the Javelin, and don't notice until later that the target doesn't conveniently change to the targeted item for the animation. Whoops.



Enemy turn! We start with a Wyvern Rider having the RNG like him in his duel with Ross. It's funny how little damage he does to Ross. Reaver weapons double the effects of weapon triangle advantage/disadvantage, and he's still only reaching 7 damage? Wow. So he'd be doing 4 if Ross was holding an Axe.



Anyway, further north Vanessa successfully baits out another Wyvern Rider -this time with a Silver Lance, so she does real damage- and takes a hit in the process. That'll make it a nuisance to give her the killing blow.


Paladin suicides on Ross.


And lastly more Warriors and Wyvern Riders spawn.

Now remember how I said giving Vanessa the kill experience would be tricky?



No wait it isn't I have the Triangle Attack. (This wasn't a risk: I determined it still worked on one of the failed runs)

I missed the screenshot, unfortunately, but contrary to my hopes the two other participants in the Triangle Attack haven't been changed to be Gargoyles/Deathgoyles. They're Falcoknights.

The 'Triangle Attack' is actually a ritual to summon our extradimensional counterparts for a moment to fight.

... aaaaanyway, she finally finally finally reaches level 20! And with a pretty great level, given Speed is capped. She's ready for promotion!


Healing her, incidentally.


Ross finally using Garm. He crit-kills the Wyvern Rider on the second hit, but there's nothing being wasted -they had no chance of hitting him!- so whatever.



Enemy turn, and Artur takes an Axe to the... uh. Wow. That looks like most of his tentacles/primary optic nerve got chopped off.

Anyway, he retaliates once, too slow to double the Warrior. Darn.


Wyvern Rider goes to get himself killed on Ross, Ross again crits on the second hit. Whatever.


Another Paladin/Warriors spawn.

I hope I'm not preventing lootable Paladins from spawning. That would be really aggravating.


L'Arachel softens up one Warrior from complete safety -those tiles to her east and south look to me like they're land-travel-worthy, but the game considers them to be River tiles, and thus impassable to units that don't fly or walk on water.


Artur then softens up another one. If I'd planned this better, I'd have had L'Arachel target this one so Artur could get a killshot. Whoops.

And he's safe for the same reason I described with L'Arachel: River tiles!


Then Lute slaughters the Warrior that Artur softened up earlier. Soooon. Soon she'll have Excalibur usable.


Ross crit-kills something with vaguely useful timing at last. Too bad there's no one around to Trade-shenanigans him to a different Axe.


Healing Ephraim. (In retrospect, him using a Vulnerary earlier was a waste. Oh well. Money isn't really an issue anymore)


Time to promote Vanessa! Finally!



Here's what would happen if she became a Wight. Nice, balancd stat gains and D in Swords and Bows, but she'd no longer fly. She'd also look uncomfortably similar to some other green skeleton I already have.


In actuality I go with the Deathgoyle. (Which I quite like the look of, congrats Vanessa) It's... actually almost flatly worse, only gaining one more Speed, but then again she gets to fly so whatever.

Now that I think about it, I'm probably avoiding losing the Triangle Attack this way, too. In the unmodded game, if you promote one of the Pegasus Sisters to being a Wyvern Knight, you're restricted to having the Wyvern Knight initiate the Triangle Attack -and you lose it entirely if they both promote to Wyvern Knight.

Then again, Monster Quest didn't bother with graphics changes to the Triangle Attack, so maybe not. It's entirely possible it's set up so the Triangle Attack kicks off regardless of whether it's 'goyles or Wights involved.

Something to maybe test in my Ephraim run.

Anyway, I basically end my turn after this.



Amelia once again baits out a crittastic jerk, this time the Berserker. Off-screen I had Colm deposit one of his Lockpicks in Supply, so when my turn rolls around he's going to be Stealing the Dragonshield.



Meanwhile a Wyvrn Rider gives Ross enough experience for an okay level.

I'm probably jaded a bit by Monster Quest's amazing level gains. I might have a hard time going back to regular Sacred Stones after this.


Oh, and more Warriors streaming in from the Forts.


Anyway, Ross finishes off the Wyvern Rider, leaving the Fort since he's at full health and I'd like to get more Paladins to kill for juicy experience.

But the Forts are empty.

Yes, but I didn't know that at the time. Maybe I'll remember for the Ephraim route.


Anyway, Colm Steals the Dragonshield, hooray!


Then Neimi critkills the Berserker. I'd sort of intended to have her weaken the Berserker and then Colm finish it off -I really want to have him promote this chapter- but then again if I wanted to do that I shouldn't have blocked off any possibility of Tethys Dancing him so I guess it worked out.


Tethys Hammerning again. I didn't take a clarifying screenshot, but I picked the Iron Blade.

Then I do some movement, fail to screenshot it, and give the enemies their next turn.



One Warrior suicides on Eirika.


And then more reinforcements arrive. But no Paladins.


