Let's Play Monster Quest part 6

Got it this time!

This chapter title always struck me as sounding more meaningful than it actually is. What about this mission illustrates Grado's reach, exactly? If anything it shows they can't stop a single unarmed woman from running all the way from the capitol to Serafew, which is not exactly a morning stroll.

I guess it illustrates that the empire's reach is less than it should be.



Our new healer, crushing my hopes that Natasha would be a healer Mogall to replace Moulder. Also note that she can use Light magic, where Moulder can use Dark magic, though unlike Moulder she doesn't actually come with a tome.

Checking Serenes Forest, her HP is about 6 points lower than Cleric Natasha would expect to reach at level 20, her Magic, though much higher than Cleric Natasha's base, is still four or five points less than she'd expect to have at level 20, her Skill is about 3 points lower than she'd expect to get, her Speed 5 points lower, her Luck 11 points lower... her Defense is actually two points higher than Cleric Natasha would usually have at level 20, but her Resistance is 3 points lower. Two Defense does not make up for all these holes.

Like Moulder before her, Natasha is effectively a particularly garbage-y pre-promote.

Great. L'arachel can't join up fast enough for me.

(As for her stat 'boosts': +3 HP, +7 Magic, +1 Skill, +2 Speed, +5 Defense, +7 Resist, +1 Move, +7 Constitution. No, the Constitution boost doesn't make up for the holes either)


Joshua, meanwhile, is a Mauthe Doog, which is a new unit on us entirely. Makes sense to me that he's a Mauthe Doog, as they're basically Monster Myrmidons, just with Fangs instead of Swords. Mauthe Doog Joshua actually has 1 point less Constitution than Myrmidon Joshua, but every other stat is the same or a little higher, and Constitution isn't going to be important unless it turns out Hell Fang is overly heavy. Arguably it's even an advantage to have lower Constitution, since it makes him easier to Rescue. I also note that the Fiery Fang clearly only has 5 Might, though I'm not going to go through the effort of calculating its Accuracy.

(Specific stat modifications: +1 Skill, +1 Speed, +2 Move, -1 Constitution)

Also note that he has 42 crit chance. Either Mauthe Doog's have innate crit bonus in this hack, or the Fiery Fang has an innate crit bonus -or both. (+35 crit chance over what his Skill is providing, specifically) I'm personally guessing this is on the Fiery Fang, but we'll see. Regardless, that's insane, and the fact that Joshua can simply spam Fiery Fang forever, where a Killing Edge runs out of uses eventually, is a huge improvement.

It also means that I need to be especially careful about getting units in reach of Joshua. This is unfortunate for the moment, as he's also gained 2 points of Movement, making it even more challenging to lure his guards away/get Natasha in reach of him without anybody attacking her.

Still, he's going to be well worth the trouble.

... though I'm not looking forward to fighting Mauthe Doog later. Thankfully, they're one of the less common monsters in the game, and anyway their damage is often low enough that tougher units take literally nothing from them. My party members in the hack have so far trended toward unusually high Defense, too, so enemy Mauthe Doog may turn out to not be that big of a deal.


Anyway, this is our starting position/the troops I brought this time. The Tarvos is Ross, not Garcia, but everything else should be obvious. I check all the enemies as usual, but nobody is different from the unmodded game that I can tell.


I check this Fighter's reach, and then drop Colm in it. I want more experience on Colm in hopes of avoiding a repeat of last mission.


Then I check this Soldier's range and drop Ross in it, since it's a good matchup for him, and I've been struggling a bit to get him experience even though an Axe cavalry unit should be really awesome.


Finally, I check Joshua's range.

It overlaps perfectly with those two Fighters and the Soldier nearby him. If I set anyone other than Natasha down to bait out one of those guys, Joshua will come running and very possibly kill them instantly with a crit.

Crap.

Normally I bait out Joshua's bodyguards and kill them and then have Natasha approach him alone, but that's going to be tricky here. I'm particularly concerned by the fact that Brigands show up just to his east later in the mission. Normally they're not a big deal, but normally I've killed Joshua's bodyguards before they appear.

I also can't use any of my fliers to simply hop into villages Joshua is covering and then fly right back out -my botched run of Chapter 2 involved discovering that Gargoyles do not get Canto, which surprised me as I'd always thought Canto was attached to all flying units as a default. No, apparently Pegasi and Wyvern Riders are just additionally considered to be a kind of cavalry unit.


Regardless, general moving up occurs, with Neimi next to Colm for Support reasons, and pretty much everybody else piling to the east because there's going to be early Brigand reinforcements there and because I have vague plans to... I dunno, bait out one of Joshua's Fighter guards with Natasha or something.



The enemy turn rolls around and Ross's soldier attacks him. Annoyingly, he survives thanks to a miss, though at least he doesn't do any damage to Ross either.


A motion blur rips off most of Colm's health and then loses half to Colm's twin retaliations, and -wait, is the Revenant's other eye socket just empty? I'd always thought they had a dangling eyeball and a perfectly fine eyeball. Jeez, it's amazing Revenants can hit the broad side of a barn.

20/20 eyesight is for losers.


Then it's our turn again and the Brigands-

the

uh


What? We're miles from Carcino, this isn't even the right bandit, and this guy is supposed to be an enemy Brigand!

Er. Free Tarvos, I guess. Free Killer Axe and replacement Vulnerary, too.

I'm 99% confident this fellow is named Dummy because he's something dummied out of normal play, and not because it's an actual name like Bone. I have no idea why the hack did this. I'm not even fully convinced the hack did it intentionally.

Whatever, why not. Free unit.


I have Artur get a Dragonshield off of Tethys, incidentally confirming that Mogalls don't have Canto, as he doesn't get a re-move afterward.


Neimi softens up the motion blur that attacked Colm before, and then I take a slight risk in having Colm finish them off, but no stupidly unlikely misses occur.



Then I have Lute soften up Joshua's Soldier bodyguard -thank goodness this guy isn't passive- and Franz makes use of the Javelin we got last mission to land the killing blow for a really good level!


Ross finishes off the Soldier that attacked him, and I'm still grumpy at the delay caused by him missing.


I have Dummy attack the Brigand he showed up with, partly in hopes that he'll get a crit -I've only just realized I don't have much in the way of options for attacking the guy right now- and partly just to get a look at his combat graphic. It's a completely unmodified Tarvos sprite, furthering my suspicions that the hack did this by accident somehow.

Or I suppose the creator just didn't care to modify their graphic. That's a possibility.

Regardless, Dummy misses and takes a hit. Oh well, not worried yet.


I have Natasha heal Colm, begrudgingly, and to my pleasant surprise I caught a shot of the energy ball. I find it interesting that its inside is mostly black, but its outside is the same yellow as her snake-hair/arms.

... you know, I only just realized that the Gorgon's arms are just part of the snake-hair. I'd previously noticed that they were snakes, and noticed the coloration sharing with the "hair", but I hadn't realized they were literally just part of the "hair" extending out in imitation of arms. The map sprite sure makes it look like they have actual arms.

And here I'd always thought of the Gorgon's design as being really unimaginative.

Incidentally, Natasha looks pretty neat like this. Not awesome, but pretty neat. Makes it a little sad that I'm going to be avoiding using her.


Then I move Eirika and Vanessa up  and the turn ends.


To my surprise, the Brigand decides he'd rather attack Dummy than Eirika. Weapon triangle, I guess.



Anyway, Eirika finishes off the Brigand, takes a somewhat unlikely hit in the process, and gets another really good level, again including Strength. Excellent.



Franz softens up the Soldier from a distance -partly so he'll be able to retaliate against that Archer up there, partly because entering melee would place him in reach of Joshua, and no way am I doing that- and then Lute finishes the Soldier off, getting a level that includes the essentials.


I check the Archer's strike zone to determine where to put Dummy and Vanessa.


Dummy charges over to the left and Natasha heals him.



Meanwhile, there's another Archer moving on up over here, and I have Colm soften it up and Neimi smack it. To my pleasant surprise she even dodges the retaliation, though I was kind of hoping for a crit, long odds though they were.


I end the turn by dropping Ross in reach of the Fighter, still out of reach of another Archer just off-screen.


Colm and Neimi's Archer puts an arrow into Colm's head, but he shrugs it off.

Is there something in my eye socket?


Meanwhile Ross's Fighter rushes him and dies for his trouble, netting Ross a meh level. You can also see the Archer I was mentioning earlier.