Because I am dumb, I have Artur soften up another Warrior instead of having L'Arachel do that so he can get the kill.

.
Then L'Arachel softens up the other one, because apparently I hate being smart.

Okay, really, I was just tired of the map and tired in general and basically on auto-pilot because this map is a joke/experience pinata, but wow was I playing badly.


Then Lute gets my first actually perfectly timely crit on an 8%, instantly killing this Warrior.

She looks awesome like this.

Bow before my might, mortal.


Vanessa breaks out the Axereaver to wipe out one Warrior, because Eirika is already my highest level character before you consider that I reset her level with the plot promotion, so I'd like to give other people experience.


I have Eirika hold Tethys' Recover Staff so it can be Hammerned. Not sure I'll ever use it, mind, but why not?



Another Warrior rushes for Vanessa, gets doubled, dies.

She looks like she's having so much fun in a demonic sort of way, really.




Then Lute goes to wipe out a Warrior, and gets a crit on the last hit that would've been lethal anyway. She gets a mediocre level, too. At least she finally got Speed.

More importantly, she's finally ready to kill everything with Excalibur.

I am death, destroyer of worlds. As I always have.


L'Arachel takes out another Warrior, and gets a great level out of it.


Artur finally actually kills something, and gets... a mediocre level out of it.

His Luck depresses me.


Neimi softens up another Warrior.



Then Tethys Dances Colm so Colm can take a swipe at the Warrior! (I'm really desperate to level him, can you tell?)

And gets an axe cleaving through his entire ribcage for his trouble!

And still no level-up.


Vanessa lands the finishing blow, and gets a weird little level. Good, but weird.



Down to the south, the last Warrior suicides on Lute.


Tethys heals Colm, as we prepare to fight Lyon.


I don't actually make this attack, this is a screenshot of me realizing that Lyon isn't retaliating. Odd. Is Gleipnir a short-range siege Tome?



Here's what I actually do: Eirika misses Lyon for one point of Experience, netting her a great level. Wow, she's probably going to cap HP. That's... weird, for Eirika.


Neimi takes a free shot at Lyon, as one of my only units that has a shot of doing damage to him.


Then OHMYGOD

Yeeeah, this was a bad plan.

However! Confirmation that

A: Gleipnir is a short-range siege tome, incapable of retaliating but also incapable of being retaliated against

and B: Gleipnir is still a Sacred Twin that doesn't get bonus damage against Monsters.

... I'm suddenly much less enthused about getting someone trained up high enough to use it myself.

Anyway, let's have people who aren't at risk of instantly dying to a crit do the fighting.


Healing.


Eirika taking another shot, actually hitting this time.

Then I realize this is a bad idea, and Hammerne a bunch of things while waiting for Ross to get over here, on the idea that Garm ignoring Defense makes him my best choice to actually kill Lyon in a timely fashion/at all. He'll also be holding the Hoplon Guard, so there's no crit chance.

So let's fast-forward a bit!



Amazingly, Ross lands his first hit! But misses on his second.


Then Lyon hits him. It hurts.


Physic heal!



Ross missing twice!

Then I realize this is going to take way, way too long, and turn to rescue shenanigans to allow Eirika and Ephraim to contribute -they have worse damage, but better accuracy. Ross hangs out and keeps getting Physiced. I largely stop taking screenshots. And turn off the animations because it's faster.

Here's some highlights.


I have Neimi plink at Lyon with her Longbow for free experience. It nets her this nice level.



I like you, Eirika.
Busy killing someone other people think of as my childhood friend.
Hugs!
Oh fer-! Get your tentacles off of me, I'm busy.

Support between Eirika and L'arachel finally kicked off.


No Lute, that's a Deathgoyle. Open your eyes, you loon.

Support between Lute and Vanessa kicked off.


Neimi fires arrows in Lyon's general direction enough to finally reach S in Bows, huzzah!


Eirika levels twice more, one of them the killing blow hit that causes Lyon to smirk and teleport away. They're kind of eh levels, but that's okay.


Lyon drops that bizarre rock. Surprised he never used it. Really curious as to what it does.



Whoops, forgot to screenshot Nidhogg! (We've already seen Vidofnir) Gotta make sure to get that done for the next update.

Also, for ensuring all the civilians survive, I get a Rescue Staff! Contrary to my expectation, it's not an unlimited-use Staff like Warp is. Oh well, with Hammerne being unlimited it barely matters.

Talking ensues.

Soon we shall enter the scenic heart of the Darkling Woods, the Monster daycare center.
We should recru-
Are you mad Seth? Eggs are worth 50 experience to whosoever kills them!
...
Dibs.
Oh, very well. We'll try to give the majority of infanticides to you, brother dearest.
I regret my oaths.
After that, we'll pass through Rausten and go to the scenic heart of the Darkling Woods!
I still don't understand. Are you suggesting we... loop back around?
Don't be silly, Eirika dearest. We're simply passing through the heart to go to the heart.
...

-----

See you next mission.