To my surprise, the Archer decides to pick on Artur. To my alarm, he has a crit chance, explaining his choice. Artur. Artur. Why are you so unlucky?

The first Goddess Icon I find is going to Artur.

Fortunately, they don't get the crit.

Also note how low the Archer's damage is -like I said before, Mogalls aren't considered to be flying units for weakness purposes. I've always wondered why that is... is it because they don't have wings? Whatever, it's going to be very useful in this run, make my flying forces a lot more able to go places and do things.



Dogpiling ensues, ending in Lute finishing off the Archer because Vanessa misses her first strike. I continue to be very careful to stay out of Joshua's range.


Meanwhile Colm finally finishes off that Archer and gets an amazing level out of it.


I decide to have Neimi soften up the Fighter for Ross, and she breaks out a crit, stealing the kill. She's currently spinning the arrow, just before she slots it in and fires it. Standard Bow crit animation for this game.

I'm okay with this. Leveling up Bow users is always a pain, and I suspect Neimi will be really good once she's promoted.


Natasha heals Colm again, and yeah I can see now that the "arms" are not actually coming from the shoulders, but are actually going around them.

I really like this design tidbit. It makes them much more "snakewoman" than the usual naga/gorgan/etc sort of design where they have actual arms -Sacred Stones Gorgons really don't have any limbs, like an actual snake.

... well, actual snakes have little nubs that are leftover from ancestors that had four legs, but whatever. This is neat, is the point.


Ross takes a potshot at this Archer, putting his cavalry-tier movement to good use. I use the Hatchet so that he'll be able to retaliate on their turn, and also because it has a tiny chance of a crit. Why not?


A bunch of moving up ensues, ending in this formation.



The Soldier to Joshua's left decides to attack Dummy, and dies having accomplished nothing.


Ross's Archer takes a shot at Ross, but Ross is easily going to win this damage race bar extreme RNG shenanigans.


My turn now, and I have Ross use the Hatchet again -he won't kill them with the Iron Axe, I checked- and the Archer misses to boot. Poor doomed Archer.


Then a bunch of moving up happens, with me continuing to be careful to avoid Joshua's range. I've noticed that there's a spot to Joshua's west where Natasha can move to that is outside of his bodyguards' reach but places her in reach to talk to him, and so I'm moving forces west, except for my fliers, who are taking advantage of being fliers to hopefully do something about the Brigands that are going to spawn and/or flank Joshua's bodyguards when the time comes.


Oh, whoops, didn't think about this! Natasha's fine, though.


Colm finishes off the Archer who dares harm Natasha, and slightly more moving up happens.


The Brigands I've been talking about finally arrive, and Natasha's in position.


I have Lute take a potshot at one of them. I'd take a crit if it happened.

It doesn't happen.


How things look at the end of the turn in which the Brigands arrived.


Next turn I immediately have Natasha talk Joshua into joining the team. I assume this involves him wolfwhistling at her and making inappropriate comments about her scales.


It finally occurs to me to check this lower shop, just in case the hack has changed it. The list is the usual...

... but the prices seem high to me, and a check of Serenes forest shows that, yes, the prices are higher. A Fire Tome is normally 560, and a Lightning Tome is nearly 630. In fact, their current prices are the same as the normal prices of the next tier of Tomes in their categories. The Vulnerary is 500 gold, which makes sense to me -it keeps it at 100 gold per use.

The Heal Staff, strangely, is actually 100 less gold than in the unmodded game, even though it's also had its uses increased compared to standard.

Weird.

I don't buy anything, though.


I check this Mercenary's range and drop Colm just inside of it, right next to Neimi.


Meanwhile, back over by Joshua, I have Dummy take a shot -and he finally gets a crit with that Killer Axe! Excellent.


Lute softens up the surviving Fighter.


Joshua targets the Fighter, and I promptly feel slightly stupid -this is actually the first point in playing the mission that I noticed that Joshua had a ridiculous crit chance, otherwise I would've had him hit one of the Brigands. Still, it's convenient that he got this crit.

Also, he looks completely awesome, even if I have no idea why the hack broke from its trend of "monster color=hair color" and made him purple instead of red.

... oh, now that I think about it, it's probably because Mauthe Doog are normally red. Yeah, that makes sense.

It also occurs to me that the Gwyllgi actually has a different graphic from the Mauthe Doog, which fits with my suspicion that the Wight was supposed to have its own separate sprite sheet and Intelligent Systems ran out of time/budget/whatever.


Anyway, I have Artur chip down one of the Brigands. I'd be okay with a crit...


... he doesn't get it, however, and I suddenly realize that he's in real danger of being killed with his low HP. My first impulse is to set Vanessa between him and the Brigands, but she can't move far enough. Oops. So I have her Rescue him, hoping she'll be able to tank their attacks if they decide to attack her. I've already checked their damage output compared to Natasha's durability, and they can't kill her without ganging up on her, which they can't do.

I end the turn.


Predictably, one of them goes for Natasha. That's fine.



The other one goes for Lute, misses, and Lute gets a decent level off of chipping him.


The Mercenary is baited out by Colm successfully, and things go fine. To my irritation, Colm isn't fast enough to double the Mercenary.


My turn again, and two more Brigands have shown up. I'm a little concerned that Colm, Neimi, and Ross won't be able to clean up the Mercenary fast enough to intercept them.



Neimi chips the Mercenary, Ross misses him entirely, and then I notice that Franz can toss a Javelin at him.


The hit softens up the Mercenary enough for Colm to finish them off, getting a level out of it. Not what I would've selected for stats, but I consider +3 stats total to be a decent level, and I really want his Speed up as much as possible as fast as possible.


Since Eirika isn't in reach of any enemies, I have her grab this Secret Book.


Lute finishes off the Brigand that attacked Natasha.


Meanwhile, I have Dummy get this Armorslayer, since Canto means he wastes the least movement on this backtracking.


I have Joshua hit this Brigand, and he immediately gets another crit (Mauthe Doog howl before a crit), finishing them off instantly.

I like this Joshua.


I have Vanessa drop off Artur now that the coast is clear, with Vanessa stopping in reach of one of the Soldiers, while Natasha heals Artur. I don't want to repeat that earlier close call.

That ends the turn.


The Soldier is baited out successfully. He misses and gets doubled for his trouble, though it leaves him with 1 hit point. That works for me -I want experience on my Mogalls.


I have Colm move up to bait out this Fighter and heal himself with a Vulnerary, and Neimi and Ross move up as well, with Ross grabbing Colm's Vulnerary and using it himself.


Then he backs off via Canto and I check the lower Brigand's range.


I drop Lute inside his reach, and nobody else's.


I check this Soldier's reach.


I drop Vanessa just inside that Soldier's reach and have Artur finish off the Soldier Vanessa weakened.


Then general moving up occurs, ending with me moving Eirika to here in preparation to help kill Brigands.


The Soldier is baited out successfully, and is also reduced to 1 HP, though unlike his buddy he actually chips off some of Vanessa's skin.


The southerly Brigand is baited out successfully, and Lute looks down her... uh... hm.

Ocular unit.

Anyway, she dodges and chips him.


Meanwhile the Fighter is successfully baited out, and his attempt to decapitate Colm, though injurious, is not good enough. Colm doubles him in return.


I have Artur finish off Vanessa's victim again, and he gets an amazing level out of it.


I have Lute soften up the southern Brigand again, and then Franz moves in and finishes them off with his Steel Sword -I knew that would come in handy eventually.


I can't actually finish off this Brigand in time, so I have Ross run in and take Amelia's left-behind Torch. I even will actually have use for this next mission.



I have Nemi soften

uh

crit-kill the Fighter and get a really good level out of it.


Then I have Colm check out the shop. This shop is also unchanged, though prices are again modified -not all of them, the Slim Sword is unchanged for instance, but a lot of them. I note that the Iron Sword's new price keeps it at 10 gold per use, just like in the unmodded game.

I'm not sure how consistent the hack is on retaining price-per-use, but this seems to be the primary logic driving various price changes... though there's the Heal Staff exception, so I dunno.


Anyway, I have Colm bravely hide behind Neimi's bony shadow -I know it looks like the tile just east of him can be entered, but it's actually part of the shop and can't be moved through, so the Brigand can't get to him at all. I also move up a bunch of units and end turn.

I also checked if Vanessa could do damage to the boss, but I didn't like the numbers I was seeing.


Neimi dodges the Brigand like a pro, and I seriously just love the Bonewalker dodge animation.



So then it's my turn again and I have Neimi soften up the Brigand, followed by Joshua running in and, once again, crit-killing them on the first attack. He gets a kind of meh level out of it, but that's okay, he's honestly kind of terrifying right now.

Also I somehow only just noticed that he's covering his other eye with his hat like a moron.

It makes me look mysterious and thus sexy.
It's also why you can't beat me at gambling even when you're cheating.
Wha- you're not even in this mission!
Yeah, and you're a Mauthe Doog, so you're not even wearing your hat.
Yet the ladies love me anyway.
I see a plural where a singular should be. Unless you're counting all of Natasha's snakes?...
You are an aggravating woman.


I have Franz pass off his Vulnerary to Dummy in exchange for the Armorslayer, having vague plans to get Franz the kill on the Knight boss.


Then a bunch of moving up happens.


I decide to have Joshua use the Draco Shield, as pretty much everyone else on my team has a Defense noticeably higher than their current Level, and I really want to make sure Joshua remains awesome, and I have Natasha heal Eirika because at this point I'm thinking I'm going to have to have Eirika handle this fight.


Even more moving around happens and I drop Eirika in front of the boss, holding her Rapier -I'm not willing to risk having her initiate the fight, as she might die if he hits on my turn and his turn.


I don't know why, but I've always loved this line.


He does, indeed, land his hit, and Eirika doesn't get a crit on either of her attacks, so Saar yet lives.



I decide to have Vanessa chip in because why not, her weapon has infinite uses anyway, and then I take arguably a stupid risk and have Eirika just attack Saar now that he's so weak she'll one-shot him on the initial hit. She lands the blow, however, and gets one of the worst possible 3-stat level gains out of it. The only way I'd consider it worse would be if the Speed gain were a Skill gain instead.


Talking ensues, part of it netting us this Guiding Ring. According to Serenes Forest you only get this if you visit all the houses.

I ran -well, slithered- all the way to Serafew from the Grado capitol-
You know, I'm not sure I've ever heard what the name of the capitol is.
I believe it's considered to be a military secret, m'lady.
-to try to find someone who would listen to me-
Actually, now that I think about it, what's the name of our capitol city?
We don't have a capitol city. We have the castle.
Oh yes of course.
-about how the Emperor has changed, it's really quite disturbing-
... er, what was the castle's name again?
Fomortiis Hill, my lady.
Right. Yes. I knew that. Born and raised there, I was.
-what with his left ear sort of falling off one day, and it didn't even bleed, and Lyon mutters everything he says before he actually says it-
Er. No, my lady. You and Ephraim were left on our doorstep anonymously, and King Fado decided you must have been passed to us from down low by Lord Fomortiis himself to make up for the Queen's death prior to producing an heir or twenty.
Oh. I guess that explains why my father is a giant spider and I've never seen my mother.
-and now they're conspiring to destroy the Sacred Stones, oh the monsteranity of it all!
Eh? I thought the Sacred Stones were a myth to scare monster children into behaving.
What? No, of course not. The Tower of Valni serves as Frelia's execution chamber, everybody knows that, and your own Renais has their Stone on display. I don't rightly know where Jehanna or Rausten keep their Stones, but Grado's Stone is kept in a museum dedicated to our victory over the misguided human "heroes" of 800 years ago. Well, we did until Lyon took it for what he called "the needs of SCIENCE!", whatever that means.
Oh. Er. I'm supposed to care because?...
It's weird! Emperor Vigarde has gone crazy! He didn't even discuss this with the other rulers, and his goal in attacking the other nations was to get at the Stones!
Whatever. I'm already on my way to kill him and everyone he loves anyway.
... I thought you were friends with Prince Lyon?
Friends? Certainly, I don't hate the boy, but "friends" seems a bit much. We shared teachers, and Lyon professed envy of the ease with which Ephraim and I took to our roles, but I don't recall anything worthy of the word "friendship".
We really should get moving, my lady.
Oh, very well. Piggyback ride!
... it shall be done.
Er. Wait, what about me?
What about you? You're a traitor to your kingdom, and not much use on the battlefield.
Um.
We could use a second healer, strictly. There's use in having a pair.
Oh, very well. We can always sacrifice her to Fomortiis later, I guess.
Oh, thank goodness. Um. What was that you were muttering just now?
Wheeeee!

-----

See you next mission.